By Joel A. Hess – A couple of years ago, Pope Francis announced that it would be easier […]
marriage
By Marc Engelhardt –
Everything we have covered thus far highlights how wonderful sex is and that it is a gift from God. At the same time, it highlights how destructive sex can be for people when used outside the intentions for which God gifted it. It can be very discouraging to know that bonding ourselves to people through a misuse of sex will change our reality and who we are. What’s worse is that even if we were ignorant of the truth about sex we typically can’t blame anyone but ourselves for our choices. This can lead to discouraging depression.
By Joel A. Hess –
That’s really all you want to know, right? What’s the rule, Pastor? What can I do? What can’t I do? Just tell me, and I’ll do it. Just say it. Or, is this is a good reason? What if he does this? What if she does that?
This is not an unusual conversation that confronts a pastor at least a couple times a year. How often I have had a man or woman tell me they wish their spouse either cheated on them or beat them so they would have a good reason for divorce.
By Paul Koch –
I recall many years ago I was doing a Sunday morning Bible study at my previous congregation in Georgia. We were working our way through St. Matthew’s Gospel that happened to be the text that corresponds to our reading today of Mark 10:2-16. So, we began by talking about the harsh realities of divorce. Divorce seems to be a plague of sorts in our land, it’s no longer rare or shocking. All of us have come in contact with the realities of divorce. Either you have been divorced or your parents have, or you know someone who has gone through the hurt and struggle of divorce. And it is easy if you haven’t been divorced to speak with a certain self-righteousness about the whole thing. Then again, it is also easy to justify divorce to the point that it can seem a noble or necessary thing. During that Bible study in Georgia, I was no doubt more on the self-righteous side of things when a member brought to my attention the simple fact that most of the people sitting there had been through divorce. In Bible Study on a Sunday morning a small southern town, those who had not been divorced were certainly the minority.
By Marc Engelhardt –
In the first few Christ in Common recaps, I wrote about the awesome bonding, oneness-making result of sex, as well as our culture’s embrace of the separation of sex from marriage. Using all of that as a background, we now start to discuss how to engage and live in a culture that views having sex as a right.
By Marc Engelhardt –
(This post continues the recaps from Christ in Common, which is a discipleship discussion that takes place in my context. Christ in Common is a good example of how we purposefully approach the discipleship triad of Foundation, Worldview, and Practice. Remember, as recaps, these posts hit highlights of what the group discussed in person, so they are short and may seem to make some jumps occasionally. If you pull out the Word and study the Foundation mentioned, you should be able to fill most gaps.)
By Marc Engelhardt –
This post continues the recaps from Christ in Common, which is a discipleship discussion that takes place in my context. Christ in Common is a good example of how we purposefully approach the discipleship triad of Foundation, Worldview, and Practice. Remember, as recaps, these posts hit highlights of what the group discussed in person, so they are short and may seem to make some jumps occasionally. If you pull out the Word and study the Foundation mentioned, you should be able to fill most gaps.
By Cindy Koch –
Its taken me some time to come back to real life. Only less than a month ago, my only concern was how much trail mix was left in my little baggie before 3pm. My husband and I were hiking back in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and there wasn’t exactly a grocery store around every corner. We carried all of our meals, tent, clothes on our back for 24 days as we hiked the John Muir Trail. About halfway through our trip, after days of 8 hour hiking sessions, food because a simple yet vital piece of our day. But at 3pm we could open up the bear canaster and find a protein bar. Just enough to get us through until dinner.
By Graham Glover –
I met my wife 16 years ago this October. A couple of months later we were in love. A year and a half after that we were married, and for the past 14+ years our love for one another has sustained our marriage and our family.
By Paul Koch –
The past month has been one that I will not soon forget. My wife and I successfully hiked from Yosemite National Park to the top of Mount Whitney. All in all, our journey together in the mountains covered 245.7 miles over 24 days. We traversed everything from dense and beautiful forests to exposed and sometimes frightening mountain peaks. We hiked in the sun, the rain, and more than once in hail. We would eat our lunches beside lazy streams in the midst of meadows and set up camp in places of stunning beauty. We spent all our time together. We talked and encouraged one another along the way. We ate every meal together, set up camp and broke down camp together. We would talk about the trail, about what the next day would hold for us, how much elevation we would gain or how brutal the downhill grind would be. We talked about our life together, our children and our faith.