The Bible says in Proverbs 16:9 (ESV), “The heart of the man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Every one of us starts on a journey thinking “man, God is going to do this, and He’s going to do that.” That’s kind of how God hooks us in. But what I’ve learned is that God never gives us the fine details because if we would have known the details we probably would have backed out. This week we’re going to explore some of that.
If you’ve been part of this podcast for a while you’ll know Jonny and Sarah Griffiths, they have been our “guinea pigs” for what it means to go on the missions field. In Episode 35, Episode 36, Episode 52 and Episode 76 we talked about various processes they went through along the way. This week I’ve asked them to come back to talk about what they have learned until now.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at jroper@foursquare.org, or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don’t forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts.
As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It’s your life, now go live it!
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick claims the elderly are perfectly happy to sacrifice themselves so everyone can go back to work in order to minimize the damage Covid-19 is having on the economy.
President Trump tweeted, “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.” White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow agreed, saying, “We’re gonna have to make some difficult tradeoffs.”
Seems like Moloch worship is back in style. This time, rather than offering children for sacrifice, some are advocating we offer the elderly as an acceptable sacrifice to Moloch and Mammon. I never knew senicide was a family value.
Covid-19 is pushing the boundaries of our health-care systems, our global economy, and our personal sense of security and connection. It is also laying bare our idols. My prayer during this season is that we, the Church, rise above what we fear and embrace Him whom we love and who has revealed Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He has called us to choose life.
Word of the day, Senicide: The abandonment to death, suicide, or killing of the elderly.
Can you believe we are at episode 100! The average podcast only lasts about seven episodes. I feel so privileged to be here, at episode 100. People ask me why I do this podcast. And really, there are two main reasons. I want to pay it forward to the young leaders and I want to expose key leaders and people to the broader arena of people I know. Today, I reminisce about past podcasts and dream about the future.
Moving forward, I want to provide rich content for you. So if there is something or someone you would like to see on the podcast, send me a note: jroper@foursquare.org.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at jroper@foursquare.org, or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don’t forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher so you don’t miss an episode.
As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It’s your life, now go live it!
I got to know Tim over the last few years while we were doing our master’s degree. He gave me his book The Backside of Hope and I was seriously blown away. I thought he was either Mike Warnke or the most transformed person I’ve met. His book is about how God transformed his life and gave him hope. Woven into his journey is forgiveness, restoration, and receiving the love of the Heavenly Father. It is this remarkable love that ultimately surpasses anything one could ever imagine or hope for.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at jroper@foursquare.org, or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don’t forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher so you don’t miss an episode.
As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It’s your life, now go live it!
I was in a dark, painful place when I thought, “Only a bunch of unmarried Catholic priests could ever come up with the idea that marriage is a sacrament. Marriage is not a sacrament. Marriage is hell!”
What had happened to me? Why was I thinking such horrible thoughts? Was this the normal state of marriage after a few years and a few kids? Is it inevitable that all joyous weddings filled with promise and hope are, in reality, the end of a journey and not its beginning? Is it necessary that after the wedding, the months and years work their putrescent malignance on hearts captured in nuptial covenant?
How had this happened? How had I fallen so far? I could still recall with rapturous delight the first time I saw her that Friday night in January 1985. After meeting her, I remember praying, “God, when I get married, I want to marry someone like her.” I did not dare ask or think of her. She was way out of my league.
I recalled the day we both realized there was something “there.” It was Thursday, June 6, 1985. We would late call that day the day we experienced “Boom!” I recalled with awe how we confessed our love to each other the first time. It was Saturday, June 8, 1985. We called that day, “Boom! Boom!”
How had I fallen from the heights of this intoxicating love to that dark bitter soul-draining the dregs of poisonous bile?
Something needed to change; someone needed to change. The first person I identified that needed to change was Debbie. This has been typical of us men since Adam: Blame the woman.
It was a dark day indeed. However, it was also the time when light began to dawn on the darkest hours of my night.
I was far too prideful to see a therapist. But we did have a counselor who worked one day a week at our church. So, under the guise of “catching up” and “hey, I am curious,” I would ask his advice about specific situations in relationships “so that I could better serve these people as their pastor.”
While discussing marriage conflicts, the counselor said something that reoriented the trajectory of my life and started me on a path toward healing: “Marriage is God’s house of ambush. Marriage is where God digs into the deepest recesses of the human soul to root out selfishness and restore the soul with love. Nothing else seems to get that deep into the soul to allow this to happen.” I experienced another “Boom!”
Sometime later, in a conversation with a friend, my friend said, “Family has got to be spiritual. Nothing else in this world has so much power for damaging or healing the human soul as family.” I could not agree more. So many of the things we call “the ills of society” are, in reality, the sicknesses contracted in the family.
My views on marriage have changed a lot since that dark night many years ago. I have changed. I am changing.
I am learning to embrace it when God ambushes my selfishness and reveals my brokenness. I don’t fight back and defend myself as much as I used to. I am learning to clamor for the lowest seat and the lowest path of humility, rather than justify myself, claim my rightful place, or defend my rights and my way.
I have come to see marriage differently. The change has been subtle, gradual, imperceptible. I did not realize it until a few weeks ago when I was asked to review notes for a global training program within our denomination. The specific module was on marriage and family. The writing team did an expectational job articulating fundamental biblical principles about marriage. Teaching marriage and family cross-culturally is one of the most dangerous subjects within the world of Christian theology and practice.
As I read the material, I had a sudden flash of memories flooding my mind of all the things I have read over the years about marriage, all from within my Protestant background. It was like microfilm from the archives department playing through my mind.
I began to realize because traditional Protestant theology does not include marriage as a sacrament, we run the risk of reducing marriage to a transactional agreement between two parties granting legal and tax benefits from the state. And for us Christians, it gives us the moral OK to have sex and produce offspring. No mystery to it. No “otherness” about it. Just two individuals making a mutually beneficial agreement.
Yet, there is more. Way more. Legal protection, tax benefits, sex, and children are all wonderful blessings and benefits of marriage, but they are not the reason for marriage. Saint Paul elevates marriage to its rightful place as a divine mystery of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5). Marriage is the living icon of Christ and His Bride.
The love, passion, and longing I have for union with my wife – union of spirit, soul, and body – is an echo of my soul’s longing for union with Christ. When my soul’s longing is fulfilled at the Resurrection of the Dead, marriage as we know it in its icon form will cease to exist because it was for this earth. It will cease to exist not because it will become outdated, but because it will become fulfilled. Creation will be fully healed and restored to its God, the two becoming as one joined in the song of the redeemed. The icon fades into what was signified. Longing gives way to fulfillment. Promise and hope burst forth in all things becoming new. The shadow of marriage becomes the substance of what was longed for.
Perhaps my Protestant mind cannot utter the words, “Marriage is a sacrament.” Still, my transformed heart, healed and being healed by the love of the woman who captured my imagination 35 years ago, gladly confesses marriage is sacramental. And like all means of grace, it is for the healing of the nations.
Marriage is about more than two people getting married. Marriage is about the human community. Marriage is about healing the wound of death and destruction we inherited from our first parents. Marriage is about love reaching into the deepest, darkest, and most fiercely protected citadels of the human heart and healing it with love, grace, and a persistent presence. It is here, in this house of ambush, that we see the healing and restorative power of grace incarnate in human flesh, for the life of the world.
I wish I would have known this when I started. I am glad I know it now.
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
