Our Creator certainly deserves our worship. He is worthy of it, and due the honor. The fascinating truth is that we need worship more than He does!

“Wait a minute. When I praise the Lord, that is my gift to him. How does that benefit me?”When we enter into a time of prayer not for the purpose of requesting things, we’re really worshiping. We’re thanking Him for saving us, for what He’s done in our lives, and what we’re expecting Him to do.

We’re adoring His attributes. We’re marveling at His creation. We’re claiming our commitment to Him. We’re admitting He’s in control of our lives; and professing our trust in Him. What happens when we engage in those prayers?

Consider this. After sin entered the world, God and man could no longer walk and talk together like they once had. God sent Jesus to bridge that gap because He missed that relationship!

He knew we missed it too! Since God is a loving God, isn’t it reasonable to assume there would be benefits for us, too, not just a jealous God getting the attention of His children?

Sure there is. Here are some benefits of when we Praise the Lord and Worship:

Grows our faithStrengthens our minds
Corrects our attitudes
Replaces doubt with confidence
Chases fear away as faith takes over
Reminds us what our priorities should be
Allows us to sense how real He is and how near He is
Since worship is not only the act of praising Him but also a lifestyle of talking, listening and obeying His directives, the benefit package applies to both!

Immediately after a rousing time of private worship I feel energized, renewed, and motivated. After a sweet time of corporate worship with other believers I feel calm, secure, with a sense of belonging to the Body of Christ. As I live out my life of worship to Him, I know I’m on the right track, being constantly guided, helped and sustained.

Besides feeling better there’s another benefit. Worship alerts the enemy’s camp that we’re serious about our commitment to God.

When we proclaim our faith out loud, the demons tremble because they know we’re tapping into the power we’ve been given. As we praise God – especially through adversity – they know we’re serious.

Would you refuse the benefit package your employer offers you? Many Christians don’t reap the benefits God offers us through worship. Don’t make His work on the cross in vain. Cash in on your benefits today!

It is a sad but true statistic that one out of two marriages in the Western world ends up in divorce. Among Christian conservatives, the statistic is one out of three. This is alarming. It appears that even among Bible-believing Christians, the divorce rate is not far behind the rest of the Western world. What is more alarming is that this gap is closing.

As a minister, I would like to see a reduction in the rate of divorce especially among evangelical Bible-believing Christians. And I would also do everything I can to make this happen. This is because of the principles of marriage that are clearly stated in the Bible, which every Christian should adhere to:

1. God was the One who instituted marriage because it was not good for man to be alone. That is why after God made Adam, He made a wife for him, named Eve.

2. Jesus clearly taught that marriage should be life-long and that divorce should not be permitted other than because of unrepentant sexual immorality.

If this is so, why is the divorce rate among Christians on the rise? And more importantly, how can a Christian save his or her marriage from divorce? Well, the good news is that Christians have the Lord to turn to when marriage is at the verge of breakdown. Even so, this does not exempt us from our practical responsibilities to save our own marriage. Let me share some practical things to do.

In my many years of counseling, I have found the following steps should be taken to resolve Christian marriage problems and thus save the marriage:

1. Both partners must agree to try to save the marriage because it is Biblical to do so. God says in the book of Malachi, “I hate divorce”.

2. Listen & talk to each other without condemning, criticizing or blame-shifting. Understand & empathize with one another. In the Bible, a verse in Ephesians states that we are to only speak words that edify and impart grace to the hearer. This is all the more important to do in the context of a troubled marriage.

3. Be completely honest with your partner. Share your heart with one another. Discuss your disappointments, hurts, offenses etc. with each another. Resolve whatever differences there may be with your partner in a spirit of love. Again, the Bible says you as Christians are to love one another as Christ loved you.

4. Go back to the earliest time when you felt something changed in your marriage. Try to discover the root causes of the breakdown in your relationship.

5. Once you have identified the root causes, help one another deal with it. Be willing to change yourself; do not only expect your partner to change. Make it a point to pray with one another that God would help both of you to change.

6. Share your marital problems with someone you trust, for example a mature Christian friend or minister. Ask them to help and pray along with you. This is one of the privileges and benefits of being members of a church.

7. Be accountable to other Christian friends. The husband should be accountable to another Christian brother and the wife to another Christian sister. These people will come alongside to help the troubled couple to take the steps necessary for reconciliation.

8. If there is an affair with a third party, be willing to bring it out into the open. The Christian brother and sister to whom you are accountable should lovingly but firmly separate the third party from the couple. Here extreme sensitivity is called for because these are matters of the heart where very strong emotions are involved. This is especially so if the third party is also a Christian, perhaps even from the same church. .

9. Rebuild, re-fire and rekindle the marriage relationship. Christian friends can help with the children so that you and your partner can have quality time doing things that reignite your love for each other. I have written a helpful FREE report, “Practical Tips on Improving Your Marriage” at http://www.savemarriagestoday.com. This report will guide you to make positive changes to yourself and your marriage.

10. Put in what was missing in your relationship. It might be encouragement, affirmation, support and understanding, interest in one another, concern or speaking each other’s love language. Do not focus on problems of the past. Rather look forward to develop your relationship with each other in a fresh new way. After some years being married, even Christian couples may take each other for granted.

11. Here is something I always encourage if both partners are willing. At an appropriate time, have another formal exchange of vows before close friends and the minister. Don’t wait till your marriage is deemed perfect before you do it. Renewed exchanges of vows of faithfulness towards one another seal your commitment as a couple once again.

12. At all times and throughout the process, pray and trust the Lord to work things out. It is God’s will for the marriage to be saved. Of that, you can be certain.

Conclusion

Christians should marry for life according to the Bible’s injunction. No matter what the problems are, God is there to help every Christian couple have a successful marriage.

Power For God Or For Power? As a Christian conservative, I can tell you those working as activists in the Religious Right believe strongly in what they do…that they are serving God. They correctly see terrible things in our society and feel, if the laws were just changed to reflect Biblical principles, everything would be better. But, in the pursuit of worldly political power, we risk missing a far greater goal. It isn’t that our motives and goals are wrong, just that the political system in any given country is the wrong way to achieve those goals. We fight on a different battleground!
Christians And Political Participation: As Christians in a democracy, it’s our duty to Jesus and to our country to participate in the political system, trying to influence it for the good…this really isn’t the question. We should do our best to make sure whoever and whatever we vote for matches up with the principles we see in God’s Word. The problem is, as this election season bears out…no one matches up! We get as close as we can but, in doing so, we begin to compromise our own values. That’s politics, you say? How, then, do you think we can politically achieve our goals as Christians? …that is, if we even agree on those goals! We conservatives support the Republican Party only to empower corruption and moral decay…the very things we were voting against. But there are liberal Christians, just as committed to Christ, supporting Democrats and getting the same or worse results. Vote, yes, but don’t expect things to dramatically change even if your champion gets the job. As hot as the issues are…the battle isn’t in the ballot box.
Abortion, Homosexuality and Death Penalty are just a few of the hot-button issues repeatedly brought before us, to win our votes. Our mailboxes, TV’s and radios are full of accusation, innuendo and outright slander to try to convince us that the other guy doesn’t measure up…that our guy will deliver. Christians are deep in this game on both sides, even publishing craftily-worded voting records to prove this person is for or against the issue of the day. Prominent Christians promote both sides in news, film and the arts, to push their political agendas. The liberals say, “How could Christians be for the death penalty and against Government aid to the homeless and hungry?” The conservatives say, “How can Christians support abortion and homosexuality?” These Political organizations are just pushing our emotional hot-buttons to swing us one way or another. Vote, yes, but don’t let political manipulation take us off our game. The stakes are too high for us to spend much time or effort on an election’s hot-button issues. We have far greater work to do.
Love And Good Works: The work our Lord called us to is not to change laws but to heal hearts. When evangelical Christians sit atop their ivory towers and decry the sin in the world, they’re looking the wrong place for sin. Sin in the world is a given! Jesus said for us to get the log out of our own eyes…not to judge others. Once you’re perfect, you can start throwing stones. When people like Pat Robertson say 9-11 or earthquakes are because of the sin in America, how does that make people want to be a Christian…like him? Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world…He came to save it. Maybe it’s about time we evangelicals stop judging the world, get out of our churches and into the world to help one more person find the love of Christ. Where are the people today who will “become all things to all people” so some will find Jesus? Jesus gave us a 2-step plan for evangelism…love everyone…do good works. This is how the world will know His people and want to be His people. Everything else is a distraction. Vote, yes, but if you really want to change things, spend your time and money sharing love and good works…this is the battleground of true Christians. “God is love…in this world we are like Him.” 1 John 16-17 The more we’re like Him, the more they’ll want to be like us.
How do you feel Christians should participate in politics?