Wednesday, March 29, 2006

March 29, 2006

Some leftovers from this weekend’s sermon What Husbands Want Their Wives to Know About Men…most of which is applicable to all.

What does it mean to respect?
It means speaking the truth in love.
It means treating someone in a way that builds him up instead of tearing him down.
It means removing sarcasm from your conversation.
It means treating someone with the dignity because they are created in the image of God.
It means validating that a husband’s needs and wants are every bit as valid and important as a woman’s needs and wants.
It means not venting or speaking degradingly about your husband to others, especially the children.
It means paying attention to what your husband does, simply because it is him who is doing it.
It means giving grace instead of resenting the little things.

What does it look like to support?
It looks like joining in on some of my interests.
It looks like believing in me and telling me you are my #1 fan.
It looks like praying for me and with me.
It looks like being generous and openhearted, willing to use your gifts to help me succeed.
It looks like having a warm heart…you set the temperature in the home.
It looks like displaying faithfulness and integrity.

What was it that the Shulamite women brought into her sexual relationship with Solomon that speaks romance to a man?
Song of Songs 7:10-13: (NLT) I am my lover’s, the one he desires. Come, my love, let us go out into the fields and spend the night among the wildflowers. Let us get up early and go out to the vineyards. Let us see whether the vines have budded, whether the blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates are in flower. And there I will give you my love. There the mandrakes give forth their fragrance, and the rarest fruits are at our doors, the new as well as old, for I have stored them up for you, my lover.

She affirmed her desire for her husband.
She created a plan.
She included adventure.
She was creative.
It was truly sensational…involving the senses of sight, smell, sound.
She abandoned herself to him.
It was exclusive: I have stored them up for you, my lover.

Sunday will be a fantastic day together as we gather. Have you ever wondered why God places sexual sin apart from all other sins? What is so wrong with it? Better yet, what is so right about purity? What does purity have to do with you once you are married? What is the difference between purity and abstinence? Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, and then bring you Bible on Sunday and let’s explore together. I look forward, as always, to being with you.