So This Is What It's All About?

This past Sunday, we began our six-week series called "Lord of the Rings". In this first lesson, Perry spoke about what marriage is and how God ordained it Genesis 2. We learned that success in marriage is followed by a surrender to scripture. At the end, we were given a homework assignment. For review, here it is:

1. Schedule a date by the end of this month. A date is a night that you and your spouse go out WITHOUT kids and leave your Nextels and PDAs and all that other stuff at home and keep a cell phone ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES!! An emergency in NOT calling to check up on the kids. If you need to check on the kids, that probably means that your sitter is completely incompetent OR you're having a problem with letting go of the kids for a couple of hours!! Remember this: It's better to spend a few bucks on a babysitter now than spending thousands of dollars on divorce attorneys later.

2. Pray together out loud with your spouse. Remember that prayer is simply talking to God. If you have problems talking to God, then you probably have problems talking to your spouse. This may be weird for you because you have never prayed out loud with your spouse. Try it. You'll love it!! You'll be amazed at how much better your verbal communication with your spouse will be when your verbal communication with your Heavenly Father is strong!! Oh yeah -- saying the blessing at the dinner table DOES NOT constitute praying out loud with your spouse.

3. Study the Bible together. This one will take some work. Take some time this week and go through God's Word and find a verse or passage in the Bible that can be your theme verse for your marriage. Don't be surprised if when you are exploring Scripture, you discover a whole lot more than a theme verse for your marriage. Be careful, you just may fall in love with God's Word!!

Now if you missed the first lesson, please don't give up!! You can get caught up in a matter of one hour. There are 168 hours between 9:30AM on Sundays. You can certainly find one hour that you can get away from sports, drama, reality TV, or the news and get onto NewSpring Church's Resource Page, scroll down, and click on Lord of the Rings. The lesson name was "So This Is What It's All About?" (at the bottom of the page). You can watch the video or get the audio, your choice.

Remember, next week we'll learn about "Two Myths About Sex". That'll bring in a crowd!!

You Will NOT Want to Miss This Sunday!!!

Many of us want to ignore the "pink elephant" in the room and not bring attention to it out of fear that someone may get hurt or offended. Well it is time that we take on this "pink elephant" head to head. "What is this 'pink elephant'?" you may ask. This pink elephant has marital struggles, sexual miscommunication, infidelity, financial worries written all over it. The name of this pink elephant is divorce. All of us have been effected by divorce in one way or another. Maybe it was your parents. Maybe a sibling. It could have been a co-worker or a close friend. Maybe it was you. Maybe you're considering it. Maybe you're in the process of it.

This Sunday will mark a turning point in your life and in the life of our Bible Study group. This Sunday, we will be introduced to a series that will completely change the way you look at God and your spouse. It's entitled "Lord of the Rings" and you will not want to miss it.

Maybe your marriage is great. You will NOT want to miss it!! Maybe you're just going through the motions of marriage with no purpose or meaning. You will NOT want to miss it!! Maybe you're about to pack your bags. You will NOT want to miss it!! Maybe you're about to get married. You will NOT want to miss it!!

I encourage each one of you to begin right now to sincerely seek the face of God and desperately beg Him to work miracles through this series. I am a firm believer in the miracle of reconciliation. Please pray separately and as couples that God will pour out His spirit on this series. Pray with EXPECTATION that His power that saved us from an eternal damnation in Hell will rescue those going through the mire of struggle, separation, and divorce.

We need to invite everyone that we can think of to this series!! Let's not let Satan win another battle. We have the Lord of the Rings in our corner!!