Governing by Financial Folly

What a great idea for financially strapped families. Every time the family can’t pay its credit card debt, the bank obligingly raises the limit to give them more spending money. Easy fix. Until the monthly interest builds up to more than the family income. What then?

This is the problem the USA faces, and “raising the debt ceiling” is the same as raising their “credit card limit.” The Democrat penchant for bigger government and the increased spending that supports it—especially Obamacare—consistently raises the US debt to more than their “limit.”

Debt, and a government that consistently increases the debt, is the major crisis facing the States. The Republicans need to attempt drastic action to stem the debt tide—but not the current or similar games that could make the problem worse.

Unfortunately, the US government policy of debt accumulation to achieve their desires is an example most American households copy. So, until some sanity prevails, the majority of Americans will vote for a government that approves their financial foolhardiness by example.

If the world’s economy is largely dependant on the United States economy, the current course of US financial policy will spell disaster for the world—perhaps worse than a new world war might do! Perhaps we voters need to be the example, and rein in our personal debt.

A Wedding Charge

Yesterday I was privileged to give the charge to the bride and groom at a friend’s wedding. Here it is in full.

1.  Celebrate the Difference

The psalmist recognized: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”[1]

I’m sure you’ve noticed He also made us different, as different in personality as we are in looks. And like opposite poles of a magnet, opposite temperaments attract. Ann and I are vivid examples of that! Of course, we need common interests to share: common beliefs are critical; in addition, a common culture, shared pursuits, and desires, all aid in making us one.

But when it comes to temperament and talents, we admire in others those things that we lack, and we fall in love with someone different: someone who displays our missing qualities.

However, the differences that attracted us to each other can eventually exasperate us, because we each do things differently. Then I may try to make the other over into my own image. If I’m successful, the difference that attracted me fades, and the source of my excitement is lost. I may venture elsewhere to fill the void.

The disordered way in which she loads the dishwasher—compared, of course, with my efficient arrangement, is not the time for irritation and rebuke. No, it’s a time to rejoice that the vitality I most admire is still in the house and relish that happy incompatibility.

To respect the other this way honours God

2.  Persevere Through Hardship

Job warned: “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.”[2]

Our culture of easy divorce promotes lack of commitment. It encourages the attitude: “If it doesn’t work for me, I can always leave.” At the first sign of trouble, it’s too easy to consider the marriage has failed and bail out.

But an old adage tells us: “A ship’s captain doesn’t learn his craft on a calm sea.” Enjoy the green pastures and still waters God will provide that nurtures your love. But also remember James who considered it “pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”[3] Marriage is not built holding hands on a glassy sea, but by perseverance through the storms that erupt upon it. That perseverance will deepen and mature your marriage, and forge the bond that lasts a lifetime.

Christ faced the conflict and the cross to ensure for us an eternal and secure relationship with Him. He made the ultimate sacrifice. Conflict exposes our level of readiness to sacrifice for the one we love to ensure our marriage stays secure. Joy can be the outcome of conflict, for happiness is the by-product of service.

To serve the other this way honours God.

3.  Mirror Christ’s Commitment

Recall Jesus: “being made in human likeness—took on the very nature of a servant.”4

My devotion to my wife or husband measures my devotion to God, for the first purpose of marriage is to reflect God’s faithfulness to His own. How I serve my partner betrays what I really believe about Christ’s sacrifice for me. So Paul admonishes us: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”[4]

Now, practising this belief not only strengthens marriage, our fervency of faith is also the greatest legacy we can pass to our children. Like us and your parents, your family will likely proliferate and bring joy beyond imagination. They will learn the reality of God’s love and grace to us all by your joyful and persistent commitment to God—by showing, not telling. Outworking our intimacy with God is necessary, not optional, if we wish to draw our children to faith in God.

Unlike Christ’s sacrifice for us, our destiny is not once to die for those God gives to our care. It is a far greater challenge: to live daily for them. May those who come behind us find us faithful.

To live for them this way honours God.

So, “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”[5]

---

[1] Psalm 139:14

[2] Job 5: 7

[3] James 1:2

[4] Ephesians 5:21

[5] Hebrews 10:23


See our book, Happy Together: Daily insights for Families from Scripture, on our website at http://www.pebblepress.ca/

Family: Thinking Outside the "Nuclear" Box

Although my previous blog suggested a redirection of future blogs to marriage and family from random subjects that grabbed me, it will not be an either/or situation. Marriage is affected by cultural changes—often the burden of my previous blogs. As today’s blog shows, the “big picture” affects you and your family, perhaps more than you realize. Let me know your thoughts.

Some-one told me recently of a young colleague who married and went on honeymoon for two weeks. On her return, she was asked how the vacation went, to which she replied the marriage was over and they were getting divorced.

I was twenty-nine, married ten years, when our young family immigrated to Canada. Until that time I knew of only two divorces. A lot has happened in nearly fifty years since. Now, of course, England is plagued with the same deterioration of marriage as most western nations.

At the outset, I want my view that undergirds the deliberations of this blog clearly understood. Much of what happens in this world, both on an international and personal level is a reflection of the spiritual battle instigated by Satan.

Those who dismiss the spiritual element in world affairs have an enormous problem accounting for evil residing in humanity. They vainly hold to the idea that humans are basically good, and changes, perhaps initially unpleasant, will eventually lead to humanity perfecting itself.

Paradoxically, that philosophy results in support for a declining value of life. It commenced with the sixties attack on the morals guarding sex and reproduction. It demanded sex “liberated” to greater freedom: recreation without procreation, or simply, sex without children.

Abortion was a natural outcome, lowering the value of human life, which in turn opened the door to euthanasia, assisted suicide, and “mercy” killing. This battle and its eventual wider demands, now being waged in the “civilised” west, must have Hitler laughing in his grave.

What has this to do with marriage? Simply that breaking up the family is an assault on the children. Fracturing the nuclear family leads to the decreasing safety of children within marriage. That abets and parallels the fracturing of society and the decreasing security for the vulnerable.

It is no coincidence that the decline in regard for God parallels the lowering of the value of human life, a breakdown in morality, and the assault on the family. Without the Creator’s compass to direct life, maintaining a just society rests on the opinions of fallen humanity.

This is why the Gospel is a redeeming influence on society at large, for, it seems to me, the long term stability of a nation rests on the care it provides to the weakest. And that is reflected in God’s love for us.