“He (or she) who finds a wife (or a mate) finds a good thing.” Proverbs 18:22.
We all want to believe that God is right in the middle of our relationship and marriage decisions. This verse indicates however, that God’s opinion is: finding a fitting marriage partner is a perfectly good idea. I hope you’ll notice however, that God didn’t say, “He or she who finds a spouse finds a “Great thing.” I believe God wants you to know that you already have the great thing in your relationship with Jesus Christ. || Read more
“It has been fully reported to me, all you have done for your Mother-in law since your husband’s death; how you have left your parents and your birthplace and come to a people you didn’t know before.” Ruth 2:11
Here we see in the Old Testament book of Ruth that this prominent and godly man, Mr. Boaz was intently looking into Ruth’s character before Ruth knew anything of Boaz at all. It looks like Boaz asked everyone he could imagine, every little question he could think of concerning this new woman in town named Ruth. We know this is true because of this verse. || Read more
The Lord has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead! Ruth 2:20
When Naomi left home with her husband Elimelech, she probably had dreams of returning to Bethlehem someday with a prosperous and successful new life. If that was the case, walking back into Bethlehem on that hot summer day would have been a nightmare for her. While living in the foreign land of Moab, she lost her husband and two sons and she returned with only her daughter-in-law Ruth and a heart full of sorrow. “Do not call me Naomi [pleasant]; call me Mara [bitter],” she told her former neighbors, “for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20). But this wasn’t the end of the story for Naomi or Ruth… || Read more
It seems like I redefine myself almost every week and I reassess my life with even more scrutiny at the beginning of every new year. I think that’s pretty normal for most folks who would call themselves serious Christians. I know I’m an introspective individual, but I also know that if I am going to walk with the Lord, I have to realign myself with Him on a regular basis. I’ve found the more regularly I do that, the better I do. || Read more
Our ministry doesn’t usually reach into the lives of those who live in relative ease and comfort. Our ministry has always been mostly to those who are weathering a season of loss. We are usually drawn to those who have been cast aside and rejected by those who could have acted differently; but didn’t. We have always tried to be an encouragement to those who’ve been set out in the cultural wilderness, making do with God’s grace and their own thrift and resourcefulness. Joanne and I have always lived that way, and those are the types of folks to whom we best relate. So, I noticed some things in this story from Luke 2, of the birth of Jesus which caught my attention. The story goes like this… || Read more
Angela\’s interview Pt. 1
Angela\’s Interview Pt. 2
Angela\’s Interview Pt. 3
I got a call from a friend and fellow author the other day. She asked me to answer a few questions for her blog, http://angelaruthstrong.blogspot.com The interview was fun, Angela did a great job. You can click on the links above to see it on video…
Q. Jeff, I attended your divorce recovery class, but I don’t know your story? Please share a little of your past experience with divorce and infidelity.
Angela, I was kind of an upside-down kid who grew into an upside-down young adult… I was raised in a typically dysfunctional American home, and I met and married an equally dysfunctional young woman. We were not Christians at that time, so we had no concept of a pure and bonding courtship, we just did what normal couples did. We met and moved in together, and we were married about a year later. We were mostly happy for about two years, but my former spouse had some very deep and hidden feelings for someone in her past that I was not really aware of at the time. When that person would become available between relationships every couple of years, the two of them would secretly contact each other, and she would secretly make plans to leave to be with this man in a distant location… || Read more
Has anyone else noticed this life is getting harder to live? Everything just seems so much more difficult than it ever has been. Our family members seem to be harder to get along with. We and our long-term friends are having trouble. Our church friends aren’t as forgiving toward us as they could, or possibly should be. We are often strained at every turn to simply hold the ends together. My little job in the church is to be an encourager, so I want to encourage you today. I want to let you know that God knows that you are weary. God knows that you long for the days when life was easy. But God also wants you to know that He has made these days for you, and He has made you for these days... || Read more
Have you ever noticed that some people just have trouble throwing things away? Have you seen the reports of police or paramedics finding people living in their homes with many years of trash piled up around them? The medical people sometimes have to use a piece of equipment just to get these people out of their homes. And many times we see that a lot of the stuff in these houses is junk mail. It’s stuff these people never asked for, but they got anyway. || Read more
An individual named Thomas asked this question recently in a comment to a blog I wrote a few months ago… Thomas, I changed your words to make them more concise, and I tried to ask your permission but my email was returned. I hope I’m okay in answering you on this page, because yours is a question which is shared by many we chat with on a daily basis…
“Jeff, I’ve found that my former spouse continues to beat me up emotionally and I’ve come to believe that it must be something I’m allowing her to do, but I’m not sure how to stop her because she uses our children to get to me. I’ve read your words many times that we should remove from our exes hands, the sticks they are using to beat us down, and we should also break the chains they are using to bind us so securely to our former lives. But I really need to know how you would suggest I remove those sticks and chains in a situation where the two of us still have children together, because my vindictive former spouse can totally use the leverage she has in our children to beat me up, and she can also use our children to bind me to my former life with her. So how exactly do I “disengage altogether” from my ex, as long as we are co-parenting children?” || Read more
Anybody can be just plain well. So many times we ask ourselves, “What would my life have been if all of these things hadn’t happened to me?”. Or we ask, “Why do other people get off so easy in life, and why am I such a mess?”. Everyone has trials and complications in life, and you can’t really know this side of heaven, what the purpose might be for all the things which have come through your life. Your finite mind simply cannot figure out what an infinite God might be using to bring about His eternal plans and purposes in your life.
Now, I’m not saying that God planned your divorce or separation.
Most of us have asked the question, “If God knew my spouse and I wouldn’t make it, why did He let us get together?” Or we ask, “Why couldn’t we fix our relationship, when others seem to pull their marriages together?” || Read more
