Marriage Insurance

Anton asked me yesterday about renter's insurance. What amount should he get? How should he pay it? They are good questions for a young man about to rent his very first apartment. And it got me thinking. We have insurance for our cars, homes, apartments, health and even our earthly life. Some people have insurance for jewelry, boats and other high-end personal possessions. Some singers have insurance on their vocal chords. Dancers have insurance on their legs. Quarterbacks have insurance on their throwing arms. People protect what is of great value to them.

That being said ... what insurance do you have for your marriage? Now please don't ask, "Is there marriage insurance?" And for heavens sake, don't even mention a prenup. (For those who don't know, it's a prenuptial agreement between the bride and groom over possessions should the union end - it's a safety net in case of divorce.). So I'm not speaking actual marriage insurance. I'm talking about what lengths you are willing to go to protect this extraordinarily important union called marriage. How much is this marriage worth to you?

I am hoping you'll say this upcoming marriage is worth more than your house, car, apartment, boat or jewelry. It should rank right up at the top of your priority list.

A friend at church shared a story where her boss asked her to list the priorities in her life. She said, "God, husband, children, work." He told her to pack up her things, go home and reprioritize if she planned on working for him. She was devastated at the loss of her job, but stuck to her beliefs. Within days, the Lord opened an opportunity for her financially that has continued to this day and blessed her immeasurably. Her priorities were dead on. The boss on the other hand ... was fired by his boss within the year. His priorities were off.

Your God should be the most important thing in your life. Christ said in Matthew 22:37, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." So that comes first. Then your spouse should follow. Then your children. Then anything else. You know how important those things are. And they are worth protecting. So what is your insurance? You need to invest in those things. You need to invest time with God. You need to invest time in the Word. You need to invest time in prayer. You need to invest in time with your spouse and your future children. Notice that time is the connection there.

Work at your marriage. Love your spouse. Go on marriage retreats together and to conferences (like the one Rob and Ayla attended recently). Read books on marriage together. Do devotions together. Pray together. Go on dates. Have fun together. Your marriage is of great worth, so take special care of it. Invest in it.

The Bible is the best insurance for liability, collision and comprehension in your marriage. It's the best insurance for natural disasters, disease, road hazards and mishaps. That Word of God has got the best coverage ever. So dig into it. And when you sign that marriage license, know that you've got the best policy ever with the Father ... with zero deductible, because Christ already paid it.

Discussion: How are your current priorities? What are some other ways to make your marriage a priority? How can you tell what a priority is in your life?

Prayer: Father, we know when we make those vows before you, we are promising to make this marriage a priority. Help us Lord to care for one another and invest in each other. Help us to seek your Word for guidance and direction in our lives. And let it all be to your glory. In your Son's name, Amen.

Living Water

Last summer when we had gone through a dry period, I was telling my friend, Martina, that even though I was watering every day, it seemed like my plants were just not doing well.

I said to her, "It's almost as if they just need to have..."

"God's water," Martina interrupted.

That is exactly what I was thinking. You may laugh at this but I was honestly thinking they needed rain from the heavens instead of my spicket. They needed God's nutrients instead of whatever was coming from the water treatment plant. Sure enough, as soon as we got some rain, every plant perked up.

It reminded me of how we are as Christians. We may be doing all the good we can, but if we are not worshiping, praying and digging into God's Word regularly and asking the Holy Spirit to do a work in and through us, are we being the perky Christians we're supposed to be. Is it possible we have not refreshed ourselves with the Living Water (John 4:10)?

My dear ones, you will be stretched thin in the years to come (if you aren't already). You will be hard pressed to find time to worship, pray, read the Bible and fellowship with other Christians. It is the evil one's goal to find ways to keep you from the Lord. No matter what you have going on in your lives, we pray you will always find time for Him. My friend, Debbie said to me yesterday, "This is the reason I come to Reunion Group [our accountability group]: to keep my focus on Him." It's our weekly reminder that God is in control, we belong to Him and the victory is His. Without those reminders, we tend to be like the droopy flowers and plants in my yard.

So go to Him every day, several times a day. Remember that you are to glorify Him, love God's children and teach them to glorify Him. And let everything else you do in this life open doors to fulfill those three things. If you think this life is about anything else - for example, about being happy, success, wealth or adventure - you are sorely mistaken. So don't waste you time pursuing things of this earth. Pursue your Father and be enriched by Him. Drink deeply of His Living Water and just watch how you thrive!

Discussion: Do you take time every single day to worship, praise, pray and read the Word? Could you use a bit of Living Water? What are your dreams and goals? Is God part of those dreams? What can you do to focus on God?

Prayer: Thank You, Father, for providing us with the Living Water in Christ Jesus and Your Word. May we drink of it often. Lord, we pray our eyes are fixed on You and that You bless our efforts to bring You glory. In Christ Jesus, Amen.

Thankless Jobs

Today I did a bunch of thankless jobs: Vacuumed, scrubbed and polished all the tile and hardwood floors, cleaned both bathrooms, washed all the rugs and welcome mats, vacuumed and washed the car and swept the garage. The are all jobs that no one comes up to you afterwards and says, "Hey - those floors are really shining ... Well done." So you spend hours on your knees cleaning cause you know it needs done, but yet know in your heart if you didn't do it, no one would really know the difference anyways. For my sake, it looks fantastic and smells wonderful. It gives me great satisfaction to know I've done all this Spring cleaning.

Jesus did a thankless job. I'm not talking about dying for us on the cross. That has the gratitude of every sinful soul, I am talking about washing the disciples' feet. Washing feet was the job for the lowliest of the lows. First century feet were nasty. Walking around in leather sandals on dusty roads took its toll, so first thing folks did when they got home from work or visited someone was wash their feet. If they entered a wealthy person's home, it was the family slave that washed guests' feet. And here was the King of Kings, God Incarnate, with a towel around his waist washing the disciples' feet. And they were mortified. Matter of fact, Peter flat out says, "You will never wash my feet!" (John 13:7) to which Jesus replies that if He doesn't Peter cannot have a part in Him. Jesus was showing through this most humble of acts how to be a selfless servant. While it is doubtful the disciples thanked Christ after this foot washing, you can be sure they thanked Him to the end of their days for the lesson they learned that day.

You will do countless thankless jobs in your lifetime. And while you may never be acknowledged or noticed for them, God absolutely sees. And Scripture tells us in Colossians 3:17 "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Thankless jobs we do are a way we can metaphorically wash Christ's feet. And what an honor that would be! Now do I think that Jesus looked down from Heaven at my shiny floors and said, "Wow, Jill, thanks!"? Nope, but I'm sure He appreciated the praise songs I sang to Him while I did it and the prayers said while accomplishing those tasks. 

On that note, this isn't the first time I wrote this devotion. It's the second time through. The blog site went down at some point while writing this and stopped automatically saving the work, even when I purposely saved it to be sure it was there. When I refreshed the page, nearly the entire blog for this day was gone. So I started from scratch and wrote it yet again. Was the first copy appreciated? Nope. Had I not written these last couple sentences you would never know additional time was required to rewrite it. A thankless job ... but done for God's glory, so that's okay.

Discussion: What are some jobs you do regularly that go unnoticed? Do you tackle them as if doing them for the Lord?

Prayer: Father, we know you see everything we do. We pray Lord that as we do the mundanes tasks of our day, that we do them as  if doing them for you. May you be pleased with us, Lord. In Jesus, Amen.

Greatest Week In History

Today is Palm Sunday, named for the fronds the crowd in Jerusalem waved as our Messiah entered the city on the first day of this greatest week in history. It probably wasn't taught to you as such in any history classes of the public school, but all Christians know it's so. It was a day Christ proclaimed to the masses - nearly 2.7 million in town for Passover - that He was our Savior. He did this by fulfilling what the prophet Zechariah said in 9:9 "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." The people shouted "Save! Now! Pray!" with their "Hosannas" not having a clue that the true saving would come in the form of sacrifice through the worst possible kind of execution.

Jesus knew as He rode into town on that donkey that he would be crucified just five days later ... yet He came anyway. He knew in just four days, one of His closest friends would betray Him, another would deny Him and all would abandon Him, yet He ate Passover with them anyway. He knew the same people shouting "Hosanna" would be shouting "Crucify him," but He prayed for them anyways (Matt 23:37). He knew as He watched people laying their cloaks on the ground before Him that Sunday, later that week he would be beaten, spit on, mocked and killed, and He forgave them all anyway (Luke 23:34). It was the greatest week in history because the greatest man who ever lived was paying the highest price One could pay in pure, complete, selfless love (John 3:16).

My sweet children, celebrate this day. Celebrate it every year for the rest of your lives. Celebrate it together, with your future children and grandchildren. Know that when those palm branches are passed out and you wave them in the air, you are attending an honorary parade for the King of Kings! And don't just proclaim Him in the church this morning ... proclaim Him in the streets! Help the lost see what this Jesus did for them.

Spread the Good News! "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Mark 11:9)

Discussion: Tell about a special Palm Sunday service you remember? What are ways you can share the Good News of Jesus Christ this week?

Prayer: Father God, we know that if the children of Israel didn't shout praises to your Son as He entered the town, that even the stones would have shouted (Luke 19:40) Lord God, we thank you and praise you for Christ our King! May we worship Him fully this week and share of Your great love and mercy! In the name of the Messiah, Amen.

Celebrate The Day

Jesus is the reason for the season, indeed. And we have wrapped all kinds of celebrations around it from gift giving, devouring turkeys and hams to visiting family. This holiday celebrating the greatest gift of all comes with all the Christmas trimmings in green and red, with garland, ornaments and strings of lights around the tree, Christmas cards hanging on the wall, mistletoe dripping from the threshold and a manger scene depicting visits by shepherds and wise men to an Infant Messiah. Twinkling lights in every neighborhood herald this celebration each year. Christmas is truly magical.

But its the simple things about this holiday that bring the sweetest smiles to our faces. Remembering children reading a note from Santa sitting next to half eaten cookies by the fireplace. Blinding lights from movie cameras of the '60s and '70s as we walked down stairs squinting to see our gifts under the tree. It's tennis between a daughter's love and her Daddy and brother. It's graham cracker houses slathered with icing and candy. It's visits with family, laughter, bountiful feasts and piles of sparkly wrapping paper. It's the best birthday party ever, and rightfully so should be celebrated big and remembered in the little things.

This is truly a time for rejoicing! A time to "Go Tell It On The Mountain." Jesus Christ is born! And because of that, we are reborn! Glory to the newborn King.

Have a Merry Christmas. Enjoy the 24 hours of this day's celebration, but don't forget to stay on the mountain top for the other 364 days of the year. Today is about Jesus. But honestly, so is everything else. Praying your holiday is a happy one We are excited that next year on this date, you will be celebrating your first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goggin. God bless!

Discussion: What are the magical moments of Christmas for you?

Prayer: Happy Birthday to Jesus! We love You, Lord! We celebrate and glorify You! We pray, Father, for the hurting and healing this day and ask that you give them joy, strength and comfort. We sing with the angels "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will to men." In the name of God with us, Amen.