"Then Comes Marriage"

       I always count it a privilege to be able to serve in any capacity that I can within my local church. We're called to do so and when we get called upon, we should be grateful.

So each Sunday morning, I do my best to be most prepared for when my time comes to teach my junior high school guys. I think it's important due to the overbearing statistic of kids being done with religion at the age of eighteen and not looking back. So I firmly believe that now is the time to teach and to teach well when it comes to them being 13, 14, and 15. 

Recently, like the last three Sunday's, my audience has changed from not just my jr high guys but my high school guys too. 

For the last three Sundays, we've been making our way through the series of The Adventures of Roman and Jorge. Its put by Last Words Ministry.

It's a cheesy little comedy bit spread out of four episodes that takes you through modern day struggles that we see in the church and in typical evangelical Christianity.

"Lifelong friends become bungling partners in an adventure toward deeper Christianity that you won't soon forget. After the gangly, socially-awkward Roman decides to actually put into practice some teaching he heard on evangelism, comedy ensues as his street-wise, church-going, co-worker, Jorge, tried to get him to settle down and stop taking the Bible so literally."

The whole series is great because it focuses on the things that we think and do not say. Such things like evangelism, and what Biblical evangelism is, modern day Christian lingo and phrases like "Ask Jesus into your heart" and "Pray the Sinners prayer" among other sayings. It's been a great little series. We have yet to complete it as we will finish the 4th episode this coming Sunday.





Yesterday, we watched episode 3 entitled "Then Comes Marriage". This one hits home to me because it's something that I've gone through in recent years. It's about finding a balance in ministry. It's about making sure your house is in order and not falling apart as you go out and serve others, and evangelize the lost. A healthy home is a God honoring home. I brought up the verse from 1 Timothy 5:8 that reads:
     
   "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

I brought this up because it's something I was a victim of in recent years. Those days are since over but the point that I really wanted to drive home to my guys in my class was if your life is in turmoil, if its falling apart, if you have relationships in jeopardy, then you should NOT be out evangelizing the lost. Why? Because if any of the above are happening, then you are WORSE than the one you're out evangelizing! Think about that for a moment.....because if you reject reality, and just sweep things under rugs, eventually, the rug will trip you up. And that's what happened to me. Back in the days of 2009-2011 I was going through multiple problems on the home front with my then wife and kids. I wanted go deep into details but as my then wife would agree, I pushed aside so many things and took charge of just evangelism. My only focus back then was being a "Superman of Salvation". A "Look what I'm doing for Jesus" looking for the praise and accolades of man. Meanwhile, my then wife was at home with our kids suffering from the damage that I had caused and trying to put out fires that I had started in every room of my house.

Oh how horribly wrong I was.


To be continued...