The Point

Jesse Birkey's picture

Excert from, Marriage What's the Point? One Couple Finds Meaning in a Crazy Mess 

by Jesse and Kara Birkey

available at www.reflectministry.com and amazon.

 

...Where are we supposed to get our validation from? Who is supposed to be the one giving us our sense of self-worth? Where does our love come from? Who is the one who is supposed to make us feel good about ourselves? Ultimately all of those things are supposed to come from God. He is our source of love. God is the one who tells us who we are. God provides our sense of self-worth. Basically, everything that we tend to look for our spouse or significant other to provide we are supposed to be getting from God. Does that mean as a husband or wife we don’t have to tell our spouses that we love them? Does it mean that we should not show them how much we love and care about them? Absolutely not! However, what it does mean is that we should not allow those compliments and acts of love to become the foundation of our identity.

It had been a couple of weeks since that awful Wednesday night and I was replaying a question that I had been asking myself and sort of asking God: “If we are supposed to be getting everything that we need from God as far as love, self-worth, and validation, then why did He create marriage at all?” If a healthy and healed person gets all of that stuff from God, then why should he/she have to subject himself/herself to marriage where there is pain and suffering? What is the point?

As I began to ask God that question, I began to yell at Him a little. It was at that point that He interrupted my spewing, as He often does, and gave me the answer: There are many benefits of marriage. God is able to use it in many ways that are beneficial to His kingdom and to us. But in that moment God pressed one reason on my heart in particular. God showed me that His intention and desire for marriage was to be a covenant relationship in which we could experience the intimate character and love of His heart. His intention is for us to be able to experience Him as we reflect who He is to each other. He wants to use the most intimate human relationship we can have to show us who He is....

Our ability to really know and understand who God is was so important to God that He created a covenant relationship that could go deeper than other relationships. A covenant where our hearts could be laid bare. A covenant in which our spirits are so intertwined with another that we feel what the other feels. It is a covenant that we can pour our hearts and souls into. We experience what the other experiences. We hurt when they hurt, and we feel joy when they feel joy. It was this covenant relationship in which God chose to reveal to us on a tangible level exactly who He is. The depth of His love and His mountains of grace and for- giveness. And how does He reveal this? Through us! 

Jesse and Kara Birkey

Sid Roth on Life Resurrected

“This next, greatest, and perhaps last move of God’s Spirit before His return will use nobodies to operate in a level of miracles that the world has never seen! This book will supernaturally release your faith to do the same works as Jesus and even greater.” -Sid Roth,
Host, It’s Supernatural!

www.reflectministry.com

jbirkey@reflectministry.com

twitter.com/JesseBirkey

http://www.facebook.com/reflectministry

http://www.amazon.com/author/jessebirkey

We are excited to announce a new teaching series called, Life Resurrected, The Normal Christian Life.  It’s a 4 CD set.  Check it out at http://www.reflectministry.com/store.html

View the Trailer for our new book, Life Resurrected, Extraordinary Miracles through Ordinary People Here!

To find information on an exciting new documentary called DeadRaiser go to www.deadraiser.com

 

 

  

 

Add new comment

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Results

Results 251 - 260 of 490

Pages

How Could I Have Been So Wrong? MP3 Download Package

Mark Virkler | 80 Page PDF eBook | 16 MP3 Sessions

This is my story of how my cardiac event was resolved by combining the best in medical care, Christian spirituality, and nutrition. 

I was NOT supposed to have a cardiac event. I ate a healthy diet, exercised several times a week, consumed lots of great nutrition and sought to live destressed by abiding in Christ. This story contains the lessons I learned in the months of healing after having emergency surgery which involved five heart bypasses.

Price: $24.95

How to Walk by the Spirit Group Leader Bonus Resources

10 Books, 1 CD, Only $80 (Retail Value $99)

Outstanding tools to promote your event! This package includes: 10 How to Walk by the Spirit books plus a CD-ROM packed with promotional items.

Need help structuring your class? Download a 10-week assignment schedule.

Price: $80.00

Prayers That Heal the Heart PowerPoint

by Mark Virkler | 1 Disc

If you are teaching the course Prayers That Heal the Heart, then these 181 Powerpoint slides on CD-ROM will make your classroom presentation powerful and attractive.

The PowerPoint series follows the Prayers That Heal the Heart book and LEARN notebook, so you will want each of your students to have a copy of the LEARN notebook, and each family should have a copy of the full textbook. 

Price: $19.95
Prayers That Heal the Heart PowerPoint Download

Prayers That Heal the Heart PowerPoint Download

by Mark Virkler

If you are teaching the course Prayers That Heal the Heart, then these 181 Powerpoint slides will make your classroom presentation powerful and attractive.

The PowerPoint series follows the Prayers That Heal the Heart book and LEARN notebook, so you will want each of your students to have a copy of the LEARN notebook, and each family should have a copy of the full textbook. 

Price: $19.95

Prayers That Heal the Heart Revised Group Leader Bonus Resources

10 Books, 1 CD, Only $40 (Retail Value $183)

Outstanding tools to promote your event! This package includes: 10 LEARN Prayers That Heal the Heart Notebooks; 50 “Prayers That Heal the Heart” hand-out cards; plus a CD-ROM packed with promotional items and teaching PowerPoint slides.

Price: $40.00

Rivers of Grace PowerPoint

185 slides

If you are teaching the course Rivers of Grace, these 185 PowerPoint slides will make your classroom presentation dynamic and attractive. You will want each of your students to have a copy of the LEARN notebook, and each family should have a copy of the full textbook

Price: $34.95

Your Winning Team card

By Mark and Patti Virkler

In the multitude of counselors there is wisdom, safety and success. This 5.5 X 8.5 inch card is a simple reminder to look to several people God has provided you who together comprise the five heart motivations which underlie the five-fold team God speaks about in Ephesians 4:7-11 - apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher and evangelist. 

Incorporating counsel from several individuals who together can express these five varied heart motivations lets you make wise, mature decisions (Eph. 4: 11-15).

Price: $2.00

Conversation Starters for Christians

By Gloria Gierach | 200 Cards | Retail $24.99

With all the Conversation Starters out there, why another one?  It’s simple!  As Christians, we have a spiritual component to our lives that the typical Conversation Starter question does not address.  Crossfire Conversation Starters for Christians has questions specifically designed to create connection and community and to encourage faith.  Each question can cause you to think and be inspired to have deep, exciting and meaningful conversations. 

Price: $24.99

Hearing God's Voice for Healing PowerPoint

Mark and Patti Virkler | 276 PowerPoint Slides| Retail: $29.95

This set of 276 PowerPoints walk you through the teaching of our book, Hearing God’s Voice for Healing. In addition, we have turned these 276 PowerPoints into a student workbook, called LEARN Hearing God’s Voice for Healing. There are three PowerPoints down the left side of each page, and the right side contains space to write your own personal notes, reflections, journaling, and insights.

Price: $29.95
Naturally Supernatural PowerPoint

Naturally Supernatural PowerPoint

by Mark Virkler | 178 Slides on 1 Disc

Revised & Expanded 30th Anniversary Edition. If you are teaching the course Naturally Supernatural, then these 178 PowerPoint slides on CD-ROM will make your classroom presentation powerful and attractive. If you are going to use the DVDs to teach this course, then the PowerPoint is already interwoven into the DVDs.

Price: $24.95

Pages