Grateful

I haven't written a blog for a while and felt that I would write one tonight.

I have been in Japan for just over a month this year, and whilst here have had quite the journey.

Tonight though, I just felt to write about how much I value relationships.  The kind I am talking about tonight though is the kind between a husband and wife.

I am really thankful to have met a number of couples in my life over the years, but in particular I am grateful to be in a stage in my life where I am really starting to take delight in the delight of others.

It is a wonderful thing to be in a community where there are people of all types.  Each person has something to bring to the party.  Yet there is something special and unique that a husband and wife bring to a community, particularly when there is a willingness to submit to one another in Jesus.

By special and unique I mean that there is something that God reveals about Himself between a man and woman who are committed to learning how to love one another, and this beginning with learning to lay down their lives for Jesus.

I met a couple today, who have taken steps of faith in following the voice and heart of God, and as such have gone against what their flesh and perhaps some might say "common sense".  It's not so much that they are trying to live dangerously, but rather there is an awareness that God actually wants to lead each of us, and that includes couples and families.

I could see the love of God and faith amidst worldly pressures at play in this family.  I could hear hope and expectation of a personal God with an eternal plan.  Yes, I could see destiny in the faces of their children.  Yet with all of this, one thing stood clear...Jesus.

It is Jesus offering up of his very own life, both in his ministry, and on the cross itself.  I believe that there is nothing more beautiful to God than when His children lay down their lives for another.  It is this very kind of life that reveals the glory of God.

I am looking forward to meeting more couples and families like this.  Yes, one day I would be honored to be in such a kind of relationship where living is found in dying, and dying brings the life of Jesus to others.  I want to live a life full of the destiny of God.  I want my life to produce life in others...eternal life.

I have been blessed today, and I hope that each of you would also be blessed by this God who brings life to those who are willing to give up their lives for his sake.


May you be blessed with the knowledge of the love of God found in Jesus, the very cross he bore, and grave he left.



Your brother in Jesus.



Tri.