If I wrote a paper on the marriage relationship it could take many months, at least. Research would have to pass scrutiny for soundness. All the research which passed this screening process would have to be read and analysed. This analysis would require collation and integration. When completed it would contain the best evidence available from the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, biology, and, for me, Biblical scholarship on the topic.

Then I would gift my wife with this document, probably at breakfast time so she could read it while she ate her cereal and banana.

When I returned from gardening I would inquire as to her willingness to acquiesce to the findings. I think her response would include something in word and body language which, when translated, would look more like a blank stare than a blank cheque. Her next move would lead to the question of whether I would like to watch a movie or play a game with her.

love_one_another_If I had learned anything from my research I would answer in the positive. If my research had become my prize the rest of the day would devolve into a debate about the value of my concluding theory and a day ending with a cold shower.

While my passion lies with living with Jesus a temptation lurks close to the surface to debate how to believe. However, no doctrine, statement of faith, creed, dogma, list of religious essentials, religious practice, denominational expectation has any value at all with regard to the friendship Jesus and I share.

If any human thinking about Jesus is at all sound the only thing it will accomplish would see me more humble, grateful, mission-energetic and less whiney than before I encountered it. Brow-beating me with proofs, evidence, scholarship and systematic theology will garner only a blank stare.

FruitofSpiritNo one can tell me how to love my wife more. Only the two of us can work that out. You cannot convince me of any narrow theory of how God works just because you think you have it figured out.

I revel in your friendship with Jesus. Revel in mine. I thank God for the fruit of the Spirit your life exhibits. Respect mine. I treasure all the intimacy you have with Jesus Christ. Honour mine.

The proof of my faithfulness to Creator lies not with any intellectual uniformity we may develop, but that my spirit and your spirit witness to the seal of the Great Spirit on our living.

What a Friend we have in Jesus…

Jesus loves me this I know…