They started to read their Bibles at home, and came to church fairly regularly. They were increasingly open to the whole Christian claim on them. One day Jim said, “My wife and I want to make our full Christian decision, and we think now would be a good time to do it. Can we get together after one of the services?” I said, “Of course,” and the three of us went into the chapel and knelt at the altar rail. After a short time, Jim began to pray aloud, saying something like this : “Dear God, this is Mary and Jim and Sam. Mary and I are strangers to You. We want- to come in now and be a part o f Your big family, and we hope You will take us in.” Then Mary said a prayer as simple and moving as her husband’s, and I prayed for them. A couple of weeks later I talked with Jim about his next steps. He and Mary were both keeping regular times for prayer and Bible study in the morning, and they were coming steadily to church. I asked how this was working out in daily contacts. He told me that they had taken God fully into part nership in their business, and were asking Him for guidance, and felt they had never done such good work. Moreover their friends had noticed such a change in them that they remarked on it. He said, “ I failed this week to tell one person who asked me what it was, I just flunked it; but I have talked with several more and they are greatly interested. We just tell them honestly what has happened and what Christ is doing for us.” I then asked him whether he had yet surren dered his bank account to God, and he said, “Not altogether — what do you think we ought to do about that?” I said that I had for years tithed, giving at least one tenth o f my income to God’s direct work, and that most people who did this found it a blessing. We said no more then ; two weeks later my wife and I were having dinner with them, and Jim said, “Mary and I have thought over what you said. We are going to tithe, too.” Think of it—young Christians, new to this life, yet already tithing their income, and witnessing gladly to their friends about what Christ had done for them. A few thousand couples like that could lift the level of this nation. Will you and the person to whom you are married begin? Yours can be as dynamic and wonderful an experience as Jim’s and Mary’s has been. Reprinted from MARRIAGE IS FOR LIVING. Published by Zondervan. Used with permission. □ E
giving them time. And we need plenty o f good play between young and old. Third, Christian homes must he homes where people are growing spiritually. When two people settle down to be what Chesterton calls “ their own petty little selves,” it becomes about as exciting as for two bricks to settle down beside each other in a wall. Unless you have a spiritual motivation, un less God is in your life, working with you, helping you to grow, you become an unutterable bore, a continuous repetition of yourself. When no one in the family can get after you for your moods or your habits, when you have fenced yourself off from correctives from God and the people nearest you, you are dead inside and might as well be dead outside. Only God keeps peo ple growing. And only growing, being more and more different from our old selfish selves, keeps us from being impossible to live with. Fourth, they should he homes where other peo ple find new life and spirit. If two people, and their children, are under God, there will be something attractive and creative about the home in which they live. When God is present, there is no missing Him. Surely He wants to use the homes He has blessed, that other homes may be blessed through them. Many homes are without God. Let us pray that the contagion of Christian homes may pass over to those that are darker because they lack God. There is something definitely sacramental, “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace,” about a really Christian marriage, and the spirit of it becomes contagious. * * * Having taken this cursory look at some aspects of what might be called a “ Christian” marriage, let us see how one young couple got started in such a relationship. We shall call him “ Jim” and his wife “Mary,” though these are not their names. I met them when they were planning to be married. I also knew Jim’s brother and his wife, and all four were at tractive, capable people, able to hold up their end in this world. I was drawn to Jim and Mary. They asked me to adivse them about some things, and we became friends. Later they began coming to church once in a while, and my wife and I invited them to a cou ples’ group which met on Sunday evenings where we talked informally about Christ and the rele vance of religion today. They knew very little and asked elementary questions, but with increased knowledge and continued exposure, they became more interested and began to attend regularly.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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