3 Tiers to Protect Your Marriage: Part I

One of the major causes of divorce today is the extra marital affair. "Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." - Galatians 6:8.

Most people believe that men have affairs for sex. However, men often have affairs because they look to women to affirm their value and reason for existence. When this occurs, the men have failed long before an affair even took place. "Give not your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings." - Proverbs 31:3.

While this verse naturally instructs men to avoid using women outside of their marriage to fulfill them, it also instructs men to be careful about placing their wife as their foundation. The foundation for your marriage is critical for preserving it. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." - Matthew 7:24-27.

So how should we prioritize our marriage to preserve it?  Keep reading at 3 Tiers to Protect Your Marriage: Part II

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/marriage/3-tiers-to-protect-your-marriage-part-i/, originally written on July 8th, 2013.

From Hannah

Btw, Proverbs 31:3 concerns how a king should behave, not an individual. Context matters. If you want to follow a stone age tribe that hates women among other minorities, and if you want to help people to help themselves, there are kinder ways. Selfishness is not the way. Best to you!

From Hannah

“Broken dreams” perfectly sums up my point about the focus here. You also made some good points. But religion does not necessarily equal good character, and divorce disproportionately harms women and benefits men (also, off-topic but potentially interesting and very much against popular stereotypes: men are much happier and healthier when married than single, and women much happier when single than married — I wonder why?).

I don’t mean to derail your posts — just providing an alternate view, and happy to take it offline. Sometimes hearing differing views can be useful. Good luck to you, and try to trust a little more in yourself rather than what others may wish you to believe.

From Scott Izu

Hannah, thanks for the response. If you are looking for straight financial advice, Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman have some great resources and books available. However, thoughts control beliefs and beliefs will determine your actions and actions will lead to your life’s results. That said, to truly succeed financially, it helps to model the thoughts of those who have had financial success. There are many who have succeeded before you financially and you have access to read a book that wraps up 80 years of their knowledge, experience and wisdom. You can stand on the shoulder’s of giants, so to speak. What I have found is that those individuals who have succeeded financially have supreme character and have the capability to live their lives based on certain fundamental principles.

Just some statistics on divorce. Divorce rates are 41% of first time marriages end in divorce and the number one cause is finances, according to http://www.divorce.com. Financially speaking, divorces lead to damaged credit scores, bankruptcies and broken dreams.

From Hannah

It struck me forcefully that this website has become a thinly veiled attempt to make sense of your own life and deep marital and other problems. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, but the veneer of providing financial advice is slipping away with the focus on your religion, divorce, infidelity, and other difficulties. Rather than relying on a contradictory, misogynistic (stone female adulterers!), and small-minded doctrine, you might instead consider consulting a professional therapist. Good luck and best wishes!

3 Tiers to Protect Your Marriage: Part II

This article is continued from 3 Tiers to Protect Your Marriage: Part I.

In reality, families often put the children first, then the marriage next.  Then if there is any room left over, they address their spiritual needs.

However, one must ask, if the marriage fails, what will happen to the children?  Also, don't the children get taken better care of when both the husband and wife are filled with love and are working together.  On an airplane, during a crash or crisis, one must first secure the oxygen for able bodied individuals first, because when those individuals are well taken care of, they can then help others.  So remember men and women, place your husband's needs and your wife's needs before your children.  Focus first on loving, encouraging and building up your spouse and they will likely become a huge asset in your children's lives.

Likewise, if you put place your foundation into another person, what happens when they make a mistake, break down or fall off course?  Doesn't your spouse deserve to have the best of you?  Doesn't your spouse deserve to have your unconditional love even when they are not strong enough to love you back?  The only way this can occur is if you leave your spirituality as your foundation and take the time to make sure you are replenished directly from the source.

Instead of thinking about two people and love, think about two cars and electricity.  Usually, the two cars will run just fine, with their batteries being recharged internally and on a daily basis.  However, from time to time, one car's battery may die.  At this point, the other car can be used to give a jump start, and recharge the other car's dead battery.  Over a long period of time, both cars will eventually end up with dead batteries, unless they are replaced by an external source.

What is the end recommendation?  First, make sure your individual spiritual needs are met, by replenishing daily through worship.  Second, make sure your spouse's needs are met through love and encouragement.  Finally, attend to the children, pouring love into their lives.

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/marriage/3-tiers-to-protect-your-marriage-part-ii/, originally written on July 8th, 2013.

From Hannah

Of course one needs to take care of oneself, but this is completely backward. Children *do* come first. Yes, before your partner, and before yourself. To argue otherwise is so selfish and self-serving as to take my breath away. Your children will be well aware of who you’re putting first if it’s not them, as many of us know very well indeed, and the price is unimaginable.

Showing Love

I have always believed that if you want advice, take it from someone who has been successful in that area.  However, sometimes it may be difficult to know when someone has been successful.  Looks can be deceiving.  I'd like to try to point you in a good direction and you can determine for yourself.

When growing up, my mother always gave us compliments regarding our strengths, made individual time for each child and gave us tons of gifts. This is how she showed her love. I always thought my father wasn't as good as showing love, but the truth is, he was always working, improving something or making a better life for the family. On the other hand, I tend to freely build others up, spend time with others often listening to what they have to say and give plenty of physical hugs.

Gary Chapman, in his book, "The 5 Love Languages", talks about the five ways in which people show love: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch. In order to find one's love languages, you can simply watch how they treat other people. If you see them complimenting others a lot, most likely they themselves need consistent affirmations. If someone throws a big party for another person, doesn't it make sense that they thought through how it would feel if a big party was thrown for them?  Figuring out how someone shows love can be difficult sometimes because some people who are emotionally mature tend to show love in ways based on the other person's love language.

The golden rule states that you should treat others how you want to be treated. However, one key to mastering your relationships is learning how to treat others how they want to be treated. As usual, your feedback and commments are welcomed!

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/business/divorce-the-financial-nightmare/, originally written on February 24th, 2013.

Captivate, Compete and Complete, 3 Stages of a Relationship

Let's face it.  Relationships underly everything.  If your relationships fail, your personal finances will fail.  If your relationships fail, your business or career will fail.  So what do you need to know?

Stage 1: Captivation

When you first find someone you are attracted to, you generally think, "Wow, I love this about them or I wish I had that quality or I am amazed at how they do this".  Opposites attract and you are attracted to a person or organization because they do something that you either can't do or you can't do alone.

Stage 2: Competition

After a while, you start to realize that the person is not perfect.  In fact, you start to find faults and think, "Why can't they do this? or I can't believe they survive life without doing this or why don't they see that this is important?"  At this point, you probably start to try to change them, often finding yourself competing with them.  Conflict can arise and you may even break up or leave the organization because their flaws are just too much to bear.  Trying to change something you have no control over can be extremely frustrating.

Stage 3: Completion

If you continue through the frustration, you will probably eventually realize that other people do not view life or work the same way you do.  You will probably realize that this does not identify their problem but rather, identifies your gift.  At this point, you realize that you provide a great deal of value and your purpose in the relationship or organization is not to compete, but rather complete (the extra l stands for love).

By focusing on completion, you will make the relationship or organization better.  You will also realize that the other person or people are valuable and actively show appreciation for them and their talents.  By focusing on yourself and changing your personal perception, eventually you may even inspire others to your way of thinking.

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/business/compete-versus-complete-3-stages-of-a-relationship/, originally written on April 15th, 2013.

Daniel and the Lion's Den, a Choice Between Reputation and Character

Once in a while you may have to choose between reputation and character.  Just remember, reputation represents what others think of you, character represents what God thinks of you.  In Daniel 6, the bible tells the story of Daniel, who chose to admit his true faith in God.  As punishment for his faith, he is placed into a den of lions.  Suprisingly, Daniel is not devoured by the hungry lions as all other men were.

Here, we offer a possible interpretation, the beauty of a parable.

In life, from time to time you may have to make a choice.  One road will salvage your reputation, the other will salvage your character.  The greater calling on your life asks for you to salvage your character.

If you do so, you may feel that you are being punished as your reputation slowly becomes tarnished.  In fact, many men never recover from the lashing of the gossip that ensues.  In fact, the gossip, like the lions' mouths can tear a man to shreds.

However, when you place your solid roots into the word of God, you will find that such gossip has little effect on you.  In fact, your strength, which stems from God will serve as an example to those around you and through time your reputation will be restored.

What do you think?  Did you have another interpretation?

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/business/daniel-and-the-lions-den-a-choice-between-reputation-and-character/, originally written on March 25th, 2013.

Pain, Your Driving Force

Today, I want to talk about pain and how to use it to your advantage.

You see Michael Jordan didn't become the greatest basketball player that ever lived because he had natural talent. Jordan became the greatest basketball player because he didn't make his high school basketball team.

Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson didn't become the greatest boxer that ever lived because he had natural talent. He became the greatest boxer that ever lived because when he was a kid, he got beat up so bad, that one day he decided he didn't ever want to get beat up again. That pain that he felt, led him to tap into such a great power that he broke the Olympic record with a six second knock out.

You see a horse can not achieve its greatest power, its fastest speed, its greatest potential until it is first broken. The pain that you incur in your life, that can become your fuel, your driving force, your path to greatness.

The other night, I was cooking fried chicken and I burnt my hand with some oil. As I washed my hand, I noticed how sensitive my hand was. In fact, it is still sensitive to the touch. As I walked out onto my porch, I realized that the pain, the hurt, had opened my body to feeling. Feelings that I would normally ignore. When you are struggling in life, when you feel that pain, you will be surprised the feelings that you feel, the feelings that your body becomes open to receiving, the feelings that you would normally ignore. You see, sometimes the keys to success are screaming so loud in front of you that it is unbelievable. But sometimes, it takes some pain, to open your mind and heart to seeing and feeling the truth that lies before you.

HIJACKING

One day, while driving in the car, my middle daughter faced my youngest daugther and said, "Gopher", making a funny face. My youngest daughter immediately changed from being happy, to becoming very upset, yelling, "I'm not a gopher!" What had happened here was that my middle daughter had, over time, associated this phrase and these actions with a series of teasing and taunting actions. Any other child, might have seen the same thing and started laughing.

At first, my youngest daughter might have taken a few minutes to respond, realizing the intention. However, after a while, the response became more and more sudden until no thought process was needed to evoke the response. In fact, one might argue that she had no control over the response at that moment, because she had already hard coded the response as a protection and defense mechanism. When someone does something that invokes a reaction beyond your control it is called hijacking. Your response occurs so fast that you do not even have time to think about the response.

It can be funny to watch people be hijacked. However, this occurs all to often in marriages. You might find a spouse becoming extremely upset when the other moves a spoon. Over a long period of time, moving that spoon has become attached to a conundrum of feelings and events. If you ever, feel like you have been hijacked, you must find the deep roots and unroot them, by questioning all the beliefs that caused the hard wiring to occur in the first place.

SELF HIJACKING PHRASE (AKA LIMITING BELIEF)

I often hear people say things like, "I hate math." When I hear this, I know it is a well rehearsed phrase, one stated over and over to the point that they believe it. Let's just call this a self hijacking phrase. If you ever hear a voice in your head, telling you something that you have told yourself before, beware. This may just be the self hijacking phrase, that is preventing you from growing in a particular area. While some will tell themselves over and over, "I can't because such and such happened to me," others will tell themselves over and over, "I must because such and such happened to me."

Dedicated to Thanh Ngo.



This post was reposted from http://sizuservices.blogspot.com/2012/10/pain-your-driving-force.html, originally written on October 24th, 2012.

Why Men Need Visions and Dreams

From Dr. Myles Munroe

Jesus Culture - Your Love Never Fails

Rick Warren - How To Keep Your Heart Happy?

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

From Matthew 22:

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'

Have you ever done all the work and invited those closest to you to celebrate? Have you ever prepared your life is such a way that you have developed insight to the point you ask a loved one, "Just do it this way, life will be so much better for you?" When you get rejected by those you love most. When those who should be on your side, but have left, this is God's way of pointing you back to those you have rejected, who you should have stood by. It is his way of turning you back to him.

God has called you to celebrate, through Jesus, the bride of the church. In this parable, the Pharisees should have accepted Jesus, as they claimed to be righteous. But they refused.

"But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Of those who should be there to accept Jesus, there are some that are just too busy with their current focus. They have their own burdens to carry, they have their own families to worry about.

Then, there are those who mock, slander and even hurt. God will judge them accordingly. "Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too. - Will Smith"

"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

There are those who should receive, but they are closed. So deliver your gift to those who are open to receive it.

Jesus goes to the broken, because those who know they are broken, are open to receiving his gift, his covering on their lives.

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, 'How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?' The man was speechless.

God found someone who was broken, who had received the invitation, who knew the truth. Who knew right from wrong. But yet, he was not repenting. He was not accepting the grace and precious gift laid before him. And when confronted, the man was speechless. Unlike the Pharisees, who are blind to the truth and defend when attacked, the man openly listens to the truth that is presented to him.

"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

Sometimes we wonder in our life, why we have pain. Why we are rejected. I want to tell you that this last person is you.

Everyone is a sinner and while we wish to cloak ourselves with Jesus' covering, we all fall short, we all make mistakes. So, what does our God do in this case? He disciplines us like a loving father disciplines his child.

Sometimes when we go through pain, we fill like a slave in life. We feel like our control has been completely taken away. We are bound. We feel like we can no longer see. We are blind. And in that moment of desperation, we weep. We hurt.

Notice, the king did not kill the man, he only disciplined him. Hope is not lost.

So why would God do this? Is he mean? Is he cruel? No, accept the discipline and the pain and the struggles. They are a gift. God is not trying to hurt you. Pain is an awesome blessing. He is try to mold you into the person you were meant to be.

The recipe for hope is that trials lead to perserverance which builds character which leads to hope. So why you? Because you were chosen.

This post was reposted from http://sizuservices.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-parable-of-wedding-banquet.html, originally written on September 13th, 2014.

The Three Main Topics of Sexual Sin

Masturbation, pornography and sex.

No where in the bible does it say masturbation is a sin.

Leviticus 15:16-18
16 When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean till evening. 17 Any clothing or leather that has semen on it must be washed with water, and it will be unclean till evening. 18 When a man has sexual relations with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both of them must bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.

This is simply about hygiene.

Genesis 38:9-10
9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.

Some consider it a sin to withhold sex from a spouse.

Matthew 5:28
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

So if your masturbation includes lust, it may be likened to pre-marital sex or adultery.

Exodus 20:14
14 You shall not commit adultery.

So extra marital affairs are considered sinful.  Sex with another woman while married is sinful.

Exodus 20:17
17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

So lusting after a married woman might be sinful.

Exodus 20:3-4
3 You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Is it possible to idolize lust?  What about relationships, in general?

Deuteronomy 4:16
16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,

Is pornography an idol?  Is it likely pornography had other forms long before the internet?

Deuteronomy 4:28
28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

The curse of pornography is that eventually you will find yourself attached to something that can't even talk back to you!

An addict is an addict not because he can't, stop.  An addict is an addict because he has no desire to.  When relating sexual addiction to a drug addiction, check out this article on the chemical cocktail (dopamine, norepinephrine, oxytocin, vasopressin, endorphins,  serotonin) associated with sex.

http://www.covenanteyes.com/2014/02/03/brain-chemicals-and-porn-addiction/

1 Corinthians 6:9-10
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Surpisingly, the bible doesn't call out pre-marital sex as a sin.

1 Corinthians 7:1-25
1 Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

So healthy sexuality is explored within the confines of marriage.

Matthew 5:32
32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 19:9
9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.

So divorce can lead to adultery.

Proverbs 6:32-34
32 But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself. 33 Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away. 34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

So society would be filled with violence if we do not respect the marital relationships.

With all these pitfuls, you might set up three laws for yourself, to protect against sin:

1. No maturbaton
2. No pornography
3. No sex outside of marriage.

But if you follow the law, you may fall victim to pride.

Proverbs 16:18
18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

So how shall we win.  If we have no law, we sin without restraint.  If we follow the law, we become prideful.

Romans 7:5-11
5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. 7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.

Paul is saying here that because we are sinners, setting laws for ourselves actually entices us to break the law!  So the only good that comes from a law is knowing right versus wrong.  The paradox is that without laws we would never have to worry about breaking laws.

Romans 8:1-13
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

If we focus on the law, or boast of our adherence to the law, we will surely break it.  What we must do is realize the spirit within the law.

Man was created to be in relationship with God and relationship with others.  Sin is any action that destroys relationships.  Love is any action that unifies relationships.

We might know the law so that we understand right and wrong.  But it is only through Christ's spirit within us that we might follow the law by seeking and focusing on building relationships.

This post was reposted from http://sizuservices.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-three-main-topics-of-sexual-sin.html, originally written on October 30th, 2014.

Water You Turned Into Wine

"On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding."

"When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, 'They have no more wine.'"

"'Woman, why do you involve me?' Jesus replied. 'My hour has not yet come.'"

"His mother said to the servants, 'Do what ever he tells you.'"

"Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons."

"Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water'; so they filled them to the brim."

"Then he told them, 'Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.'"

"They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, 'Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.'"

"What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him."

A miracle took place. And with it, it outlines how major miracles can take place in our life.

How did it start? It started with someone needing help. A problem and a need waiting to be filled. Jesus' mother knew she could not fix the problem, but had faith enough to bring forth the problem to someone who could solve it.

What can we take away from how Jesus responded? We can take away that service is often a sacrifice. Here, Jesus does not perform the miracle for his own benefit but rather for the benefit of others. His subtle response, points out that ultimately he is turning his perfect life into a painful death. It was the birth of his ministry and the miracles he performed that ultimately led to his persecution and death.

Was faith alone enough? Faith without works is dead. Jesus' mother responded by taking action, making sure the servants did whatever was necessary. Action based on faith.

What is the significance of the water used for ceremonial washing? Jesus transformed the purification process from using religious ordinances to using grace. He transformed water into wine and in the same instant allowed us to turn something that was red as crimson into something as white as snow.

How can this transformation take place in us? It starts with the realization that we are not filled to the brim as we would like to believe. Most people believe they are the Good Samaritan or the brother of the prodigal son. They believe they need to always do good to others and not judge others. However, true transformation comes only after the realization that we still have plenty of space to be filled and that we fall short.

Who will realize the transformation has taken place? Only the servants, those who take action, will know the miracle exists. For most people, the miracle will occur right in front of them, and they will not even know it happened!

What is the natural reaction to this transformation? While most think that giving death to their old ways, would be a terrible, disheartening event, those who experience this transformation find that it is better than anything they have ever experienced. Ironically, the death is a cause for celebration. It is the source of joy.

Why do people follow Jesus? It is through this transformation that disciples are made. It is through this transformation that allows us to believe in Jesus. And it is the first of which opens our eyes to many miracles.

This post was reposted from http://sizuservices.blogspot.com/2014/04/water-you-turned-into-wine.html, originally written on April 26th, 2014.