Live Web Stream

Join us in 7 days for a live Life Action THIRST conference from Dothan, AL. Together, we'll hear biblical principles that will awaken and revive our hearts. You'll be able to watch the live video feed, participate in live blogs, download the resources, and more. Sign up below, and we'll e-mail you reminders when the live feed is taking place. We hope you'll choose to join us and take the next step in awakening your heart.

Live Streaming Schedule (all times are EST):

Sunday, February 28 (10:30am, 11:45am, & 7pm)
Monday, March 1 (7:30pm)
Tuesday, March 2 (7:30pm)
Wednesday, March 3 (7:30pm)

See www.lifeaction.org for details.

Family Update Feb 2010

Since we left Holland, MI on January 1, we’ve completed six THRIST Conferences (four in Florida, one in Georgia, and one in Mississippi) and are getting ready to start our seventh in Gonzales, LA (tomorrow). We’ve experienced big cities like Miami and small towns like Interlachen, FL, but no matter where we are, people are still hungry to meet with the lover of their souls, Jesus Christ. The southern hospitality is fantastic down here, but where is the warm weather??? Fortunately, there’s been plenty of sunshine to enjoy, and for that we are so thankful!

School is going well for Christian and Elizabeth. They just started studying the Middle Ages in history and just finished life cycles of insects in science. Their curriculum is so full of excellent literature that it’s not unusual for them to read an extra chapter because they just can’t wait until the next day! How fun!

We have a marvelous team this year, and it is a joy to see these young people maturing personally and spiritually. They are all in the process of determining what they will be doing next year, and it will be difficult to say goodbye to the ones who will be moving on to the next phase of their lives. But at the same time, we are excited for what God has next for them.

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked for us.” In addition to doing that daily in our walk with the Lord, Jennifer and I are endeavoring to literally run with perseverance as we try to stay in shape and regularly exercise. There have been a lot of miles logged either in the neighborhoods surrounding the churches we’re in and many times literally running around the perimeter of the church parking lots. Just last weekend, we ran through the hills of historic downtown Columbus, MS, where we were able to admire the many early 1800’s homes with beautiful architecture and most likely amazing stories.

Coming up in one week week (Feb. 28 – March 3), you will have the opportunity to “sit through” our THIRST Conference in Dothan, Alabama through a live stream on the internet. If you’ve never participated in a Life Action event, we invite you to join us, see what we do, and allow God to use this time in your own life to renew your heart for the Lord. Who knows, maybe someday you too will find yourself living in a trailer on a different church parking lot each week! You can get information regarding this event and the details of the live stream at www.lifeaction.org.

Checkup

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." - Genesis 2:24-25

When it comes to the subject of marriage, it's worth taking a moment to think biblically about what's going on in our culture. The state of love is a quagmire. Conditions are worse than they were a year ago and much worse than five years ago. We need to come face-to-face with two giant truths from God's Word about human love.

First, sexuality is God's idea. Human sexuality - as God designed it - is good within the boundary that God established. And that boundary is the marriage relationship. Genesis 1:31 says, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Genesis 2:25 says that He brought the man and woman together. "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." There was no reason to be ashamed. Their relationship was righteous, holy, and part of God's good plan for them. Genesis 2:24 says, "A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." So a man and a woman together - physically, sexually, intimately - is pleasing and honoring to God. Marriage is part of God's provision for the welfare and happiness of a man and a woman for a lifetime together. It's the way He wants it and the way He created it! Hebrews 13:4 says, "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled." Intimacy between a man and a woman, committed together under God for a lifetime, is righteous. But the verse goes on to say, "God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."

The second truth about human love from God's Word is that sexual sin is personally damaging. Today over half of all first marriages are preceded by living together, compared to virtually none fifty years ago. Extramarital affairs are rampant in our society. One of the by-products of this of course is sexually transmitted diseases, which have almost doubled in America in the last decade.
Author Jim Nelson, speaking of the fall of great civilizations - Egypt, Carthage, Greece, Rome - said, "The collapse of society begins each time with a period of obvious moral decay."

No one has the moral authority to stand up - apparently - and say, "This is wrong! And it's self-destructive. Sin is destroying people and families." God has lovingly placed boundaries around sexual intimacy and declares it to be holy within the lifetime bond of marriage. He longs for us to honor those boundaries.


James MacDonald – www.walkintheword.com