Marriage Tip #7 “Help, I’m Being Held Hostage by My Heritage.”

Born Again.

Transformed.

The Old is Gone.

The New has Come.

Set Free.

If Anyone is in Christ, He is a New Creation.

What Counts is the New Creation.

We Are Born of the Spirit.

He Saved Us by Rebirth and Renewal by the Holy Spirit.

I’ve got a few question to ask, why don’t any of these scriptural truths, and a thousand Biblical others like them, have any impact on Christians today?

Why is Christian divorce equal to the worlds?

Why is Christian family dysfunction at an all time high, also equal to the worlds?

Why does Christian tithing equal the average annual giving of Atheists?

Why are there more Christian victims then victors in the 21st century, than there were in the 1st century?

Why is Christian church leadership (Elders & Pastors) at all time destructiveness, with strife, egotism, and Alfa Dogism taking a front seat to civility, unity, compassion, patience, support and Christ-likeness?

Why?

Here’s my thirty year in the ministry guess at the why questions:

People don’t trust Christ’s truths as much as they do their feelings and emotions, to them, one is real, the other is Idealistic, one is the engine that runs their actions and reactions, the other is Biblical euphuisms once tried, but now discarded. Christ is antiquity, and the now is the new ruler of the kingdom.

Marriages are filled, filled, filled with emotional heritage captives, you know the kind, the ones that say something like…“My Family Screwed Me Up,” “They knocked me down and I can’t get up,” “If you knew what my_ _ _ _ _ _ _  did to me, you’d understand why I’m unhappy and why I’m making my marriage my personal garage, stuffed full of my old family junk.” There is a new T.V. program called “Hoarders Gone Wild,” which shows the terrible damage hording junk has on a person’s life, but that type of hoarding pales in comparison to the damage done to the captives of “heritage hoarders.”

I get it, I get it, all of our parents were sinners, but don’t we have a new father, who has articulated to us our true value as a human beings, if true, why are we so keen on letting sinners define who we are, why don’t we let God define us?

I think there is something oddly attractive to having a scape-goat for our behavior, you know, a default button for us when life gets dull or tough. And parents are the best default button of all, who could argue with us, parents have become the new, Satan, who are all powerful, and able to bind us to sin forever.

What we need to become victors is to align ourselves to the ultimate victor, “The” overcomer, the one and only, Christ. Yes indeed, we are built to be overcomers just like Jesus, we can chose to be victims or victors, he’s done the work, all we have to do is to apply his principles to our marriages and follow him in the details of the faith, pretty easy really. No fuse, no muse, just a little step to the right.

Easy stuff really, just treat others and ourselves like Jesus would…today, not tomorrow, just…today, not even today, just for an…hour, well not really an hour, just a few…minutes, well, not really minutes just the…seconds before us. Can’t we be perfect for a few seconds? If someone came to you and said they would give you ten million dollars if you would make your marriage the greatest it’s ever been today, would you do it, could you do it? Of course you could and would, so if you can do it for money, then that means you can do it. Nike said “Just Do It.” Go ahead, just do it, it’ll be worth millions.

Really people, why doesn’t Christ work? Has his abilities waned over the years, are his truths less truthful in the twenty-first century, than they were in the first century? Maybe Jesus a liar, or just a kidder.

Are you a born again Christian, who’s having problems in your marriage? Are you pulling the “Family Card” out of your sleeve in order to win? Come on, drop the hoarding, and take you finger off the default button, give love a chance.

Are you being held hostage by your heritage? I am, you see when Christ gave me a new Father, a new brother and savior, and a new all trusting spiritual companion for guidance, I too become captive to my heritage…the new one, you know, the one that works, the old one sucks.