Letters from prison -

Some people think marriage is a prison...

Today Terry will speak on Ephesians 5:21-33,

Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.

Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor—since they're already "one" in marriage.

No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

When it comes to relationships and especially marriage there is a veritable minefield of hurts:

A skeptic is someone who is reluctant to believe love is real;
a cynic is someone who refuses to believe love is real.
A skeptic is someone who once believed it and was disappointed and hurt;
a cynic is someone who once believed it and was deceived and devastated.
Deep inside all skeptics and most cynics is a deep abiding ache to believe in love again, but to do so without the fear of being disappointed, hurt, deceived or devastated.

Allow God's truth to soothe your own cynical or skeptical heart on the way to wholeness.