Do you have any cultural baggage that tags along with your faith? This may not be at all obvious if you remain in your familiar setting, but if you encounter Christians from a different culture or even denomination you may find that they accept things that you don’t, and reject things that you do, and that these things are not essential to the faith. The pure essence of the faith is simple, and you should beware of any cultural overlay that you would impose on it.

Imagine the passion of romantic love being kept alive all through your lifetime. Is it possible? Absolutely! The pain of a divorce or living with a stale marriage is impetus enough for each of us to choose to invest deeply into keeping romance alive in our marriages. If first love is lost, the Bible is clear that we can go back and do the things we first did and restore our first love (Rev. 2:4,5). Now that is exciting! The principles below can be applied to restoring our first love with God and our marriage partner.

Have you ever encountered someone who said they would never trust anyone but God? Does this sound spiritual? Don’t be fooled. It isn’t. I have placed you in a community, even my own body. You cannot take your place in it without trusting the other members, and you can’t be effective in serving me in isolation. It is true that your fellow members are flawed creatures like yourself, and at times they will disappoint you, and you will disappoint them. You can recover from this. How can you recover from a suspicious and cynical life lived in isolation from your fellow members?

How would you describe the way that leads to life? Would you call it a strait and narrow way? This Biblical term means narrow rather than straight, but it implies a well-defined path. Or would you say that you make the path by walking? Would you say that your own path has been straight, or has it involved unexpected turns and detours? This may be a difficult question since you don’t have a map, and cannot see the destination, and have never been there before. Yet these should not be reasons for despair for you don’t really need any of these things.