Love Worth Fighting For

Hubby and I went to see Kirk Cameron at his marriage conference tonight.
It was great.
He is a special man.
He stands strong in his beliefs.
He is not afraid to be persecuted.
Reminds me of the verse:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:11, 12

Cameron and his wife, fellow Growing Pains star Chelsea Noble, were married on July 21, 1991. 21 years married ! They now have six children, four of whom were adopted: Jack (born 1996), Isabella (born 1997), Anna (born 1998), and Luke (born 2000); and two biological: Olivia Rose (born July 18, 2001) and James Thomas (born April 13, 2003).

When Kirk first came out he was teasing us.
He said okay we need to get something taken care of right away.
Husbands I'm sorry -  to all you wives who made your husbands come here
because you still have "seaver fever" let's cure it now so we can concentrate
on our husbands.

Then he came out wearing a wig with hair just like Mike Seaver.
He still looks that young. hah

Then he got serious:

He spoke about 3 things that challenge marriages:

1) Selfishness

You can't have a good marriage without a heart change.

The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

And the only way to get a new heart is through new birth in Christ.

The heart of the problem is a problem of the heart.

♥

He spoke about in Fireproof, how Caleb just was
going through the motions in the Love Dare until
he had a heart change from Christ

2)  The only person you can change is yourself and only through Jesus

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her. Ephesians 5

He spoke about how in Fireproof the scene when Caleb's Dad asked him what he wanted to change about his wife and Caleb went on and on about she is this and this and this . . .

 It's not about getting a new spouse; it's about giving your spouse a new you!

Kirk said if one person changes in a marriage the marriage will change.
One person getting right with the Lord will make a difference.

3)  You & I must have a strategy to defeat sin

The "don't do it" strategy won't work on it's own because the "I want it" is stronger.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.  1 Cor 10:13
We have to die to sin. We have to remove anything in our lives
that attracts us to our particular sin and weakness.

He told a story about killing a rattlesnake in his yard to protect his family.
He said you could say that snake wasn't hurting anyone. But if I truly
loved and wanted to protect my family I had to remove it. Make sure it could not
harm them.  How could I leave it to crawl in my house and get in bed with my wife.
This is poisonous.  Just like if we bring our sin into our homes it is poison in bed
with our wives and children.  It has to be put to death like the rattlesnake.

In Fireproof when Caleb smashed up the computer where he watched pornography and replaced it with flowers and a card to his wife that read "I love you more"
We too have to "love" our families more then what ever the sin that draws us.

Warren Barfield was our musical guest.
He wrote the song from Fireproof called
"Love Is Not A Fight"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwK73QbNPKo

Love is not a place
To come and go as we please
It's a house we enter in
Then commit to never leave

So lock the door behind you
Throw away the key
We'll work it out together
Let it bring us to our knees

Chorus:
Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight but it's something worth fighting for

To some, love is a word
That they can fall into
But when they're falling out
Keeping that word is hard to do

Love will come to save us
If we'll only call
He will ask nothing from us
But demand we give our all

I will fight for you
Would you fight for me?
It's worth fighting for

 

Beautiful lyrics . . .

WOW stumbled across this photo - just takes my breath away
Speaks so loudly of marriage and commitment.

My prayer is that Gary and I both always feel this way . . .