Many married Christians find themselves with a spouse who has not yet come to Jesus. 1 Peter 3.1-7 has something to say.
Some years ago now we had an evangelistic morning with the evangelist Peter Woodcock. That morning the Lord spoke powerfully to one woman from our area — we’ll call her Mary. She talked seriously with Peter after the meeting.
But when she went home and told her husband that she wanted to become a Christian he said: ‘If you become a Christian I will leave you. There is no discussion on this. If you turn to Christ I’m out of here and you will be on your own with the kids’. She knew for certain that he meant every word he said. It was either Christ or the break-up of her family. What a terrible dilemma for her? She later came back and said, ‘I just can’t become a Christian, I want to but I just can’t do it’. She remains friendly to us, smiles at us in the street, but what has happened to her spiritually, I don’t know. But I tell you this story because it is an example of just how difficult the opposition can be from an unbelieving partner.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …