Unity in Relationships

by Tim Bryant This is sample instructions and assignment that I send to two people in conflict before I get started intensively counseling them in biblical reconciliation. The assignment included often helps the two people in conflict get properly and quickly oriented for the Lord to do a work of reconciliation in their relationship. Dear I am contacting you in hope of leading you through a biblical process of seeking unity with one another that will lead to: 1) God deepening his work of change in your lives, 2) God glorifying Himself in those changes to one another, and 3) God making your fellowship with one another encouraging and enjoyable and edifying.  Sanctification and transformation into the likeness of Christ is never completed until heaven, and disagreements and conflicts in relationships are opportunities for each of us to see how to deepen that work. I want to make it clear that the success of this entire process is dependent on two things: 1)...

ENTIRE "UNITY IN CONFLICT" COURSE NOW AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO “BECOME A PERSON OF SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE” But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 Would you like to learn to be a Christ-like peacemaker not a peace-faker? If you are in conflict with another person – your spouse, child, or another family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, a brother in the church – there is a way to approach them without ignoring, attacking or pulling away. “Unity in Conflict” contains biblical conflict resolution tools that have motivated and guided many people, especially married couples, in conflict to experience God-given unity...

Have you ever spoken an unkind word to your spouse? Has your spouse ever acted unkind to you? Have you ever been drawn into saying or doing something wrong in your marriage after your spouse said or did something wrong to you? Have you ever stopped to consider that when wrong actions and reactions in a relationship go unresolved, they are the cause of relational trouble and can lead to destruction? The Bible calls all these wrong actions and reactions sin because they are not only offensive to a spouse, but to God. I wish I could say that such wrongs have never happened in my marriage, but the truth is, I have sinned against both God and my spouse. And, at times, my wife has also sinned against God and me.  It has been my experience, both in my own marriage and in the many I have counseled, that the real problem in marital conflict that must be dealt with is our sin against God.  The first married couple to experience conflict was Adam and Eve (see Genesis 3). Satan temp...

BY TIM BRYANT Ephesians 6:1-4 tells us the goal of parenting is to bring children up "in the Lord". This means not only teaching our children to obey the Lord but to have a heart for the Lord whom they obey. The right goals for our children can be heard in David, a man after God's own heart, as he speaks to his young son Solomon on his deathbed (1 Chronicles 28:9), “"As for you, my son Solomon , know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind.”    As parents, we must continue to evaluate our goals in light of the reality of God or we will be influenced by the world to go after that which is passing away. Yet, we also must remember even with the right goals, apart from the Spirit's influence upon our child's heart, our labor is in vain. We must combine right goals with prayerful dependence, Psalm 127, “Unle ss the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” If you would like to watch the entire 8 part Par...

In the Relationship Workshop, we spoke of the need for sincerity as key to cultivating growth in relationships. I personally have failed many times in this in my relationships with others, but I seek to improve.  I hope you will, through the biblical insight and actions shared in this article, and subsequent articles, join us in improving our sincerity in relationships. GOD CULTIVATES RELATIONSHIP THROUGH DEMONSTRATION OF SINCERITY “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8) God proved His sincerity to us by sacrificing his greatest treasure for us, His own Son. His amazing sacrifice not only paid the price for our sin, but won us to Him.  He gave us a very convincing demonstration that our good and gain was His intention.   He was seeking for us far more than He was seeking from us.  He proved His sincerity. "We love because God first loved us."  (I Jn 4:19) The more we unders...

When you are worried about the environment that your spouse is creating for your child, there may be some wise things you need to do to reduce those problems. Yet, your greatest need is to let the Word keep your faith strong in Christ's sovereign grace so that fear does not control your thoughts, actions and emotions.  Fear-based reactions instead of faith-based responses greatly reduces the spiritual influence you will have in your child's life and circumstances.  You, nor God, nor your children are victims of your spouse’s ungodliness.  If you think this way, you will be overcome by the evil instead of overcome the evil with good.  Your God is sovereign!  In the end He wins and those He loves! (Ps 46:10-11; Romans 8:28-29). How does God intend the following passages to comfort and guide you in the concerns you have over the unspiritual influence that your spouse (or ex-spouse) is having upon your child(ren)?  Use the Practical Biblical Meditation shee...

BEGINS AUGUST 26 - LIVE OR DISTANT LEARNING ONLINE I have been director of the Lowcountry Biblical Counseling Center ( www.lcbcc.org) in Charleston  South Carolina for the past 11 years.  We have seen God do great things for His glory in many lives and marriages.   The reason for the successes is that our counseling seeks to be carefully and methodically based on the biblical theology of sanctification.   The testimonies that come out of LCBCC affirm to you that people can truly change when Christ is at work through the truth of His Word.  No one is in a hopeless state. But God must supply you power to change as you supply the effort. Both are needed! You cannot change on your own, but God will not choose change for you. Indeed God will, if He loves you like a Father, place you in some very difficult circumstances to persuade you to change. (See James 1:2-4, John 15:3, Heb 12:6,7 & 10-12, 1 Peter 1:6-9) He has done this in my life. But in ...