Join me as I take a fresh and exciting take on the book of Romans.

Sometimes I think that the theologians and intellectuals have hijacked this wonderful book. This book was written to a church divided and Paul is longing for them to find a living faith. He wasn't writing a doctrinal statement.

Hope you enjoy this series. If you do, please let me know...

[email protected]

You can also watch this podcast on YouTube. 

A French philosopher and priest, Pierre Teilhard to Chardin is one several people credited with the statement, "we are not human beings seeking a spiritual experience, but rather, spiritual beings seeking to perfect the human experience".

This series is seeing how a letter to the Romans becomes a guide to "perfecting the human experience.

Inspiring, life giving, enlightening and hopefully a whole lot of fun, this series will help you become a better human being. Instead of seeing this book through a theological lens, I see as a part of many biblical passages as an given us insight in becoming more human. Yes, there is deep theological truths in Romans, but it can also be inspiring us on in growing our faith and understanding who Jesus is. I am loving doing this series and hopefully you will enjoy it as well. 

This is the first in a series based on a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. In this letter he addresses the division that has taken place between the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians.

This is VERY practical and hopefully enjoyable as well.

There is also a video version:

https://youtu.be/GWfqNqejV3A

The end result will be becoming a better human being.

The recent news of a another prominent Pastor having an affair has got me thinking. 

In this Podcast I talk about the stress of this role and submit some thoughts they may help other pastors, leaders, volunteers and all people really, to not make decisions that hurt themselves and others when it comes to being faithful in a relationship.

Here are some links around this subject:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/magnetic-partners/201912/the-real-reason-extramarital-affairs-are-hard-stop

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/the-6-most-common-places-where-affairs-start

https://www.brighthr.com/articles/employee-conduct/workplace-affairs/

https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/truths-workplace-affair/

https://www.bonobology.com/7-types-affairs/

Drop us a question or comment at: [email protected]

The final piece in the Marriage Works series is all about communication. Almost everything we say in these podcast about working on your marriage is creating a framework of good communication. And it can be done.

Send questions of remarks to : [email protected]

The marriage meeting. 

This podcast is about the practical aspects on "how to work on your marriage". Too often people don't know what work on your marriage means and this podcast will give you some principles of the actual work.

We cover 3 areas on how to work on your marriage.

1. Discipline

2. An agenda

3. Communication - Which will be a separate podcast.

It's all very well to be told to work on your marriage, but how?

In this episode Christine and I get into the detail of what it takes to shift the health of your marriage.

We share our own experiences that have really helped our marriage.

Send any questions you may have to 

[email protected]

Proverbs 21:5, "Good  planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty".

A powerful verse that has had a tremendous impact on our lives and marriage.

In this episode we talk about how we discovered the "work" side to marriage.

Have a question or comment? Drop us an email [email protected]

Website

markvanstraaten.com

In 2007 Christine and I faced a radical change in out lives. We were already married for 25 years. Our youngest daughter was in her final year of High School and we were about to enter the "empty nest" season of our lives.

Our marriage wasn't great at that time and this series, "Marriage Works" is the story of how we went form an "ok" marriage to a "great" marriage.