Marriage and Family Problems - With Dr James Stone

All men by divine fiat are social creatures. What it means to be a human being is found only in the expression of the interaction of at least two people. Although a person has individuality, he has his identity only in the light of another person. He actually comes to know and to understand himself as he see himself reflected in the lives of other people.

As beholding himself in a mirror, he comes to know himself from what he sees. The reflections that come back to him from the people with whom he is interacting is the sole basis for his sense of identity. This fact alone inseparably ties an individual to the need of others.

Like the musical note that stands alone, the melodious medley of life is non-existence in the acts of an individual. For an individual to experience the good life he must enter into a strain or series of harmonious interaction with others sharing the same moment of time. The individual makes music only when he is placed in relationships with others.

Furthermore, changing the particular frequency of an individual musical note standing alone matters little. Changing the frequency of that musical note as it stands in relation to other musical notes, however, can move the sound from harmony to disharmony or from mere noise to the sound of music. It is the relationship of the notes that makes the melodious music.

So it is in living life. It matters little if an individual standing alone changes anything or everything about himself. As he moves in and out of relationships, however, the essence of life is drastically altered. The good life (or the bad life) is measured only by the interaction between individuals.

It is within marriage and family that the connecting links of life have their greatest potential. All that the Scriptures proclaim, the heavens and the hells of life, transpire in the interaction of marriage and family. The ground of being for the germination of all life is marriage and family

Session 1: Lollipops, Band-Aids, and the Final Solution

The history of Jesus Christ and his early followers is the greatest story ever told. It is a powerful proclamation of the working of God in the human experience. It reveals the life of God being manifested in men who had been taken to the end of themselves for the needs of others. It is the story of the relationship of love

The history of the early followers, however, also contains the weakness and the shame of man. It records the dismal destruction of Judas, one of the original apostles. This most grim story ever told reveals what happens when man attempts to experience life apart from the divine influence. Losing sight of the divine light of love, Judas was to experience the pain and the agony of standing alone.

The saga of Judas, sadly, is a tale that is too often told in the Scripture. It is the story of Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:11-19), Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-19), and the Children of Israel (Deuteronomy 1:19-46). Paul warned the believers in Rome (Romans 1:18-32), in Corinth (1 Corinthians 10:1-10), and in Ephesus (Ephesians 4:17-19) of the deadly destruction that can befall all men as it did Judas. James, also, wrote of the certain death that comes when one fails to live by the divine influence of love (James 1:13-16)--when one attempts to live in himself for himself.

Judas, as with all who have ever failed, did not understand the mystery of experiencing life, being brought to the end of one’s self for the needs of others. Failing to experience the life of dying, he experienced the death of living, using others for the perceived needs of self. In attempting to produce life in himself by using Jesus, Judas opened himself to death by his own attempt to live.

Failing to understand the mystery of the relationship of love, he soon experienced the reality of loneliness which is the reality of hell. The destruction of Judas, as predicted by David, was "For it is written in the book of Psalms [Psalms 69:25], Let his habitation be desolate , and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take" (Acts 1:20).

In attempting to use others for his own enhancement, he soon had no place to call home in which he might live, no friends with whom he might share his life, and no work where he might experience his life. Once numbered among those whom "the Lord Jesus went in and out" (Acts 1:20) experiencing the life of love, Judas ended his life homeless, friendless, and workless--the reality of hell.

In the course of these 15 sessions on marriage and family, it is the final solution that will be emphasized. Although there may be a few lollipops and band-aids sprinkled into the mix, I want to focus upon the foundations of marriage and family. Whether we understand it or not, all of the struggles we encounter in our marriages and in our families are the foundational struggles of life itself.

Fundamental to our struggle to understand the final solution is what the Scripture calls "repentance unto life." It is an appropriate place to begin our discussion of marriage and family.

Lesson 1 of the Audio Series "Marriage and Family: the Final
Solution" is an expositional treatise of Acts Chapters
10 & 11 on "repentance unto life."

Request the Complete Series
Marriage and Family: The Final Solutions

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