Week 1 Questions from Russ

Russ's questions from the first week are below. Feel free to leave comments, follow-up questions, etc below by clicking "comments." We'll have space for comments each week!

Reawakening Your Marriage #1

Small Group Questions

1. In light of the fact that divorce rates run as high among Christians as they do among non-christians:

- Why do you think Christians aren’t better at handling the problems in our marriages?

- Why do you think there are just as many divorces occurring among Christian marriages as there are among non-Christians?

- What can we do about the very real struggles most of us encounter in marriages?

2. Read Song of Solomon 2:15. It’s not necessarily the big things that cause marriages to shrivel up and die. In fact, rather than the big things it is usually the little things that go unchecked, for long periods of time that devour a marriage. It’s the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards.

- Identify and list some of the “little foxes” you think contribute to the erosion of a good marriage relationship.

- What are you doing to catch and eliminate them?

3. What do think are some of the biblical essentials in order to reawaken our marriages? What do you do to keep your marriage fresh in order to avoid the fallout that rages all around us?

4. Read: Eph. 5:21-25, 28-29, 33; Col. 3:18-19; 1 Pet. 3:1-2, 7

- What are your first reactions to what these texts advocate?

- Are these texts relevant or out of touch with contemporary culture?

- As a husband what are your spiritual responsibilities to your wife?

- As a wife what are your spiritual responsibilities to your husband?

5. Read Matt. 7:24-27.

- Does this relate to a marriage?

- In what way?

6. In Malachi 2:14, marriage is called a “covenant.” Look up this word in a dictionary, and/or a Bible dictionary. In light of its definition draw some practical conclusions about what God has in mind for your marriage relationship?

7. Review these traditional marriage vows:

“I ____ take you _____ to be my wife / husband ... to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, so long as we both shall live ... according to God’s holy ordinance ... this pledge I make to you in good faith ...”

What do they mean to you?

What do you think they mean to God?

8. How has culture contributed to the demise of married life?

9. Read Rom. 12:1-2 and Eph. 4:17-24

How can we resist being squeezed into the cultural mold?

10. What do you think of the statement: “YOUR COMMITMENT TO THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR MATE.”

Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

11. What is God’s ideal for marriage?

12. Is any marriage beyond God’s redemption?