This past Thursday, my wife and I had the privilege of attending Kirk Cameron’s marriage event at Gateway Church. It was an evening of great encouragement and challenging thoughts. At one point in the event, Kirk was talking about the last scene in the Fireproof movie and his conviction to not kiss any other woman other than his wife. The crowd applauded him and his conviction, however, he asked them not to give him accolades. He told the audience that he was doing anything different then the men in the audience do; we don’t go to our places of work and kiss other women. He’s absolutely right! Hollywood would say, “it’s just acting,” but his conviction to hold his life up to God’s standard says differently. “May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.” (Proverbs 5:18)
The truth be told, you cannot kiss another woman and not feel something. That is the lie the deceiver wants us to believe; the same kind of lie he told to Eve in the garden – that she would not die if she ate of the tree, but instead be like God. Look at the divorce rate in Hollywood and it is not hard to see the effects of not following God. God’s standards are meant to protect us, not hurt us. That’s the problem with our society today…we rejoice in self and believe that we are our own fortresses. We look for things to satisfy our desires, but the only thing that can satisfy our desires is a relationship with God. Without that relationship, we will always have an empty feeling within our hearts, constantly searching for something to fill it. As Solomon noted in Ecclesiastes has he searched for meaning in things outside of a relationship with God, “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher, ‘Everything is meaningless!'” (Ecclesiastes 12:8) Solomon tried it all and found it meaningless.
Living in today’s society is not easy, but we can trust in God’s Word that he will give us the strength to do all things; including staying married to the wives of our youths and doing everything to protect that relationship. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) If it has been a while since you watched Fireproof, make a date night with your wife and watch it again. Blessings!
Dale Weerts 