How to Honor Your Husband: Are We Thirsty for Honor?

by Marilynn Chadwick

The word honor calls to mind virtues like integrity and honesty. To honor someone is to treat them with admiration or respect. Over the next four weeks, David and I will explore honor from a biblical point of view. Plus, we will give practical tips on how you can begin to honor your husband or wife and create a culture of honor in your own home.

Several years ago, David’s beloved college basketball coach, North Carolina’s legendary Dean Smith, passed away. Next to his own father, David says Smith was the most significant man in his life. Even superstar Michael Jordan called Smith his “second father.” Along with great basketball, Coach Smith taught David about honor.

When I first met my basketball player-turned-preacher husband, I was a University of Georgia girl and a die-hard football fan. Basketball, not so much. But I loved David, and I grew to love basketball. After David introduced us for the first time, Coach Smith sent me a handwritten note welcoming me to the “Carolina Family.” He always remembered my alma mater and my college major. He even knew our children by name. Seriously. Who does that?

David had the privilege of delivering the opening invocation in Coach Smith’s public memorial service in the Dean Smith Center popularly known as the Dean Dome. Thousands of fans, students, faculty, and coaching colleagues, along with the roughly 200 former lettermen, gathered to pay their respects.

Public reaction to Dean Smith’s passing seemed to convey a nostalgic yearning for role models, for dads, and for men of honor. I was inspired to write an editorial honoring Coach Smith. I reflected on his impact and encouraged readers to appreciate the good guys in their own lives.

A prominent defense attorney sent me a handwritten note reminiscing about how his dad had been such an honorable man. A former mayor, a federal judge, and a bank president each shared stories of the honorable men who had shaped their lives. Young moms wrote to tell me about their “amazing husbands” and vowed to be more intentional to honor them. Had I touched a nerve?

Maybe it’s because honor is lacking in our homes. Families today are in trouble. Studies show the majority of divorces are now initiated by women. Honor was God’s idea in the first place—especially in marriage. No wonder we’re thirsty for this forgotten virtue. Perhaps it’s time for the church to spark a movement of honor in our homes, our communities, and our world.

This series is adapted from Marilynn Chadwick’s book, Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Husband. To download your free PDF copy of the book, please visit our website by clicking here!

Five Minutes After You Die: Heaven is our Home

by David Chadwick

I hope you have enjoyed thinking about eternity and considering the realities of what is to come for followers of Jesus Christ. I want to close out this series by leaving room to truly reflect on this promised reality and embrace the glorious message of the gospel.

As the famous Gospel artist Andrae Crouch sang, “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.”

Soon and very soon, we will live forever in a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21).

Soon and very soon, God will remove all of the sin that has stained this earth! Heaven will have no sinful memories and no stench of Satan’s presence! EVERYTHING will be perfect! What a glorious day this will be!

C.S. Lewis once said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” That should be our attitude toward what will happen five minutes after we die. We will be living in the world for which we were always made!

So many animals have homing signals to navigate a return to their home territory. The same is true for humans. A longing within the human heart for a permanent home with no more hurts, difficulties, trials, and tribulations is natural! I think even grief over the loss of a loved one is a homing signal from God that continually shouts to us that this place, in its present brokenness, is not our home. Heaven is our true home.

Dear friends, we were created for unbroken communion with God in a perfect body in a special place… FOREVER! Please trust in Jesus today. Give your life to him. Know his forgiveness today and forever. And begin to look forward, with eager expectation, to the glorious reality that will happen when you die. It will be an adventure like no other. You should look forward to it!

As David promised in Psalm 23, “And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

To Jesus alone and always belongs all the glory!

Five Minutes After You Die: The Bema Seat

by David Chadwick

Death is a stark reality for every human being. You’ve heard me joke that the statistics are in: one out of one dies. But what happens five minutes after you do? What are you faced with after you take your last breath?

The Bible says that while believers never face the Father’s judgment seat, we will face his Bema seat. What is the Bema seat? It’s the judgment seat of “works.” Some people have a hard time embracing the tension between grace and works. If we are saved by grace, then why are we to be judged for our works (2 Corinthians 5:9-11)? Because faith in Jesus without works is dead (James 2:17). So while our salvation comes solely because of Jesus, we are expected to bear good fruit as his followers (Matthew 7:16-20).

Think about the Olympics for a moment. There are three stands where the three top finishers receive their gold, silver, or bronze medals. In the Olympic days of the past, these three stands were called the Bema seat, or judgment, for the winners. They received their medal for all their hard work and success.

Similarly, believers in Jesus will one day in heaven receive rewards for our good works here on earth. Biblically, these good works are also referred to as crowns of glory or crowns of righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; Romans 14:10-12).

What will we do with those crowns when we get to heaven? We will throw them at the feet of Jesus because we will fully realize that our ability to do good works for him is only because of his grace. The grace he gave to us here on earth enabled good works given back to him. He alone deserves all the glory both here and in heaven (Revelation 4:10-11).

Though we are not saved by our good works, we are saved FOR good works here on earth. Works prove what real faith really is. Jesus said that even something as simple as giving someone a cup of cold water will receive a reward in heaven (Matthew 10:42).

Therefore, we should pile up good works upon good works here so that we will have crowns in heaven to offer Jesus there.

We can’t take anything with us, but we can send it ahead for eternal crowns. And not for an ounce of our own glory, but because we want to gather as much as we can to hold in our hands and throw right back at the feet of Jesus in worship to him.

What a glorious day that will be!