Our journey through the house in the middle of
the forest continues. In our last conversation,
we discovered that some windows quietly changed
the atmosphere of a home, not because they are
large, but because they are left unguarded. We
walked past the window of words, where we learned
that life and death are in the power of the tongue.
Then we stopped before the window of comparison.
where the serpent first convinced humanity that
what God had already given was somehow not enough.
Finally, we examined the window of influence
and discovered that not every voice deserves
access to our hearts, our homes, or our marriages.
Every voice is planting something. Every conversation
is shaping something. Every influence is moving
us either closer to Christ or farther away from
him. But as I continued reflecting on my father's
story, I realized something else. The windows
we have already explored are not the only ones.
Some windows are easier to recognize. Others
remain almost invisible. They quietly remain
open for years without anyone noticing the damage
they are causing. No loud arguments. No dramatic
crisis. No obvious signs. Just a slow change
in the atmosphere. Until one day, people begin
asking themselves, what happened to us? The answer
is often simple. The windows had been open for
a very long time. Today, I want us to continue
walking around this house. There are still more
windows waiting for us. Windows that have quietly
threatened not only marriages, but families.
ministries, churches, and even entire generations.
Because remember, it has never been only about
you. Every marriage is influencing someone. Every
family is leaving an inheritance. Every Christian
home is preaching a message, whether it realizes
it or not. So, let's continue our walk. As we
make our way around the house, another window
comes into view. This one doesn't usually make
headlines. It doesn't attract attention. In fact,
most people believe they can manage it on their
own. Because this window is usually opened, one
secret at a time, one hidden conversation, one
hidden habit, one hidden struggle, one hidden
compromise, until eventually, the hidden becomes
heavier than the heart can carry. I call this
the window of secrecy, because transparency protects
what secrecy quietly destroys. One of Satan's
oldest strategies has never been simply to tempt
people into sin. His greater strategy is to convince
them to hide it. That is exactly what happened
in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve sinned,
they did not immediately run toward God. They
ran away from him. Genesis tells us they hid
among the trees of the garden. Think about that
for a moment. The God who created the trees.
The God who sees every corner of creation. The
God before whom nothing is hidden. They tried
to hide from him. Sin always convinces us that
hiding is safer than healing. But God came walking
through the garden asking, where are you? not
because he had lost Adam, but because Adam had
lost himself. God's question was not about location.
It was about relationship. Sin had created distance,
and secrecy was making that distance even greater.
That same pattern has never changed. When people
begin hiding from one another, they eventually
begin hiding from God. When husbands stop sharing
their struggles, When wives begin carrying silent
wounds, when children become afraid to tell the
truth, the atmosphere of the house begins to
change. Not because God has abandoned the home,
but because secrecy has begun replacing transparency.
King David understood this better than anyone.
After his sin with Bathsheba, he tried to conceal
everything. He hid the adultery. He manipulated
circumstances. He arranged Uriah's death. For
a season, everything appeared normal. The palace
still stood. The throne was still his. The kingdom
continued functioning. But inside, David was
dying. Listen to his own words in Psalm 32. When
I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my
groaning all day long. For day and night your
hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried
up as by the heat of summer. Notice what secrecy
did. It didn't only hide the sin. It drained
his joy. It stole his peace. It weakened his
strength. The greatest burden David carried was
not the crown on his head. It was the secret
in his heart. David eventually reached the point.
where hiding became more painful than confessing.
There comes a moment when carrying the secret
becomes heavier than bringing it into the light.
That is exactly what Psalm 51 is. It is not merely
David's prayer after his sin. It is the prayer
of every person who has finally stopped hiding.
Listen to the cry of his heart. Have mercy on
me, O God, according to your unfailing love.
According to your great compassion, blot out
my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. Notice something
remarkable. David no longer blames Bathsheba.
He no longer blames his circumstances. He no
longer tries to explain himself. He simply comes
back to God, broken, honest. transparent. That
is where restoration begins. Not when we become
perfect, but when we become truthful. The enemy
says, hide your sin. God says, bring it to me.
The enemy says, if people find out, your life
is over. God says, if you confess, I will begin
restoring what sin has broken. There is something
beautiful about God's character. he already knows
everything, yet he still invites us to come.
Not because confession informs God. Confession
transforms us. It tears down the walls we have
built between ourselves and the one who has never
stopped loving us. John writes these powerful
words in his first letter, but if we walk in
the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another. and the blood of Jesus his
son cleanses us from all sin. Notice, he doesn't
say, if we walk perfectly, he says, if we walk
in the light. Light is not perfection. Light
is honesty. Light is refusing to live behind
mass. Light is refusing to build a marriage on
appearances while it quietly falls apart behind
closed doors. Light is a husband saying, I need
help. It is a wife saying, I've been carrying
this pain alone. It is parents admitting we need
God to restore our family. Walking in the light
does not mean we have never failed. It means
we no longer allow failure to live in darkness.
And then James takes us one step further. Therefore,
confess your sins to one another and pray for
one another so that you may be healed. Did you
notice that? He does not merely connect confession
with forgiveness. He connects confession with
healing. There are wounds that remain open simply
because they have never been brought into the
light. Some marriages don't need another vacation.
Some don't need a bigger house. Some don't need
more money. Some simply need an honest conversation.
Some families have spent years protecting an
image while neglecting the healing God has been
offering all along. Transparency is not weakness.
Transparency is courage. It takes far more strength
to say, I was wrong than to spend years pretending
everything is fine. It takes humility to ask
for forgiveness. It takes faith to believe that
God's grace is greater than our failures. And
that is exactly why secrecy is such a dangerous
window. Because secrecy isolates. Transparency
reconnects. Secrecy builds walls. Transparency
rebuilds relationships. Secrecy suffocates the
atmosphere of the home. Transparency allows God's
grace to breathe again. The enemy knows something
many people forget. He cannot stop God from forgiving
you. But if he can convince you to hide, he can
keep you from experiencing the freedom that forgiveness
brings. That is why Jesus said, everyone who
does evil hates the light and will not come into
the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the
light. John 3 20 to 21. Coming into the light
is not God's way of humiliating us. It is His
way of healing us because every room open to
His light becomes another room where His grace
can begin its work. The tragedy is very few people
intend to destroy their marriage. Very few Christians
wake up one morning and decide Today, I want
to ruin my family. It almost never happens that
way. It happens one hidden decision at a time.
One compromise at a time. One secret at a time.
Until secrecy slowly creates something else.
Isolation. And once a person becomes isolated,
another window quietly begins to open. As we
continue walking around this house, We arrive
at another window, one that looks harmless, one
that often disguises itself as friendship, advice,
companionship, or simply someone who understands
us. I call this the window of influence, because
not everyone deserves access to your marriage.
Not everyone deserves access to your heart. Not
everyone deserves access. To your family, one
of the greatest lies of our generation is believing
that every voice deserves equal value. The Bible
teaches the exact opposite. Scripture repeatedly
reminds us that the people we allow closest to
us will eventually shape the direction of our
lives. Solomon writes in Proverbs, walk with
the wise and become wise. for a companion of
fools suffers harm. Notice what he does not say.
He doesn't say, become wise and then choose wise
friends. He says, walk with the wise because
influence always precedes transformation. Whoever
you consistently walk beside will eventually
leave footprints on your own life. The apostle
Paul says something just as direct. Do not be
deceived. Bad company corrupts good character.
I Find those first four words fascinating do
not be deceived Why would Paul begin there because
influence is rarely obvious? It doesn't announce
itself. It doesn't knock on the front door and
say I'm here to destroy your marriage No, it
comes disguised. It sounds reasonable. It feels
comforting It makes us feel understood and before
long Its values quietly become our values. Its
language becomes our language. Its priorities
become our priorities. That is why the enemy
has always worked through voices. Long before
Eve ever reached for the fruit, she first listened
to another voice. Nothing had changed in the
garden. God's command had not changed. The tree
had not changed. Adam had not changed. What changed
was the voice Eve chose to entertain. Every fall
begins with a conversation. Sometimes that conversation
happens with another person. Sometimes it happens
through a screen. Sometimes it happens through
entertainment. Sometimes it happens in our own
thoughts. But every influence is planting a seed.
That is why we must be careful who has access
to the atmosphere of our homes. Not every friendship
strengthens your covenant. Not every co -worker
deserves your emotional vulnerability. Not every
family member speaks wisdom. Not every opinion
should shape your decisions. Not every social
media voice deserves your attention. And this
becomes especially important in marriage. One
of the most dangerous trends of our generation
is the normalization of emotional substitutes.
Work husband. Work wife. People laugh. People
joke. People call it harmless. But words matter.
Relationships matter. Emotional attachment matters.
God never designed another man to occupy the
emotional place reserved for a husband, nor another
woman to occupy the place reserved for a wife.
Affairs rarely begin in a bedroom. They usually
begin in a conversation, in feeling understood,
in repeated emotional dependence, in the belief
that they understand me better than my spouse.
That sentence has destroyed countless homes.
If someone understands you better than your spouse,
the solution is not to deepen that outside relationship.
The solution is to rebuild communication inside
your marriage. Protect the covenant. Protect
the atmosphere. Protect the access. Because not
everyone deserves a key to the house God entrusted
to you. There is something remarkable about everything
we have discovered today. The window of secrecy.
The window of influence. Neither of them begins
with the intention of destroying a marriage.
One begins with something hidden. The other begins
with someone welcomed. But both quietly change
the atmosphere inside the house. And perhaps
that is the greatest lesson we have learned throughout
this journey. No marriage collapses because of
one moment. No family drifts away from God because
of one decision. The atmosphere changes long
before the house begins to fall. That is why
we must guard what enters our hearts, what enters
our conversations, what enters our relationships,
and what enters our homes. Because every window
is an invitation. The question is, who or what
are we inviting in? As I thought once again about
my father's story, I realized something that
had been there all along. He never spent much
time talking about the forest. He talked about
the house. He never tried to make me afraid of
what was outside. He wanted me to understand
the value of what was inside. because people
never protect what they do not value. And perhaps
that brings us to the greatest question of all,
what creates the atmosphere inside a Christian
home? Is it love, communication, commitment,
shared dreams, or is there something even deeper,
something without which none of those things
can truly survive? That is where our journey
will continue. because there is one final window,
one that explains every other window we have
explored. I call it the window of spiritual atmosphere
because a house without God is a house with every
window open. In our next conversation, we will
discover why the greatest protection for a marriage
is not stronger walls or tighter locks or even
better communication. It is the presence of God
reigning, dwelling, and remaining at the center
of the home. Because when Christ becomes the
atmosphere of the house, everything changes.
The words change. The relationships change. The
decisions change. The priorities change. The
peace returns. And even in the middle of the
darkest forest, the house remains standing. Until
next time. May the Lord bless your home, strengthen
your marriage, guard your family, and remind
you every day that the greatest treasure inside
your house has never been the house itself. It
has always been the presence of God. Thank you
for joining me on Pomodra Podcast. Together in
faith, together in Christ.