And divorce costs all of us money -- in tax dollars. In Ontario, we pay for 40% of the divorces transacted in this province, not to mention the millions it costs to support the abandoned children who are casualties of these divorces. Jesus Christ, when He was here on earth, was very concerned about the home. He was born into a home. His first miracle was at a marriage ceremony. He often healed broken hearts by raising a dead son to his mother, or a dead daughter to her father. And when He was on the cross, He cared for His mother, Mary, by committing her to the custody of John the Apostle.

Is your marriage on the Rock, or on the rocks? Doctor George Crane, M.D., Ph.D., the clinical columnist in newspapers throughout North America, has calculated that when a married couple are active together in the same church they have about a 50 times greater chance of avoiding divorce; and that only one in 500 marriages breaks up where there is a family altar. It is a truism in this final quarter of the 20th century that the family that prays together stays together.

I received a letter the other day from a man in Idaho. He told me, "Because of my neglect of my spiritual life, I now find myself separated from my wife. I put myself first and finished last. My wife put God first and finished first. I had just put the two little girls down for a nap and switched channels on the TV and I knew if I watched, there would be a message for me." There was, and he says: "I prayed the sinner's prayer."

On a Friday night during a recent meeting in California, among those who came forward to be born again in Christ was a handsome 18-year-old, Tom Harris. He attended nightly thereafter until Tuesday. After the service he came up and told me he was flying back home to the Midwest in a few hours. Tom had left home at 16. Not once had he contacted his parents. Instead, he got into a ripoff swindle, pedaling fake magazine subscriptions and spending the money on a life that included shooting heroin between his toes. Now, with Christ, he had phoned his family. His folks were so glad to hear from him that they wired him a ticket to come home and he had come to tell me that he was on his way.

John and Julia Mays had given up on their marriage and separated. One night at a gospel meeting, without either knowing of the other's presence, they both came forward and were born again. Then they saw each other. And they went home to live together, to love each other and to serve Christ. That was ten years ago, and they're still with Christ.

Being born again gives us a new love for our families.

Finally, being born again leads us into a triumphant homegoing to be with Christ. I saw a note in The Toronto Globe and Mail which read: "Work for the Lord. The pay is not much, but the retirement plan is out of this world!" St. John wrote of those of us who have been born again: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).