In reading “my new favorite book on marriage,” I was interested to discover an entire chapter devoted to the topic of anger. Author John Piper bases much of his discussion in This Momentary Marriage on the Biblical directives given in Ephesians 5:21 through 6:4. When Read more…
“Yes! Yes! That’s right! That’s it!” That was my ongoing mental refrain as I read This Momentary Marriage by John Piper last week. It is an excellent primer on marriage, dealing with the most basic, most essential, and most profound aspects of marriage, such as Read more…
“Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7, RSV). The apostle Paul gave this instruction to all believers in Christ. But Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out that these words also create an excellent guideline for husbands and wives to apply Read more…
Though I speak to my spouse using diplomatic “I feel” messages and skillful conflict-resolution strategies, but do not love, I am become as sounding brass or as a car alarm that won’t shut off. And though I have an advanced degree in marriage counseling and Read more…
What card are you holding in your hand? One day soon, you’ll play that very card before God. Imagine this: As you stand before God one day, He says, “Lay down your card.” On the table before you, you lay down your ragged card, the Read more…
Old Testament Nazarites, such as Samson, wore long hair as a symbol of consecration to God. In the New Testament, married women wore long hair as a symbol of marital consecration. The Scriptures say that this sign of submission is important “because of the angels” Read more…
When Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, was He cognizant of the fact that He Himself would soon be in the same situation of being exposed before others? As He hung on the cross, Jesus experienced all of the varying “responses to nakedness.” Read more…
Do you think of one more person in the Scriptures who lay naked and vulnerable before others? Jesus told the story of a man who was brutally attacked by robbers on the road leading from Jerusalem to Jericho. In this parable, we again see contrasting Read more…
Drunk and naked in his tent? That is how we find Noah in chapter 9 of Genesis, and it is a startling situation to find. After all, Noah was introduced to us as “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked Read more…
In the first few chapters of Scripture, we learn that Satan seeks to reveal our nakedness in order to shame us and to accuse us. But God seeks to cover our nakedness in order to honor us and to heal us. He was willing to Read more…
“[In] God’s eyes, nothing is more significant than servanthood. . . . Grasping for power or recognition is natural. Servanthood is supernatural. So many [people] are missing out on the supernatural today because they are caught up in the ‘search for significance.’ Ironically, the more Read more…
I have gone from cringing at the word “submission” to realizing that submission to God is one of the most powerful spiritual principles there is! Submitting to God is like getting on my knees to crawl into a tiny box. It feels confining, but then I realize that the Read more…
We are never fulfilled until we are fully filled by the Spirit of God.
“Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. … Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love … and thus to be busy….” (Paul Miller, The Praying Life, p. Read more…
“And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life.” 1 Cor. 7:17, MSG
We want God to fix our problems. But God wants our problems to fix us!
I have sometimes said, “God would rather die than live without us.” That is true, but I think that it is a deeper truth (more accurate) to say that God would rather die than see us live without Him. That is, God, who is completely other-focused, was Read more…
In our natural selves, we love people because it blesses us. God loves people because it blesses them. And that delights Him!
