“According the Bible, Satan prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), but many times, he probably doesn’t have to do that much. I wonder if sometimes Satan sits back and laughs at us.
Marriage can be extremely messy. As sinners we can do dumb things in marriage—we hurt one another; we make false assumptions and then miscommunicate; we manipulate or say mean things to our spouse; we think less about serving and more about being served. We don’t always follow God’s Word or advice from godly leaders. We put our hopes in the world or each other more than we put hope in God.”
Read the rest of this article by Deepak Reju HERE.
I don’t recall when I first heard of Voddie Baucham but we did have the privilege of seeing him live at the Desiring God National Conference in Minneapolis back in 2006. During that same timeframe I called him and talked with him about twenty-five minutes. He was gracious and I recall our conversation went very well. What I cannot recall is why I called him in the first place!
I started reading his first book, The Ever-Loving Truth, but did not finish it, which is nothing new in my world. This book, Family-Driven Faith, which I purchased through the Amazon Kindle Store and read over three devices (my iPad, my iPhone, and my wife’s Kindle Fire), was more engaging to me because of my interest in the subject matter. Two areas of interest drove me to read this book: (1) how to do a better job as the spiritual leader of my home and (2) how to more effectively lead our church to equip parents in discipling their children. Family-Driven Faith is the only book I have ever read that that I can recall addresses these two issues, and Baucham does so boldly and directly.
"Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved!" - Song of Solomon 1.15
This is the 18th time I am able to proudly say that the beautiful lady standing beside me is my Valentine. In the summer of 1994 I was home from graduate school, visiting my parents in southern Illinois. After a week of vacation, I said goodbye to my parents and pulled out of the driveway in my little blue Honda CRX for the lonely twelve hour drive back to Fort Worth, Texas. As I drove away my prayer warrior mother cried out in her heart, “Lord, it’s time!” You might be thinking, time for what? Time for her son to meet “the one.” In a matter of weeks her prayers (plural because she had been praying for my future wife for several years) were answered.
Here’s how it happened. The last weekend of August I got a call from a buddy of mine who wanted me to go with him to a singles fellowship that evening at Southwayside Baptist Church. I didn’t really want to go. But Tim was persistent, saying, “Oh, come on man, who knows…you might even meet your future wife there tonight!” Who could walk away from an offer like that! I truly didn’t expect that to happen.
One of the great lies that the latest generation is embracing is that it is a good idea to live together before getting married. Glenn Stanton has written a book titled The Ring Makes All the Difference:The Hidden Consequences of Cohabitation and the Strong Benefits of Marriage. Considering the reality that over 60% of marriages today are preceded by cohabitation, the subject is very relevant. Stanton also recently blogged about the subject:
Well, the good news is we don’t have to wonder about strong, reliable answers to those questions. An absolute wealth of social science research by leading sociologists and demographers of the family are telling us much about the consequences of living together before marriage. Here are some of the most startling findings:
If couples want to dramatically boost their likelihood of divorcing once married, few things so widely practiced will ensure that than cohabiting. This is just the opposite of what most believe.
If women want to significantly increase their chances of being a victim of physical, sexual and verbal violence from their mate, cohabitation is what they are looking for. Men with rings on their fingers are dramatically less likely to be abusers of any sort.”
Ready for some good news? TIME magazine reports that the popular statistic may not be so accurate. In fact, it appears that the divorce rate has actually dropped.
I have never watched a single episode of the popular television reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8” but I have noticed that suddenly some of the blogs I follow are suddenly all abuzz about the apparent marital struggles of the famous couple.
What really strikes me as sad is not only the train wreck of pain these two young people are marching toward, but the collateral damage the eight children will experience.
I could only wish that people will tune the show out and therefore help bring the couple back down to earth. Unfortunately, the opposite will probably occur: ratings will probably shoot through the roof. How many more families have to be destroyed by the lure of fame and wealth for us to finally realize these idols don’t deliver what they promise?
“Children are a kind of wealth,” according to Barbara Curtis, mother of twelve ranging in ages 8-39. Most Americans would find this king of statement strange or flat out absurd. We are now living in an era in which a large family is considered by the mainstream to be a sort of freak show. It was not this way not so long ago. According to an excellent recent New York Times article,
In 1976, census data show, 59 percent of women ages 40 to 44 had three or more children, 20 percent had five or more and 6 percent had seven or more. By 2006…28 percent of women ages 40-44 had three or more children, 4 percent had five or more and just 0.5 percent had seven or more.”
So a lot has changed in just 30 years. As an ONLY child raised in the 70s, I probably had an uncommon view. To me, a family with two children was normal. A family with three or more children was large. My uncommon view then is common now.
Ligon Duncan, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi, recently posted how he would like people, especially his congregation, to pray for him. I think the list is so good, I covet anyone doing the same for me. So here it is…feel free to pray these things for me as often as you like:
soundoftruth.org 