help your marriage: read this not that

Mark Driscoll publishes “Real Marriage” in a couple of days and Ed Young publishes “Sexperiment” today. My friend Mike takes issue with the authors here for multiple reasons and I don’t plan on reading these two books. I have the feeling I can get the content of these books from reviews and twitter posts. After all, I don’t understand how Ed Young can write an entire book based on the idea of having sex with your spouse for 7 days in a row, and frankly, I don’t care to find out. It seems odd to me.I’m slightly more inclined to read Driscoll’s book because I have benefitted from some other things he has written and I appreciate many things he has to say. I enjoyed his ebook Pastor Dad.  If you are looking for good books to read to benefit your marriage, I recommend these:

Paul Tripp – What did you Expect? (or on DVD) You can read my post outlining and summarizing this book here.

Doug Wilson – Reforming Marriage

Lou Priolo – The Complete Husband

Kent Hughes has a chapter on marriage in his book “Disciplines of a Godly Man“, you can read my review of it here.

Don’t waste your time with Driscoll or Young, there are too many good books to read. What books have your read that you have found helpful?

MMA and Justice

I read an article this morning about a Chicago felon and would-be mugger who attempted his injustice against a trained MMA fighter. Serves this fool right that he got the beating of his life and is now in jail.

This story proves the proverb spoken in Proverbs 21:15 which says,

“When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.”

Nate’s First Performance

My eldest son, Nate, participated in his first school production today. His role was to recite “Sing a Song of Sixpence”.

 

Creation, Corruption, Rescue, Restoration – Part 3

The story of Cain and Abel tells the greater four-fold story of Scripture which I call Creation, Corruption, Rescue, and Restoration as well. You can read this in Genesis 4. As part of God’s creation, Adam and Eve are having children to fill the earth as God commanded. Their two boys, Cain and Abel bring offerings to worship God. This is a good thing, but God does not accept Cain’s offering though he does accept Abel’s. At this, Cain becomes indignant, and God warn him that Sin was crouching at the door, corruption is within sight. Cain does not heed God’s warning and kills his brother Abel. Corruption brings forth death again. Cain tries to hide his is saying, “Am I my
brother’s keeper?” Abel’s blood cries out for justice, for rescue. Abel’s blood cries out foreshadowing the blood of Jesus that would be spilled in injustice to restore justice. Hebrews 12:24 tells us about this saying, “Jesus, the
mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” God brings judgment upon Cain and curses him to a life of wandering. But God continues to move toward rescue and restoration. In 4:25-26 we see Adam and Eve have another son, almost as if to replace Abel, and this coincides with a time when men begin to call upon the Lord again.

 

Part One

Part Two

this will ruin your holloween

The problem with reading is sometimes it changes the way you think and then the way you live. We have already purchased our Halloween candy and are making plans for trick-or-treating. Then I read this article. Now I’m a little disturbed about Halloween.

The tasty treats we enjoy on Halloween are a product of child slavery. You can read more about child and forced labor here. Much of this child labor is reinforced by over-consumption of products like coffee and chocolate. Personally, I pay attention to the coffee I drink. Ever since I saw Blood Diamond I have told my wife I will never buy here any more diamonds (and not just for financial reasons because I can be cheap). But, didn’t consider whether or not the chocolate I eat was harvested by little kids like mine. This is heartbreaking to a dad of three boys. I am learning to make more responsible choices with my purchases, but it is difficult. Sometimes it means paying a lot more. Sometimes it means doing without. But I cannot ignore the FACT that what I buy with my money either helps or hurts. I’m taking steps, even if they are baby steps. It doesn’t have to mean we do without, but consume responsibly, let Fair-Trade influence your purchases.

My friend Mike offers some more insight on the same article I read here. He includes a disturbing picture.

Here is a solution to possibly salvage your Halloween? “Halloween candy that doesn’t suck.”