Brad’s Blog

Not only is the marriage relationship a mirror of the Trinity, but it is also a picture of the relationship of Christ to His church.

We see Paul write in Ephesians chapter 5 how our marriages should be a picture to the world of how Christ loves His church.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:25-33; NIV)

So, the question is now raised, are you accurately reflecting the love of Christ for His church in your marriage? How can we as Christians communicate this greatest of all relationships, that relationship being the love of Christ for His church, if we who are Christians do not demonstrate it in our marriages?

When people look at the Church, they should see marriages that are different than what they see in the world. By our marriages looking different, I mean happy, healthy marriages in which each spouse esteems the other ahead of themselves. I am talking about marriages that accurately reflect the unity and selflessness seen within the Trinity and accurately portray the love of Christ for His church. If more people understood that this is what marriage is about, I am convinced that our marriages would be much healthier.

Statistics from The Barna Group from 2004 show the divorce rates for both unbelievers as well as born-again Christians at 35%. Notice this was not just people who claim to be Christians, but people who claim to be born-again Christians. Did you catch that? Born-again Christians have the same divorce rates as that of unbelievers. This is the picture of marriage that we are presenting to unsaved people. When Barna broke the statistics down into different generations, 46% of Baby Boomers are divorced and that number is still rising, and my generation is on pace to surpass that of the Baby Boomers. An even higher percentage of Christian couples are unhappy and have no idea that they do not have a God-honoring marriage. They do not live up to the biblical standard set for marriage.

We, as the Body of Christ should strive to have marriages where outsiders take note that they do not see the world’s idea of marriage from us. We should be a group of people that hold marriage in the highest esteem just as God does. Outsiders should look in and see that we are different and that they want what we have. Our marriages and families should be advertisements to the world that scream the character of God and the love of Christ. We need to be good image bearers not only in our individual lives but also in our marriage relationship.

If we coast in our marriage, we will coast right into DISunity. Our marriage has to be that steady uphill climb from the wedding vows until death do us part. The wedge Satan placed in our marriages is naturally there due to the fall. We have to work everyday to force this wedge out from between us. Satan knows that driving a wedge into our marriages defaces the image of the Trinity and the picture of Christ and His church. Remember, Satan in our true enemy.

Also, the biblical principles of marriage tie quite nicely with the closing verses of 2 Timothy. These verses were written as Paul was near the end of his life.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7,8; NIV)

We need to apply this to every area of our life. We should apply it first and foremost to our relationship with God and when we do this, it will then affect all areas of our life including our marriage relationship. On our death bed, we should be able to hold hands with our spouse and say, “WE have fought the good fight, WE have finished the race, WE have kept the faith.” Marriage just like life is a race that you both run together holding each other along the way with your eyes fixed steadily on Jesus at the finish line.

If you have never read the book of Hosea in the Old Testament, I want to encourage you to do that. Hosea was a man who married an extremely unfaithful spouse, in spite of this, he actively loved her and pursued her even though she had vast shortcomings and was for all practical purposes unlovable. He loved her and cared for her in a way that was nothing short of super-human. This is a picture of Christ’s love for us. We are the unfaithful spouse who has adulterated ourselves to the world, and Christ loves us in spite of all of our terrible short-comings. When we keep in perspective how Christ has loved us and died for us in spite of the things we do, we can much more easily love our spouse in spite of the petty differences that we have with each other. And just think how our differences pale in comparison to how we have offended a holy God.

I want to finish with an illustration that I heard from a pastor once. He was asked if performing weddings was his greatest joy. He said no. He said not to get him wrong that weddings are great and he enjoys doing them but that he gets more joy from performing the funeral for a faithful saint. He said at that funeral sits their spouse of over 50 years quietly sobbing. He said that brings him great joy (not happiness but joy). You see, anyone can say on their wedding day that they are going to persevere with their spouse and be together until death do us part. The cause for real celebration is when a couple has actually done that. They have fought the good fight together. They have kept their eyes firmly fixed on Christ for 50 plus years and finished the race as one. They have been good image bearers of the Trinity and accurately reflected Christ’s love for the church.

Make it a priority to make the relationship between you and your spouse all that God intended it to be so that you can bring the maximum glory to God with your marriage.

Outside of our relationship with God, the most important relationship that we see in the Bible is the marriage relationship. God has a very high view of marriage. It is not a fleeting feeling nor an institution of convenience that our society has made it out to be.

The Bible lays out the foundation of marriage in Genesis 2.

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:18-24; NIV)

Notice that this passage starts out with “It is NOT good for the man to be alone.” This is the first time in the creation account that God has declared something to NOT be good. Up to this point everything was good. Man in his aloneness was not good. Before creating the woman, God paraded all of the animals in front of Adam to show him that there was not a suitable mate for him in all of creation. God wanted Adam to appreciate the wife that He is about to give him and realize there is nothing in all of creation that compares to her and that she is a fellow image bearer of God. God’s creation of the woman was the completion and perfection of his creative acts.

When God created marriage, it was not simply that God considered marriage to be a good idea, though it certainly is that. He created marriage to illustrate to us spiritual truth, namely the relationship within the Trinity and the relationship of Christ to His church.

We are all as individuals made in the image of God. We are all image bearers individually. In the marriage relationship though, we get to image God in a different way. The marriage relationship is our best human example of the relationship within the Trinity. As husband and wife become 2 in 1, we mirror the 3 in 1 relationship that we see in the Triune Godhead.

The marriage relationship should be the pinnacle of unity in a human relationship and therefore mirror the perfect unity seen within the Trinity. The marriage covenant should reflect the selfless attitude and praise of the other as seen within the members of the Godhead. This is God’s ideal of marriage. I am afraid that too often, we buy into the lie that marriage is all about “me” and have elevated my perceived needs above that of my spouse.

It is because of sin that the marriage relationship has been tarnished and scarred. Because of this, the natural tendency in marriage is not for unity as designed BUT for DISunity. In Genesis 3:12 (The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” NIV). We see here that the fall has occurred and now the man is accusing his wife, and ultimately God, of his own short-comings. The marriage relationship is no longer naturally unified as God intended. One chapter after the institution of marriage, we see why we today struggle in our marriages and why it is all the more important to actively pursue oneness with our spouse.

In marriage and any other relationship for that matter, disunity happens passively. However, in order to achieve unity in marriage and therefore better reflect God’s image, we must ACTIVELY work at unity. Instead of working against each other and falling into disunity, actively work together toward unity. Actively pursuing unity is the only way that we will keep from sliding into disunity. We just saw in Genesis 2 that God created marriage as the greatest of human relationships. Keep in mind that Satan is the real enemy and not your spouse and that he worked a wedge into the marriage relationship in Genesis 3, and this is a wedge that we still battle today. You and your spouse MUST work together.

I will continue this post tomorrow.

I am still reading Desiring God by John Piper. Today my post is on Piper’s chapter about marriage.

Piper does a good job with the subject of marriage.  His main biblical text is Ephesians 5:25-30.  Piper says that in marriage we should pursue our joy by pursuing the joy of our spouse.  He pulls deeply from the example of Christ and the Church.

I like this summary from Piper.  “In other words, husbands should devote the same energy and time and creativity to making their wives happy that they devote naturally to making themselves happy.“

I really like Piper’s tie of Ephesians 5:31,32 with Genesis 2:24.  He really hammers on marriage being a “profound mystery.”  He does a great job of giving the Old Testament context.  Paul tells us in Ephesians that the husband and wife become one flesh just like Christ and the Church become one body.

Piper goes on to say, which I really like, “The mystery is this: God did not create the union of Christ and the church after the pattern of human marriage; just the reverse! He created human marriage on the pattern of Christ’s relation to the church.“   Marriage was not just an accident.  It was purposefully planned to mirror Christ and His Church.

Piper then spends time on the biblical pattern of the home with the husband as the head.  He does a good job explaining these roles in a very biblical and accurate fashion.

I will have a couple of other posts upcoming related to marriage and based upon something that put together a few years ago.

I am continuing to read Desiring God by John Piper. Today my post is about Piper’s chapter on money.

Piper does a very good job on a very difficult topic. This topic can easily be taught incorrectly. Piper accurately emphasizes that money is a heart issue. It is not wrong to be rich, but it is wrong to desire to be rich.

The main passage that Piper concentrates on is 1 Timothy 6:5-10.

I like that Piper says that money’s chief attractions are the power it gives and the pride that it feeds.

I like that Piper even tackles the Prosperity Gospel.  He attacks the idea that God wants us wealthy.  He shows how key verses are misinterpreted and abused to feed our desire to be rich and promote the idea that God wants us that way.

The following paragraph from Piper is worth quoting in whole.

God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized, uneducated, unmedicated, and unfed millions. The evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own. God has prospered them. And by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture (baptized by a doctrine of health, wealth, and prosperity) they have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, better (and more) meat, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun.

Piper quotes Ralph Winters when he says, “The underdeveloped societies suffer from one set of diseases: tuberculosis, malnutrition, pneumonia, parasites, typhoid, cholera, typhus, etc. Affluent America has virtually invented a whole new set of diseases: obesity, arteriosclerosis, heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, venereal disease, cirrhosis of the liver, drug addiction, alcoholism, divorce, battered children, suicide, murder.“

Interesting indeed.

Next, we tackle marriage.

So, you may think that I am too hard on the prosperity gospel people. I saw this video the other day on YouTube by John Piper. Piper does not mince any words with his assessment of these guys. I will have to say that I could not agree with him more.

Please watch the video. I think you will enjoy it.

Preach It Brother!

Well, this is my third post on prayer. You can tell that anytime a discussion arises involving prayer that it really peaks my interest. Studying prayer always makes me feel guilty. I always realize how far short I fall in this area in my life. I can always pray more. I should always pray more. I know at the Judgment Seat of Christ that I will look back on my life and wish that I would have prayed more.

The Apostle Paul gives us some pretty serious insight on prayer in Romans 15:30-32. (I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.)

Paul asks for prayer in 2 serious areas. He asks to be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and he asks that his service will be acceptable in Jerusalem. Notice that Paul is saying that prayer can change both the hearts of believers and unbelievers.

Paul tells us that prayer is a struggle. The NIV does not capture this as well as other translations do. The NASB says, “Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me…” Prayer is a spiritual battleground. It is a struggle against sin and evil around us.

So, why don’t we pray? I think there are several reasons.

• We do not realize the seriousness of what is going on around us.
  • We are irresponsible to our calling
  • We have no passion for the souls of lost men and women.
  • We have no passion to see ourself and others grow to be more Christ-like.
  • We have a general unbelief about God, His power, heaven, and hell.
• We don’t understand our part in this world.
  • God ordains the ends as well as the means.
  • Prayer is God’s appointed means to act in this world. (Our finite minds can not reconcile the power of prayer with God’s absolute sovereignty.)
  • When we do not pray, there is no praise from God’s people because we have no idea of what God is doing around us.

Prayer enlivens ministry! Prayer enlivens life!

I am continuing to read Desiring God by John Piper. Today my post continues Piper’s chapter about prayer.

Piper ends his chapter on prayer by quoting a long passage from The Light of the Nations by J. Edwin Orr concerning the Layman’s Prayer Revival. This is a fascinating revival that occurred in the mid-1800s in the United States. The revival was simply prayer. Read this quoted text for a powerful description.

Secular and religious conditions combined to bring about a crash. The third great panic in American history swept away the giddy structure of speculative wealth. Thousands of merchants were forced to the wall as banks failed, and railroads went into bankruptcy. Factories were shut down and vasr numbers thrown out of employment, New York City alone having 30,000 idle men. In October 1857, the hearts of the people were thoroughly weaned from speculation and uncertain gain, while hunger and despair stared them in the face.

On 1st July, 1857, a quiet and zealous businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier took up an appointment as a City Missionary in downtown New York. Lanphier was appointed by the North Church of the Dutch Reformed denomination. This church was suffering from depletion of membership due to the removal of the population from the downtown to the better residential quarters, and the new City Missionary was engaged to make diligent visitation in the immediate neighborhood with a view to enlisting church attendance among the floating population of the lower city. The Dutch Consistory felt that it had appointed an ideal layman for the task in hand, and so it was.

Burdened so by the need, Jeremiah Lanphier decided to invite others to join him in a noonday prayer meeting, to be held on Wednesdays once a week. He therefore distributed a handbill:

HOW OFTEN SHALL WE PRAY?

As often as the language of prayer is in my heart; as often as I see my need of help; as often as I feel the power of temptation; as of ten as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit.

In prayer we leave the business of time for that of eternity, and intercourse with men for intercourse w ith God.

A day Prayer Meeting is held every Wednesday, from 12 to 1 o’clock, in the Consistory building in the rear of the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets (entrance from Fulton and Ann Streets).

This meeting is intended to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and businessmen generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities incident to their respective avocations. It will continue for one hour; but it is also designed for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes, as well as for those who can spare The whole hour.

Accordingly, at twelve noon, 23rd September, 1857 the door opened and the faithful Lanphier took his seat to await the response to his invitation…. Five minutes went by. No one appeared. The missionary paced the room in a conflict of fear and faith. Ten minutes elapsed. Still no one came. Fifteen minutes passed.

Lanphier was yet alone. Twenty minutes; twenty-five; thirty; and then at 12:30 a step was heard on the stairs, and the first person appeared, then another, and another and another, until six people were present and the prayer meeting began. On the following Wednesday . . . there were forty intercessors.

Thus in the first week of October 1857, it was decided to hold a meeting daily instead of weekly . . .

Within six months, ten thousand businessmen were gathering daily for prayer in New York, and within two years, a million converts were added to the American churches….

Undoubtedly the greatest revival in New York’s colorful history was sweeping the city, and it was of such an order to make the whole nation curious. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, simply an incredible movement of the people to pray.

I am currently reading Desiring God by John Piper. Today my post is on Piper’s chapter about prayer.

Thankfully, I think the book has picked up the pace. I think that Piper is now getting to the heart of the matter more. I am pleased to see this. His chapter on prayer is very good. Discussions about Christians and prayer always hits us square between the eyes. That is getting to the heart of the matter. Getting a Christian to pray consistently is no easy task. Why are we so bad at praying?

Piper even states that prayer is the power of Christian Hedonism.

Piper tells us to be properly enjoying God (therefore glorifying Him) that we must be a people devoted to prayer. Piper says, “Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing.” He goes on to say that, “Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy.” I really like those statements.

Piper goes into a discussion about how we should let God serve us and not just serve Him.  This sounds strange on the surface, but the point is well taken.  We can serve God in such a way that would belittle Him and make it appear that He needs our service.  Prayer is a way that we let God serve us.  Piper makes it clear that he is not referring to a genie in a bottle type of idea.  He is talking about true biblical prayer of casting our needs and worries upon God.  It is part of acknowledging that we are helpless.

This sentence really jumped off the page at me.  “Prayer prevents service from being an expression of pride.“  That really hits hard.  When we serve God and don’t pray about our service (i.e. asking for wisdom, strength, guidance), we can boast in our partnership with God.  When we pray about our service, God still gets all the glory.  We are simply vessels.

I will continue about prayer in my next post.

I am currently reading Desiring God by John Piper. Today is my second post on Piper’s chapter about Scripture. Like I said in my last post, this is a really good chapter.

Piper gives us a list in the chapter of some things that Scripture provides for us.

• Scripture provides hope - For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4; NIV)
• Scripture provides freedom - Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32; NIV)
• Scripture provides wisdom - The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. (Psalm 19:7b; NIV)
• Scripture provides assurance - I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13; NIV)
• Scripture overcomes the Evil One - Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17; NIV)

Piper gives the example of Martin Luther and his stand for Truth against the establishment of Rome. At his trial, Luther spoke these now famous words.

“Since, then, Your Majesty and Your Lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me.“

All I can say to that is AMEN!

I am still reading Desiring God by John Piper.  Today my post is on Piper’s chapter about Scripture.

This is a very good chapter.  I will probably post more on Scripture later as well.  Piper points the reader to an appendix at the end of the book that goes into even more detail.

One of the main verses that Piper uses for this chapter is Psalm 19:7 (The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.).  He really stresses the reviving part of the verse and how in the Christian life there will be dips and valleys.  The Bible is how we can be revived to press on.  Piper calls the Bible the kindling of Christian Hedonism.

Another important verse that Piper quotes is Romans 10:17 (Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.).  Basically, this tells us that our Christian life and faith start with hearing God’s Word.

Piper tells the story of Tokichi Ichii who was hanged for murder in Tokyo in 1918.  This is a really incredible story.  He was a very, very evil man.  Shortly before he was executed, two ladies sent him a New Testament.  He read the story of Jesus’ trial and execution.  The words of Jesus, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” transformed his life.  Below is what Ichii wrote before he died.

“As sorrowing, yet always rejoicing.” People will say that I must have a very sorrowful heart because I am daily awaiting the execution of the death sentence. This is not the case. I feel neither sorrow nor distress nor any pain. Locked up in a prison cell six feet by nine in size I am infinitely happier than I was in the days of my sinning when I did not know God. Day and night . . . I am talking with Jesus Christ.

“As poor, yet making many rich.” This certainly does not apply to the evil life I led before I repented. But perhaps in the future, someone in the world may hear that the most desperate villain that ever lived repented of his sins and was saved by the power of Christ, and so may come to repent also. Then it may be that though I am poor myself, I shall be able to make many rich.