John Piper has an upcoming book on marriage that is based on a sermon series he did last year at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Based on what I’ve heard of those messages, it should be excellent. In one of his messages, Piper talks of the wonder of marriage:
Marriage is more wonderful than anyone on earth knows. And the reasons it is wonderful can only be learned from God’s special revelation and can only be cherished by the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to behold and embrace the wonder. The reason we need the Spirit’s help is that the wonder of marriage is woven into the wonder of the gospel of the cross of Christ, and the message of the cross is foolishness to the natural man, and so the meaning of marriage is foolishness to the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14).
And because of that thinking, we are confused about what is intended by marriage. He explains in the following excerpt from that message:
UPDATE: The person who posted this online did so illegally. Like others who linked, I was unaware of this. My apologies. Rather, go here to see this awesome book.
What this book is about:
The Christian church has a long tradition of systematic theology, that is, studying theology and doctrine organized around fairly standard categories such as the Word of God, redemption, and Jesus Christ. This introduction to systematic theology has several distinctive features:
– A strong emphasis on the scriptural basis for each doctrine and teaching
– Clear writing, with technical terms kept to a minimum
– A contemporary approach, treating subjects of special interest to the church today
– A friendly tone, appealing to the emotions and the spirit as well as the intellect
– Frequent application to life – Resources for worship with each chapter
– Bibliographies with each chapter that cross-reference subjects to a wide range of other systematic theologies.
A lot about what it means to have a tender heart for God. Consider David in Psalm 51:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
What has led David to this lowly state of remorse? Turn back to 2 Samuel 11:2-5 to see where it started:
It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. . . . Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
And not only does David do this, he compounds his sin by bring Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, back from battle so he can sleep with his wife and thus cover up David’s sin. It doesn’t work and so David has Uriah killed in battle. It is only when the prophet Nathan confronts him that David repents.
And what is God’s response? “The Lord has taken away your sin; you shall not die.” (2 Kings 12:13). From here, John Piper picks up the story and why it matters that we should care why God answers in this way:
This story has outraged many people because it shows the utter indifference of our society:
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll by a hit-and-run driver and lies motionless on a busy city street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but do nothing. One driver stops briefly but then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim before zipping away.
The chilling scene – captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera – has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with the capital city’s biggest newspaper blaring “SO INHUMANE” on the front page and the police chief lamenting: “We no longer have a moral compass.”
But is this really something so new? Have we maybe heard this story somewhere before? The point is, none of us is immune to acting this way so we shoudn’t point fingers. Instead, we should open our eyes.
Today is my birthday! To celebrate my family took me to one of my favorite places to eat in Grand Island, Sutter Deli. I had a delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup while Ruth Anne had the oriental chicken salad, Andrew the simple pepperoni pizza and Liz the Sutter Deli club. Four stars all.
On this milestone day I am thankful that in the past year God has mercifully loved me and guided me. I have failed him often, but I know that God has stretched me to hopefully be the man he wants me to be, or at least closer to that man.
I also am thankful for the many people God has put in my life to serve his purposes both to serve and be served by. God is good, and I am hopeful at the start of another year of getting closer to Him for his sake and my happiness.
Today was a great day at church, and it was something different. First of all, I had the opportunity to lead the first- and second-graders in Sunday school. Our lesson was based around the passage in Mark 2:1-11 where Jesus heals the man who is paralyzed, but not before he forgives the man’s sins.
The way the lesson went, we talked about what the man’s biggest problem was. He was paralyzed, but Jesus did something else first. He forgave him. Now, there are many ways you can look at that passage, and it’s a great one. What we talked about was that we have to realize that we have a need greater than anything we can see about our lives: our sinful hearts. And there is only one person who can heal us: Jesus Christ. So we all need to come to him. Whether he solves all the things we see as wrong with our lives is not as important as our heart problem.
Another thing we talked about, which fit in nicely with the main service, was the friends who lowered the paralyzed man through the roof so he could get to Jesus. These men didn’t heal him, but they did something great for the man. As part of our battleship series, we prayed for the list of people we call POWs — prisoners in the spiritual battle for our souls. Even though these images aren’t the same, the idea is in that we need to bring people to Jesus so he can save them. It’s not us, but God uses our efforts to save sinners.
I asked the boys and girls if there was something that was special to them that they could tell me about. I heard about special birthday presents, their pets, their family. We then talked about how Jesus is more special than any of those things. If that’s the case we should want to share him with those we meet. Otherwise, we are not loving. That is the goal before us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is a video I’ve viewed before, but it’s something I’ve revisited and thought about often. Because this is a new year and, like me, many have made resolutions, I think it’s worth thinking about.
Today is my birthday! To celebrate my family took me to one of my favorite places to eat in Grand Island, Sutter Deli. I had a delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup while Ruth Anne had the oriental chicken salad, Andrew the simple pepperoni pizza and Liz the Sutter Deli club. Four stars all.
Rockstanding 
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