Insights on Intimacy
One joy of reading through the whole Bible is that I come
across insights that I may otherwise skip. In my current through-the-Bible reading plan, D.A. Carson’s For the Love of God has been my devotional companion last year (Volume One) and this year (Volume Two). I’ve had occasion to share what Carson noted from Song of Solomon chapter 3 in the reading for April 28. Since it proved helpful, I thought I’d share it here as well. It’s about cultivating sexual intimacy in marriage. Want some encouragement? Read on.
What difference does Spirit-baptism make?
In Alexander Strauch’s excellent book “The New Testament Deacon” he takes the position that the women mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:11 are simply the wives of those who serve the church as deacons. Others have concluded that these were just female “deacon assistants.” A third view asserts that there were actually women who were recognized as model servants in the church (i.e., “deaconnesses”). This is admittedly a difficult passage, and each of the views has problems or questions from the text that work against it.
I just finished reading Dever’s book on personal evangelism. The book was given to all those attending the Together for the Gospel conference. I was happy to receive it…even though I had purchased it the week before and was already half-way through reading it! Ha!
Tiffany (my wife) and I love our children (Silas, Mercy, Justus, and Ruby), and we are constantly looking for opportunities to teach our children (particularly our older children) about Christ.
Jesus made a shocking statement in Matthew 5:29.
this caused?” Yet I often wonder what Christians of other times would point out in our lives and say, “Don’t you get it?”
To illustrate, the picture at right is of my wife and I in Israel in 1998 on a camel.
People will tell you about their Spirit baptism experiences. Many of these stories sound impressive, but the problem is they don’t seem to agree with 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.
In previous posts, we have defined a spiritual gift and listed basic principles from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 that pertain to spiritual gifts in general. We have been given gifts from God to use in His Church to glorify His name! How can we be a good steward of our spiritual gifting?