Last Friday at HomeWord, my message was entitled “A Biblical Theology of Sex In Marriage.” I have received a lot of helpful feedback. I handed out 2 articles. One was by C.J. Mahaney “Sex, Romance and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Husband Needs to Know” and the other was by C.J.’s wife, Carolyn “Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Wife Needs to Know.” If you are interested in these articles, they are available from Desiring God in the online book Sex and the Supremacy of Christ. Check it out and have your marriage encouraged.

I was really challenged earlier this week as I listened to Part 2 of C.J. Mahaney interviewing Mark Dever. Dever speaks with such engagement on issues of church life. This interview helped crystallize some things in my mind on preaching, so that was very helpful. Either part of these interviews can stand alone. I would recommend both of them (although part 2 is what I heard this week). Enjoy.

C.J. Mahaney Interviews Mark Dever…
Part 1: Life and Ministry with Mark Dever (9/1/2007)
Part 2: Building Healthy Church (2/1/2008)

Last night, a tornado ripped through Jackson, TN and, specifically, Union University. My friend, Tim Ellsworth, helps lead communications on that campus. Freddy T also has ties there and he weighs in on this event. Here’s the latest update. When I lived in Tennessee before coming here, I was about an hour north of Jackson. We had lots of ties to this area. We should pray that God’s overaching glory permeates all these events as a testimony to His greatness and power.

Meg had a sonogram last Thursday and we found out God has blessed us with another boy. Here’s a pic. I think you should be able to make out the face and arm.

I never realized what hoarfrost was until some showed up in Hutchinson last month. I was reading along in my ESV and came across the following:

“He gives snow like wool;
He scatters hoarfrost like ashes.” — Psalm 147:16

Our God isn’t limited by anything. Remember who’s in control of all things!

This Friday at HomeWord, I am going to be addressing the topic of sex in marriage. For the health of our marriages and ultimately the glory of God, this is something that we must talk about. In the book Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Justin Taylor writes the introduction. On pp.13-14 he laments the church’s shame in discussing these things:

One of the hindrances to a frank and edifying discussion of sexuality is the issue of shame. Shame can be healthy, and shame can be sinful. By and large, our culture is hell-bent on shedding any vestiges of propriety and shame in all things sexual. As an overreaction, the church is often too timid to even broach the topic, for fear of violating Paul’s command that “it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret” (Eph. 5:12). But this proper shame can easily morph into improper embarrassment and an unhealthy reticence to apply the whole counsel of God to an issue of paramount significance.

This is so well said. Part of my tension in preparing this week and part of the tension I feel every time I bring this up with my wife are these same emotions. If we are going to have lives that are fully lived to the glory of God and if we have a conviction that especially this facet of our life is one in which God should be honored (as the context and content of 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20 indicate) then we must have a clear communication about these things. Pray for me this week in that regard and faithfully seek to discuss these things in your own home.

It looks as if Paul Tripp will be doing his seminar “Marriage: There Really Is A Better Way” at Metro East Baptist in Wichita, April 4-5. I would like to go, but it appears that it conflicts with our church’s women’s retreat that same weekend. (And since my wife will be at the retreat, I will be with Andrew.) This is a great opportunity, though, for any couple to take advantage of.

The first post I read yesterday was this one by C.J. Mahaney on how to watch the Super Bowl. My wife had never heard C.J.’s thoughts on sports before and it sparked many questions from her.

Among other things, C.J.’s tips for watching include:

1. Strategically assign the remote.
2. Don’t watch passively.
3. Foster fellowship.
4. Draw attention to the eternal.

You have got to read this if you haven’t already. It is just another way that C.J. cares for our souls by giving us such sound, Biblical discernment in these things.

Here’s another link for your benefit:
C.J. Mahaney’s Thoughts on Super Bowl XLII

Some may wonder exactly the nature of how we should cooperate with others. Michael McKinley, though, quoting Mark Dever at a recent Acts 29 Boot Camp gives us some great insight into what this spirit looks like:

Our differences are enough to separate some of my friends—your brothers and sisters in Christ—from you. And perhaps to separate them from me, now that I’m publicly speaking to you. And I don’t want to minimize either the sincerity or the seriousness of some of their concerns (things like: humor, worldliness, pragmatism, authority).

But I perceive some things in common which outweigh our differences—which the Lord Jesus shall soon enough compose between us, either by our maturing, or by His bringing us home. I long to work with those, and count it a privilege to work with those whom My Savior has purchased with His blood, and with whom I share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I perceive that we have in common the knowledge that God is glorified in sinners being reconciled to Him through Christ. This is not taught by other religions, nor clearly by the ancient Christian churches of the East, or by Rome, by liberal Protestant churches, by Mormons, the churches of Christ, or by groups of self-righteous, legalistic, moralistic Christians. And not only do we together affirm the exclusivity of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone—we agree on the sovereignty of God in life and salvation, the regenerate nature of church members, the importance of church membership and discipline, the baptism of believers alone, the priorities of expositional preaching, and evangelism, the importance of authority and a growing appreciation for the significance of complementarianism. These are not slight matters. And they only fire my desire to encourage you and cheer you on, until you cross that finish line that the Lord lays down for us.

Well said and very insightful as to how to exercise fellowship with others.

Just announced were the message titles for the speakers at Together For The Gospel ’08. (The Elders and I have been registered since early last year.)

Ligon Duncan: Sound Doctrine – Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry: A Joyful Defense and Declaration of the Necessity and Practicality of Systematic Theology for the Life of the Church

Thabiti Anyabwile: Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church

John MacArthur: The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability

Mark Dever: Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology

R.C. Sproul: The Curse Motif of the Atonement

Albert Mohler: Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution

John Piper: How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice

C.J. Mahaney: Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul (2 Cor. 3:4-6)

Are you going? Excited yet?

(HT: JT)