I thought this map charting the history of religion in the world was helpful and encouraging.

(HT: JT)

For today’s marriage monday segment, I thought I would return to the subject of love. Recently, Meg and I found out we are expecting (a child) again. These are really exciting days as we think about God’s blessing of children happening to us. I remember announcing this to the leadership and some of were quick to remind me about love.

In his book The Life of A God-Made Man, Dan Doriani writes a chapter on “The Three Faces of Love.” Our men recently studied this in SS. To summarize the content, Doriani believes “a healthy marriage will manifest 3 faces of love, labeled by the Greek words agape, philia, and eros. Agape is the selfless, sacrificial, Christlike love that touches stranger, neighbor, enemy, friend, child, and spouse alike. Philia is attraction for a special friend whom we admire due to shared interests or skills, due to their humor or intellect, or due to their personality or approach to life. Eros is romantic, sensual love, when fingertips and lips pulse at the thought of contact. Marriage thrives when these three forms of love join together. (p.69)”

I jokingly reminded the men who told me to love my wife, that eros got me in this position, philia would get me through the next 9 months, and I would definitely need agape come delivery day. Honestly, though, all these different loves need to pervade all of our marriages. As we seek to love our wives as Christ loved the church, we will pursue loving in a way that honors Him and serves our wives before ourselves. Men, remember to love your wife today!

I’ve listened to a lot of the messages from the 2007 Desiring God National Conference. The conference theme was Stand: A Call For The Endurance of The Saints. Since they are found on the Desiring God website, they are all available for free. Take advantage of some good teaching by men like Piper, MacArthur, Randy Alcorn, Jerry Bridges and others. This will be a good use of your time to persevere.

C.J. Mahaney first preached a sermon series on Humility (in two parts, This is the One To Whom I Will Look then the message True Greatness). After these sermons, which affected me deeply, I was pleased to see that the content was then released in book form under the title, Humility:True Greatness. If you are looking for additional ways to apply the message from yesterday, this might be a great place to continue the pursuit of humility.

Yesterday morning’s sermon encouraged us to be humble. I came across this helpful tool entitled The 50 Fruits of Pride, put out by Sovereign Grace Ministries that has been helpful in helping me see the nature of my pride.

Today, for our Marriage Monday segment, I wanted to put up some questions for self-examination from Paul David Tripp’s excellent work on communication entitled War of Words. At the end of chapter 1, he gives the following questions which should help you see you aren’t a perfect communicator and will place you at the mercy of the Gospel:

Below are some of the fruits of godly talk (see Gal. 5:22-23). Evaluate yourself…
1) Does your talk with others lead to Biblical problem solving?
2) Does your talk have a “stand together” or a “me against him/her/them” posture?
3) Do your words encourage others to be open and honest about their thoughts and feelings?
4) Are you approachable and teachable or defensive and self-protective when talking with others?
5) Is your communication healthy in the principal relationships in your life?
• parent/child
• husband/wife
• extended family
• sibling relationships
• employer/employee
• friend/friend
• body of Christ
• neighbor/neighbor
6) Does your talk encourage faith and personal spiritual growth in those around you?
7) Do you talk with others to develop relationships with them, or do you only talk to solve problems during times of trouble?
8) Do you speak humble and honest words of confession when you sin and words of sincere forgiveness when others sin against you?
9) Do your words reflect a willingness to serve others or a demand that they serve you?
10) As you face struggles of talk, do you do so with a recognition of the gospel—God’s forgiveness, His enabling grace, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit?

Communicate to the glory of God by finding mercy in the Gospel.

I’ve really been challenged by the current series by the women over at GirlTalk. If you are unfamiliar with this website, Carolyn Mahaney (wife of C.J.) and her daughters regularly blog and discuss issues related to living the Christian life and issues of womanhood. Presently, they are on day 6 of an interview called FoodTalk, dicussing how one can glorify God in the intake of food.

This interview is with David Kotter and Dr. Jeffrey Trimark. These two men are the authors of Eat and Be Content, which is due to be published by Crossway in 2008. Be challenged to exercise self-control by reading these convicting posts.

Since I’m studying Lloyd-Jones every Wednesday night, I thought for today’s audio of the week, I would recommend the incredible website – The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust. This website lets you listen to the Doctor every week with an audio that they still update. There are CD’s and tapes to purchase as well as MP3’s. It might be worth your time to browse around and enjoy.

I have owned this from ITunes for a while, but the latest song from Billy & Cindy Foote (who brought great songs to the church like You are My King, Sing to the King, You Are God Alone) have brought us a great single on ITunes entitled, “If I Say I Love You.”

Here are the lyrics:

Verse 1:
Father, forever faithful
in keeping your covenant of love
You have never forsaken Your people
or betrayed our trust
You are faithful and true
and just to say I love You is not enough

Verse 2:
Jesus, there is no other so lovely
You satisfy my soul
You are constantly keeping Your promise
I will never be alone
By Your goodness and grace
May I live in a way that really shows

Chorus:
If I say I love You
I will do what You say
I will obey You and surrender all
If I say I’m Your friend
I will keep Your commands
I will obey You and surrender all

Bridge:
Take my life, let it be
Set apart, pure and holy

This song simply restates in musical form the sentiments of our Lord when He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) We dumb this down in today’s worship circles and think that our passionate singing to the glory of God is enough to demonstrate our love for Him. Jesus has other thoughts though. We demonstrate our love for Him in a life of obedience. Check out this song and be challenged to walk the walk of a disciple.

Tim Challies is at it again–he regularly is able to have some of the most incredible giveaways on the web. This time, it is R.C. Sproul’s latest book The Truth of the Cross.

Click here to enter the free giveaway.