What Is Marriage?

Last night I had the privilege of speaking at a marriage conference here at Red Oak Baptist Church. During the session, I read this quote from Dave Harvey's excellent book, When Sinner's Say, "I Do":

“We obviously live in a day when the meaning of marriage is up for grabs. Unfettered from any source of authority, marriage follows culture… no matter where the culture goes. After a head-banging night of partying, one pop idol got married, then had the marriage annulled in the morning. To her, marriage may have simply seemed like a fun thing to do for a few hours, not too different from an afternoon at the mall or a visit to Starbucks. Just a spontaneous indulgence. No harm done.”

It is examples like this that make it critical that we get our understanding and definition of marriage from the Bible and make every effort to ensure that our own marriages reflect this understanding and not the culture. This is why I'm eagerly anticipating Jim Upchurch's session this Friday evening on "Acting Out The Gospel In Everyday Married Life". Join us at Red Oak Baptist, 6:30pm. It's free!

Increasing Our Appetite For The Bible

This past Sunday I encouraged our church family to spend more time in the Word. I recommended a one-year Bible reading plan that we had available as a useful resource (both of my daughters are using this - much to my delight!). I also mentioned several online resources. One of these is the website for the English Standard Version (the Bible I use for preaching), where there is a helpful selection of devotional and daily Bible reading tools. It can be found here

I personally use the ESV daily office lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer that is on their site. I've used the prayer book for many years and was very excited to see that the lectionary is available in the ESV. I even added this as a feature at the bottom of this blog. It updates itself daily with new Scripture readings. This is just one option that is available at the ESV online site.

I again urge our church family to get into the Word and to use these (or other) great resources to help foster a daily appetite for the Scriptures! "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" 2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

Why Epiphany Is Considering A Strike!

Have you heard? Epiphany is considering a strike! That's right, this tiny little holiday is fed up with being ignored and is considering a full blown strike! This could be huge. Imagine what your year would be like without this holiday. Hard to, isn't it? I'm sure you are very alarmed by this news - and you should be. Here's the "top five" complaints from a list Epiphany has officially issued:

1. Most people have no clue what Epiphany even is and if asked they would probably say they don't really care. How rude is that?
2. Even many Christians have no clue what Epiphany is even though it is a "Christian" holiday. This one really makes Epiphany burn and it is demanding more attention from the Church.
3. Epiphany simply cannot thrive in the shadow of mega-Christmas sales or compete with all the Christmas "buzz" and wants the playing field leveled with a nationwide "Epiphany Sale" and maybe even introduce some "Epiphany candy".
4. Christmas has stolen Epiphany's thunder by including "wise men" in virtually all Christmas programs and by encouraging people to put "stars" on the top of Christmas trees.
5. Epiphany is regularly left off of new calendars and believes this is intentional on the part of Calendar Makers in an effort to further diminish Epiphany's already dwindling reputation. I mean, come on, Epiphany doesn't make it, but Chinese New Year does?

Wow! Well, I just want to go on record saying that this pastor supports Epiphany. I'm glad today is Epiphany and I wish everyone a very Happy Epiphany! (Right now some of you are thinking, "today is Epiphany?" while others are still stuck on #2! Yup, this is why Epiphany is strongly considering a strike.)