When our oldest son was about four years old, I sat down to watch a movie some friends had recommended. Not too far into the story, the plot took a turn I wasn’t expecting. A child was tragically killed in a farming accident. The horror hit home and anxiety choked my heart. I didn’t even finish the movie. Sometime I can watch movies and enjoy the ups and downs of the plot. But other times, a...
This post is a continuation of an excerpt from Tying the Knot: A Premarital Guide to a Strong & Lasting Marriage by Rob Green, examining biblical love as described in 1 Corinthians 13. To read part one, please click here. Love Does Not Seek Its Own While many people marry because the other person helps them love themselves better than anyone else, biblical love is interested in giving...
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.Love is patient and...
What do you rely on to get through your day? The things we rely on are also what define us—our family, education, job, accomplishments, money. For the apostle John, nothing defined him more than the love of God in Jesus, and that is what he relied on every moment of every day. In 1 John: Relying on the Love of God, Scotty Smith takes readers through a study of 1 John that shows how a rich...
Working through problems of sex and intimacy in a marriage can be difficult for many reasons. For one thing, intimacy often seems to be more of an experience than a choice or behavior. Intimacy is hard to do: it just happens or not. How do you control or change something as unpredictable as intimacy? Intimacy often comes as a surprise. One evening, completely unplanned, you end up sitting on the...
