Musings on Marriage: The Supreme Secret of the Burning Heart

“[Jesus] is the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the Head of the Body, the Church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.” ~Col 1.15-18

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God…. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature….” ~Col 3.1-3, 5a

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful…. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord JEsus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.” ~Col 3.12-15, 18-19

Alright, so apparently with this post we’re camping out in Colossians. I flipped open to the first passage, and then when contemplating what other passages to include in order to write this article it quickly became apparent that the flow of this book fit well with what I am advocating here.

In my previous post I challenged what has come to be known as the “honeymoon phase” in marriage, or a time early in the marriage of elevated emotional bonding and yearning, with a closeness that sometimes is cause for others to roll their eyes and joke, “Get a room!” My claim, which I believe to be grounded in Scripture, was that the characteristic—and too often normal—fading away of emotional love bonding between husband and wife is a concept that ought to be foreign to the Church. If marriage’s ultimate purpose is to image the love union between Jesus Christ and His Church, and if we as His Church are perpetually seeking to stoke the fire of our passion for Him, then how can we possibly conclude the our marriages may fizzle in passion? This, to me, seems absurd.

From that last post springs this one, which deals with what I see to be the supreme secret of the burning heart. Burning hearts are namely the hearts of husbands and wives who so deeply cherish and passionately love each other that sometimes it hurts to be away from the other. The burning heart is the heart of a husband who cannot wait to get home to be with his wife after a long day of work, so he tells the guys that he won’t be going out for beers that evening and will need to do a raincheck. The burning heart is the heart of the wife who yearns for closeness and intimacy with her husband so much that she gets her mother to babysit her children and prepares herself for a surprise evening out she has planned for her husband. This is the burning heart as it applies here. (I am sure that at some point I will delve more deeply into the concept of the burning heart in many more ways than what I have just described, but for the intents and purposes at hand we’ll call it good.)

Now, what I have just described does not characterize perhaps even most marriages today. And as one woman has recently pointed out, a deep, abiding marriage is more than the passion of the honeymoon phase. I wholeheartedly agree. I greatly admire those spouses who are so committed to Christ that, even though they have no more “feelings” of love for their spouse, they remain faithfully married because they recognize that marriage is about covenant. I fully advocate for such devotion! However, here I am writing for those who agree with that and see also a reality of fizzling romance and then say, “There must be more!” The fact that year after year Hollywood puts out movies that trumpet romantic passion as the substance of relationships (which by itself it is not) tells me that this yearning for the burning heart is innate in humanity. And I’m taking it one step further and saying that we in the Church have more reason than anyone to be promoting such passion within marital relationships.

NOTE: I want to acknowledge here that adversity, suffering, trials, and sin all ravage marriages worldwide. One fundamental element of the human condition is suffering, pain, and adversity (both expected and unexpected). In writing what I have I hope that no one has dismissed my claims as ignorant of the facts of life. I am well aware that there are periods of time when passion just isn’t feasible, when sticking it out and emerging with marriage intact is the most that can be hoped for. And that is OK! This post and the one before it were not intended to alienate the families of the chronically ill, those in crisis, or any other couple or family. What I am addressing is a trend I have witnessed in society and the Church at large for passion to wax and wane (I am thankful for parents who showed me another way!). I am advocating that our view of what is normative be shifted to accommodate what I believe to be biblically faithful.

This post is entitled “The Supreme Secret of the Burning Heart” because I am only interested here in discussing the deepest, most sustaining reality when it comes to the burning heart. Hundreds of millions of copies of books, videos, and seminars have been sold on sparking the flame of romantic passion. Countless techniques and strategies have been published for enhancing passion in the bedroom, rediscovering your partner, etc. Many of them are fantastic, and I urge people to explore them. However, what is the one thing that sustains a deep, abiding, passionate marriage in the most ultimate way?

As has been hinted at before in previous posts, I believe that the supreme secret of the burning heart is the supreme King, Jesus Christ! Many people may look at that thesis and say, “That is so Bible college of him,” or, “How unoriginal!” While it may seem trite, I want to remind the reader that just because something may sound trite does not in any way diminish its validity. To make my point, look above to the first passage. God has proclaimed that all things were created by and for Jesus, and that He died and rose from the dead in order that in everything He might have the supremacy (including marriages). This is huge!

I had the honor of speaking at my sister’s wedding in July, and the substance of my words to them were grounded in this reality. The question I gave to my sister and brother-in-law for them to return to often in seeking to perpetually deepen their marriage was this: How is Jesus the supreme Center of your marriage? This is the same question my wife and I strive to answer with our lives, and it is what I am proposing to be the ultimate answer to the question of how to seek the burning heart in marriage.

I am saying that there is a positive correlation, generally, between truly seeking Christ in personal surrender and finding new vitalization in marriage. Jenn and I have experienced it. We celebrated our fourth anniversary this year, and as we headed for the coast we found ourselves beginning a weekend of spiritual renewal as we had not known before. God magnified Himself to us in a fashion that fused our hearts together in a new way, with a singular vision for His glory in our lives. If we had a happy marriage before, it was vitalized in a revolutionary way from that point on.

Look at the second and third passages above. Do you see what the Apostle Paul is doing? He’s calling the people of God to forsake the flesh, set the heart and being on the God of Heaven and Earth, and live their lives grounded in the reality of Who God is and who He desires His people to be. Is it any wonder that the very things that spur on hostility within marriages are the opposites of the things that God commands people to clothe themselves with? Look above. Compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, and patience. When’s the last time you heard of a struggling marriage because the husband and wife had too much kindness in their marriage? Compassion? Too much gentleness? Certainly marriages suffer because the partners have too much humility.

Think about it: The very things we strive for in marriage are accomplished when two people surrender their own selfishness and self-centeredness in order to treat each other just as Christ would! A. W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God writes about something he calls the self-life. It is the root of our brokenness as we put ourselves at the center of our realities, where only God has the right to reside. The self-life is a term that encompasses every sin I can think of. Try thinking of any sin and then trace its origins, and I cannot but think that you will find the pursuit of the self rather than the pursuit of God smack in the center of it. As husbands and wives seek for their own desires to be met rather than for the pleasure of the each other, strife, fading passion, and drudgery become the tenor of the relationship. But seek for compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, and patience (among other things, such as the forgiveness described in the third passage) to characterize marital relating as expressions of worship to God, and I promise you that marriage will become an entirely new thing altogether!

So that’s the supreme secret of the burning heart in a nutshell: the magnification of God in Jesus Christ. If you’ve kept up on previous posts you know that I believe the Scriptures to unapologetically proclaim that the very purpose of our existence is to glorify God, and that the way He would have us glorify Him most is to seek joy-full intimacy with Him. And if marriage is meant to reflect to God and magnify to the world the reality of His love for us and ours for Him, then the implications for marriages worldwide are tremendous. It is as we put aside the self, press on to know the Lord in glory, and relate to our spouses from the joy of Who He is that we find a revolution in our marriages that sets our hearts ablaze!

Last year I wrote a song for my wife that I wanted to encompass the depth of the meaning of our marriage and capture the essence of the passion that I believe is grounded biblically in Who God is. I share it now in closing as an encouragement (I hope!), and also as a public declaration of my love for Jenn, who is my most intimate companion upon this earth. Enjoy it, and may you be blessed in your pursuit of God’s incredible purpose for your marriage now or marriage to come!

The Fairy Tale Song

For Jennifer, my wife—written by Richard G. Witmer ©2008

I read somewhere that you and I were always meant to be

An image made to mirror love from all eternity;

Our great romance, a perfect dance

Directed by the God of love Himself;

And I find—that I could dance with no one else but you.

A mystery of unity that draws us near and bears us forth as one

We’ll never be the same

I in you and you in me, sweet ecstasy, a love that sets us free

Yet bound we’ll always be

I’ll serve you all my life

My priceless treasured gift, my wife

My heart, my all, is yours—forever.

Each day I wake I’m living in a fairy tale divine,

To think that in His wisdom God would choose to make you mine;

A seal of love upon my heart

Today, tomorrow, forever you will stay

My companion and my friend, romantic passion ’til the very end.

No matter where we go

No matter what life brings

I’ll face it by your side

You’re everything to me

The princess of my dreams

My prayer is that I’d be the prince you deserve!

Musings on Marriage: An Uncommon Assertion

“But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones / and flesh of my flesh; / she shall be called “woman,” / for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” ~Ge 2.20b-25

“‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the Church.” ~Eph 5.31-32

“To the angel of the Church in Ephesus write:…. You have persevered and endured hardships for My Name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” ~Rev 2.1, 3-5a

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” ~Php 4.4

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” ~Mt 22.37-40

“Place me like a seal over your heart, / like a seal on your arm; / for love is as strong as death, / as unyielding as the grave. / It burns like blazing fire, / like a mighty flame. / Many waters cannot quench love; / rivers cannot wash it away.” ~SS 8.6-7a

This post is something that has been on my heart and I am excited—and also a little nervous—to share. I have brought together only a sampling of what I believe are relevant biblical texts (I hope this is more than simply a subjective hope) to back the claim I will make. You may have read the Scriptures and wondered what point about marriage I could possibly be making, and I sincerely hope it will become clear. But before going where I’m going, let me paint a picture:

I have always been a passionate guy, whatever that means in various contexts. Growing up, if I was into something, I was into it, until the next week when something new or more interesting came along. Regarding my emotions, this sometimes manifested itself in what my mom called “wearing my emotions on my sleeve.” I was a pretty open guy, and people never really had to guess too hard or talk to me too long before understanding exactly what I was feeling. And then I met my wife.

When I met her and became interested, I had been chasing after various young women at my Bible college because I was zealous to find the bride that God had prepared for me. I had no reason to think that God would not bring her to me at college, so I decided (with not too much thought about it, to be honest) to pursue whatever interest my heart decided it had. Looking back, I knocked on at least a few doors, and all of them remained shut. While I could delve into self-doubt regarding this chronic rejection, I have realized clearly that one of the attributes of God I delight in most—His absolute sovereignty—was actively working in spite of my efforts. As I look back and joke with Jenn about my attempted romances, I say, “Honey, I was looking for you in all the wrong places!” (Now mind you, all of the women I was interested in are godly, kind, and loving women, but they were not what God had ordained for me.)

After much frustration and even an initial rejection by the woman who is now my wife, I finally had arrived at a place of surrender. I was at a point where I desired God more than all other things, including marriage, and if that meant He would be most glorified with my singleness, then I would ultimately be alright with that. (For those who are laughing because I was only twenty when I had “given up” on/surrendered love, stop it: it’s never too early to surrender to God. ) And as He so often does after His children decide to relinquish all, He bestowed upon me the most precious earthly gift I am aware of: Jenn, my bride.

Jenn and I were married and we were the bearers of a glaring passion for each other that sometimes sickened people. It looked pretty much like what people call the “infatuation phase” or the “honeymoon phase.” But one thing was different: each year at family get-togethers cousins would say, “Oh, they’ll grow out of it; wait until it passes.” I don’t think it was until we were nearing four years that people finally said, “Gosh! We thought they’d be done by now; it’s been four years, for heaven’s sake!” But now the wheels are turning: For heaven’s sake? Could it be that this marital passion is not a fading phenomenon, but could in fact be for heaven’s sake—for the sake of Christ? The more I thought about it and the more I think about it, the more sure I am that—not just in my case but as a normative design for marriages on the whole—God designed marriage as a one-flesh imaging of the passionate, zealous relationship that eternally exists between Jesus Christ and His Bride: the Church! This is my thesis.

Let me quote to you from one of my marital therapy training texts that I think sums up the common idea about what we’ll refer to generically as the “honeymoon phase”: “Despite the ineffable potency and all-consuming nature of romantic love, it does not seem to be sufficient for two people to sustain an intimate, long-term relationship. As much as we may want to keep the intensity and closeness of the early falling-in-love stage, it simply does not last. The ‘mythical mate’ often becomes our worst enemy” (Bader & Pearson, In Quest of the Mythical Mate: A Developmental Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment in Couples Therapy, 1988, p. xix). Sound familiar? Have you ever been the victim of romantic agism? It sounds something like this: “They don’t know what real life is like; their love is still so young. Just wait until real life hits.” I’ve been the recipient of an almost identical comment more than once, and it doesn’t feel good. I looked at the source of the “optimism” and thought, If this is what real life looks like, may it never come. (NOTE: I agree with Bader and Pearson that the passionate nature of romantic love is not sufficient for two people to sustain lifelong marriage, however what I aim to debunk is the equal myth that it is good and normal for this passion to fritter away into oblivion, to be replaced by mundane day-to-day marital interactions.)

I will be the first to admit, as I did in my last post (“Musings on Marriage: An Introduction”), that I have only been married for four years. Despite what it may seem given the personal story leading up to my thesis, I am not really interested in holding up my marriage or life as the basis from which to offer my musings on marriage. Rather, my romance with Jenn serves one of the major functions for which it was designed: to be a conduit through which is delivered the truth of Who God is and how He desires to be glorified in all spheres of life. I hope that the remaining fleshing out of my claim will contain no less than God’s intention for marital joy and satisfaction.

Looking at the Ephesians text above, it is worth re-observing the ultimate meaning of marriage as the scaffolding within which to examine romantic love: Marriage was eternally ordained by God as the lifelong one-flesh union of one man and one woman in order to display to the world the magnificent truth of Jesus Christ and His holy Church. It is for this purpose that God took Eve out of Adam and brought her to him. The first hint I can see regarding the passionate nature of this union is Adam’s reaction to his bride. As Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr. pointed out, “And God leads Eve out to Adam, who greets her with rhapsodic relief: This is now bone of my bones / and flesh of my flesh; / she shall be called woman, / because she was taken out of man. (2.23) These are the first recorded human words, and they are poetry. What do they express? The joy of the first man in receiving the gift of the first woman” (in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, ed. by John Piper and Wayne Grudem, 1991, pp. 90-91). The man sees his wife and, almost as though he were a player in a musical, breaks into song, so to speak.

The skeptic may ask, at this point: “But you’ve said nothing of this being the normative, long-term reality of married persons. The law of atrophy applies.” Point taken. The essential question embedded in the objection is: Does God really expect for His married children, who image the marriage of Christ and His Bride, to stay vitally in love? A clarifying question embedded in this one may be, Can God really command emotion, or just obedience?

Great questions! After all, how often have you seen a couple drone on through life not really interested in each other but simply staying together out of a sense of duty to not divorce because that is sinful? Now mark that I am not saying that a sense of duty is not involved. Rather, I greatly admire the couples that don’t feel anything anymore—that don’t “love” each other any more—yet remain faithful to each other because they realize that their marriage is about keeping covenant, not staying in love (see www.desiringgod.org, “Staying Married is not about Staying in Love”). However, does not your gut tell you that there’s gotta be something more to this thing called marriage?

In answering the questions, look simply at the Matthew and Philippians passages above. Here are two clear and significant instances where God commands emotions, the affections of His people, not simply their obedience. Rather, their emotion is their obedience at this point! This necessarily begs the question, “How then do we cultivate emotion when we don’t actually feel it?!” But I will save that for another time. Suffice to say for now that God does command affections, and therefore it is not unreasonable to assert that God expects and desires His children to cultivate vital love in their marriages. Is this not conceivably part of what the sin of the Ephesian Church was from the Revelation? They had forsaken their first Love—Christ! They hadn’t fallen away from Him or turned to other gods, as is made clear from the preceding verses, but they had forsaken their love of Christ and are thus beckoned to remember the height from which they had fallen. (Oh, how many times I have forsaken my first Love!)

I’ll conclude by recalling the Song of Solomon excerpt. These are just two verses from a book filled with such erotic material that many rabbis have historically debated about whether it was fit for inclusion in the Hebrew Scriptures! Now there are two main interpretations regarding the meta-point of Song of Solomon: 1) It is about Jesus Christ and His Church, and the love that they share; 2) it is about the love and sex between husband and wife. My question is this: On what grounds do we separate those two interpretations? Are the two not to be biblically one? If marriage’s ultimate function is to display the glory of God’s love for His Church and His Church’s love for Him, then how can we not conclude that this book of erotic poetry is anything but a picture of how God sees His zealous union with His Church and also how He desires the marriages of His children to image Him? If we spend our years in church pursuing deeper and deeper love for God and encouraging each other with ways to cultivate that passion, how could we possibly come to the conclusion that in our marriages, the “honeymoon phase” should end? May it only deepen! It may transform and morph in the felt emotion and expression of that passion, but may it ever deepen!

My nervousness in posting this was because I know full well that my assertion is a relatively uncommon one, and many people may object for any number of reasons. I truly am not trying to step on anyone’s toes or be a means by which any person feels inferior. I pray, rather, that these conclusions—which I see to be biblically grounded—would sprinkle our hearts with the refreshing water of yearning for eternal zealous love for our majestic God and the determination to ever image Him in our marriages.

NOTE: I realize that I have offered no thoughts or musings regarding how to go about the pursuit of this passion in lifelong experience. I think I will make my last post in this series deal with this.

Father, marriage was eternally conceived in Your heart as a means by which Your glory is magnified to a world that only has a hint of the depth of its meaning. Glorify Your Name to cultivate in our marriages the ever-increasing bearing forth of Who You are to a world that desperately needs You.

For the sake of Christ, amen.

Musings on Marriage: An Introduction

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” ~Ge 1.27

“The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being…. The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him…. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called “woman,” for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” ~Ge 2.7, 18, 21-25

“‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the Church.” ~Eph 5.31-32

NOTE: All biblical quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) unless I note otherwise. I have chosen the NIV for a number of reasons. First of all, its translation was completed by well over a hundred biblical scholars across denominations, theological traditions, and continents, thus greater ensuring that the translation would not be bent to any agenda. Moreover, I appreciate that it seeks a balance between word-for-word translations, which run into the problem of varying sentence structure across languages, and dynamic-equivalence translations, which are more concerned with impact on modern readers than literary form (see The Journey from Texts to Translations by Paul D. Wegner for a solid overview of translation issues).

I said in my previous post, “Skipping to the ‘Strippery’,” that I would wait about a week or so before beginning some postings on marriage, and it’s been about that time. Marriage is an incredible phenomenon that in our age, as well as in ages past, has lost so much of its intended beauty. This series of postings are intended to be reflections on the grandeur of what marriage is, what it is meant to be, and how that grandeur may be pursued. I do not feign exhaustive comprehension in what I write, but I do hope that many will be encouraged by what is offered!

From the outset I must lay some groundwork for what is to come:

Groundwork One: Marriage has always been dear to my heart. I can remember being a fifteen year old boy and wanting nothing more than to be a husband—weird. Now as a husband of about four-and-a-half years I absolutely cherish being married to the gift of God to the world that my wife is. Which brings me to an admittance: I have only been married for four-and-a-half years.

Groundwork Two: Almost anyone can tell you that if you’ve only been doing something for four-and-a-half years, you’re probably not an expert. Granted. I am not out to prove to the world that I am an expert at marriage; in fact I am not interested in my own views about what I am writing, but about God’s as He has written them in His Word. But I can tell the world with integrity that the past four-and-a-half years of my life have hands-down been the best. I am thankful every day that my wife and I share a communion the likes of which I have never experienced with another human being and continue to strive for with God. The “honeymoon phase” has never ended for us (I will be doing an entire post on the idea of the honeymoon phase), and I am more in love with Jenn than I have ever been, but nowhere near the depth to which I will be. So am I an expert at marriage? I don’t really care.  However I do know that what I have been given is pretty neat, and I am humbled by it and thankful for it daily.

Groundwork Three: I am not qualified to expound upon the wonder of this thing we call marriage. As I will argue, marriage is born and sustained in the heart of Who God is, and this profound mystery is beyond a mere man, much less me. I am a student of the Scriptures from which we draw our understanding of what marriage is and is meant to be, but in the grand scope of things I am still quite a young student. However, the Holy Spirit bears testimony to my heart that I am His, and I submit these entire reflections on His Word to Him. Much greater men than me (and women, as well) have delved into these matters and their resources are vast and worthwhile, however, I hope that my postings will contain no less truth—that is, I pray that everything I say is grounded in the Scriptures of God and is faithful to what He has revealed. (I’m going to try to steer clear of discussing children, not simply because I have none, but because I do not anticipate these posts going that direction.)

Groundwork Four: In light of what has already been written, these postings on marriage are explicitly Christian. I would be tarrying on the surface rather than the depth of the subject at hand were I not to boldly march forth with the proclamation of what I understand to be the truth of marriage, namely that it is grounded in, sustained by, and in existence for God. I hope that readers who would not consider themselves servants of Jesus would find these postings accessible, but I do need to be up front about their nature.

Groundwork Five: These postings reflect where I am on my journey of understanding what God has proclaimed about marriage. I will be growing in my knowledge and experiential understanding as I post, and I will be growing for the rest of my life. However, my aim is that throughout time I would not shift in my position on these things, but that my knowledge and experience of them would only deepen. (I do seek full submission to God, however, which means that I desire to shift any personal position should it be made plain to me by God through any means that I err in my understanding.)

Groundwork Six: As a current intern of marriage and family therapy and hopefully a counselor and (Lord willing) minister of the Gospel for the rest of my days, I anticipate that these things will be very relevant to future ministry contexts. As such, and with at least the possibility of publication in some capacity in years to come, if anything in my postings (all of them, not simply the ones on marriage) looks, sounds, or is original (whatever that means these days ), please don’t steal it. Just consider it subject to generic copyright.

Groundwork Seven: All postings in this series of indefinite length will be titled “Musings on Marriage:,” however the post-colon title will vary as is relevant to the current post.

Having laid the groundwork for however many posts on marriage there will be, I’ll spend this introduction simply making some observations about the texts at the beginning of the article. (I only chose three texts from numerous passages throughout Scripture, however these will suffice for the task at hand, I believe.) The first thing to be understood about marriage is that it has to do with human beings who image God. Much has been written and speculated about the doctrine of the imago Dei, or image of God. However one thing that is beyond dispute is the fact that God decided to create human beings in His image—which is to say that He decided to create human beings to proclaim by their very nature truth about Who He is—and that He chose to do this by creating humanity as male and female.

Having created humanity male and female and using the language God does in describing this imaging, it may be said that the fullest expression, or image, of God that humans can have is when they together—male and female—image Him. That is, whatever imaging God is and whatever that means in the human experience, it is an incomplete imaging if two distinct genders do not come together in some way—each bringing something to the table—to reflect back to God something of Who He is; and this is for His pleasure (we understand that this reflecting to Him brings Him pleasure, as He saw that what He had made was “very good” [Ge 1.31]).

A second observation from our texts that appropriately follows on the heels of the previous one is that God desires man AND woman to display His nature—not just man; not just woman. As is frequently noted here, neither man nor woman by themselves bear the image of God in the fullest way that humans can bear that image. This does not mean, nor will I ever advocate, that married people glorify God more than non-married people, however it does call for some considerations about what bearing the image of God means within the broader community of the Church, not just within marriage. But at base, the observation holds true in marriage in particular, that something unique happens in displaying God’s nature when men and women stand together in the imaging.

The third observation from the text is that even though woman was physically taken out of man (Ge 2), God simultaneously declares that man and woman together bear His image (Ge 1). Now, certain schools of thought have claimed that some portions of Scripture, and at the very least the Genesis account of creation and the Fall, reads too much like ancient near-Eastern myth to be a record of factual events. This, I believe, is a dangerous, unfounded, and indefensible claim with profound ramifications. I will pay it no heed beyond noting it here, and in doing that I simply desire to point out that the Genesis 2 passage in no way cancels out or overrides the Genesis 1 passage. We are given two facts: 1) God images Himself in man and woman, and 2) He created woman out of man. This, I believe, precludes any notion that man has greater value than woman, or that woman has greater value than man. The genders are inherently equally magnificent as God’s creation.

Taking the union between Adam and Eve to be normative as a pattern for all subsequent marriages (which I think the Ephesians text evidences), my fourth observation is that when a man and a woman come together in marriage, the union is so deep and so mysterious that the two are said to be one flesh! Without spending time on this, let me simply say that this deep truth plays throughout Scripture and has incredible bearing on marriage issues, not the least of which is divorce (I cannot go there now).

Observation five: Marital nudity—that is, private nudity between husband and wife—is GOOD, GOOD, GOOD! Love it.

Another fundamental observation, which is not intended as a slam on anyone or a statement of bigotry, but only of fact, is that marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman. It is not a thing for any other combination of persons, but solely for one man and one woman. (I am acutely aware of the horrific treatment of the gay, lesbian, bi- and transexual community by the Church in many ways, and I am deeply sorry for it. I hope to at some point address this issue and associated points of conversation, however for now my observation will need to stand alone.)

My final statement before ending this long post speaks to all three passages and builds on observations not only from them, but from the entire biblical corpus; it is a fundamental truth that will run through my entire writings on the subject. I’m not one to re-invent the wheel, so because I cannot say it better than Pastor John Piper over at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, I’ll let him make the final statement: “The most ultimate thing we can say about marriage is that it exists for God’s glory. That is, it exists to display God. Now we see how: Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to the church. And therefore the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists” (see “Staying Married is Not About Staying in Love, Part 1″ at www.desiringgod.org).

Because I’m not in a rush and because this topic is vital in so many ways, I’ll try to stick to a pattern of posting once a week, at most. I welcome interaction via the blog, Facebook, or personal e-mail.

Father, You crafted something magnificent when You brought marriage into existence. You do something deep and beyond comprehension when You unite a husband and wife. I would ask now that You open my eyes and the eyes of those reading, Holy Spirit, to the truth of Your Word as You reveal Yourself and Your design for this thing we know as marriage. Magnify Jesus, and forge in us His very image as we with deepest joy submit ourselves to You. Keep me, Father, from writing words that do not represent the very truth of Your Self-revelation. Where I err, forgive me and show me, that I may repent. Only proclaim Yourself supreme!

For the sake of Jesus I pray, amen.

Skipping to the “Strippery”

I have lived in Portland for about six-and-a-half years now. I moved up from the Bay Area to go to college, and met and married the most incredible woman that this planet has to offer (okay, I’m a little biased). While I didn’t at all care for Oregon when I got here, the fact that this woman was born and raised here was irrefutable evidence that this state can’t be half bad. So I stayed.

One of the things about Oregon, and perhaps Portland in particular, is the higher-than-average presence of sex industry influences. For example, where I went to college—right down the street from Portland’s “red light district”—every couple of blocks or so you were likely to find a gentlemen’s club, a private erotic massage parlor, an adult entertainment shop, or a strip club (which I call a “strippery”). Over the years, and particularly in the past two or three, I have realized just how popular strip clubs are, both for men and for women (most whom would not confess Christ, and perhaps one or two who loosely might). It is not uncommon for many people to unwind after a long day by getting a bunch of people together to go to a strippery for late night dinner and drinks. The fact of the matter: It’s just the culture around here.

My intention in this post is not to condemn or judge people who skip to the strip club as a way of unwinding or just hanging out with friends. In fact, I deeply cherish and love my friends who frequent the “booby bars,” as they are sometimes called. However, each time I hear about these escapades my insides jumble up and my mind races with distress-induced adrenaline. The three primary questions that recurrently come to my mind, which are not to my mind questions that are bound to any particular belief system (i.e., I’m not preaching here), are these:

1. Do you know what a person has to believe about people in order to go to a strip club?

2. Do you know what happens to a person’s brain when engaging in these activities?

3. Do you know what happens to a person’s relationships, both present and future, when engaging these things?

Without spending too much time (I hope!), I’m going to articulate a few thoughts in relation to each question and then call it good.

Question One: Do you know what a person has to believe about people in order to go to a strip club?

This question, while posed in relation to strip clubs, actually generalizes (as do all of these questions) to hiring strippers for bachelor parties, as well as the personal and public viewing of pornographic materials in general. The following are some beliefs and/or assumptions about people—and statistically about women in particular—that a person (male or female) must hold in order to engage in strip club culture:

~People can be viewed as explicitly sexual objects; while they may have thoughts and feelings of their own, these may appropriately be seen as expendable for the sake of personal erotic pleasure.

~People may be dissected into parts depending on the context. While a holistic view of persons (i.e. people are psycho-social/ emotive/ rational/ physical/ spiritual beings) may best represent who people are, not all of these factors are equally important, and certainly may be ignored for the sake of a paying customer’s sexual pleasure.

~It is valid to pursue sexual satisfaction outside the realm of life-long committed love. Even though most people do not have sex with strippers, they are seeking mental—and almost certainly physical (masturbation after viewing, etc.)—sexual satisfaction with someone outside of a committed loving relationship.

~A person’s nakedness is not really an intimate thing to be cherished, but rather gawked at. It’s not a far leap to then say that no part of a person’s body is truly intimate, nor that people are inherently worth cherishing.

~Dignity has a price, namely a stripper’s wage plus tip.

~Sexuality is not ultimately the expression of committed love between two people. Rather, it is something that may involve expressing committed love, but also may encompass self-fulfilling pleasure-seeking through seeing the most intimate parts of another apart from relationship or acquaintance (much less committed love).

~The short-term benefits of sexual pleasure outweigh the long-term costs (which brings us to our next question).

These are just some assumptions or beliefs that a person needs to hold to willingly and happily visit the strippery. As far as I can tell, people will fall into one of three camps in relation to the above set of beliefs: 1) They don’t agree with the assumptions and therefore feel discomfort or dirtiness on some level when engaging strip culture (this is called hypocrisy); 2) they don’t agree with the assumptions but just don’t care (this too is called hypocrisy, but with more disturbing implications); 3) they agree with the aforementioned beliefs and naturally see no disconnect between personal beliefs/values and “strip clubbing.” (My guess is that someone who unwinds at strip clubs and has read this far does not fall into the latter two categories, which is hopeful.)

Question Two: Do you know what happens to a person’s brain when engaging in these activities?

The smallest unit of the human brain is called a neuron. The way the brain works and translates into the functioning human body is that neurons “talk” to each other, forming countless neural net pathways. Over time, our early relationships as well as our experiences literally shape our brains, including the neural net pathways that get activated as we go about our lives. (Some neat books that talk about this in some depth are Louis Cozolino’s The Neuroscience of Human Relationships and Daniel Siegel’s The Developing Mind.) Have you ever had a bad habit you couldn’t shake, or reacted to something the same way over and over again, even though you didn’t know why? That’s most likely because your brain has been conditioned through experiences and relationships, or just good old repetition (“practice makes perfect” sound familiar), to work a certain way.

With that tiny crash course in one aspect of brain functioning under our belts, let’s talk about what happens when engaging the sex industry, whether via “stripperies,” magazines, movies, or the Internet. Psychiatrist Jeffery Satinover has outlined the effects of sex industry indulgence: The same neurological pathways (neural net pathways) that are activated when using drugs such as heroin and cocaine are activated when viewing sexually explicit forms of “entertainment.” The difference is that where opioids and other drugs can be detoxed out of the body, these neural net pathways become easily activated (think magazine racks and the abundance of material available with the click of a mouse), and, as sexual trauma specialist Mary Anne Layden has noted, the images and experiences stay in the mind for years on end. See http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/11/65772

In effect, “skipping to the strippery” is the willful submission of the brain to re-wiring and, in effect, drug addiction. What is left, as with other drugs, is the need for higher doses and more intense fixes in order for satisfaction to be achieved. But if this is true…

Question Three: Do you know what happens to a person’s relationships, both present and future, when engaging these things?

I maintain a strong belief that has been validated by research and can be attested to by (thankfully) countless thousands of couples worldwide, including my wife and me: The most satisfying sexual relationship a person could ever know is in the context of lifetime marital love, where both spouses have remained virgins until their wedding night and remain exclusively faithful to each other within marriage. This seems a radical thing to say in our modern world, but its truth remains firm nonetheless. The reason is that when two people have committed themselves only to each other and pursue every sexual pleasure to be had within the freedom of a relationship that is dedicated to thriving through any circumstance, without the worry of STDs or sexual comparison, the depth of love is nearly indescribable. Name one alternative that comes truly close to being so magnificent. You cannot.

(NOTE: I am well aware that what I have just described is an irretrievable fantasy to many who have compromised such a reality. However, I am a strong advocate of the idea of second virginity, namely that whatever one’s sexual past [for the most part], a decision may be made to move forward in the pattern of what has just been held up as the highest form of romantic love. This second virginity is a powerful thing, indeed.)

So what do “strip clubbing” or other erotic activities have to do with relationships? After all, isn’t it just good old fashioned American fun?

Not so much.

For one thing, research has shown that to consumers of the sex industry, what is viewed as “normal” sexuality is distorted in a fundamental way. Let me paint a realistic picture: Bob works at an office where he can easily activate erotic material with the click of his mouse. He does. He’s aroused. He goes to the local gentlemen’s club for lunch. Later he goes home to his wife, Betty. Bob wants to make love to Betty, so they undress and hop into bed. Bob thinks to himself, Betty doesn’t look like that woman I saw today at the club (to say nothing of Bob’s beer belly). Bob and Betty have sex. It isn’t like what he sees on his computer, and Betty doesn’t move like the dancer at the club. Bob is dissatisfied and in fact has a difficult time reaching climax. Furthermore, Betty—with her woman’s intuition—senses a problem and feels like she’s not enough. Bob and Betty’s marriage suffers.

I hope you don’t think the above scenario is far-fetched, because it’s not—it happens all over the world everyday. The fact of the matter is that going to strip joints and viewing elicit material has been positively linked by research (not to mention by the testimonies of thousands of spouses) to harmful impact upon relationships. We see it in therapy all the time. We don’t see it in pop culture. It’s not interesting news, and the powers that be make a living by marketing their products via erotic stimulation. But here is the news on this stuff: Alan Sears, former executive director for the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, said, “Pornography depicts women and other persons as a subspecies of the human race to be used, to be abused, and to amuse.” This is at base another belief you have to hold to be consistent with yourself in engaging the industry. Think this isn’t relational arsenic? Think again.

Wrapping it Up

I’m well aware that this has been my longest post to date, and I hope it will be among the longest I write. However, to be perfectly honest with you, this issue eats at me; it was in part for the expression of these thoughts that I began this blog. And not because I’m on my high horse seeking to play the part of judge; I personally know the One Whose position that is, and I have no desire to flip-flop roles. But we live in a culture where this is the norm, and I—like so many men both within and outside the Church—have a personal history with some of this stuff. (And by the grace of God, literally, it is just that—history.) Wherever we look the sex industry is asking to enter our lives to rip apart the good. It’s enticing, and it is deadly.

I anticipate an argument that I have run into: But strippers choose to be strippers, so how can we be doing any harm to them, really? I would be more than happy to post further in addressing this question in particular. But someone will have to post a request.

Anyway, in light of the length of this post I will wait for at least a week before posting again. Actually, I think I’m going to do a short series of posts regarding some reflections I’ve been mulling around regarding marriage. Stay tuned!

Sincerely in love,

Rick

A Blip About the Tip

As many or most of you know, I have been a restaurant server in order to help support my family through college and graduate school. One of the realities of life that my eyes have been opened to is the general trend of poor tipping among Christians. I was at the restaurant a couple of months ago when a good friend of mine, who is a strong Christian woman and a great server, received an extremely low tip (floating around 5%) and a Christian gospel tract. At the bottom of the tract was the name and address to a church in the area, inviting the recipient of the tract to join them for worship.

Now some of you who know me well probably realize that this is not something I could just keep silent about. Daily God is growing me in my love for Him (blessed be His Name for this grace!), and also in love for His people–the Church–my brothers and sisters in Christ. So I wrote a letter to the church whose address was at the bottom of the tract in an effort to inform my siblings of the detrimental nature of the gesture of which my friend was the recipient. Here’s most of the letter:

“Greetings!

My name is Rick, and I am first of all your brother in Jesus. I am also a part-time server at a local restaurant while finishing grad school to become a Christian counselor.

I am writing to your church today regarding something that happened to a friend of mine at the restaurant early this past week. She was serving a table that left her a gospel tract flyer that on the front had the Bill Gates quote, ‘If you are born poor that is not your mistake; but if you die poor that is definitely your mistake,’ and on the back a form of gospel presentation with the endorsement of your church on the bottom. Along with this piece of paper was a tip of $1.75 on a bill of about $30. This is slightly more than a 5% tip.

Thankfully my friend is a strong believer who was able to shake her head in disbelief at the representation of the Church through such an act. However, it does force us to raise the question of how we are presenting Christ. I am not writing to slam your church in any way, as I am encouraged by your Church’s commitment to magnify Christ to the world as evidenced by your website. I am writing, however, to encourage you to take into consideration ways in which you can exhort your congregation to think about what magnifying Christ means in EVERY facet of life; even tipping at a restaurant (and ESPECIALLY if a tract is going to be left with the tip).

You see, having been in the restaurant industry for a number of years while going through college and graduate school I have seen the abundance of damage that is done by Christians going out after church and tipping horrifically. In fact, our restaurant is having trouble staffing itself on Sunday mornings precisely because of this problem. Non-Christians see what church-goers are doing with their money in the name of ’stewardship.’ I have heard it said more than once, ‘Well, my table went to church and gave my tip to God again!’ This is unacceptable and is the entire Church’s problem, not your church’s in particular.

With restaurants being a major mission field for me at this juncture of my life I am concerned with seeing the Church talk about these issues, because when push comes to shove the only interaction that many restaurant workers will have with Christians is when they serve them at work. Currently even I am discouraged in spirit when I see a table bow their head to pray, because I know that my chances of receiving a low tip have just statistically increased. However, it should be the case that we–the people of God–become servers’ greatest joy, not only by what we tip to proclaim Christ as supreme (Col 1.15-19), but also by the joy we impart to those whom we rub shoulders with outside the walls of our fellowship!

I understand that your congregation has many people with similar hearts and who are making an impact in a wonderful way for the sake of Jesus. However, this particular topic might be a good one to bring up when making available for your congregants gospel literature, as one of the primary places frequented by evangelistic literature is restaurants. I would say the same thing to my own church: ‘Please take many copies and give them liberally, but when you do it, also give liberally of joy and money (if it is a context where you are paying or tipping), because we are called to holistically proclaim Jesus as supreme!’

I thank you for walking with me in this pursuit of His glory, and I pray many blessings on your perpetual ministry!

In love and in Christ,

Rick”

I want to finish by saying that I have struggled with bitterness in the past in some regards toward the saints. But the Holy Spirit has worked on my heart in such a way that I have heard Him say in effect, “What accusation would you bring against the very Bride of Jesus, of which you are a part? Bear with your brothers and sisters in love, and seek the refinement of my Beloved, not her derision!” He is hard at work in me, and whereas I used to pretty much hate my job I now clearly see that it is not for the sake of money that I am a server, but for the sake of my refinement to the glory of Jesus.

So I post this out of a simple desire to let those who would call themselves Christian know that the world is watching. May we bear with one another in love as we move forward in sanctification by His grace, and let us deeply consider what magnifying Christ means down to the most minute details of our lives!

The Necessity of Intention

I’ve been camping out in Chronicles for the past week or so and thoroughly enjoying it. Jenn and I are doing an accelerated read-through and I am gaining a more complete picture of the ebb-and-flow of the Scriptures by doing larger chunks than normal. As I came to the end of 2 Chronicles 12 this weekend I had to pause to take in the gravity of a simple statement I read. To give some context, the chronicler is recounting the reign of King Rehoboam of Judah, Solomon’s son. Needless to say he was not as wise as his father, nor a man of God in the manner of his grandfather, David. After becoming subject to Shishak of Egypt, Rehoboam went on living in Jerusalem until the end of his reign. Then verse 14 comes along:

“He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.”

Hold it. Observation one: Rehoboam did evil. Perhaps that’s not such a stunning observation; after all, people do evil every day, and certainly a great number of kings back in the Kings and Chronicles accounts. However, observation two gives insight into observation one in a potent way. Observation two: The reason for the evil that Rehoboam did is that he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD!

My suspicion is that this verse is much more than a commentary on the life of King Rehoboam so many years ago. Rather I suspect that 2 Chronicles 12.14 is a commentary on the human condition and the necessity of intention should a person seek to know God and thus pursue the deepest delight known to man. Let me unpack what I mean.

I hold firmly to the Christian doctrine of Total Depravity, which basically holds that when sin hit the human race it fundamentally altered humanity to the core, that every single person in existence is naturally wretched and in opposition to God (see Is 64.6; Jer 17.9; Mk 10.18; Ro 1.20-32; 3.10-18; 23; 6.15-22; 1 Co 10.31; Eph 2.1-5; 8-9; and Jas 1.14-15). This naturally poses a problem when it comes to our conception of what is truly good and how a person goes about being and doing it. But total depravity isn’t the final word, thankfully.

I also unwaveringly hold that Jesus is glorious and supreme above all, that He suffered, died, and rose that through His suffering totally depraved humans may come into right relationship with Him and be radically altered in such a way that they are referred to as new creations (2 Co 5.17) whose very nature is now to do righteousness, for they are in Christ.

Which brings me back to the necessity of intention. Taking the commentary on Rehoboam seriously and generalizing it not only to humanity but to myself, it could very well read like this: “Rick did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the LORD.” This, frighteningly enough, painfully resonates with my experience and, I’d guess, yours too. Have you ever noticed that filthy habits are easy to form (i.e. they come naturally) and hard to break? Welcome to depravity in action. If we are not fiercely set on magnifying Christ daily, we don’t stand a chance. The world will look on as a powerless Christianity is paraded forth under the banner of Christ’s victory.

I think Paul realized this when he wrote, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Ro 12.2). You see, Paul got that even the new creations in Christ are still encased in decaying flesh that is bent toward sin. Hence the renew. Rick’s vernacular: What was made new is continually being made new. Without this setting of the spirit (by this I mean the mind and heart) upon heaven, evil will soon follow.

As a therapist I am familiar with the fact that the patterns of brain wiring in a person have a lot to do with how that person lives and loves in relationships and life. From an interpersonal neurobiological standpoint it would seem safe to say that God is calling people worldwide to seek moment-by-moment intimacy with Him, in part for the re-wiring of their flesh-bound brains, to establish new patterns of righteousness. This, I am convinced, is part of how God works out His salvation in our flesh! Speculation? Yes. But not unfounded, I think.

I’ll wrap up with a word for two different categories of people reading this entry:

For those who claim Jesus as Master and Lover: May we be a people of God not characterized by the summation of Rehoboam’s life, but by the summation of Israel’s experience under the subsequent reign of King Asa: “All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side” (2 Ch 15.15; note the contrast between Asa’s eagerly and Rehoboam’s he had not set his heart on…). Pray for the zeal and sustenance of God that it may be so of us!

For those who cannot honestly claim intimacy with God: God would have rest for you on every side. This is a word for you! The only way to find true goodness and perfect freedom is in relationship to Jesus. By the words he did evil, it is presupposed that there is an objective standard of good and evil out there, and we are held accountable for what we do, either good or evil. I would love to share with you what the good is. Pop over to my sidebar and click on the page, “The Most Important Thing You Could Ever Know.” It’ll go more in depth about these things. Be patient…it’s worth the read, I promise.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face,

Then the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace!

An Introduction…

Welcome to my blog. I think it was just a few weeks ago that I said to myself, “Self, I don’t think I ever want a blog; it’s definitely not for me.” Yet as you can see, here I am. I caved. So as my dad would say, perhaps that makes me a cave man.

I started a blog because I find that at random times I have the mental pressure of thoughts and the emotional pressure of feelings tied to those thoughts that, for whatever reason, I feel I need to get out. This seems like an appropriate avenue to do that. So maybe the greatest function of this blog is that I will get some cathartic release, but my highest hope is that it might be used as an avenue by which God is magnified and Jesus is proclaimed as Supreme. That is the purpose of my existence, in fact: to be utterly joyful in Who God is and to share that joy with others! May this be an extension–or a contribution to the realization–of that purpose.

<PAUSE> I deeply desire this blog to be accessible to everyone, whether Christian or not. I will never intend to alienate or isolate, nor to insult or shame any person. My goal is mutual growth and deeper love. I invite commentary, debate, and challenge, as well as affirmation, encouragement, and connection. I look forward to what is to come! <END PAUSE>

In light of my purpose it seems a good time to say that I am explicitly, unapologetically, wholly, excitedly and joyfully Christian to the core of my being. Now that word–Christian–is a fully loaded word, so let me explain what I mean in using it. When I say that I am wholly Christian I mean that I seek for my aforementioned purpose to be the life-consuming focus of all I do and say. (NOTE: I often don’t get it right, but I am committed to the process.) It is a total surrender of my whole existence to the glorious God Who created me for that purpose. This, I would argue, is biblical Christianity.

A lot of what I write (or maybe all of it) is derived from what I believe about life as informed by the Christian Scriptures. Some of what I may say will probably be controversial to a few or many, and certainly is not universally held by every person without exception, either within the Church or outside of it. That being the case, let me briefly offer up a non-exhaustive, off-the-top-of-my-head set of assumptions that will inform my postings and reflections:

~It’s all about Jesus; history past and history to come, eternity past and eternity future, are all about proclaiming the supremacy of God.

~Humans are finite in our being and understanding, our thinking and our feeling. Because of this…

~We are all in process of growing. We are in flux. My hope is that through this blog I might grow to emulate Jesus more fully as He is, and that through interacting with others some might come to know and love God, and those who do will grow with me to love and know Him more fully.

~My finiteness requires humility. I hope that nothing I write or post will ever stem from pride or be meant to make much of me, but rather to hold up Christ as the supreme Treasure.

~God is eternal and never-changing. He is the Absolute. Because of this, I believe that there independently exists an absolute, changeless, universal reality and truth. Through this blog and through other methods I seek (and encourage others to seek) the truth to inform and consume our lives.

~I believe this truth is communicated in part through the Christian Scriptures, and that those Scriptures function as the lens through which matters of objective truth–including morality and ethics, gender issues, you name it–are to be evaluated.

~Truth–whether found in science, philosophy, logic, literature, etc.–will always lead us to and be found in God: the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Anything that does not do this or is contrary to this reality is not ultimate, absolute truth. It may be any number of things, but it is not truth. Every position is at base a faith position. I posit that by faith in the Creator God we know and are known most fully and in truth.

~Without the truth, we cannot be truly free people.

~The sixty-six books of the Christian Scriptures are the inerrant, infallible Word of God, and the primary means by which God actively speaks to humanity.

Due to time constraints I must end this here. As I said, these are some assumptions and beliefs that will inform what I write, but not an exhaustive list.

I think I will articulate more fully where I and my wife stand by creating a page link on my sidebar to our personal confession of faith. It’s lengthy, but it will certainly explain a bit more in depth our understanding of the Scriptures, from which we derive our understanding of our purpose, which in part fuels our passions as we fall more deeply in love with God.