Topic Archives: Marriage & Family

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. (Proverbs 31:10) Richard Baxter, the tireless, heavenly minded Puritan minister of the seventeenth century, was a confirmed bachelor,1 devoting himself completely to the ministry of the gospel in Kidderminster, England. When going there in 1641 the parish was notorious for godlessness and […]

The Foreword to Kenneth B. Wingate’s new Banner of Truth book1 There is a long and honourable tradition in the English-speaking world of lawyers who have distinguished themselves not only in their profession as attorneys, but in the exemplary way in which they have served their cities, states and nations with great distinction. The southern […]

God created man in his own image. (Genesis 1:27) On the sixth day of creation, after making cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts, Elohim, in a marvellous intra-Triune council decided to create man in his own image. The word ‘image’ in Hebrew literally means to cut from a stone, much like what Michelangelo did when […]

But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. (Genesis 9:23). Noah was a righteous man, called by God to bring the animals into the ark, along with his wife, three sons and their wives, in order to preserve the […]

Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:25) Any Christian husband knows that obeying this command is an awe-filled, humbling task. Our tendency is to err in one of two directions. Some of us abdicate while others dominate. You are abdicating your responsibilities to your wife […]

Wives, be subject to your own husbands. (Ephesians 5:22). There is perhaps no one biblical command more misunderstood, maligned, or mocked in our culture. This is true for at least two reasons. First, none of us like to be told what to do. It’s in our DNA. Don’t you silently become irritated when officials verbally […]

From the ‘one flesh’ teaching about marriage (Eph. 5:22-33) Paul draws out the wonder and the glory of Christ’s relationship with the church. In verse 28 Paul is exhorting husbands to love their own wives as they love their own bodies. It would hardly please a wife to hear her husband say that he loves […]

. . . the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and your wife by covenant. [Malachi 2:14] Every Christian man knows pornography is sinful and that it will rob his soul of vitality, destroying his marriage and […]

Definition, Indications and Motivations Surrogate gestational motherhood1 can be defined as an arrangement where one woman carries a pregnancy to term for another woman who is either unable or unwilling to do so. There are two types of surrogate mothers. The one type is ‘partial surrogacy,’ in which the surrogate mother is also the genetic […]

We hear a lot about unconditional love these days – “Jesus loves you, no strings attached,” etc. Does God love unconditionally? Can Christian parents love their children even if these children do not wish to walk in God’s ways? In a popular children’s video series, each show ends with one of the main characters telling […]

Paul says, “An overseer must be above reproach,” (1 Timothy 3:2) and yet we hear of pastors falling into sin all too frequently. How should such pastors (and I would add Ruling Elders and Deacons) be viewed by the church and how should they be disciplined? Surely most evangelicals believe these pastors ought to be […]

It should be remembered that by the Lord’s appointments, all sorts of people can legitimately marry and receive His blessing by Palmer Robertson For some cultures today marriage is a thing of past generations. Parents and grandparents may have married but people today don’t bother with marriage. Current customs and tax-breaks don’t require it, so […]

WHY THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF COHABITATION SHOULD NOT BE EXTENDED Marriage is based on lifelong commitment and discharges these mutually beneficial tasks more effectively than cohabitation A bill has been introduced in parliament by Lord Lester of Herne Hill calling for the legal protection of cohabitation to be extended. It comes at a time when […]

THE CAREY CONFERENCE: January 8 – 11 Swanwick. God uses that which the world despises to know God through his Son Over 100 people gathered for the annual Carey Conference at Swanwick from January 8-11. The first evening speaker was Earl Blackburn of Los Angeles who spoke on the Theology of the Cross. Earl Blackburn […]

An elder preceded the minister into the pulpit and then came to the front and addressed the congregation. “Last week…a child was bored in the service.” A gasp went through the congregation. Men looked at their feet, women cried quietly, and children went white. “The church officers are meeting with the minister during the week […]

Maybe you have no idea what daily worship involves. Maybe it’s never been part of your life, and no one has ever explained it to you or modeled it for you. Let me describe my own involvement in daily worship. When I was growing up, my parents led us in daily family worship. Before breakfast […]

Sinclair Ferguson Last thing at night, when our children were small, I often secretly watched them as they slept: there they lay, breathing rhythmically, almost imperceptibly, relaxed, at ease, enjoying “the sleep of innocence.” But man – perhaps especially a father – looks on the outward appearance. What of the heart on which God gazes? […]

It’s what mothers’ worst nightmares are made of – the last thing Jason and Trina Baker expected as they headed out into a blizzard in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on January 2, 1999. And because it was so unexpected, it was all the more horrifying when it happened. As they headed out into the gathering storm […]