Review: The Intimate Marriage

RC Sproul. The Intimate Marriage: A Practical Guide to Building a Great Marriage.  Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, March 31^st, 2017. 163 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

How is your marriage doing?  Are you growing in loving each other and also growing in godliness?  Do you desire to read a book that would help you strive to grow in these areas for your marriage?  If so this book is for you.  I realize the title of the book might sound its about sex but it isn’t solely on sex, though it does talk about that subject for one of the chapters.  It’s really a book on godly love between a husband and wife and what does God’s way looks like.  My wife and I immensely enjoyed this work.  I found this work very helpful so much so that I incorporated some of the insights of the book into my twenty four session series on marriage difficulties.

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Your Marriage and the Church Part 2

Purpose: Today we will see a general principle and five responsibilities your marriage has towards the church so that you serve God through the church as your life style.

1. General Principle: Serve God together as husband and wife
2. Responsibility 1: Disciple others
3. Responsibility 2: Encourage others to serve God
4. Responsibility 3: Host Church and Bible Studies
5. Responsibility 4: Exercise Your Spiritual Gifts
6. Responsibility 5: Counsel others

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Handling Criticism in Marriage Series: Table of Contents

This series has been very edifying for me to work on and also our church has been really blessed when I went over it in various contexts (couple’s meeting, counseling and mid-week fellowship).

Below is the table of contents of this series.  I have also included as a PDF below as well.

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Your Marriage and the Church Part 1

Purpose: Today we will see three four reason why your marriage needs to be involved with the church so that we will grow in God through the church as part of our life.

1. Reason #1: Going to church show your family that God is important
2. Reason #2: Husbands learn God’s Word through the Church
3. Reason #3: Wives benefit from the husband under the authority of the church
4. Reason #4: The Church encourage and guides those who are married

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Review: Help! I’m in a Painful Marriage

Carrie Foldberg. Help! I’m in a Painful Marriage. Wapwallopen, PA: Shepherd Press, December 3rd 2018. 64 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Are you in a difficult marriage or know someone who is in a painful marriage who can benefit from a booklet that would apply biblical counseling to the situation?  This work is a helpful resource; don’t underestimate its size!  It is the second title that I read from Shepherd Press’ “Lifeline Mini-books” series and thus far this series have really impressed me.

I read this and discussed it with my wife after she read it.  My wife pointed out to me that the author in the introduction mentioning her own struggle in her marriage was really helpful to build a bridge with any reader that might be going through marriage difficulties.  This is followed by four chapters in the book.  Chapter One is titled “Why Does My Marriage Hurt So Much?” and goes over what God’s design for marriage looks like.  Chapter two is about bringing Jesus into the picture of your marriage while chapter three explores further of how Jesus is our example in dealing with marriage pain.  Chapter four gives us more personal application.  After the conclusion the book also gives personal application projects that’s helpful for applications.

I really enjoyed the author’s call for readers to look towards Christ.  She also did a good job bringing verses to bear in a way that makes readers look towards God and Christ but also give hope.  This is a resource for someone in marriage difficulty but also for any married couple to read too.  I recommend it, and give this a five out of five.

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Handling Criticism in Marriage Part 3: Assessing Criticism

Handling Criticism in Marriage Part 3: Assessing Criticism

Selected Scripture

 

Review:

First session we saw that according to the Bible you shouldn’t defend yourself too quickly in order to help us handle criticism biblically in our marriage.

Second session we want to look at three imperatives in terms of your goal with how you are to handle criticism.

 

Purpose: In this session we want to look at how to respond to three possible outcome when we assess our spouse’s criticism about us.

1. How do we respond when we are wrong?
2. How do we respond when we are not sure if we are wrong?
3. How do we respond when we are right?

 

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Handling Criticism in Marriage Part 2: The Goal

 

Handling Criticism in Marriage Part 2: The Goal

Selected Scripture

Review: Last session we saw that according to the Bible you shouldn’t defend yourself too quickly in order to help us handle criticism biblically in our marriage.  This session we will consider what our goal should be when we hear criticism about us.

Establish the Need: When your spouse criticize you, do you know what’s your goal should be?  If you don’t you won’t know what’s the God-honoring way to respond.  This message is important for you

 

Purpose: In this session we want to look at three imperatives in terms of your goal with how you are to handle criticism.

• Make it your goal to find out if you have sinned
• Beware of the symptoms of avoiding criticism
• You must pray about the criticism

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