The Mission of Marriage

Saw a good post today at Confluence on the Mission of Marriage.

My guess is that there are a lot of Christians, including Christian leaders, who got married for the wrong reasons. We can all think of one main reason Christians get married; starts with an S and ends with an X. To be fair the Bible is not in opposition to the hurry up offense when it comes to marriage (1 Corinthians 7:9), but at some point, all Christian couples need to come to grips with the mission of Marriage or else a lifetime of disappointment awaits....

 Read it. It's worth the few minutes.

Are You Up on Spiritual Gifts?

Interesting blog series on Spiritual Gifts at the Confluence | Newfrontiers site.

Paul begins his most famous chapter on spiritual gifts saying: ‘About spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant (1 Cor 12:1).

This series will help us become educated about these exciting spiritual gifts. The three main lists of spiritual gifts in the Bible are found in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, 1 Peter 4 and Ephesians 4. There are also a few other gifts (e.g. hospitability) that seem to be genuine God-given gifts, but that are not specifically mentioned in these lists.

Whilst I try to define each gift clearly to help people recognise them, there is some overlap between the gifts, especially with gifts that are similar or complementary....

More at the link, with continuing updates coming. I recommend it.

All Life Is Worship

I needed to hear this word this morning. -- From -All Life Is Worship - Confluence:

All of life is worship. To cease worshiping is to cease living. As those created to image God, we worship… continuously. Obviously I’m not talking about singing songs or going to meetings, I’m talking about trust, hope, longing, desire, affections.

It’s impossible to turn our worship off; it’s just a matter of where we aim our worship. Whether it’s our desire for sexual satisfaction, monetary provisions, relationships, rest, comfort, or security, the outcome is the direct result of where our worship is aimed.

It’s impossible to worship God and sin at the same time. If I worship God I turn from temptation and say God is good enough, he’s great enough, he’s my comforter, my hearts desire.

More at the link.