Currently in my sermon series in 1Peter I am in a section I've entitled "Marriage for Exiles." This last week was certainly interesting preaching on the submission of a wife to her husband. I felt it was necessary, but still I regretted having to spend over half of the sermon defending Peter's command against the common misconception of these verse as something despotic and oppressive of women. I regretted not having more time to speak of the wonders of God's creation and order of the marriage roles, particularly how it illustrates the covenant relationship between Christ and the church.

I'm planning to speak of these things at this coming Wednesday's prayer meeting. I'm going to show this video as well. What a powerful picture of the covenant love of our Lord and Savior and the commitment of the church to her husband, Christ.

Also, here is a link to the book mentioned in the video. It is a free download offered by Desiring God. "This Momentary Marriage" by John Piper.

The last two Sundays I preached from 1 Peter 2, in which we are instructed to obey the government authorities that have been instituted by God. I briefly pointed out that Peter mentioned we are to obey "for the Lord's sake." I said that this shows us that God is our ultimate authority, above the government. When the government crosses the line of enforcing or promoting sin we ought not obey but respond in appropriate measures with biblical wisdom. Abortion is one of those issues. Here is a short but very powerful video that expresses an example of such things.

I recently stumbled upon a great blog post, Common Parent Traps by John MacArthur. In short the traps are Focusing on Behavior, Focusing on Environment, and Focusing on Self-Esteem. Instead of focusing all of your parenting efforts on these issues, we ought to Focus on the Heart, emphasizing our children's need for Jesus and his gospel of grace.