Category: Complementarian/Egalitarian
Loving submission: Example #1 – Marriage (sermon audio)
After some breaks for various Sunday events we’ve resumed our sermon series through the book of Ephesians – IF/THEN.
The latest sermon covers Ephesians 5:18-33.
LOVING SUBMISSION: EXAMPLE #1 – MARRIAGE
Christian Home And Family – GOING LIVE!
Introducing Christian Home and Family
I’ve been working on a new web-venture… and TODAY IS THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH! It’s a ministry endeavor aimed at using the great blessing the LORD has poured out on my family to bring an even broader blessing to others! It’s Christian Home and Family with Carey Green!
It’s designed to help followers of Christ make Christ the center of their home. Drawing on my experience of God’s grace in my own home and family, and my knowledge of the scriptures, I’m providing teaching, coaching, and resources that are truly helpful in making godly sense of the mess that family life can be.
My approach is very simple: All of life is an act of stewardship. Every believer in Christ is responsible before God to make the most of the life and resources God has entrusted them with, for His glory. Our stewardship before God over arches every aspect of who we are – spirit, soul, and body – and I’m working to help believers in Christ faithfully carry out that stewardship individually, and in respect to those under their care.
My instruction focuses on those three areas – spirit, soul, and body – and their relationship to the everyday issues of home and family life… marriage, parenting, communication, household organization, life management, education, and many others.
I truly feel this is a “calling” for me… on the same level as my calling to the Pastorate. God has placed this on my heart so strong, so heavy, and so passionately… I LOVE IT!
Christian Home and Family already includes:
- Regular blog posts (3 to 5 times a week) – subscribe!
- Topical indexes (Family Foundations, Spirit Health, Soul Health, Body Health, Marriage, Parenting, Education, Reviews)
- Resources & other services
- Parenting, marriage, or family coaching
- Prayer Wall (leave your request any time)
- On-site voice mail to leave me your question or suggestion!
Coming in the near future:
- The Christian Home and Family Podcast (debuts within the next two weeks)
- A possible “User Forum” to discuss home and family issues from a Christian perspective (what do you think… would that be helpful?)
I’m excited… but open to any and all ideas you have to shoot my way!
Your help is needed!
You can help me in the following ways…
- Use the various contact forms to shoot me suggestions or comments aimed toward helping me improve the site.
- Help me spread the word! You know and rub shoulders with many who I may never have the chance to meet. Please consider recommending the website through your social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, etc.) as well as your personal relationships.
- Help me contact guests for the podcast! I’d love to interview people like Dennis Rainey and James Dobson (if you know them, could you make the introduction?). But I’m also interested in interviewing anyone you know who has significant, Christ-honoring things to share about Christian home and family life. Could you introduce me and suggest the interview?
- Subscribe to the blog, either via email or in your favorite reader. It makes a difference to new visitors if I have 4 subscribers or 40 or 400. They will be influenced to join by your presence.
- Join in the conversation by commenting at the end of the posts. The more commenters I have, the more others are encouraged to join in.
- Share the posts you like with others, via the sharing buttons at the bottom of each one. This is another “social proof” issue, where others are more likely to share posts they see have already been shared.
- “Like” and pass along my Facebook page! – www.ChristianHomeAndFamily.com/facebook – Many people are influenced by the number of “likes” a Facebook page has. They will be more likely to check out what I’m doing if I have more “likes”…so “like” me!
- Pass along resources on the site to others! – If you find something on the Christian Home and Family website that you find helpful, pass it along!
- Add this ministry project to your prayer list! – I truly want to see the LORD do His work through these efforts… your prayers will help!
Any additional suggestions or comments?
Faithfully serve and care for your wife – one example
This is re-posted from Brian Croft’s blog – Practical Shepherding
What does it look like for a Christian man to faithfully serve and care for his wife?
The great Princeton Theologian, B.B Warfield, is known as one of the toughest, boldest, and most biblically faithful American Theologians of the late nineteenth century. Even his typical burly glare in most of his pictures would send a liberal theologian running. Because of this, it may surprise you to read of Warfield’s legendary example in his joyful, sacrificial service to his invalid wife. David Calhoun, in his book on Princeton Seminary, vividly captures this powerful example:
Through all the years of their married life Dr. Warfield faithfully cared for his invalid wife. He guarded, protected, and stood by her while carrying his full teaching load and pursuing demanding writing assignments. The seminary students often noted his gentle and loving care for Mrs. Warfield as they walked together on Princeton streets and, later, back and forth on the porch of their campus home. Finally she was bedridden and saw few people besides her husband. By his own choice Dr. Warfield became almost confined to his house; he was never away from her for more than an hour or two at a time. He set aside time to read to her every day. They left Princeton only once in the ten years before her death, for a vacation that he hoped would help her. With his excellent health and varied interests Dr. Warfield must have felt this restriction, but he never complained.
Despite Warfield’s constant care of his wife, Gresham Machen believed Warfield had done “about as much work as ten ordinary men.” Warfield, like many others, can teach us much about theology, but he may be one of just a few celebrated men of history who by his life example can squash our weak excuses of neglect and challenge us to serve our wives with consistency, sacrifice, and longevity.
New Venture… and a fun one!
In the struggle of living in this economy, I too and feeling the pinch. So… I’m working on a new endeavor to help put food on the table and do some good in people’s lives at the same time. So, I give you… “Real Men T-shirts”
You can find the store HERE
Examples of the kind of stuff I’m doing (so far) are below…
Women have to submit? One woman’s battle with the Bible
I’m finishing up a time of rest (sabbatical)
so I’ve pre-scheduled this post for your encouragement!
One of the blogs I subscribe to is the “gender blog” from the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Recently there was a great series of posts from one Christian woman about her struggle to understand and appreciate the Bible’s teaching on the dreaded “S” word – submission. I thought you might like to read it…
You can find it HERE
A book EVERY Christian woman should read (and their husbands too)
I’m on sabbatical (translation: I’m resting),
so this is a pre-scheduled post for your encouragement, education and enjoyment!
My wife has led studies through this book numerous times… and it has always yielded great fruit in the individual lives of those who have taken it seriously. I can’t recommend this book strongly enough ladies.
And men… you’d be well-served to read it too! It would help you to help your wife to actually BE the wife and mother God desires.
The Marriage Improvement Project – NEW BOOK – Now taking pre-orders!
It’s getting close! The Marriage Improvement Project is almost ready! Here’s the blurb from the back of the book…
Marriage was created by God to be a wonderful blessing, to every married couple and to the watching world… but time, sin, and our culture can make keeping your marriage in good repair difficult at best. In The Marriage Improvement Project (MIP), Pastor Carey Green draws on the word of God, his own marriage, and years of pastoral and marriage counseling to teach some of the foundational truths of how God intends marriage to be. The MIP is designed for spouses to complete separately (separate copies are helpful), with team projects to work on periodically together. In the MIP, you’ll explore…
- Marriage First
- The Unity Principle
- The Cleaving Principle
- Communication is Key
- Attacking Anger
- The Wife’s Role
- The Husband’s Role
- The Principle of Sexual Sanity
I’m very excited about this book. It’s been a very long time in the making, and came out of my own need for a helpful resource to use in my ministry in counseling couples regarding their marriage. My plan is to make the E-book version a free download (available by October 1, 2011), and the hard-copy book available for a cost (just to cover the printing and shipping costs, plus a small additional profit per book). At $9.00 for one and $16.00 for two (it’s designed for each partner in the marriage to have their own copy), it’s WAY cheaper than most books of this nature and size (243 pages).
Pre-orders are now being taken… you can find out about that on my Free Resources – Growth Resources page.
Please pray that the Lord will use this book to bring about a better representation of His love for people, through the marriage OF His people! And pass the word along to those you think may benefit from this resource! I’d love to give away 1000 copies by the end of the 2011 year!
Marriage Improvement Project book… ALMOST READY!
I’m excited. Really excited! A book I’ve been working on for a couple of years is finally almost ready! The Marriage Improvement Project should be ready to “go to print” for hard copies, and be available for free download here on my blog site within the month.
My friend Craig is working on the final modifications to the book cover (I can’t believe how cool and great it looks!), and the text is in its final proofing phase. I’ve used this material in various forms over the last 4 years in my personal ministry and have found it to be very helpful and fruitful.
Please pray with me for the final steps in getting this book ready…
Gospel Centered Manhood – written by a woman!
One of the many blogs I subscribe to, and scan each morning is called Practical Theology for Women (no, I’m not having gender-identity issues… just know a good resource when I see it). Anyway, today’s article was particularly relevant… and I wanted you to read it…
YOU CAN FIND IT HERE!
Male / Female differences seen in what “naturally” happens
On Monday I was all day in the Milwaukee airport, waiting for a flight that evening. I had plenty of time to observe people, see various types of interactions, and ponder…
Airports are places of extreme happiness (glad reunions) and extreme sadness (tearful partings). I noticed one parting in particular that gave me reason to ponder the interesting and God-created differences between men and women.
There was a young couple that I figured out had spent the summer together as part of a drum and bugle corp (they both had corp T-shirts, and were with a group of friends the same age that had the same shirts). If you don’t know about drum and bugle corps, they are summer-long marching bands that compete on a very intense level. You can find plenty of video examples on Youtube (and I’ll post a video at the end of this post).
Anyway…
I watched the young couple saying goodbye outside the gate… the young lady’s head was buried in the young man’s chest as she cried. He held her, gently stroking her hair from time to time and kissing her forehead. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he was obviously speaking tender words to her, trying to comfort the pain she felt at their parting.
What struck me was this… what would I feel like, or what would it seem like to other observers if the roles were reversed? What if the young man was the one crying, burying his head on the shoulder of the young woman? What if HE was the “weaker” one, the emotionally distraught one who needed consoling? What if SHE were the “stronger” one, speaking words of encouragement and consolation to him, rubbing his back, stroking his hair?
Something in me would be repulsed by that scene. I’d probably feel physically ill. Really. It would be that gross to me.
God has made men and women to BE men and women… and that includes all the difficult and glorious differences between them. When each of them is what they were created to be, it feels as natural as the sunshine… to them and to everyone observing. When they are not, something is clearly wrong – and everyone knows it.
Here’s a video the Drum and Bugle Corps I mentioned…
