How does God use our marriages to change us? To grow us in holiness? To reveal our sins and shortcomings and encourage us to look only to Christ for satisfaction? How can we gain clearer vision, that we might see God at work in our marriages and come to embrace the everyday grace of the gospel? How can my marriage be rescued from its primary nemesis - my own selfishness?

"You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!"

This past Wednesday, I got to see God's answer to Islam.

In honor of mothers and godly women everywhere . . . I offer up this second blog post in the series.

With Mother's Day on the near horizon, ladies dear to me are on my mind. My wife is amazing. She is my favorite mom and woman in the whole world. I mean no offense at all to my own mother, whom I love and try to honor. She brought me into this world! But I also know that God says a man is to leave his father and mother and cling unto his wife (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:5). So, I don't think my own mother would even expect me to say anything other than, "My wife is the best woman I know!"

Doctors take an oath to "do no harm." Pastors can empathize.

This video was created from actual photographs NASA has taken of the sun over the last five years. Prepared to feel very small and give big praise to the Creator of all things. Our great God made the sun and continues to sustain it as He made and sustains us. To watch this video and not give praise to God is to deny the plain and clear truth. It is just another reminder that God, the maker of all things, is worthy of more praise than we could ever give. It is ludicrous to believe that just by accident, just coincidentally, this incredible star is just the right distance from Earth to sustain life. Countless explosions dance upon the sun's a massive surface because it was designed to do so by our sovereign Lord. I encourage you to watch this and then spend some time in prayer. Praise Him for His incredible creativity and perfect planning of the universe. Praise Him for Jesus who not only created all things and sustains all things, but humbled Himself to become a man, live a perfect life and die for sinners like us! Praise Him!

I was in a waiting room and began to read the March cover story of National Geographic (available here) when I came across the following two sentences,

I hardly recognize the country I served honorably as a United States Marine (1995-2000). I hardly recognize the military of my beloved country, for that matter! What in the world is going on?