In this review of Getting Serious About Getting Married, Lynn Barton agrees that Christians, and Christian parents, and Christian churches, might be making some big mistakes in that trip down the aisle

"There has to be a better way to arrive at the altar than through all this hurt."

So thought Debbie Maken, after yet another dating relationship ended and she found herself at age twenty-eight, wondering whether she would ever get married.

Barb Thomas (and her family) on the fight for sexual purity, especially among Christian young people

In late October, 2003, southern California was dry as a bone. Weeks of 100 degree weather had turned nearly all the vegetation into brittle, brown spikes. One flash of lightning later, followed by a road flare from a lost hiker, and this parched area was ignited into a huge wildfire. Within days it had turned into a firestorm. Seven weeks later, 26 people had lost their lives, four counties and 750,000 acres were burned,

My wife worries this will scare all the boys off. Oh, no: wouldn't that be a shame?

This article is directed to unmarried women, whether young and in their fathers’ households, older and on their own, or widows who would like to remarry. The principle is that you must guard your heart so that it does not become entangled emotionally without the protection of a covenant. Many of these exhortations that follow may seem a trifle negative, but believe me, the results will be positive.

Many reformed singles are looking desperately for their perfect life partner. They agonize over whether to join an online dating service. I know a man who stayed at a church only long enough to check out all the prospects. Some go to a Christian counselor for help in finding their life partner. Maybe you are not like those mentioned above. But then again maybe you find yourself somewhere in there.

We now come to the beginning of the Lord’s ministry in Judea (v. 1). As in Galilee, it is characterized by teaching the people. The first subject to be addressed in this section is the much-troubled question of divorce and remarriage. We see here, as elsewhere, the close connection between the two great commandments.

"And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again . . ." (Mark 10:1-16).

Martin Luther, the German Reformer, is generally remembered as the theological professor, the Bible translator, the writer, even as the composer of hymns. However, Martin Luther was also a husband and a father of six children. He provided the church its first and most prominent example of a pastoral family.

Paul is rather clear in the end of Ephesians chapter 5. He draws a striking parallel between Jesus and the church, and husbands and wives. He calls on husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her. And there we tend to stop. Jesus died for us, that we might have peace with God. A godly husband, then, is one who is ready and willing to lay down his life for his wife, if such an occasion should ever arise. A godly wife is one who submits to her own husband. A godly husband, or so we think, is one who is willing to take a hypothetical bullet for his bride.

“This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.” (John 2:11)

I have more than once had occasion to observe, that the chief end St. John had in view, when he wrote his gospel, was to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ, [that Word, who not only was from everlasting with God, but also was really God blessed for evermore] against those arch-heretics Ebion and Cerinthus, whose pernicious principles

The problem can come about in many different ways. Perhaps a couple marry when both were non-Christians, and he later becomes a Christian. Perhaps he was a believer who disobediently married an unbeliever. He repents later, but he remains married. Perhaps husband and wife are both professing believers, but through his abdication of godly authority, she has backslidden to the point that he simply does not know how to lead her. Most married Christian men are not in this position, but at the same time we cannot say the problem is extremely rare.