Living The Mystery Of Marriage

This unique book will assist those called to marriage to live out the wonderful, beautiful, and challenging mystery of married love by presenting a theology, spirituality, and morality of marriage in a widely accessible level.

This unique book will assist those called to marriage to live out the wonderful, beautiful, and challenging mystery of married love by presenting a theology, spirituality, and morality of marriage in a widely accessible level. Dr. Perry Cahall encourages both engaged and married couples to understand the real nature and purpose of marriage as God has created it. He includes insightful "Self-Discovery" discussion questions to help couples process presented information. "Questions That Might Be on Your Mind" will also engage the reader through the "real world" issues couples confront today.

In his now-classic volume, offered for the first time in trade paperback, Mike Mason makes a poetic search for understanding of the wondrous dynamics of committed love. In highly readable, first-person style, Mason muses on everyday miracles within marriage, and frankly addresses the demands to self which true oneness requires. "A marriage is not a joining of two worlds," says the author, "but an abandoning of two worlds in order that one new one might be formed." Rich chapters on "Otherness," "Vows," "Intimacy," "Sex," and "Submission," lift readers above the mundane in coupledom to view the eternal, spiritual nature of setting out on this faith-filled, "impossible," wild -- yet wonderful -- frontier.

This remarkable study offers a comprehensive explanation of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the sacrament of marriage. Incorporating the rich insights found in St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, Dr. Cahall presents a theology of marriage that incorporates the biblical, systematic, pastoral, and historical traditions which have shaped our understanding of this sacrament.

Before we examine the nature, the meaning, and the beauty of Christian marriage (which St. Paul calls "a great mystery in Christ and the Holy Church"), we shall examine the essence and meaning of marriage in the realm of nature, and its specific character in reference to all other fellowships and communities. Only in this way can we understand what was so gloriously exalted by Jesus Christ and thus dispel the misinterpretations of the nature of marriage so frequently encountered. Why does Holy Scripture choose this particular relationship as an image? It is chosen because marriage is the closest and most intimate of all earthly unions in which, more than in any other, one person gives himself to another without reserve, where the other in his complete personality is the object of love, and where mutual love is in a specific way the theme (that is to say, the core) of the relationship.

"This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." — Ephesians 5:32 Marriage reveals something of eternal significance. From the beginning, God designed marriage to convey a greater reality—the passionate, unfailing, redeeming love of God for sinners, the eternal romance between Christ and his bride. In this volume, Ray Ortlund traces marriage throughout Scripture—from the first marriage in the garden of Eden to the ultimate marriage in the book of Revelation—laying out a transcendent vision of marriage that dignifies our own imperfect unions as a display of the gospel. This book offers insight and hope to every married person today. Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series.

"People say our marriage is impossible." Laurie and Matt Krieg are in a mixed-orientation marriage: a marriage in which at least one partner's primary attraction isn't toward the gender of their spouse. In the Kriegs' case, Laurie is primarily attracted to women—and so is Matt. Some find the idea of mixed-orientation marriage bewildering or even offensive. But as the Kriegs have learned, nothing is impossible with God—and that's as true of their marriage as anyone else's. In An Impossible Marriage, the Kriegs tell their story: how they met and got married, the challenges and breakthroughs of their journey, and what they've learned about marriage along the way. Christianity teaches us that marriage is a picture of Jesus’ love for the church—and that's just as true in a mixed-orientation marriage as in a straight one. With vulnerability and wisdom, this book lays out an engaging picture of marriage in all its pain and beauty. It's a picture that points us, over and over again, to the love and grace of Jesus—as marriage was always meant to do.

Reflecting on forty years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant for all the best reasons. Even in the days when people commonly stayed married "'til death do us part," there has never been a generation whose view of marriage was high enough, says Pastor John Piper. That is all the more true in our casual times. Though personal selfishness and cultural bondage obstruct the wonder of God's purpose, it is found in God's Word, where his design can awaken a glorious vision capable of freeing every person from small, Christ-ignoring, romance-intoxicated views. As Piper explains in reflecting on forty years of matrimony: "Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It's mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ's covenant-keeping love on display." This Momentary Marriage unpacks the biblical vision, its unexpected contours, and its weighty implications for married, single, divorced, and remarried alike.