For you singles out there who are considering marriage, here are some articles you ought to consider from R.C. Sproul.
God’s Will and Your Marriage:
July 18, 2009
June 27, 2009
Due to some unknown technical difficulties, this week’s Understanding Our Times internet radio program did not air at its regularly scheduled time this afternoon. I will rebroadcast this week’s program (Six Principles for the Christian Single) tomorrow at 4:00pm (CST). I apologize for the mixup.
Six Principles for the Christian Single
Is it God’s will for all people to be married? Does God have a plan or design for those who are single? Tune into this week’s program as we address this very issue. Listen in for six Biblical principles for Christian singles. This is a prerecorded message preached by our host, Kevin Thompson, at a Christian singles conference.
Broadcast – Understanding Our Times
Website - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes
Time – Sunday, June 28, at 5:00 pm EST/4:00pm CST
Length – 30 Minutes
Call-in Number - (347) 945-7171
Links - http://fbsingles.wordpress.com and http://www.bethelministries.org/singles
You can join us live Saturday evening at 6:00 pm EST, or download the broadcast in mp3 format at a time more convenient for you.
“Understanding Our Times” is an interactive, live Internet talk-radio show that focuses on current events from a distinctly Biblical worldview. Host Kevin Thompson offers listeners timely discussion of meaningful issues with a variety of different guests each week. Callers are encouraged to call (347) 945-7171 to listen or ask questions. The stream and archives are available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes. The show is live every Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. Eastern/ 3:00 p.m. PT. The show is hosted on BlogTalkRadio.
June 27, 2009
Understanding Our Times: Six Principles for the Christian Single
Posted by Kevin Thompson under Links, events, podcastLeave a Comment
Is it God’s will for all people to be married? Does God have a plan or design for those who are single? Tune into this week’s program as we address this very issue. Listen in for six Biblical principles for Christian singles. This is a prerecorded message preached by our host, Kevin Thompson, at a Christian singles conference.
Broadcast – Understanding Our Times
Website - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes
Time – Saturday, June 27, at 6:00 pm EST/5:00pm CST
Length – 30 Minutes
Call-in Number - (347) 945-7171
Links - http://fbsingles.wordpress.com and http://www.bethelministries.org/singles
You can join us live Saturday evening at 6:00 pm EST, or download the broadcast in mp3 format at a time more convenient for you.
“Understanding Our Times” is an interactive, live Internet talk-radio show that focuses on current events from a distinctly Biblical worldview. Host Kevin Thompson offers listeners timely discussion of meaningful issues with a variety of different guests each week. Callers are encouraged to call (347) 945-7171 to listen or ask questions. The stream and archives are available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes. The show is live every Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. Eastern/ 3:00 p.m. PT. The show is hosted on BlogTalkRadio.
June 20, 2009
August 7-8,2009 Extreme Makeover: Soul Edition
Posted by Kevin Thompson under ConferenceLeave a Comment
You and the Single adults you minister to are invited to attend the 2009 Midwest Singles’ Conference hosted by Bethel Baptist Church in Schaumburg, Illinois.
If your heart is willing, would you pass the link www.bethelministries.org/singles via email, texting, Facebook, etc. to every single you know?
1. Every single in your church (High School graduate and older)
2. Every relative you have who is single
3. Every neighbor you know who is single
Let’s get the word out about this August 7-8 conference entitled, Extreme Makeover: Soul Edition. The featured speakers are Dr. Craig Hartman and Dr. Dave Jaspers.
Thank you for your help!
Pastor Brad Wilkinson
Singles’ Pastor
Bethel Baptist Church
Schaumburg, IL
P.S. Please encourage singles to register before July 1 – the early bird deadline. They will save $10 on their registration fee.
June 12, 2009
I found this article posted in a political forum I read from time to time. Anyone wish to comment? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
The Curse of Recreational Dating
By Robert Mallory
A teenager named Tyler Frost has made headlines in May, for being suspended from his Christian school. He violated his contract with the school by taking his girlfriend to a prom. His excuse, which he shared on “The Early Show” on CBS, was that the prom wasn’t on school property. He can hardly be blamed for coming to that conclusion. For many professing Christians in America , their Christianity begins and ends at the doors of a brick building they attend on Sunday mornings. It’s no wonder he felt he didn’t have to behave as a Christian while he was off school grounds. The story didn’t end there, as Tyler ’s father announced on the show that he’s planning a lawsuit.
This sad case underlies another problem: many Christian parents have forsaken God’s law, and along with it, the command for fathers to protect and nurture their children. We hear the pundits on Fox News tell us that we are a Christian nation, and perhaps parents feel it’s safe to send their children out into the world without any supervision or protection because of that. We were in fact founded as a Christian commonwealth when our ancestors came here. Yet all current signs (Fox News included) point to us being a Marxist democracy, rapidly marching into a government dictatorship. In no area is this more pronounced than in the destruction of the family, and the abandonment of our children to the world’s ideals.
Recreational dating is a phenomenon of 20th century Western Civilization, yet little research has been done examining the correlation between that practice and our skyrocketing divorce rates. Indeed, anyone who criticizes the practice of teenage dating is immediately branded a Puritan and their arguments are dismissed out of hand. Yet there seems to be a direct link between the practice of allowing teens to date, and the adult attitude of throwaway marriages.
Scripture tells us that it pleased Moses to dwell with Reuel, and that he kept Reuel’s flock. In exchange for that Godly labor and diligence, Reuel gave his daughter’s hand in marriage to Moses. A similar account is told of Jacob laboring for 14 years for his father-in-law, to win Rachel as his bride. We are not told that they attended chariot races together unsupervised, or that they went to an ancient prom to commit fornication before marrying.
Moses and Jacob demonstrated their character to their future father-in-laws, and this was accomplished through working for them. N othing shows a young man’s character and attitude faster than having him shovel the manure out of your horse stalls. Moses and Jacob not only proved themselves worthy of marrying and caring for their brides, they stayed married to them. They realized that marriage was for life, and that it was precious enough to work hard for it. It cost them dearly to marry, and they paid that cost. Divorce never entered into the picture.
This was the ideal for marriage for nearly six thousand years of history. The practice of laboring for the price of a bride was eventually downgraded to courtship. Young men still were not allowed around young women unsupervised, and the practice was overseen by the parents, because it was understood that a lifelong marriage was the probable outcome of it. A short visit took place in the young woman’s living room, with the door left open, and the father could walk by occasionally to check in on them, while brandishing a pistol. This continued for months, and eventually the young man would ask the father for his daughter’s hand in marriage. If he consented, the young man would propose. While this was a far cry from herding sheep for a man for seven years, the protection of the daughter was still involved. The outcome, a marriage, was still prized, and the parents had helped facilitate it. Divorce rates increased slightly during this
time, but the laws of our society still didn’t make it easy for couples to call it all off.Then along came 20th century America , and the practice of recreational dating. Courtship was now unsupervised. A young man would take his potential target out of her father’s home, and take her out to a movie or dinner, or the aforementioned prom. Slothful American fathers eventually adopted an attitude that if the young man has a driver’s license and brings his daughter home by 1:00 a.m., he’s probably trustworthy enough to take her out again. Recreational dating led to many of the attitudes which we still hear today.
Man has an uncanny ability to create excuses for his sin, and American mothers and fathers pulled off a major shift in cultural thinking, in light of letting their sons and daughters stray out of the home and into troubled waters. The practice of dating quickly evolved into the practice of dating multiple people. This in turn led to millions of heart-broken teenagers, unable to cope with the emotional strains of “true love” coming to a sudden end, often based on a whim. Rather than slapping themselves on the forehead for introducing their children to romance when they were too young, and repenting of a grievous sin, parents turned to humanistic psychology to excuse themselves. They taught their children the arguments that we still hear today when a teenage romance breaks up. “Don’t worry; there are othe r fish in the sea.” “It’s all right, you’ll find someone else.” Or the perennial favorite, “It just wasn’t meant to be. The next one will turn out better.”
Those excuses have now grown even more out of proportion, and parents explicitly tell their children when they reach “dating age” that they’re not going to be marrying the person they’re dating, and therefore shouldn’t get their hopes up. The attitude that romantic relationships can be thrown away and exchanged for new ones has been carried into adulthood by several generations of Americans now.
Our divorce rate hovers somewhere around 50 percent. The statistics are different depending on who does the counting, but we see the picture clearly. Marriage is no longer something that Western Civilization values in any sort of meaningful way. The family is no longer thought of in terms of God’s word, but in terms of a group of individuals, each vying for their own interest. Our godless lawmakers have only made things worse, by expanding the range of acceptable reasons for divorce. Who would value a marriage if the law says it can be ended for something as nebulous as “irreconcilable differences?” As Christians, we should recognize that nothing is irreconcilable at the foot of the cross.
If fathers would get back into the business of protect ing their daughters, we would see a rapid decline in the amount of teen pregnancies, diseases, and emotionally damaged youths. If young men like Tyler Frost were forced to labor to find a bride, they would actually appreciate a wife like the treasure she is, rather than making a spectacle of her on national television. Recreational dating was a seed planted long ago, that is bearing rotten fruit today.
——————————————–Mr. Mallory is a television news anchor and the assistant news director for an ABC News affiliate, writing news stories on a broad range of topics from politics to family issues. Prior to television journalism, he was the producer and host of a regional conservative talk radio show in Eastern Oregon (which he has since repented of). He lives in Alaska with his wife and three children.
June 11, 2009
Chick Flicks and the World’s Approach to Men and Marriage
Posted by Kevin Thompson under UncategorizedLeave a Comment
Here is a good article written by Beth Spraul. It is well worth your reading.
http://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/wp-content/uploads/youve_got_lies.pdf
February 25, 2009
Can an unmarried Christian adult expect more than a life of coping, hoping, and minimal moping? Yes! Along with the challenges of singleness come priceless advantages. Your season of singleness can be one of great richness, focus, and fulfillment in God. Learn to live The Rich Single Life.
With a foreword by Joshua Harris, this book’s format is good for both small group use and personal devotions.
Andrew Farmer is a pastor at Sovereign Grace Ministries’ Covenant Fellowship Church.
Download here – http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=B3155-00-60
January 10, 2009
Internet Radio Broadcast Featuring Singles Ministries
Posted by Kevin Thompson under Ministries, Ministry, podcastLeave a Comment
Our guest for this program will be Kris Swiatocho from Singles Network Ministries. Join us as we will be discussing the advantages and trials of the single Christian life. We will aso be discussing what churches can do to better address the needs of singles in their congregations. All of this and your phonecalls…
Broadcast – Understanding Our Times
Website - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes
Time – Saturday, January 10, at 6:00 pm EST/5:00pm CST
Length – 30 Minutes
You can join us live Saturday evening at 6:00 pm EST, or download the broadcast in mp3 format at a time more convenient for you.
“Understanding Our Times” is an interactive, live Internet talk-radio show that focuses on current events from a distinctly Biblical worldview. Host Kevin Thompson offers listeners timely discussion of meaningful issues with a variety of different guests each week. Callers are encouraged to call (347) 945-7171 to listen or ask questions. The stream and archives are available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/understandingourtimes. The show is live every Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. Eastern/ 3:00 p.m. PT. The show is hosted on BlogTalkRadio.
January 3, 2009
Have you made any new year’s resolutions? Are there any resolutions you would like to see other people make? Add your comments below!
December 24, 2008
I guess this was just a matter of time, I guess its a sign of the times. What do you think?
Single men turning to surrogates - cnn.com
Story Highlights:
- Single men who want children find surrogate births better option than adoption
- Most such fathers are gay, but straight men use surrogacy as well
- Clay Aiken, Ricky Martin are high-profile single dads who used surrogates
- Surrogate doesn’t provide egg, making it less likely she’ll see child as hers
