Chosen Yet Rejected (1 Peter 2:4-10)

"...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house..." "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (1 Pet 2:5, 7; Ps 118:22).

• How does it feel to be chosen by God yet rejected by friends and family (Jn 1:10-11; 15:18)?

A Woman's Beauty (1 Peter 3:1-6)

"Your beauty ... should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit..." (1 Peter 3:3-4).

"What a beautiful woman she is! She is the kind of woman any man would want to marry!" This was my immediate thought when I heard the story on the radio years ago of how James Dobson (of Focus on the Family) came to marry his wife Shirley.

(Related posts: Marriage as Unjust Suffering, The Search for One True Love, Abraham Lincoln's Very Unhappy Marriage.)

Before marriage, Dobson and Shirley, both Christians, were dating in college with the understanding that they would marry in the future. But when Dobson had to serve in the National Guard he proposed to Shirley that they keep their options open when he was away on duty, and that they could each date other Christians if they wanted to. Because Shirley was in love with him, this shocked her. But she did not express it or react to his "hurtful" proposal. On their last date before he left, he wanted to kiss her good night as he usually does at the door of her house. But she politely refused. Rather abruptly, she went home and closed the door. This surprised Dobson. What he did not know was that after she closed the door she cried all night. But she did not reveal any of this to Dobson. Then when Dobson was away on duty, he did not date others. Instead, he kept writing her over and over, while she was quite lukewarm in her response to him. As a result, Dobson kept pursuing her until they married. Isn't Shirley the kind of woman with the poise, mystery and beauty that any man would want to marry?

Marriage as Unjust Suffering (1 Peter 3:1-7)

Related posts: The Search for One True Love

Abraham Lincoln's Very Unhappy Marriage

What kind of title is that? I suspect that many would not like this title. They might even be a little upset by the title. I was personally surprised to see such a title. So I was quite curious to see how John Frame (born 1939, renowned American philosopher, presuppositionalist, Calvinist theologian) would "justify" or explain such a title, since he is a godly married Christian man. (He married rather late in 1984 at age 45, which perhaps might explain why he came up with such a title in the days when he was still a bachelor!).

Christian marriage portrayed as too rosy? Before I read his sermon, I did think about several things regarding the way we older Christians portray Christian marriages which might actually be a disservice to our young Christian couples when they marry: