July 02, 2011

Husbands: Sex, romance, and the glory of God by Mahaney

Today I'm adding 'Sex, romance, and the glory of God' by CJ Mahaney to the Master Reading List under the category of Husbands (Available from Amazon).

When it comes to the subject of sex, Christians can often overreact to the sinful prominence that sex has in our Western culture.  Christians often end up not talking about sex at all, or at least not very often.  But we must remember that God did invent sex and gave us clear guidelines on how we can glorify God through having sex.  And Mahaney's book helpfully encourages husbands (and wives) to enjoy their marital sexual relationship, not shy away from it. 

In his first chapter Mahaney shows the reader that great sex gives glory to God as it is the inheritance of every Christian couple.  This comes through a brief exposition of the Old Testament book, Song of Solomon.  The second chapter then explains that sex promotes the purpose of marriage which is to reflect the close relationship between Christ and the church.  The next few chapters then give counsel on how to have great sex with your wife by positive interaction with your wife outside the bedroom.  This includes learning about her, leading her, loving her, romancing her and speaking with her.  Chapter six then speaks about sex itself.  The final chapter is on the enduring power of a covenant of love that you have with your wife (there is also an excellent appendix from Mahaney's wife to Christian wives - almost worth the price of the book!).

Although the book speaks about a delicate subject, it is in no way crude.  It is evident that Mahaney really loves his Lord and really loves his wife.  And by writing the book he wants to show his brothers how to really love their wives and really love the Lord too.

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