Secret #6: MINGLE
This Week’s Quick Hits:
Let’s do 10 fun trivia questions this week. Give yourself 10 points for each correct answer and 25 points for the bonus question. This can be a fun activity for you and your spouse!
Who were high heels originally invented for?
What animal can clean its own ear with its tongue?
Coprastastaphobia is the fear of what?
On every continent, there is a city named what?
Which planet is the hottest in our solar system?
What is the most commonly used letter in the English alphabet?
In which country was the Caesar salad invented?
What body part is reshaped in plastic surgery known as “rhinoplasty”?
The beaver is the national emblem of which country?
How many teeth does an aardvark have?
Bonus Question: What did the first vending machines dispense?
“Confiding In Friends of the Opposite Sex”
Read:
If you had been in charge of casting for the first James Bond film, which has become a storied movie series, who would you have chosen? Ian Fleming wanted David Niven but the role went to a former milk delivery truck driver named Sean Connery. In Loonshots, physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs. This is a fun and fascinating book. I loved it!
Watch:
Porn is a part of our culture. It is easily accessible and society as a whole does not frown on viewing porn in the way it did previous generations. The media does its best to tell us that looking at porn is normal. It is talked about in sitcoms, often as casually as what’s for dinner. Everybody does it! In the counseling room, I see a very different perspective. Join me in this week's vlog as we take a deep dive into this topic.
Listen:
This week ends a four-part series on One Sided Marriage. This week Lindsay and I will take your questions that have come in over the course of this series. Remember, no matter where your marriage is today it can be better tomorrow. With God, there is always hope and a plan. Our role is to follow the plan!
Insights:
In 2015, Zondervan published my first book, “7 Secrets to an Awesome Marriage.” It was a bestseller when it debuted on Amazon and continues to sell well. For the next few weeks, I want to go through those seven secrets with you. Wherever your marriage is today, I believe these secrets will take it to a whole new level.
Secret #6: MINGLE: Sex As The Mingling Of Souls
The first time I heard Tommy Nelson of Denton Bible Church teach the Song of Solomon I was amazed.
I may have known the book was a love story, but I had no idea it was that intense a love story! I listened as he described the couple making love two times. I listened as he told of their desire to make love all night long. I listened as he described sex in marriage in the most beautiful way I had ever heard. It was amazing!
But then it hit me. I could not believe it. He was teaching from the Bible. You know what that did for me? It took sex from a cultural view to God’s view. It took it from the back seat of a car to the passion of the marriage bed.
Sex is a gift from God, given to us in marriage as a way to join with our spouse physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The Hebrew word for this is “dod,” which means “mingling of souls.” It is sex at its deepest level, and it can only happen in a Christian marriage. Does it happen in every Christian marriage? No, but it can.
Let me give you a formula. (Guys really like formulas, and this one works.) When you follow the other six secrets in your marriage, then “dod” can happen.
Every last one of us brings sexual baggage into our marriage. It is part of the curse of our culture. Yet God can and will heal your sexual hurts. For many of us, they are deep and the healing may take time. But we follow a God who heals and He can heal you. He wants to heal you.
In this world we hear more about sex than ever before. It is on TV, on the covers of most magazines, all over the internet, and it is the subject of most movies. The sad thing for our world is that none of these tell the story of sex the way God created it to be, and most people buy into the lies and thus miss out on the best sex ever.
Having a great sex life in marriage is important. Wherever it is in your marriage today, do not settle for less than God’s best. Commit to each other to let God renew your minds, heal the past, and help you have a sex life in your marriage that mirrors the Song of Solomon.
Next Steps:
Pray individually for God to heal your past sexual hurts.
If you need professional help to work through things, make that appointment.
Together pray for God’s blessing on your sex life as you seek to redefine it God’s way.
Answers to Fun Trivia:
Men. During the reign of King Louis, heels were an indicator that you were wealthy!
Giraffe. Their tongue is 21 inches long.
Constipation.
Rome.
Venus at an average temperature of 880 degrees fahrenheit.
E.
Mexico in 1924 by Caesar Cardini.
The nose.
Canada. In the late 1600s, fur hats made of beaver pelts were successfully traded to Europe. As tribute, they put the beaver in their coat of arms, stamps, and emblems.
None.
Bonus Question: Holy water. The first vending machine existed in 1st CE and was invented by Hero of Alexandria. He described the whole process in his book The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria, noting that one allocation of holy water is five drachms of coins.
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