Buzzard - Date Your Wife

. Charles Spurgeon quoted in Larry J. Michael, Spurgeon on Leadership: Key Insights for Christian Leaders from the Prince of Preachers (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2010), 131.

. I guess you could say that I wrote this book because I was ticked off. I was ticked off about the condition of men and marriages, so I wrote a book to make better men and better marriages.

. Cru is also named after Cru Jones, a young man who overcame obstacles to achieve his dream to win Helltrack, a BMX race, in the 1986 film, Rad (TriStar Pictures). It was my favorite movie as a kid. My middle son, Hudson, is named after Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China known for his great bravery and faith. My youngest son, Gus (full name Augustine), is named after Saint Augustine, a fourth-century theologian who changed the world and penned a quote thats significantly shaped my life and thinking: Love God and do as you please.

. I believe the Bible clearly teaches that Adam and Eve were real, historical people specially created by God. The New Testament repeatedly argues for the historicity of the first husband and wife:

• Jesus refers to the creation of Adam and Eve as real, historical events (Matt. 19:46; Mark 10:6).
• Luke attributes a father to everyone in his genealogy except for Adam, calling Adam the son of God (Luke 3:38).
• Paul declares to the Greeks in Athens, And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth (Acts 17:26).
• Paul refers to the sin of one man... the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come (Rom. 5:1214) and refers to the historical Jesus with the same language: For if many died through one mans trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many (Rom. 5:15).
• Paul addresses Eves unique creation, For man was not made from woman, but woman from man (1 Cor. 11:8); For Adam was formed first, then Eve (1 Tim. 2:13).
• Paul speaks of Adam as a real person, again comparing him with Jesus: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).

. Ive been teaching my four-year-old and two-year-old sons how to prepare for marriage. If you bump into them, ask them this question: What do you have to do to get married? They will then recite to you: 1) Love Jesus; 2) Get a job; 3) Pick a girl who loves Jesus.

.

. E-mail message to author, March 11, 2011.

. Show me a couple with an unhealthy sex life, and Ill show you a couple with an unhealthy marriage. Sex is a key measurement in your marriage. Sex forces you to deal with the hurt, sin, and problems in your relationship. From my experience, married couples who have an active and healthy sex life have a healthy marriage.

. Most people miss the fact that a thriving sex life is an act of spiritual warfare. This is what Paul teaches when he addresses married couples, sex, and temptation in 1 Corinthians 7:5: Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

. E-mail message from Taylor Buzzard, March 12, 2011.

. Marriage is where the real dating begins. Single guys dont know how to date; they only know how to sell themselves. Dating is a relatively recent phenomenon. Around the turn of the century modern dating developed, the word first appearing in print in 1914. See a discussion on the history of dating in Timothy and Kathy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God (New York: Dutton, 2011), 204207. As I argued in this chapter, I define dating on the basis of Genesis 2:15, not on the basis of our culture. I suppose if I had written this book in the eighteenth century I wouldve titled it: Court Your Wife: Why Courtship Should Never Stop . Had I written it in the first century I wouldve titled it, Enjoy Your Wife: Making the Best of Your Arranged Marriage.