It is good to be able to recommend the many resources available from New Creation Teaching Ministries with its headquarters located in the Adelaide hills of South Australia. www.newcreation.com.au Martin Bleby originally ministered as an Anglican clergyman in both rural, outback and urban Australia and then latterly became director of the New Creation ministries. He has since been released from that and undertakes a teaching ministry in many parts his birth country. This particular book is pretty typical of those available from this organization in that it handles its subject matter in a succinct manner, thoroughly Biblically and helpfully doctrinal. It is good Bible doctrine without dryness. There is plenty of literature around on the subject of marriage and family written from a Christian perspective but probably very few who so link these matters to God the Father and His family of sons and the Lord Jesus and His bride, the church. Everything in human marriage and the bringing forth and raising of children flows from, and is patterned upon God and His life and purposes. This means that as this book unfolds the intertwining of the Divine and the human in relation to marriage and family continues throughout. Because of this approach there is very little ‘how to’ about it, the majority the practical outworking of what is written is implied rather than stated explicitly. Look at God the Father and His sons and Jesus and His bride the church and so understand what it means to be a husband, wife, father and mother! This means that there are plenty of scriptures quoted, the patterns of God’s dealings revealed in the Bible commented upon and the whole builds up a wonderful and delightful picture of the whole subject. Some of these chapters are comprised of a course that the author regularly taught to those coming to him to be married called “What the Bible has to say about Marriage.” What is intriguing about that is the fact that being an Anglican minister would mean that many requesting marriage would want a church wedding in a pretty church building but had themselves, at that point in their lives no real knowledge of God or His ways. This book endeavors to set out simply and positively the riches and virtue of marriage and family. They are God’s gift and because of being so, bring untold riches to the societies that accept God’s norm and are established upon His ways. God’s ways in marriage and family are commended to us all today in this book.
