Tag Archives: relationship with god

SWM 137 – Why we don’t spank our children

Last week, Gary Thomas posted an article on his substack on the topic of discipline vs. punishment—not taking a stance but rather offering it up as a controversial conversation starter. Reading it made me curious about something—does your view of hell change your parenting approach? After all, if God is our example, and you believe that hell is eternal punishment, does that then lend to a more heavy-handed approach to parenting versus someone who believes that hell is an act of mercy?

I posted that question in our forum, and it then led to a discussion on using physical punishment on children.  I spent a fair bit of time in the last week or two writing on that thread, and so I thought I’d repurpose it here for those who might be curious about how we raised our children.

We, Christina and I, don’t believe hell is eternal torture.  We don’t believe such a view is in keeping with the Bible.  We grew up in a denomination that taught it was, and it was one of the reasons we left because the doctrine couldn’t stand up to either biblical scrutiny or logic as we saw it.  If you want to know why and/or argue that stance, I fully welcome you to read the post What happens when you die?  That’s not the point of this post.

The point of this post is to share why we don’t spank our children, and now that my children are growing up into adults, what the outcome of such a choice has been.

SWM 063 – Sermon – It’s all worth it

I’m preaching this weekend in my home church, and so, I thought I’d share my sermon, both because I feel bad that I haven’t been working as much on getting podcast episodes out because of it, and because I thought it might be a good way to practice it, do some final editing and figure out how long it would be.

How do you stop sinful behaviours? – Part 2

How do you stop sinful behaviours- Part 2

Last week I wrote a post about how to stop sinful behaviours.  In truth, I only gave half the answer. I wrote about recognizing how wretched we are and continuously dying to self.  I focused on that because as Christians, we tend to skip that

Is it sinful for widows to masturbate?

Is it okay for widows to masturbate?

How do you answer the question of whether or not it’s okay for widows to masturbate?  Well, I got asked this very question back in August and I’ll admit, I’ve been hesitant to answer it.  Here’s the comment from our Are sex toys allowed in

There are no salvation issues

There are no salvation issues, there are only relationship issues

Yesterday I mentioned that, when discussing theology, there are no “salvation issues”.  I said I’d elaborate on that today.  It’s common in Christianity to side-step theology conflicts by saying Well, it’s not a salvation issue This usually means This won’t save you or cause you

I miss porn

Some days I miss porn.  Isn’t that sick?  It’s true though.  And I think a lot of people who have quit porn miss it from time to time. Same goes for masturbating.  And often the two are tied together, but they aren’t always.  There are

Book Review: Every Body Matters

As some of you may or may not remember, a couple of months ago, I started a study with a group of about 30 people for two reasons: To get stats on the relationship between fitness and sex To get together a like minded group of

Can Christians Pursue Sexual Pleasure?

I have a reader (who I won’t out, because I didn’t ask if I could), often sends me emails with questions related to married, Christian sexuality.  I love getting them, because, thinking about this stuff and sharing it is one of my passions (thus this

SWM023: It’s all about the relationship

The Bible uses marriage as a metaphor for God’s relationship with us many times.  I think there’s a good reason for it.  In this podcast episode, I discuss my belief that all the do’s and don’ts, both in marriage, and in the Bible, point to one thing: the relationship.