Tracing family (and thus family ministry) throughout both Scripture and the history of the church, Stinson and Jones have edited a helpful volume that highlights many key contemporary issues (including gender roles and homosexuality). Although the chapters on historical tradition may not hold interest for the casual reader, they do help cement the foundation of the practical viewpoints discussed in latter pages. While certain contributions outshine others, the book is a worthy (if occasionally repetitive) effort.

The headship of the husband must take to heart the sober and joyous responsibility to work, to serve, to love, to pray, and long for the continual spiritual growth of his wife. [69]

In too many cases, well-intended church ministries have usurped the father’s role in the discipleship of his children. How much better to train men so that they can lead their families to grow in love for God and in knowledge of God’s Word! Family ministry must give focused attention to the training of men. In a very real sense, as the husbands and fathers go, so goes the family and, as households in a congregation go, so goes the congregation. [70]

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Widely accepted yet often neglected is the doctrine of the Trinity – one God in three distinct persons. Ware begins with an overview and then systematically addresses each member in turn. Although it can read a bit too academic in places, there is great value in thinking about the nature and roles within the Trinity. Especially helpful is Ware’s discussion of how these Trinitarian roles are to be reflected and practiced in our own relationships. Highly recommended.  

Freedom is not my deciding, from the urges and longings of my sinful nature, to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it, with whom I want to do it. According to the Bible, that is bondage, not freedom. Rather, true freedom is living as Jesus lived, for he is the freest human being who ever lived. In fact, he is the only fully free human being who has ever lived, and one day we will be set free fully when we always and only do the will of God. So, what is freedom? Amazingly, Jesus' answer is this: Freedom is submitting -- submitting fully to the will of God, to the words of God, and to the work that God calls us to do. [75]

The Spirit willingly takes the behind-the-scenes position. He is present and even central in bringing to faith those who worship the Lord as the redeemed, but he is not up front being honored. The Spirit, then, while being eternally God and while possessing the identically same nature as the Father and the Son, willingly and eternally takes the position of supporter, helper, assistant, and behind-the-scenes worker, always pointing attention to the Son, to the ultimate glory of the Father. [127]

We live in a culture that despises authority at every level. Whether the authority of police, or of government, or of parents, or a husband's authority in marriage, or pastoral authority in our churches -- our culture has programmed us to despise authority. We find it very hard to think positively about authority for one very simple reason: we are sinners who want to be in charge of our own lives. We want to be captains of our own destiny. We want to govern our own futures. And here, one of the lessons of the Trinity is that God loves what we despise; namely, God loves, exercises, and embraces rightful authority-submission relationships. [137]

Distinction in role does not indicate distinction in value. Men and women are fully equal in essence, worth, value, and dignity, even though God has ordained that there be male headship in our relations in the home and in the church. Equality of essence does not conflict with distinction of roles. In God, and among us, both must be embraced and honored. [139]

God is good, and his ways are good. Given this, we will experience the joy and satisfaction of human life only when we embrace, not resist, his created design. [156] 

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While many things about God remain mysterious, there are certain things that we can know about God because God has chosen to reveal them to us. Ware seeks to examine the Scriptural revelation of God to His people and then work out the implications that flow from that teaching. Although some things lie beyond the realm of our understanding, Ware emphatically refuses to diminish God’s sovereign kingship or devalue His authority to do as He wills.  

Surely one of the most amazing facets of God’s self-revelation is this truth: though God does not need us, He loves us; and though we can do nothing for Him, He does everything for us. That God is utterly complete in the fullness of perfection, and that He has brought into being what He need not have made and has pledged to it His deepest personal love—this is undoubtedly at the very heart of the self-revelation of God to His creatures. [56]

How audacious to think that we human beings can resist, threaten, or jeopardize the will of God. The God of the Bible, the true and living God, simply cannot fail to accomplish His will, and the nations are subject fully to Him, not He to them. [74]

True human freedom, then, for the unbeliever, for the believer in the process of transformation, and for the fully glorified believer is at every step compatibilist freedom. We possess by God’s created design a freedom of inclination, a freedom that previously chose only to sin when we were apart from Christ, but a freedom that will choose one day only to obey when we are conformed fully to the likeness of Christ. [95]

Because God has determined to exercise meticulous sovereign rulership over the world, this means that when it comes to regulating evil, God specifically permits only those instances of evil to occur that He judges, by His infinite wisdom and in light of His ultimate purposes, will advance and not hinder His designed ends for the world. [108]

Prayer is not an end in itself but a God-ordained, God-designed means by which God extends mercy and grace to our lives. Through prayer, God gives Himself to us and we are drawn into His presence and His fullness. We do ourselves no favor, then, when we hold on to pretenses of self-ability and self-attainment, for in any and every way that we refuse to humble ourselves before God, we lose. [188]

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