When the apostle Paul wrote about marriage, he reminded us of the first couple in Scripture:

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)

Mystery does not refer to something we cannot grasp, or something that is too difficult to understand, but to something that was hidden in the Old Testament and is now revealed to us through Christ. The profound mystery is now clear… “I am talking about Christ and the church.” Marriage is a metaphor, a picture, of something much more grand than the marriage itself. The relationship between a husband and a wife is a dim reflection of the ultimate relationship between Christ and His bride. Geoffrey Bromiley said it this way,“As God made man in His own image, so He made earthly marriage in the image of His own eternal marriage with His people.” God created marriage to point to His eternal marriage with His people.

To make this point, Paul takes us back to Genesis 2:24-25: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

If you were to describe how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, it would probably sound a lot like Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. You might not include his bits about chocolate cake, lollipops, sausages, and pickles—but you know he gets it basically right. A caterpillar hatches from an egg, eats until it gets really fat, then creates its chrysalis shell. After a few weeks it pushes its way out and becomes “a beautiful butterfly”!

But wait, how did the caterpillar turn into a butterfly?

You have to love the answer at kidsbutterfly.org: “This is not easy to explain.” It goes on to try: “You can say that inside the chrysalis the caterpillar changes clothes and turns into a butterfly. (An esoteric explanation: Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar structures are broken down chemically and the adult's new structures are formed.)”

Right. But getting “broken down chemically” isn’t exactly compatible with “changing clothes,” unless you’re talking about a sartorial stew. The most frequently used word to describe the inside of a chrysalis at its most transformative moment as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly is soup. There’s no caterpillar carefully attaching wings to its back, or half-caterpillar half-butterfly hybrid. It’s just a wet, gooey mess in there.

These are the most useful online resources on pastoral ministry that I’ve found on the web over the last 5-6 years. They are organized into categories in alphabetical order and cover subjects such as:

• Calling

• Character

• Dangers

• Disappointment

• Evangelism

• Family

• Funerals

• Health

• Money, and so on.

For more online resources on various subjects (like Top 500 Online Resources on Preaching, click here.

BOOKS

Best Books On Pastoral Theology

Top 10 Books on Preaching

Top 10 Books on Christian Leadership

Top 10 Books For Elders

What are the top 10 books every pastor should read…and re-read? | Practical Shepherding