Whether you are single or married, I would encourage you to take just 30 minutes today to listen to this audio on 1 Cor. 7. Jay Ferris wasn’t able to make it for the 2011 Searching Together conference, so he delivered his message in a barn. :) When I first heard it, it became for me a deeply strengthening hinge-pin in my own thinking concerning marriage. Someday I hope to share a written transcript of the message as well, but for now just the audio is available below. It will play automatically when you click the link, or, you can open it in iTunes.
I listened to the first 5 minutes this morning and it drew me in. I’m off to listen to the rest! Would love to hear your thoughts on it, if you get a chance to listen too.
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1 Corinthians 7 (2011 Searching Together Conference) (Mp3, 18 MB, 30 min)
• Download to Computer (Right Click and choose ‘Save link as’, or ‘Save target as’)
• Play in iTunes or Default Player (Click and choose player)
• Listen Here:
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Loving Like God 
“Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?”
The desire to be loved, to know and be known, to rest in the security of another’s love is a passion that burns in the old creation. This is a hunger that cannot be satisfied regardless of the depth of the marriage in one person.
This hunger, this thirst for intimacy, understanding, compassion, and Love can only be experienced ‘in’ The New Creation.
Here we are drawn to Jesus, we begin to see the ocean of His Love, and our hearts are stirred, and we lovingly long to know more, to drink more deeply. As The Lord of Love directs our path He brings to us ‘living stones’ and from this we see and experience His Love from another saint or saints, In this Holy union, this gathering of “Lovers in Training” we have our hearts opened to greater vistas of His Love. Here we see the depth and beauty of the Lords body, and the Treasure we see in one another. This is where we begin to learn His Loving command:
“Love each other as I have loved you.Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
This word friends takes on new meaning, and with profound depth, and beauty. It is this Love that the world is so deeply needing to experience, for it is this Love that we find our ‘first Love’ the Love that was before time, it is our time to renew and rediscover this Love ‘in’ The Lord of Love.