Marriage & Family Collection: 6 Titles by Dr. Joel Beeke

1. The Family at Church

Joel R. Beeke

This book contains guidance on two important areas of family life. First, it explains how we should prepare our families for public worship. Second, it addresses the subject of prayer meetings, their importance and the scriptural warrant for them. Dr. Beeke’s approach involves a sketch of the past uses of such practices and a detailed exposition, in such a way, that the reader can apply it to everyday living. This book will help a family focus the Sabbath wherein it can truly be a delight to the soul.

Endorsement  “In The Family at Church, Dr. Beeke has given us valuable and judicious advice about listening to preaching and the need for corporate prayer…This book is more of the same; rich in pastoral advice, timely in biblical focus, and warm in fervent exhortation.” – Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas

2. Family Worship

Joel R. Beeke

Dr. Beeke offers a heartfelt and solemn plea for families to return to Biblical, consistent and passionate family worship. With pastoral insight and care the author provides practical and valuable answers to the practice of family worship and at the same time addresses objections raised against it. In a world of impossible standards and idealism, this book is a helpful and motivating guide to implement or increase the depth of your family devotions.

3. Friends and Lovers: Cultivating Companionship and Intimacy in Marriage

Joel R. Beeke

Neither a comprehensive marriage manual, nor a complete exploration of the theological significance of marriage, Friends and Lovers focuses on two key ingredients in a vital marriage: friendship and sexual intimacy. Drawing from the wisdom of the Bible, especially the Book of Proverbs, Joel Beeke shows you how to grow closer to your spouse both emotionally and physically.

Endorsement  “A book about love, marriage, and sex from Joel Beeke that is surprisingly candid yet without a trace of smuttiness. Putting Puritans in a new light perhaps, Beeke manages, at the same time, to be theologically thorough and pointedly practical. Fresh and refreshingly straightforward, this is the best book of its kind.” — Derek W H Thomas, Minister of Preaching and Teaching, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia SC; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary; Editorial Director, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

4. Living in a Godly Marriage

Joel R. Beeke and James La Belle

The Puritans believed that godly marriages were foundational for the future life of families, churches, and nations. Therefore, they wrote prolifically on the subject of marriage, seeking to bring biblical reformation to this subject in a comprehensive way. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other previous Reformers had begun this task, but the Puritans took it much further, writing a number of detailed treatises on how to live as godly spouses. Out of the wealth of material available to us from the seventeenth century, Joel R. Beeke and James A. La Belle have gathered together insights from the past and summarized them in a contemporary form in order to encourage modern day coupled to glorify God in marriage.

Endorsement  “It is an established, if little known, fact that the Puritans rescued marriage from the dreary ascetic grasp of the Roman Church and returned it to its full, biblical, Christ-centered estate—overflowing with creational joys, pleasures, and duties. In this book, eminent Puritan scholars and pastors Joel Beeke and James La Belle provide us with a rich gift, as they have mined the writings of twenty-nine of the great Puritans and then arranged their wisdom into brilliantly organized user-friendly chapters and subheadings (complete with penetrating study questions)—all done with a skill that only “hands-on” pastors could have. The Puritans were Word-centered wordsmiths, and the chapters are packed full of memorably stated theology and application. What a pleasure to commend this book!” — R. Kent Hughes, senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and visiting professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary Philadelphia

5. One Man and One Woman: Marriage and Same-Sex Relations

Joel R. Beeke and Paul Smalley

What does the Bible teach about sexual relationships between people of the same sex? Does true love require that we accept all forms of sexual expression? No, real love does not rejoice in sin, but rejoices in the truth. In the Bible, God reveals that He created gender, sex, and marriage, and we may not alter them at our will. Through His laws and works in history, God has made it clear that homosexual practices violate His holy purposes for mankind. The New Testament reaffirms God’s created order and moral laws. It too warns that homosexual practice, like any other sin that we cherish, is the pathway to God’s judgment. However, the Lord Jesus Christ saves sinners by His Spirit and gives them a new identity, forgiveness, life, and power to live according to His commandments. This is the message that all people need to hear: God’s laws have not changed, but God’s grace offers hope to sinners through Jesus Christ. 

Endorsement  “Christians who struggle with unwanted homosexual desires will find in this book loving reminders of what union with Christ promises as we fight against indwelling sin. Parents of adult children who identify as gay or lesbian will better understand how to listen to the discerning words of Scripture as they shake the gates of heaven for their children. And all Christians will be better able to understand and defend why the God who created us has exclusive claims in defining what it means to be male and female and designing biblical marriage as an ordinance of creation and therefore a glorious institution that God made for His glory and our good.” — Rosaria Butterfield, author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith and Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ

6. Parenting by God’s Promises: How to Raise Children in the Covenant of Grace

Joel R. Beeke

In Parenting by God’s Promises: How to Raise Children in the Covenant of Grace, Dr. Joel R. Beeke explores what this nurture and admonition looks like and offers gems of practical wisdom for parents on topics such as instituting and leading family worship, teaching children, modeling faithful Christian living, and exercising discipline. However, he carefully puts parental responsibilities in their proper perspective and guides mothers and fathers to lean not on their own abilities but to trust more fully in the God who knits children together in the first place. Above all, he affirms, parents must look to the one true God, who promises to provide everything His people need and to bless them and their families.

Author

Joel R. Beeke is president and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.