Page 52 that virtually all of them have to do with the former. The Greatest Parking Space of All Let’s fine-tune this a bit, shall we? Getting back to the question, ,How do we choose between parking spaces?, I’d like to use marriage as our example. The New Testament contains some wonderful teaching on this particular subject. It shows us the boundaries of the parking lot, and it also gives us the choice of parking spaces. When it comes to marriage, there are three core questions to address: Whether? When? Who? In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul discusses this issue with a fair amount of detail. The principles in this passage apply to every non-moral decision a Christian will ever make. Hence, the reason why we’re using it for this chapter. I would encourage you to read the entire chapter sometime. For our purposes, we are just going to highlight a few sections. I wish everyone could get along without marrying, just as I do. But we are not all the same. God gives some the gift of marriage, and to others he gives the gift of singleness. Now I say to those who aren’t married and to widows–it’s better to stay unmarried, just as I am.
On the whole, the popular Christian literature I have reviewed locates the source of our problems far more readily in one’s parents, one’s past, and one’s pain than in one’s pervasive depravity. Unless you have a firm grounding in biblical teaching, these materials will surely convince you that low self-esteem and unmet needs are the problem, not indwelling sin.
C.J. Mahaney