From Eden With Love by Ray Hawkins is being featured on the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance this week. Information about the author and more details about the book can be found here.

From Eden With Love is a collection of devotional thoughts about marriage by Ray Hawkins. I found that together they create a lovely picture of marriage as God intended. They are very much Biblical focussed and seek to teach God’s perspective on marriage. Ray writes about cultivating the right attitudes by developing the fruit of the Spirit within marriage; how marriage can bring out the best in people; how to deal with negative emotions and the symbolism of marriage as a picture of Christ and his church. Ray makes it clear that good marriages don’t just happen but both parties need to continually make the effort to adopt the right mind-set. Once we have a high view of marriage we understand why God hates divorce.

I do have one small complaint in the devotion regarding Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands.” The same emphasises wasn’t given to v.25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Women generally don’t have a problem submitting to a man who is prepared to sacrifice his desires for her sake. Whereas sacrificing to a man who insists on having his own way is difficult. However to be fair Ray did mention later in the book the need for husbands and wives to make sacrifices for each other.

Overall this book presents a beautiful picture of Christian marriage and would be a great gift for an engaged or newly married couple.

Thanks to Even Before Publishing for providing a free book for review.