JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Baptist Convention, through its High Street Press imprint, has released a new resource for personal or group study titled Love, Romance & Marriage: A Journey through the Song of Solomon.
Written by Pastor Eddie Bumpers of Crossway Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., the 120-page softcover book offers a verse-by-verse commentary on an Old Testament book that sometimes makes readers blush. The Song of Solomon offers stimulating details of love, romance, and marriage between King Solomon and a Shulamite woman. There’s passion, intrigue, desire, pursuit, and exhilaration as these young people anticipate their wedding day and then grow old together.
There also are bruised egos, lonely nights, and deep longing as the king and his country-girl bride get to know each other better. Through it all, readers learn there’s no such thing as a perfect marriage.
The Song of Solomon doesn’t paint a fairytale picture of love and romance, nor does it sugarcoat the real feelings that often are laid bare when a husband and wife share their lives. But through this divinely inspired book of the Bible, Christians learn about the permanence, power, purity, and pricelessness of true love.
Love, Romance & Marriage offers a compelling and readable exploration of the Song of Solomon. Taken from a sermon series Bumpers delivered at Crossway, this book offers practical steps to help husbands and wives love their mates in the same way Christ loves his church.
As the book’s Introduction points out, marriage is rewarding and wonderful, but it takes energy, sacrifice, and endurance by both the husband and wife if it’s going to be successful. Bumpers has preached this sermon series and written this book to help strengthen marriages and marriages-to-be.
Marriage as an institution is faltering, and even the strongest Christian marriages often struggle to survive. But God’s Word shows us what marriage should be — and can be — with the help of the one who created us in his image and gave us marriage as a gift that reflects the intimacy between Christ and his church.
Each chapter in Love, Romance & Marriage features questions for personal or group study, making this a valuable resource for churches and small groups.
Love, Romance & Marriage is Bumpers’ second book through High Street Press. In 2023, Bumpers produced Encountering Christ: Meeting Jesus in His Seven I AM Statements.
Both books are available in print and e-book editions from retailers like Amazon.
Bumpers has served as senior pastor of Crossway Baptist Church since 2000. Previously, he led congregations in Mississippi and North Carolina. He’s a native of Alabama and a graduate of Luther Rice Seminary. He and his wife, Tess, have three married children: sons Jared and Jordan, and daughter Bethany.
High Street Press is the publishing imprint of the Missouri Baptist Convention. To learn more about High Street Press, and to view its catalogue of resources, go online to highstreet.press.