things that have helped me to understand god's word

I've been looking at Genesis in my quiet time and I was up to Genesis 17 when two things happened which made me go back to the beginning and start again.

1. I bought an ipod shuffle - it is so small and just clips on your shirt! Perfect for listening to sermons!
2. I discovered that Mars Hill Church and my Church, Petersham Baptist had talks on their websites on Genesis. Mars Hill even had a booklet study guide to download.

I got excited! My friend Cathy had years ago given me exercise books decoratively covered with brown paper and pretty bits for my quiet time and I have loved using them to write notes in. But I wanted something bigger! So I marched out to find Scrapbooks so I could cover them and glue passages from the Bible and copies of commentaries from Mars Hill and my own New Bible Commentary and other info in and scribble all over it with textas! My idea of learning!

I am only 2 days into it, having only looked at the 6 days of Creation but I have learnt so much about the Creator, His creation, our relationship with Him and our purpose in this world. There have been some discrepancies between the 2 commentaries but I think they are over things that we can never fully know for sure so aren't as important as if they were in disagreement over who God is and His plan for salvation. For example, from this verse:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Genesis 1:26

Mars Hill's commentary and study guide assert that 'us' and 'our' refer to the Trinity, whereas NBC (New Bible Commentary) say it is actually God and the angels. In his talk on this passage, Mark points to the next verse as evidence that we are made only in the image of God:

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27

As I've said, possibly not something to get in a tangle about which is right but it's been really great looking at two different sources to help me examine God's word.

And coincidentally just after hearing Mark Driscoll's talk on day 6 of creation (man) I read this in the book 'The Single Issue' in the chapter on freedom and opportunity:

"Married couples would do well to remember that having children is an option, not a societal obligation. Couples can choose to remain childless as an expression of 'married celibacy':
'It would be fruitful to examine...the commitment of a couple to childlessness, not on the grounds of ease or materialism, but for the sake of the mobility and concentration of ministry. A permanent commitment of a couple to childlessness would in some ways be analogous to the commitment of celibacy'.

...

Those without children are free from worry about abuse by child-minders or the quality of their children's education. Free from the anxieties of parenting, they can invest their time and emotional energies elsewhere, especially in community service and the life of the church. Money that otherwise would be allocated for their children's education can be used to fund Christian work and charities."
(Hsu, pp.106-107)

Reading this whilst in the waiting room, I was quietly fuming... surely not. Did God not tell us to:

...be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it."
Genesis 1:28

Isn't the goal of marriage to have children so they may grow up in loving and serving God? Mark Driscoll said as much in his talk. He talks of Christians creating a counter-culture for God's kingdom, predominantly through marriage and having children raised up knowing and loving God (listen to the talk - it's very good). I was still a bit confused and I remembered I had a talk on my ipod by David Starling on God & The Family and in that talk he also talks of how childlessness is not an option for a Christian married couple. Understandably, some couples are unable to but God has created marriage and sex for procreation so if you can - do!

I'm still not so clear on the issue as Hsu maintains that a childless couple can give more time, energy and money into ministry, so you could reason there is nothing wrong with that. But my question is why do they need to be married at all? A single person could do the exact same thing.

Isn't it wonderful that we can know God through his word and we have an abundance of resources to help us get a better understanding of Him and what He has done for us and what He commands us? Including blogging!