Saturday, December 18, 2010

How well do you know her?

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." -Luke 5:31-32

Jesus knows just what his church needs and acts on that. Just as he knows the sinners need him he also meets and ministers to them. (also see the woman at the well, Namaan- 2 Kings). We as husbands make decisions at first glance and do not look any deeper. Namaan was sick with leprosy, that was clear, however God was looking at his sick heart and used Elisha and the servant girl to minister to him. So consider very carefully where your wife is in need, I dare to say that it is not what it appears to be. God gave us wives to love, not just to be friends with. Ask the Lord to reveal to you the unseen/non-obvious need of how she needs to be loved and ACT.





Friday, December 17, 2010

A Teacher

So, I read Luke 5-6 and was struck by the obvious fact that Jesus was a teacher.  He was constantly teaching by example, by narration,  by instruction.  He taught to give life and to correct misunderstanding and rebuke sin.  His words were life:

  "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." (Joh 6:68)

I know we have talked about this before, but I think it is important to remember in the busy-ness of life that Christ loved His church by teaching it truth, and we ought to love our wives by not just chatting about our day at work, the current football situation or what is for dinner, but 1Co 14:34-35 says:

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.  (35)  And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

Which means that the husbands our wives come home to ought to be able to answer the questions so that they can learn.  They don't just need our off the cuff opinions.  My wife is too precious for that.  They need the truth.  This mandate is so stinking far above my capacities...it reminds me of that first day that I went to the Natatorium and tried to swim...Lord help me.

I keep on thinking this, and haven't done much about it.  If this is, in fact, important, then it is something that I should be spending an appropriate amount of time on...seeking wisdom, knowledge and the capacity to teach my wife in a way that she can understand and accept.

I think that all "young" Christian men with families should accept the callings of an elder as their goal, and strive toward those callings that we find in Titus and Timothy, which are a reflection of  maturity in Christ. And one of those mandates is to oversee and teach at home well:

Tit 1:5-9  "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:  (6)  If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.  (7)  For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;  (8)  But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;  (9)  Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers."

1Ti 3:2-7  "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;  (3)  Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;  (4)  One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;  (5)  (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)  (6)  Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.  (7)  Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil."