Saw this Video, and it made me tear up, so I got inspired to write my 7 things for husbands. What are yours?
/ http://skitguys.com/videos/item/fatherhood
Husbands, Lead!
Ephesians 5:23
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Eph 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
2Ch 34:33 And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Ps 127:1 ¶ «A Song of degrees for Solomon.» Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it:
Col 3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you.” – Desmond Tutu
As I read through these few verses, and this wonderful quote, I am reminded again, that my family, my wife, my life, are gifts from God, that I am responsible to constantly love, provide for, develop, bless, lead, empower, teach, snuggle, and walk with God with.
Today I heard Rev. Tom Leding make the statement: We were never designed to live in this world without God. In fact, the very problems that infuriate you today, may well be the problems you are called of God to solve as you cry out to God in frustration, your deliverance, and solution may well help many others to find freedom!
Serving Jesus as a husband and father in today’s generation is no small challenge, and will take a close walk with Him, humbly seeking grace, strength, wisdom, and direction as we grow through life.
Yet, husbands, we are heads of our homes, there is nothing more to say in this other than we need to man up, step up, and accept our responsibility, and walk it out in the power of God!
Here are some thoughts on leadership responsibilities:
Lead in family devotions. Seek ye first the kingdom is still in the book, and as a father, we need to include our wives and children in daily devotions and Bible reading. We need to be the ones to get up for church in the morning, and remain faithful in the house of the Lord.
Protect – Sure we need to protect our homes from home intruders, and our children from the local bullies, and drug dealers, but we also need to keep our homes safe spiritually. Monitoring internet usage, our children’s friends. Our wife should help in this, but we are required by God to set a standard of holiness, purity, and honor in our home.
Discipline – I have learned that 90% of my time with my children is spent loving them, playing with them, and answering their questions. Yet, if, at any point, any child directly defies my or my wife’s command, there must be instant consequences, either a time out, or the board of instruction applied to the seat of higher learning. I cannot throw this off on my wife.
Provide – Whether in ministry or the work-place, I need to be bringing home the bacon. In Proverbs 31 we see a godly wife contributing to household support, but we are the one’s who must bust a move and put bread on the table. If this is all we do, it is not enough, but this is the first responsibility. Yet, money alone is not provision. As seasons have changed in our lives, we have been wealthy, and very poor. Seems that in the poor times, we have had to stick together really tight and press into Jesus if we wanted to eat that day.
Love our Wives – sounds simple right?1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayersAnyone who has been married more than a couple of years knows that this will take a prayer life, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
Set the Vision for our home – I believe that each family in the earth is ordained of God, and has a specific mandate from heaven to fulfill. It is usually too great for any man, so that is why he is given a wife to help him with it. Submission, means to come under the mission – easy for a wife to do (she is wired that way) when a hard working man of God is following his God given dream.
Set the atmosphere of love in your home – Life is hard. Our homes need to be a place of refuge from the storms of life, places of peace, where we can rest, laugh, love and enjoy each other. Keep the battles outside your four walls, but make your dwelling a place of peace. It is here that children can be raised in the training and nurture and admonition of the Lord, for we serve a God of love!
Let’s Pray!
‘Father, I see my place as head of my home, to set an atmophere of love, honor, holiness, joy, peace, provision, and respect for authority. I submit to your authority in this nation, determined to do right, in obeying the laws of this land, and in doing my job, supporting your work in my church, and any other ministry you call our family to. I see my responsibility to hear you and your vision for our family, recognizing that you have called us, this family, and named us, and given us a place before your throne, in your kingdom. As for me and my house, we will serve you Jesus, trusting that you are building our house, that our work, done in obedience and in worship of you, produces the reward of our inheritance, both in this life, and eternally. I thank you for this privilege Father, and ask you for courage, strength, and faithfulness, to continue to lead, guide, direct, encourage, instruct, train, equip, and bless my wife and children, in your love and light, in your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen.’
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Deuteronomy 8:18Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Acts 1:8Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Job 42:10 When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!
Here’s the way I see these verses:
Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and He loves all people.
When bad (sinful) people do us wrong, we are commanded to forgive and love them.
We must pray for our enemies, because the power of God is what will set them free, and break mind-blinding spirits off of them.
If our personal mission is the great commission, then God gives us power to get wealth, the power of the Holy Spirit.
This power gives us grace to love the unlovable, to literally become friends of sinners like Jesus.
This friendship allows us to receive unrighteous money (Money received through wrong means)
This is the wealth transfer, where the wealth of the sinner stored up for the righteous comes to us.
If we want double for our trouble in dealing with people we know who are not walking with God the way we are, we need to be continually praying for our friends….
Let’s Pray:
‘Father, I see my life is all about love and redemption. Your harvest of souls and disciples in this, my generation. Help me to love, forgive, and honestly pray for those who are not doing right, with honest concern for their best interests, eternal life. As I do this, I trust that You will release to me wealth and finances, to obey you in what You have created me to do, as I daily hear and obey what You have called me to do Lord Jesus, Amen!’
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
To any of us that have pursued God for our nations well being, this verse is one of our battle cries, where we aggressively kneel before God, humbling ourselves with prayer and often fasting, searching our own hearts, and lifestyles that we might see our sin for what it is, that we might ask God for mercy, and real change, that He might forgive us, and not only forgive us, but clean up the mess we made, and cleanse the lands upon which we live, that the land itself might heal.
By now, many of you know my testimony, of how I came out of a revival meeting, in my suit and tie, crying out to God in prayer, this very verse.
How He spoke to me, and said: ‘I gave that verse to instruct you, not so that you can try and use it to manipulate me, you are in pride, repent!’
So, I was heard of heaven, and about to be answered. I thought ‘Pride?, I just got off my knees in prayer in a revival meeting!’
Yet, over the years, I have learned this about walking with God: Pride is not merely walking around with a strut, chest puffed up, in haughtiness and arrogance. No, it is much more subtle than that, here is my new definition of pride: “Simply having a better idea than God.”
Whenever, Wherever, I decide to do my own thing, something, anything that is contrary to the Word or Spirit of God, I am in pride. Maybe my church, synagogue, or mosque, has always done it that way. Perhaps my father and mother instructed me that way, but the entrance of God’s Word, brings light, and no matter what any person may of taught about a particular topic, if what I am believing is contrary to the Word of God, I’m wrong, and He is right.
And you know, how Holy Spirit led me to attend the 1995 gathering of tribes in Hull, Quebec, Canada, known as ‘The Sacred Assembly’, led by senator Elijah Harper. How in that meeting, when I saw the 1500 or so Indian elders gathered, and I saw the pain in their eyes, I ended up for several hours at the back of the auditorium, in a weeping puddle before God, broken in the core of my being, as I was introduced to the plight of the North American Indian.
And so, now, I am finally beginning to see, to learn, to know, to understand some things about God and His Word, that I could have never seen before. For several years, I walked with the Inuit, and was introduced to the Mohawk and the Cree peoples briefly.
Over the years, I have been introduced in many ways, to the ways of the red man, and have discovered that although their culture, dress, language, and customs are often quite different than ours, there are things there, that we must hear from them. Biblical things, ways of our Creator, that we as whites, in most cases, have at best lost, but more often, never known.
I heard chief Anne Richardson of the Rappahannock people verbalize these thoughts one day, that have challenged my thinking:
She said: ‘In general, our people have an innate ability to walk on to any particular piece of land, and intuitively see, know, perceive things that have happened upon that property, historically, and often also know, exactly what needs to happen there, in order to heal it.’
This lines up with:
Roman 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Romans 8:20-22
The Voice (VOICE)
20 You see, all of creation has collapsed into emptiness, not by its own choosing, but by God’s. Still He placed within it a deep and abiding hope 21 that creation would one day be liberated from its slavery to corruption and experience the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 For we know that all creation groans in unison with birthing pains up until now.
We see in these verses, how the creation is waiting for us, the manifest sons and daughters of God, to show up, and bring ‘glorious liberty’ to it, literally healing the land as we walk with our Creator, bringing His power to literally recreate that which has been damaged by the atrocities and evil of mankind.
We also see, that the earth has a voice, a voice of groanings….
Many red men and women hear creations voice, and echo her deepest cries, back to God, in heartfelt prayer…
The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the dust and blood of our ancestors.
– Chief Plenty Coups, Crow (1848 – 1932)
When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
Cree Prophecy
Yet, I had been taught that aboriginal peoples were generally ‘uneducated heathen’ needing to be ‘civilized’. Yet, I see clearly now, after many years, that God has been walking with Indians for a long time before the white man entered this land, and that many, many of their traditions, sacred gatherings, forms of prayer and worship, and understandings of God and creation, are not only Biblical, but far, far ahead of some of our current understandings.
Now, to read or hear American history from a native perspective, we hear of how in the 1530’s, the Cherokee ‘discovered’ Spanish explorers upon their lands. Many of these early Spaniards brought the Bible, and the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church, and upon the lands governed by the Iroquois confederacy’s constitution and the ‘http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Law_of_Peace’, that these early explorers were protected and spared by the tribes, as long as they came as came in peace.
Yet for thousands of years, the Bible was not in the land.
God still spoke, yet He spoke either directly to the heart of man, or through the creation.
In the tradition and culture of the Indian tribes I have walked with, there has always been a deep relationship and respect for, the earth, the land that God created.
Only to the white man was nature a wilderness and only to him was the land ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people. To us it was tame, Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.
– Black Elk, Oglala Lakota Sioux (1863-1950)
The time will soon be here when my grandchild will long for the cry of a loon, the flash of a salmon, the whisper of spruce needles, or the screech of an eagle. But he will not make friends with any of these creatures and when his heart aches with longing, he will curse me. Have I done all to keep the air fresh? Have I cared enough about the water? Have I left the eagle to soar in freedom? Have I done everything I could to earn my grandchild’s fondness? – Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh (1899 – 1981)
Rom 1:19 ¶ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Romans 1:19-20
The Voice (VOICE)
19 These people are not ignorant about what can be known of God, because He has shown it to them with great clarity. 20 From the beginning, creation in its magnificence enlightens us to His nature. Creation itself makes His undying power and divine identity clear, even though they are invisible; and it voids the excuses and ignorant claims of these people
This year, as I read through the Bible again, it is as if I am reading it, for the first time, through red man’s eyes.
As I look at the way the Indian walked with God, suddenly, I see in the Scriptures, passages that until now, have been hidden to me:
In the next passage, I see words that could have been spoken from the heart of the honorable Indians that respect God and the land. Perhaps, it is a vocalization, of their view of the white man entering their ancient lands.
Truly, many white men came, sent of God, for the gospel’s sake, yet mixed in these immigrants were brutal, murderous, treacherous people, who knew not God, nor His creation.
Job, in his day, walked as a great chief among his people, in fact, the Bible records:
Job 1:1 ¶ There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Walk with me and imagine: picture with me, in your mind’s eye if you will, a great chief, walking with the Creator, witnessing, the brutishness of white men entering his land. White men with guns as their gods, and conquest, not peace, as their motive.
Job 12:6-12
The Voice (VOICE)
6 Ironically, there is peace inside the tents of the raiders,
and those who upset God seem to live safe and secure;
They carry their gods around in their hands.
Yet, this chief, had made peace with God, His creator, and knows that there is no peace of heart found in no other place, and he cries, that these fools might know the one that made them…
7 However, call on the animals to teach you;
the birds that sail through the air are not afraid to tell you the truth.
8 Engage the earth in conversation; it’s happy to share what it knows.
Even the fish of the sea are wise enough to explain it to you.
9 In fact, which part of creation isn’t aware,
which doesn’t know the Eternal’s hand has done this?
10 His hand cradles the life of every creature on the face of the earth;
His breath fills the nostrils of humans everywhere.
Compare this with the words of the Arapaho: When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us. – Arapaho
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. – Tribe Unknown
Job 12:11 Listen! Aren’t we made to be discriminating:
our ears testing wisdom, our mouths tasting food?
The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
the rhythm of the sea,
speaks to me.
The strength of the fire,
the taste of salmon,
the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.
And my heart soars.
– Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh (1899 – 1981)
Shouldn’t wisdom come with old age? Not necessarily. Only God has wisdom; we merely fool ourselves into thinking we are wise.
12 But you tell me, “With age comes wisdom,
and a long life grants understanding.”
In Native American culture and tradition, elders are to be respected.
American Indian elder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In American Indian education, within each tribe elders, “are repositories of cultural and philosophical knowledge and are the transmitters of such information,”[1] including, “basic beliefs and teachings, encouraging…faith in the Great Spirit, the Creator”.[2] “The fact acknowledged in most Indian societies: Certain individuals, by virtue of qualifications and knowledge, are recognized by the Indian communities as the ultimately qualified reservoirs of aboriginal skills.”[3] The role of elder is featured within and without classrooms, conferences, ceremonies, and homes.
So we read, of the supposed wise friends of Job, those who seek to be his comforters…
As I read of the history of the great tribes, I read of the great orators, that would speak great words, and the council of elders, would weigh their words, ever listening for the voice of the Creator, to come from the heart of His servants.
As Job’s ‘counselors’ speak their words in his pain, he rebukes them, for they do not speak from God:
Job: 16: All the things from you sound the same.
You are all terrible as comforters!
3 Have we reached the end of your windy words,
or are you sick with something that compels you to argue with me?
4 If we were to trade places,
I could rattle on as you do.
I could compose eloquent speeches as you do
and shake my head smugly at you and your problems.
5 But I believe I would use my words to encourage you;
my lips would move only to offer you relief.
6 And yet, I am not you, you are not me,
and my words are of no real use:
For generations, these words given by God through Job so many years, have been the plight of the red man in America.
Truthfully, their voice, their wisdom, has not been heard, and we have all suffered for it.
I am a Christian. I have studied the history of the United States, and I am convinced of this one thing. The mind of God for this nation, historically, has been for America to be a place of freedom to worship God. This freedom is supposed to be found in the gospel, the only way to heaven, Jesus.
I am all convinced that Columbus sailed both to find a homeland for the Jews, God’s people, and to bring the gospel, to a people he had not yet seen. These people, are the host peoples of North America, the First Nations peoples, the indians…
Peter Marshall, in his book: The Light and the glory, has discovered actually journal entries from Columbus, where God spoke to him directly, for many years, about His plans and purposes for America, His plan included the host peoples, and in honoring them, and bringing the gospel and Bible to them. Columbus began with noble motives, but when he was shown the riches of the land, and gold, he became a mercenary, a butcher, and committed horrible acts against God and the host peoples who in large measure, received him in love, peace, and honor. And so has gone history, supposed ‘Christians’ bringing their form of murder and mayhem to the land, incredibly, in the name of JESUS! The greatest message the earth has ever heard, backed by the Lord of Heaven Himself, perverted, corrupted, by the pride, greed, and murder of men! As I read the pages of native history, my eyes blur with tears, as I see the horrendous acts whites and Spaniards have committed, usually in the name of Jesus! Like my Lord, I can only weep, as a white man, I can only hang my head in shame….
Yet, what has come to America and out of her, is a mixture of deep faith, and equally deep wickedness, treachery and sin.
Freedom, is not free.
It cost Jesus His life upon the cross, when He willingly died as a sacrifice for our sins. Yet, the grave could not hold an innocent man, and on the third day, He rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, at the right hand of God, the Creator, our Father.
Jesus is the prince of peace, and there will be no true peace, either in our hearts, or in the land, until we give ourselves to Him, and bow our knees, willingly, in surrender to Him as King and Lord.
There is understanding, wisdom, and great knowledge given to the red men, and the wisdom of God in them, must be embraced, meditated upon, and through prayer, applied, to bring healing to the earth.
I am convinced, that there is a strong church here in America, but also convinced that we will never be able to become all we all created to be, until we truly embrace the God given wisdom of the Red man.
I am also convinced that right now, during this slice of time, that the plight and voice of the red man is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN AMERICA!
On God’s agenda, His priority list, I believe the plight, voice, and restoration of the red man is THE NUMBER ONE ITEM ON HIS LIST!
This is heart of the Father, for America, now.
I am convinced that America desperately needs healing and direction, and that healing, revival, and move of God, that will recreate this land strong, and free again, will come as the hearts of the red man, heals, and again, their voice is heard in this great land.
America’s strength is this: not that we have always done right, but when we see that we have been wrong, we make things right.
Yet, for you and I, there is only one true healing and peace that we can know. That only comes with a relationship with our Creator, through His Son, Jesus, Yeshua, Messiah.
Whether red or white, black, yellow, or any mixture of race and culture, Jesus is the answer to every human heart, and His wisdom, power and love, can fix anything, if, and only if, we cry out to Him, and ask…
There is no other way back to our Creator, but through Him. Though we may hear the voice of God, we cannot make peace with Him on our own terms, for each of us, in our own way, have sinned, and cannot be cleansed by our good works, ceremonies, prayer vigils, or our cultures and traditions. Only Jesus shed blood can wash us, there is no other way…
God is moving deeply, presently, in the First Nations host peoples of the United States, and there are many prophecies given to the great chiefs of old, of a seventh generation of warriors that will arise upon this land, to bring healing and truth to it, that we might heal together.
Hear his words:
Crazy Horse had a vision he shared with sitting bull during a pipe ceremony just days before he was murdered. He said, “Upon suffering beyond suffering, the red nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for the sick world. A world filed with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of seven generations, when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred tree of life and the whole earth will become one circle again. In that day, those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things, and the young white ones will come, to those of my people to ask for wisdom. I salute the light within their eyes where the whole universe dwells, for when you are at the center within you and I am at the at place within me, we are as one.” – Crazy Horse from James Medicine Tree http://ancientprophecyrevealed.blogspot.com/2007/12/crazy-horse-not-so-crazy.html
Elders have kept record of the generations, and it is said, that this current generation, is the seventh generation, arising with healing in their hearts, and the fire of the Eternal in their eyes, with great wisdom, to bring to this nation, and any that would open their hearts to hear and receive it.
I am one of them, hearing, praying, studying, learning, and watching our great Creator, do, what no man has ever been able to do. Heal hearts, lives, vision, and create pathways of purpose by His Spirit in the earth, that truly change this generation…
I am priviledged to be seeing these words come to pass, all across America, Red Men are arising in Jesus, embracing their God given mandates, responsibilites, callings, destinies, and their voices are again being heard in this land!
Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you. – Hopi
Would you join us on the journey?
It begins, with an open heart, and prayer:
‘Father, Creator, Great Spirit, Great One, I come to you right now, asking that you forgive me, and reveal Yourself, and Your plan for my life, to me. Lord Jesus, I choose to believe that You came, You walked this earth, that You died, and rose from the dead. I ask You, to come into my heart, my life, my thoughts, dreams, and visions, and reveal truth, that heals and sets free. I choose to walk your path, from now and forever, Amen.’
Traditionally, there have been great warriors from each tribe, that have risen up to defend their people. I hear our Creator calling upon you again to fight. Hear these words from my Mohawk friend, Jonathon Maracle: Warrior, come on an ride the wind! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aEJU-cp7bY
A Business Owners Cry
Job 7:1
New International Version (NIV)
“Do not mortals have hard service on earth?
Are not their days like those of hired laborers?
Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,
or a hired laborer waiting to be paid.
Ever owned a business, or created something out of nothing?
Whether a business, a farm, a ministry, or any organization, you step out from the comfort, the security of a steady paycheck, and a job, unto the great aching void of nothingness, with the future as bright as the promises of God, but with nothing but Jesus, and your dream to move you forward.
Remember this old Indiana Jones video:
These verses will come alive to you, at that point, because the idea of time clocks, and another man’s schedule are now gone. You will work for your dream, harder than for any other things you have ever worked for, and you will walk it out by faith, and discover that God really is with you, and has made a way for you.
How well, we understand the ‘paycheck to paycheck’ mentality. The comfort of payday, when that check comes into your hands, and you run to the bank, to rest from your period of toil…temporary satisfaction.
Even a slave finds darkness a place to rest, eat, huddle down for the night, perhaps around a warm fire…
Yet, to those of us movers, shakers, dreamers and visionaries, there is still territory to be conquered, and we are at the other end of the stick, fighting sometimes, long into the night, to make sure that there is money in the bank so that our employees get paid. Fighting for contracts, aggressively building, planting, managing scarce resources, in order to keep the machine running, a responsibility and weariness, our employees never see, or in many cases, understand.
I remember one day, in speaking with another contractor, the particular pain, of not being paid for a job completed. He made the comment: ‘It’s worse than slavery, because at least a slave didn’t have to buy his own tools, pay his own gas, buy his own materials, and pay for his house, to work long, long hours, to not get paid…’
Wicked people, with fancy attorneys, that deliberately steal from hard working people, not nickels and dimes, but, in the stroke of a pen, obtain unrighteous judgments, carefully, with predatory zeal, manipulating the legal system, causing truth to fall in the streets, as they prey upon those unable to defend themselves, often hard working business people….
Yet, you must see that there is more going on here, than mere business, betrayal, and hard work.
There is a God, a very living, loving, heavenly Father, who knows, who cares, who sees…
1Pe 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
Sometimes, the suffering goes on for some time. Job’s particular trial lasted nine months, Bible scholars teach us.
So what do we do in our place of pain?
Isa 12:6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
CRY OUT TO GOD!
Job did:
Job 7:11 “Therefore I will not keep silent;
I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul
To you, you forgive, and He heals, and He works eternal character into our hearts, the longsuffering love of Jesus, making us holy…
Rom 8:29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
To those who appear to be getting away with theft, embezzlement, fraud, He also sees, He loves, and He judges….
Ro 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
In the meantime, stand upon His promises, and know that your particular stand of faith is working in you, Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
As His process works in you, Holy Spirit is working through you, as your stand of faith makes headlines in heaven, and He writes the eternal testimony upon the parchment of time…
Crying out to God for understanding, pressing into Him in prayer and His Word, are your only options…because like Job, at the end of any particular stand of faith, the object of your faith will appear, Jesus, the fourth man in the fire.
It may seem like you are overwhelmed, and perhaps you are, but God is growing you, and your capacity for responsibility, and trust in Him…
1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
There is a way out, you are going to make it through…
Let’s Pray:
‘Father, I cry out to you, asking You for understanding, strength, healing, provision, direction, the way of escape you promise in Your word. I ask, knowing that I am heard and answered, for I ask in Your precious name Lord Jesus, Amen.’
The Pain of Honesty
Job 6:24-25
New International Version (NIV)
24 “Teach me, and I will be quiet;
show me where I have been wrong.
25 How painful are honest words!
But what do your arguments prove?
True friends, tell each other the truth.
Pr 27:5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Perhaps, there are people in our lives, that we need to have a ‘heart to heart’ talk with. No matter how painful, people of honor respect truth, sincerity, and honesty, and however painful the discussion might be, true friends, will tell each other the truth!
Let’s pray:
‘Father, help me know when to speak, and when to pray for my friends. Give me tenderness, courage, and wisdom to be able to speak the truth in love, to those I must reach, no matter how difficult. Help me Jesus I pray, Amen.’
Yet, money alone is not provision. As seasons have changed in our lives, we have been wealthy, and very poor. Seems that in the poor times, we have had to stick together really tight and press into Jesus if we wanted to eat that day.
Set the atmosphere of love in your home – Life is hard. Our homes need to be a place of refuge from the storms of life, places of peace, where we can rest, laugh, love and enjoy each other. Keep the battles outside your four walls, but make your dwelling a place of peace. It is here that children can be raised in the training and nurture and admonition of the Lord, for we serve a God of love!
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