Because He Loves Me...a Thought for the Ladies

Have you ever played the child's game while holding daisies in your hand, and as you pluck off the petals you say: "He loves me, He loves me not?" But if we played that game and it was Father God we were talking about, then we would be speaking complete foolishness.

For if we read our Bibles, we could never come to the conclusion "He loves me not." The Bible is a giant love letter from one end to the other, revealing God's love revealed to the infinite degree to a lost and hopeless human race who could not earn it or deserve it in a billion years.

"Yes," someone might say. "I've heard that a million times now."

But the real question is, "Do we believe that God really loves us and all that really entails?"

I speak from my own experience. Just recently, I had a chance to go see a doctor for a "free visit" so I thought I didn't need to consult my husband about it. If it didn't cost us anything, I reasoned, then I didn't need to check with him. But deep down, I was afraid that he would say no, so I just went ahead and did it anyway, not staying under his protective covering.

In the Bible, women are told to submit to their husbands for their very own protection. A woman can easily be deceived by the greatest deceiver of all time, as was demonstrated in the Garden of Eden way back in Genesis chapter 3. Eve willingly took the fruit from the serpent because she trulybelieved it would make her wise and be good for her. But Adam took the fruit from Eve because he loved Eve too much to be separated from her. He knew full well what he was doing though.

We women get ourselves into trouble when we don't trust that the Lord has put our husband over us for our protection. I didn't make it up, it is written in the Scriptures! And believe me, the first time I heard I had to submit in premarital counseling, I hated the very idea! In the natural, it does seem miserable and degrading,most certainly going against the grain of today's society.(Yet its commanded in I Peter 3:1, Eph. 5: 22, and Col. 3: 18 and follows in the footsteps of Christ, who submitted completely to the Father's will.)

When I returned from the doc's though, completely convinced that I now had the answer to my health problems and ready to invest a lot of hard earned money, I was ready to recruit my husband. He saw newfound hope for a cure for my problem and he went along with it.

But then I did more exploring. I looked up some names on the back of one brochure they had given me. I didn't like the huge marketing look to it all. I talked to a trusted Christian friend. She directed me to an article to read about the type of testing they did. After I read it, I groaned inwardly. I confessed my sin before the Lord.

All of this could have been avoided. I knew I should have asked my husband, even though it didn't involve money initially. When it got right down to it, I saw the reason I failed this test: I didn't believe that God loved me enough to provide the very best for me, even if my husband would have said NO. His NO would have been for my safety.

Submission is really not about you and your husband anyway. It is about you and the Lord. It is about trusting that He has allowed you to be with your man and that He will sovereignly guide you in your life through your husband. We ladies can battle that all we want, but early in my marriage I heard this Proverb and it froze me in my tracks:

Proverbs 14:1 "The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands."

Do you see how I could have hurt our finances? My husband went along but he told me if I would have asked in the first place he would have said no. We women have great power over our husbands.

Oh how I wish I would have applied Proverbs 14:1 part "a" from the minute I walked down the aisle! Thank God though, that He can redeem our mistakes:

Lamentations 3:21-3 "This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. [Through] the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning; Great [is] Your faithfulness."

Even if we have failed, God's mercies are fresh for tomorrow. Men crave our respect, even though society has ridiculed respect away from many of them. Have you noticed even the commercials make the men look stupid and the women look smart?

But the whole reason we can show respect and listen to our husbands, with God's enabling power, is because we are confident that God loves us and will meet our every need as we stay under the authority God has established for us as married women, and that is through our husbands, even if he is unsaved or ungodly. God is greater than that small difficulty and is still working all things for the good in your life if you are a God lover. (see Romans 8: 28)

Kenneth Wuest, expanded translation of I John 3: 1-3:

"Behold what exotic (foreign to the human heart) love the Father has permanently bestowed upon us, to the end that we may be named children (born-ones, bairns) of God. And we are. On this account the world does not have an experimental knowledge of us, because it has not come into an experiential knowledge of Him. Divinely loved ones, now born ones of God we are. And not yet has it been made visible what we shall be. We know absolutely that whenever it is made visible, like ones to Him we shall be, because we shall see Him just as He is. And every one who has this hope continually set on Him is constantly purifying himself just as that One is pure."

This is not our permanent dwelling place, so we don't have to be so comfortable here anyway. Let us concern ourself more about making sure we will be both close and pleasing to Christ when He comes back for us, and not have to shrink away from Him in shame. Amen?

Find Shelter before the Storm

Can you see the storm clouds on the horizon? Much as you may not want to see them, the sky continues to blacken as the world continues to spin. What is going on?

I read somber words in the book of Zephaniah today during my time with the Lord. He was the prophet in the time of Josiah, King of Judah, before Judah was destroyed by Babylon in 586 B.C. Although he spoke to the Southern Kingdom of Israel, who carried on David's royal line, he also was speaking to the whole world. He not only spoke of Judah's destruction but of the "Day of the Lord."

To those of us who study Bible prophecy we believe this day will come in the time called the Tribulation Period, a time that will come after the true Church has been removed from this planet. This will be a time of sorrow and destruction like no other, a time that no man on earth would ever want to be here to experience. Jesus informed us that when the antichrist, a man who pretends that he in fact, is God, sacrifices a pig in the Jewish Holy Temple in Jerusalem, that that would be the sign that would kick off the great tribulation. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24: 21-4.

"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here [is] the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe [it]. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

In Zephaniah today, correlating with the Matthew passage, Josiah's prophet sorrowfully foretold what would happen to Judah, and the earth in the last times. This agrees with what Jesus said.

Zephaniah 1: 14-18
"The great day of the LORD [is] near; [It is] near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. That day [is] a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse. Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the LORD's wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land."

Don't you see the symptoms already? People are distressed because silver and gold are failing them, the lands are being devoured before our eyes. It is just the thunder rumbling in the distance yet. It is warning ...find shelter. Are you on the outside?

There is a place of safety...You don't have to stay and face this storm here.

Did you notice in the above passage it says that God pours out wrath because men have sinned? Today, since the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of the Son of God there remains only one sin left that will not be atoned for. Do you know what that one sin is? Simple childlike faith in the Son of God.

Jesus gave us the answer in the book of John. He said to the Pharisees in John 8:24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins."


Wouldn't it be nice to know that as the headlines get more frightening each and every day, you do not have to vainly hope that things will somehow get better? Do you really think they will? As David wrote so long ago:

Psa 20:7 Some [trust] in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

King Josiah the king was spared being carried into captivity. Though his father Manasseh was an evil king, Josiah restored temple worship as a boy king and is remembered for being one of the godly kings of Judah. Zephaniah, after writing of gloom and despair for Judah, went on to speak of the love of God with some of the most tender words in all Scripture, in my opinion.

Zephaniah 3: 14-17
Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all [your] heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the LORD, [is] in your midst; You shall see disaster no more.In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet [you] with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

To anyone who has not come into the Place of Shelter yet, that is what the Lord of Love wants to do. He wants to quiet you with His Love, He wants to rejoice over you with singing! "How could He do that?" you might ask. You might think that your sins are too great for Him to forgive, too great for Him to endure.

But God's shoulders are/were strong enough! When He carried the cross up Golgotha hill for us all 2,000 years ago, He had you personally in His mind. His body and soul were strong enough to include the heinous wickedness of all of our sins. In His first Advent, He dealt sin the death blow. In His second Advent, He will vanquish evil forever. Through Hosea the prophet God says:

Hosea 14:4
I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely
for my anger has turned from them.

Why did God say that? Because His Son satisfied His justice on the cross forever, once for all time.

II Cor. 5: 14-5: For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

So now, whoever you are, whatever you've done, can come inside for shelter from the storm. I hear the thunder...see the flashes...hurry, come on in now.

"Stand on Your Own Two Faith"

My husband always has a way of encouraging me to not run to people all the time to get advice. He tells me,

"Stand on your own two faith."

Now what does he mean by that? My husband knows me better than anyone on the planet. He knows what value I place on my faith, the Bible, and all its promises. But he also sees me in my weaknesses.

All of my life I have struggled with decision making. Now in matters pertaining to our household and family, I know whom I am to ask: my husband. For God has given him the authority in our relationship (not to be a cruel taskmaster) but because that's the way it has been ordained for Christian marriage ever since the Garden of Eden.(Genesis 3: 16) It is for my safety.

But in other things I often felt like I was just swaying back and forth, listening to whomever would come along and sound the most persuasive. Standing up for myself against strong personalities has never been my advantage.
And so, I often ended up saying I would do something and knowing in my heart I really didn't want to do it. Embarrassed, I ended up changing my mind within hours or days to everyone else's disappointment.

I knew, deep down, what was right for me. I just wanted someone to tell me I was doing the right thing. I needed validation.

Well, this should only go on for so long and then one should grow out of it. I hope that I finally am, with His grace. For this is a destructive habit that reveals, at its heart, unbelief.

For God was there, all along, just waiting for me to ask His counsel. I don't have to be a "reed shaken in the wind." How foolish of me. (Talk about being April-fooled-see my last post!)

This beautiful verse was/is the answer to my problem:

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

Does God mean that, or is it just there to look pretty?

I need at all times to believe it, stand on my "own two faith," and wait for God to give me HIS answers. Answers that are beyond my comprehension, things I never in a trillion years could figure out on my own.

1 Corinthians 2:9 "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

How infinitely much better is that than to try to scheme on my own, in feeble attempts to people-please?

Psalm 37:7 "Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. 9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth."

That sounds like a fantastic proposition to me. How about you?

Recently I was faced with a big decision that only I could make. My instinct told me to trust in the Lord and not be overcome by the words of men. I had undertaken a project by faith and wanted to finish it the same way. Yet a voice of fear came in: "What if??"

I had to make a choice. I had to "stand on my own two faith." God had led me this far. He will not fail me now.

Ephesians 6:13 "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

My Best Friend

Did you know I have a friend who is the absolute best, most trustworthy friend in the Universe?
More than that, this Friend of mine is positively longing for you, whoever you are, to be His friend too. It doesn't matter what you have done, even if you have committed the vilest crimes on earth.Your sins, no matter how heinous, have been dealt with one time 2,000 years ago when this Friend hung upon the cross and was punished by God for everyone's sins from Adam and Eve to the very last person born on this earth. We in our humanity cannot even fathom the cost of this sacrifice. But God was so pleased with it that He views it as having happened just this very second. He is so very happy with what His Son has done that He views all sins as having been dealt with once and for all, forever! But isn't God angry at sin you say? No, the only sin that keeps one from God is the sin of UNBELIEF. If you will simply believe that Jesus paid for your sins as the perfect sacrifice upon the cross, you too can be His friend, receive His gift of eternal life and never perish. You do not have to promise Him anything, He knows that we cannot do it, that is why He had to die for us and as us. If you can then, get a Bible and read the gospel of John to begin with. Ask Him to teach you and He will. He LOVES you and longs to have YOU for His friend.