Monday, February 26, 2024
Protecting and Serving is for Both Husband and Wife
For many years people have falsely taught that the head covering for a woman as mentioned in Corinthians was a symbol to show a wife's submission to her husband. This is not the truth.
The head covering mentioned in Corinthians was a symbol that the woman was representative of the church and the man who was to be uncovered was representative of Christ.
This is just one example of misunderstandings that have come about because men who translated the English Bibles were translating according to their own Western mindset rather than what God actually said.
The man is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Christ led by teaching, nurturing, and love not by force or intimidation. Christ died for mankind so that He might build His church.
When a man sees his wife as nothing more than someone to be bossed, used and treated with disrespect he is violating the scripture in which God tells him to cherish, protect and love his wife as Christ did for His church.
Ephesians 5:24-26 "…24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,…"
Ephesians 5:2
"and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God."
Ephesians 5:24
"Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."
Ephesians 5:28
"In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."
Ephesians 5:33
"Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."
Colossians 3:19
"Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them."
1 Peter 3:7
"Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered."
Everyone is to submit to everyone else, we are called to be cooperative with one another so that everyone is treated with honor and respect.
Christ is the head of the church and what did He do for us?!!!!
He died for us, and provided protection for us. He told the truth and deferred to others continually. He even obeyed His mother when He was a man when she told Him to make wine. John 2 And, He washed the feet of others to show His purpose on earth was to serve.
He served the first time He came, the second time He comes He will rule over the entire earth.
When God said in Genesis that the woman's desire will be to rule over her husband but her husband will rule over her, God was not saying it was good for the husband to rule over his wife or that she should rule over her husband. He was saying this was a sinful condition of the fall of man after sin came into the world.
A Christian marriage in which the husband is the head and leads by his service should not remotely resemble the condition of the marriage after the fall. The marriage is redeemed from that mess in the fall, to something much more beautiful and precious as the man protects and serves his wife and she submits to his godly leadership.
Everything is a choice not a reluctant action. Man is to choose to lead and serve and the woman is to choose to freely counsel her husband as the helpmate.
Leading does not have to do with a man just getting his way to dominate a woman, this is worldly and ungodly. A woman is not to intimidate a man into doing what he should do, she is to do her own part and he is to do his own part as given to each of them by God.
No one forces, intimidates, mocks or ridicules the other, they encourage the roles God has given them by trusting God to work in one another.
When scripture is taken out of context and those who enforce rules do not seek God we have continual frustration and problems that need not be.
When we trust Christ we need not attempt to shape others into what we think they should be, we lovingly and graciously allow people to be led by the Holy Spirit His way.
Proverbs 4:23
"23 Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life."
Where is That Spiritual Connection?
It is getting harder and harder to know who is saved and who is not because so many people claiming Christianity have no fruit but follow the rules to be accepted but have never been born again.
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Also, we read in Matthew 7:21-23 that many, probably most, who say they are Christians will hear the terrible words when they get to heaven; "I NEVER knew you."
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
Those who are born again do the work but through the Holy Spirit and not in their own flesh.
Have you noticed that there are many people who say they are Christians, who even attend church every week faithfully but you sense no deep connection with them in the Spirit? I am noticing this more and more as time marches toward the end times apostasy.
When we love Christ and others have the Holy Spirit in them we can sense that connection that is Spiritual and not just words.
Anyone Attempting to Gain Heaven by their Own Effort is not Born Again
No authentically born-again believer will ever lose their salvation.
All born-again believers overcome and are preserved by the Spirit of Christ Who lives in them.
We cannot make ourselves saved it is a work of God and we cannot keep ourselves saved, that too is a work of God.
"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new [a]creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
God is the One Who changes us into a new creation, we do not do that to ourselves. After we repent and desire to be changed by Christ He comes to live in us and changes us.
Ephesians 2:10
"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
We cannot undo anything God has done and we cannot do anything God can do.
Ephesians 1:13-14
"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in [d]Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
We get no glory for our salvation because the only part in it that we have is to repent. The thief on the cross had no works he had done to earn salvation, His only part in it was that he trusted that Christ was Who He was and did what He did in paying for our sins.
The scriptures people use to claim one can lose their salvation are taken out of context and describe non-believers who were never born again in the first place.
Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"
God does not throw people away for sin whom He has changed into a new creation in their Spirit, He disciplines them to bring them back to obedience.
Every believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day the Lord takes them home.
Ephesians 1:13-14
"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
We belong to Christ after He changes us and no one and nothing can undo what He did in us.
John 10:27-29 "…27 My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. 28 give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.…"
God said; "I give them life and they will NEVER perish.
In the parable of the 10 virgins, five had oil and were saved and five knew of the oil but didn't have it, they were not saved.
The oil is representative of the Holy Spirit, five had the Holy Spirit because they were saved and the other five knew about God but did not have the Holy Spirit because they were attempting to obtain salvation in their own effort. Matthew 25
1 John 2:19-20 "19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us. 20 You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.…"
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Choosing our Companions Wisely
People who are influenced by Satan have a contrary spirit marked by never-ending conflict over anything and everything, avoid them.
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