As I write this blog today, my first thought is, “how many
of you were able to get ‘honest’ with yourself last week?” Several of my dear
friends have shared with me the realization of throwing their husbands under
the bus since last week’s blog came out. One actually suggested that not only
did she throw him under the bus but backed over him a few times for good
measure! Ha, ha, ha, ha! I can only laugh about this because I know each one of
their hearts, and they did go to their spouses and make things right.
God put Adam in a position to get honest, but he blamed God
and Eve by saying, “the woman you gave me”. You know what I love about Scripture?!?
God honors His own principles throughout it. Notice, God honors His own ‘order
of creation’ by going straight to Adam and not Eve even though she was the one who
was deceived. God held Adam accountable for taking care of his family. Now, in
fairness to some men out there, I know you want to take care of your wives but
they won’t let you. Ladies, you have to let your husbands take care of you! And
yes, you need to communicate what that looks like because some men think they
are taking care of you from their perspective, and from yours they are not! It’s
called ‘communication’. The principle works in reverse, too. You think you are
being an encouragement to your husbands by doing such and such, but that isn’t
their idea of encouragement. And yes, some of you think their only idea of encouragement
starts with an S and ends with an X. But, there are actually other things that
encourage them, like God’s instruction to us to respect our husband. They need
respect. Find something to respect about your husband and then let him know you
respect him for that!!
Last week we looked at how the emotional consequences of sin
can cause a breakdown in intimacy with God and our spouse which results in
‘chaos’ in our marriages and families. We also observed Adam and Eve addressing
this problem by dressing themselves in loincloths of fig leaves to cover up the
guilt and shame, and afterward hiding, fear, and blame were at work thinking
that God would find out what they had done.
What do you suppose we use as loincloths today to cover our
guilt and shame? May I suggest some things to ponder . . . how about denial,
anger, blame, a job position, educational titles, performance, money, religion,
withdrawal, eating disorders, etc.?
Sadly, loincloths take on many forms in our world today as
we try to cover up our guilt and shame and their traveling partners of hiding,
fear, and blame. And, hear my heart on this subject, most people have no clue
this is what they are doing, even in the body of Christ.
I have a little statement God gave me a long time ago to
help people recognize sin at work in their lives. “If you have to hide it,
sneak it, or lie about it, God isn’t in it and the enemy is at work!” Are you
hiding anything as you read this today? Hiding from God (which He knows) or
hiding something from your spouse? Sneaking something? Got some things you
don’t want him to know about that you have justified his not knowing? What
about just flat lying to him about issues - All those things prevent intimacy
from taking place with God and your spouse on the level God desires for you to
experience intimacy?
Not only does hiding prevent intimacy, it gives the enemy a
stronghold in your life and makes chaos for the whole family system. Why? Because
as it has been said, “We don’t sin in a vacuum.” Our sin affects those around
us.
So, I close this area of the blog again today saying to you
that our cover up will never be sufficient. And our cover up will always cause
intimacy to be forfeited with God, spouse, family, and others.
I know I parked in this area an extra week before sharing
with you God’s plan for guilt and shame, but I am seriously asking us to sit
before a Holy God and ask Him to search our hearts. We in the body of Christ have
to stop allowing the enemy to steal our intimacy with God and our families away
from us. WE DO HAVE A CHOICE!!
Prague News!
The garage sale weekend was awesome! We made just over a
thousand dollars, which sponsors two more of our missionary women who will be
attending. Ben Roberson (pictured at left), the son of Kim who hosted the sale at her house, also
sold soda pop to raise money as well. He has his own jar that said Pure Joy
Donations on it. When it came time to count the money, Ben kept his jar because
he wanted to take it to our Sunday school classroom to raise more money, and we
left his money in there for ‘seed money.’ Ben’s seed money turned into another
$250.63 that takes care of another half a missionary to attend! Thank you, Lord,
for his precious heart for You! Ben is leaving seed money in his jar in our
class to be passed each week until we leave for Prague. I encourage someone
reading this blog to take a challenge and match Ben’s money that comes in each
week. This week it was $250.63. Next week it may be more or less. Pray and see
if God would have you to take the challenge.
We are on the road to Prague fully loaded! We have our 50
missionary women on board. We have 28 of them sponsored as of this writing! Yeah
God!! That is three more than last week! Gotta love how God works on behalf of
these missionary women. They received their first official letter from me this
week encouraging them to start reading the blog with us. So hello, ladies, if
you are joining us for the first time!
Pray for Ben and his seed money jar!
Love you all!
His,
Vickie
No comments:
Post a Comment