Tuesday, April 12, 2022

YOUR MARRIAGE: TOGETHER YET INDIVIDUALS

One week before my thirtieth birthday, I married Eric. He was impressive:  well-educated, well spoken, a musician and handsome. He had pursued me quietly, persistently. I loved him.

 

Two weeks after our three-day honeymoon, I was sitting on the front steps of our thirty foot mobile home we had rented from my parents. With downcast eyes, chin in hand, I asked myself, “Could I really love this man for a lifetime?”  Panic set in. What if he was not who I thought he was, no more dates, no other man forever!  Right then, my older sister walked past me on the dirt road in front of the trailer. (She had married Eric’s brother Stanley years before and lived on the land our parents developed and offered their eight children. Five of us were still on that street.) She sensed my discouragement, stopped and said, “Go in and make a home for Eric, or you will lose everything you ever dreamed of.”  A bit frustrated since my new husband was making the lowest salary allowable by law, I said, “With what?”  Her answer was profound, “With what you have.”

 

 A dream began:  if any wife has ever lived by the Bible, I will. And so, the process to learn what that meant began. 

 

Forty-eight years later, I smile at my idealism, yet somehow that determination solidified into hope: I would live by the Bible.  Eric and I had more to learn than we imagined, but now we have experienced that God is right.  He is good.  Through the years and trials we learned to work through disagreements and hurts. We are still motivated and have more unity than ever. Our three grown sons are successful contributors to the world around them. Eric retired after thirty-five years as a Logistics Manager for the Navy. The story of how his career started is amazing.

 

What happened between the beginning of our marriage and today, is the story of “Submission Is Not Silence”.  It is instruction that I have written to myself. More importantly it became my philosophy as I studied and learned what I believe the Bible says directly to and about women.

 

The Bible provides a dependable philosophy that guides every decision. It comes to life if you take it seriously, as it did for me. In desperation at first, I tried to understand it in black and white. It was cold on the page. But knowing God is always right, I let it deepen into my soul and spirit as I thought it through. Slowly it began to work for me as I put it into practice. It was becoming clearer in my head day by day. Where before I had thought that being a good wife meant the man made all the decisions, I was becoming an initiator toward Eric, more confident; it worked. When our marriage was hurting this guidance drew us closer.  

 

Why should it surprise me? God wrote it as the Handbook. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” II Timothy 3:16. Sometimes it was clear guidance or mysterious instruction, I would live by the Bible. I would rub my nose in the dust if I had to. But that was not what the Bible taught at all. That way of thinking was like a slap in the face of God who created me in His own image, and to have “dominion over all the earth” beside my husband. There is a way: it is in the Bible.

Monday, April 11, 2022

A TRUE CHURCH

 April 11, 2022. Reworked from by Lizzie

Sometimes I wonder, “Where is a true Church?” Where is a group of Christians that believe, teach and practice carefully the way to a successful life? The answer will only be found in the Bible. Where is a Church where the bottom line is not numbers and money but the moving of the Holy Spirit in a humble, authentic congregation?

I read about a pastor who stopped in the middle of a sermon, “opened up the floor” to the congregation and never went back to sermons as usual. The people participated together by expounding from the Bible what they had learned. They shared testimonies of Jesus at work in their lives. They departed from the half-hour lecture that no one remembers once outside the doors of the church.

This is not just a bright idea, the format is in the Bible, 1Corinthians 14:26.  "How is it then, brethren? when you come together, every one of you has a Psalm, has a doctrine, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying."  This would be a powerful motivation for every person to grow, to deepen, to seek the LORD through Scripture for themselves…and then express this growth for all to be encouraged by.

The Churches we have visited lately are disappointing. The music is loud; my husband gets Vertigo, (it is dizziness and nausea when the sound is above eighty decibels). We have had to leave, walk out of Church services immediately. Neither my husband, nor I can worship sincerely when the decibels are high to the point of feeling it in the chest. The exhortation from Scripture, “Play skillfully with a loud noise” (Psalm 33:3) does not mean a threat to hearing loss.

More than loud music, we left one church we had visited for a few weeks when the pastor invited: “Everybody come to the Communion Table; it does not matter what you believe or where you are spiritually. Just come.” The last sermon we heard there was something like this: “I studied and studied to come up with a message about baptism, but I threw it all out. I will just speak from my heart…” Your heart, pastor? Your message was not even from the Bible!

Here is a prescription for a church which, oddly enough today, is described in the Bible:

“How is it then, brethren? When ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.”(1 Corinthians 14:26)