Hedonism for Husbands and Wives

 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:24–25) 

There is a pattern of love in marriage ordained by God.

The roles of husband and wife are not the same. The husband is to take his special cues from Christ as the head of the church. The wife is to take her special cues from God’s design for the church as submissive to Christ.

In doing this, the sinful and damaging results of the fall begin to be reversed. The fall twisted man’s loving headship into hostile domination in some men, and lazy indifference in others. The fall twisted woman’s intelligent, willing submission into manipulative obsequiousness in some women, and brazen insubordination in others.

The redemption we anticipated when the Messiah finally came in Jesus Christ was not the dismantling of the created order of loving headship and willing submission, but a recovery of it. Wives, redeem your fallen submission by modeling it after God’s intention for a joyful church! Husbands, redeem your fallen headship by modeling it after God’s intention for the lavishly loving Christ!

I find in Ephesians 5:21–33 these two things: (1) the display of Christian Hedonism in marriage and (2) the direction its impulses should take.

Wives, seek your joy in the joy of your husband by affirming and honoring his God-ordained role as “head” or leader in your relationship. Husbands, seek your joy in the joy of your wife by accepting the responsibility to lead as Christ led the church and gave himself for her.

I would like to bear witness to God’s goodness in my life. I discovered Christian Hedonism the same year I got married, in 1968. Since then, Noël and I, in obedience to Jesus Christ, have pursued as passionately as we can the deepest, most lasting joys possible. All too imperfectly, all too half-heartedly at times, we have stalked our own joy in the joy of each other.

And we can testify together after almost 50 years of marriage: For those who marry, this is the path to the heart’s desire. For us, marriage has been a matrix for Christian Hedonism. As each pursues joy in the joy of the other and fulfills a God-ordained role, the mystery of marriage as a parable of Christ and the church becomes manifest for his great glory and for our great joy.

OUR LIMITATIONS DOES NOT LIMIT GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY OCTOBER 22, 2023.

SUBJECT : OUR LIMITATIONS DOES NOT LIMIT GOD!

Memory verse: "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty." (First Corinthians 1 vs 27.)

READ: Second Corinthians 12 vs 9 - 10:

12:9: But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

12:10: Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong."

INTIMATION:

Humans are imperfect. Each of us has a bundle of flaws and imperfections; physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. You may also have uncontrollable circumstances that weaken you, such as financial or relational limitations. We are God's creatures, and He has allowed these imperfections in our lives for His predetermined purposes. Your weaknesses are not an accident. God deliberately allowed them in your life for the purpose of demonstrating His power through you.

A weakness is not a sin or a vice or a character defect that you can change, such as overreacting or impatience. A weakness is any limitation that you inherited or have no power to change. It may be a physical limitation; a handicap, a chronic illness, or disability. It may be emotional limitation; a trauma scar, a hurtful memory, a personality quirk, or a hereditary disposition. Or it may be a talent or intellectual limitation. We are not all super bright or talented.

The most important issue is that God loves you, even in your weakness or limitations. It is for our weaknesses that God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to the world, as a propitiation for our sins, since we can't handle sin ourselves. Come to think of it, if we are perfect, are we going to need God? The answer is no! God allows those weaknesses in us to always remind us of our need for Him. And He gives us the power to accomplish the seemingly impossible task, our limitations not withstanding. Knowing that the power is His, not ours, should keep us from pride and motivate us to keep daily contact with God, our power source. 

Sometimes we deny our weaknesses, defend them, excuse them, hide them, and resent them, instead of owning them up. And that prevents God from using them the way He desires. God has a different perspective on your weaknesses. He has His reasons for creating you the way He did, and that knowledge is known to Him alone. Be totally truthful, and allow Him to use you as He purposed. Although God's method and means are beyond our comprehension, He Himself is not arbitrary, He governs the universe and our lives in perfect wisdom, justice, and love. We think that God only wants to use our strengths, but He also wants to use our weaknesses for His glory.

God is always drawn to people who are weak and admit it. Jesus regarded this recognition of our need as being "poor in spirit." (Matthew 5 vs 3.) It's the number one attitude He blesses. If God considers perfection in using people, obviously nothing could be done, because none of us will be eligible since we are all imperfect. When you think of the limitation in your life, you may be tempted to conclude, "God could never use me." But God is never limited by our limitations. Rather He brings His great power to bear in our situations, haven considered us as ordinary containers—earthen vessels (frail and fallible human beings) (Second Corinthians 4 vs 7). 

Normally, we recognize our limitations, and will not congratulate ourselves and rest at that. We will want to be freed from our weaknesses, not be content with them! However, contentment is an expression of faith in the goodness of God. Therefore, in our limitations, we will turn to God to seek pathways for effectiveness, rather than relying on our own energy, effort, or talent. Our weaknesses not only helps us develop Christian character; it also deepens our worship, because in admitting our weakness, we affirm God's strength. When we are strong in abilities or resources, we are tempted to do God's work on our own, and that can lead to pride. 

God often attaches a major weakness to a major strength to keep our egos in check. A limitation can act as governor to keep us from going too fast and running ahead of God. In recognition of this fact, the apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians 12 vs 7, "...a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure." It's God design to always prove His strength in our affairs, so that we will always come back to him in difficult times. 

When Gideon recruited an army of 32,000 to fight the Midianites, God whittled it down to just 300, making the odds 450 to 1 as they went out to fight 135,000 enemy troops. It appeared to be a recipe for disaster, but God did it so Israel would know it was God's power, not their own strength, that saved them. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You, most gracious Lord for Your strength is made perfect in my weakness. I will glory in You only, and it is obvious that by my strength I cannot prevail, but will do all things through Your strength available to me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Mystery of Marriage

 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31–32) 

Here in Ephesians 5:31 Paul is quoting Genesis 2:24, which Moses spoke — and Jesus said God spoke through Moses (Matthew 19:5) — “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Paul says this word of God, spoken before the fall into sin, is a reference to Christ and the church and contains therefore a great mystery.

What this implies is that when God engaged to create man and woman and to ordain the union of marriage, he didn’t roll the dice or draw straws or flip a coin as to how they might be related to each other. He patterned marriage very purposefully after the relationship between his Son and the church, which he had planned from all eternity.

Therefore, marriage is a mystery — it contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female and ordained marriage so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his church would be imaged forth in the marriage union.

The inference Paul draws from this mystery is that the roles of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned, but are rooted in the distinctive roles of Christ and his church.

Those of us who are married need to ponder again and again how mysterious and wonderful it is that God grants us in marriage the privilege to image forth stupendous divine realities infinitely bigger and greater than ourselves.

This mystery of Christ and the church is the foundation of the pattern of love that Paul describes for marriage. It is not enough to say that each spouse should pursue his or her own joy in the joy of the other. That is true. But it is not enough. It is also important to say that husbands and wives should consciously copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the church. That is, each should seek to live after the distinctive model of God’s pure and glad design for Christ and the church. 

I hope you will take this seriously whether you are single or married, old or young. The revelation of the covenant-keeping Christ and his covenant-keeping church hangs on it.

THE BEST FORM OF LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 21, 2023.

SUBJECT: THE BEST FORM OF LIFE!

Memory verse: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1 vs 5.)

READ: Psalm 139 vs 13 - 17:

139:13: For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. 

139:14: I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.

139:15:My frame is not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 

139:16: Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.

139:17: How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

INTIMATION:

The best of life is living in accordance with God’s purpose for your life. God has something specific in mind for you. He has a divine design for your life. He designed you for a unique purpose, something super special, something you alone is planned and designed to accomplish, something above and beyond your ability to think or imagine. God knows you long before you were born or even conceived. He thought about you and planned for you. God has a specific purpose for every of His children. And discovering the purpose that purpose requires your thirsting for it, and fellowshipping with Him in faith. 

Instances abound in the Bible for God's appointment for some of His children. A few examples are mentioned below. The Scripture in Judges 13 vs 3 - 5, says this about Samson, "And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Indeed now you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." 

In Luke 1 vs 13 - 17, the Bible says this about John the Baptist, “But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

The apostle Paul, in Galatians 1 vs 15 - 16, says about himself, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles....." 

God knows you intimately as well, and He chose you to be His, even before you were born. He wants you to draw closer to Him and to fulfill the purpose He has for your life. You are appointed for specific kinds of work, just as Jeremiah, Samson, John the Baptist, and the apostle Paul. That same God who has created you for a specific purpose will reveal it to you at His own time, and in His own way, if you thirst for it, and draw closer to Him in fellowship. He will also equip you to accomplish the task. And whatever work you do should be done for the glory of God. 

God is our Creator. He made each one of us an original masterpiece. He loves what He made, and made it for His purpose: not for our purposes. Never be tempted to dislike what God made, because if you do, you will not discover His purpose for creating you. Many people wish to be someone else. Consequently, they dislike themselves, and wished to lead very different lives than what they live. Stop trying to become a cheap copy of someone you were never intended to be. Love yourself, and seek to discover God's purpose in your life. It is only in doing so, you will lead the life God intended for you, and assuredly please God. And the life that pleasing to God is the best form of life.

Prayer: Abba Father, I thank You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made for Your predetermined purpose. My utmost heart desire is to discover Your purpose for creating me, and serving to accomplish the purpose to please You and live the best of life, in Jesus, Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Prayer’s First Priority

 “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that the first priority in praying is to ask our heavenly Father to cause his name to be hallowed. In us. In the church. In the world. Everywhere.

Notice that this is a petition, a request. It is not a declaration or acclamation. It is not an expression of praise, but petition. For years I misread the Lord’s Prayer as if it began with praise: “Praise God, the Lord’s name is hallowed, revered, honored!” But it is not acclamation. It is supplication. It is a request to God that he would see to it that his own name be hallowed.

It is like another text, Matthew 9:38, where Jesus tells us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out laborers into his own harvest. It never ceases to amaze me that we, we laborers, should be instructed to ask the owner of the farm, who knows the harvest better than we do, to add on more farm hands.

But isn’t this the same thing we have here in the Lord’s Prayer — Jesus is telling us to ask God, who is infinitely jealous for the honor of his own name, to see to it that his name be hallowed, which means honored, revered, exalted as supremely precious? 

Well it may amaze us, but there it is. And it teaches us two things.

One is that prayer does not move God to do things he is disinclined to do. He has every intention to cause his name to be hallowed. Nothing is higher on God’s priority list. But we should ask anyway.

The other is that prayer is God’s way of bringing our priorities into line with his. God wills to make great things the consequence of our prayers when our prayers are the consequence of his great purposes. 

Bring your heart into line with the jealousy of God to hallow his name, and you will pray with great effect. Let your first and all-determining prayer be for the hallowing of God’s name, and your prayers will plug into the power of God’s jealousy for his name.

THE REALITY OF REDEMPTION IN JESUS CHRIST!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY OCTOBER 20, 2023.  

SUBJECT: THE REALITY OF REDEMPTION IN JESUS CHRIST!

Memory verse: "In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, the remission of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence."(Ephesians 1 vs 7.)

READ: Romans 3 vs 21 - 25: 

3:2:1 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

3:22: Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

3:24: Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

3:25: Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

INTIMATION:

The metaphor “redemption” refers to being bought out of that from which we could not deliver ourselves. Redemption has been a theological word in the minds of most believers. The literal meaning of word is known to us. But most believers don't know the new meaning that the Father put into it. It is noteworthy that so many of the Greek words used in the classical Greek language (one of the original languages the Bible was written) was translated in many versions of the Bible, and eventually didn't give the exact meaning of some of those words. 

A study of the word "redemption," from the revelation given to the apostle Paul, and documented in his epistles, enables you grasp the new and richer meaning of it. The metaphorical use of the word by the apostle Paul refers to our purchase by the Blood of Jesus out of the slavery of sin from which we could not deliver ourselves by works of law or meritorious deeds.Jesus paid the ransom price in order to redeem us, and the price paid was the cross, the blood offering of the incarnate Son of God.

The forgiveness of sins always comes with redemption by the blood of Jesus. One receives the forgiveness of sins when he is baptized. Therefore, the spiritual blessings of God that come as a result of His grace, are made applicable when one responds to the cross through obedience to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. When one fulfills this condition in response to faith in the grace of God, he receives the result of the riches of God’s grace.

The key word in the passage we read today is "Righteousness," or the ability to stand in the Father's presence without a sense of guilt or inferiority—stand there without condemnation or the sense of sin consciousness. The apostle Paul gives a clearer meaning of redemption as Christ setting sinners free from slavery to sin and Satan, and revealing of the righteousness of God that comes to man through faith in Jesus Christ, and it belongs to all those who acknowledge Christ as Savior and confess Him as their Lord. 

The righteousness of God that is manifested is the justification of God that is revealed in order to save men regardless of their ability to keep law. And this righteousness is credited to those who seek God by faith. The righteousness of God is the justification of those who obediently respond to the grace of God that was revealed on the cross. God is just because He has revealed the means by men can be made righteous.

Those who confessed Christ are justified freely on the grounds of grace, through the redemption that God wrought in Christ. The redemption is based upon the fact that God laid our sins, griefs, sorrows, diseases etc., upon Jesus, that "Him who knew no sin, God made to become sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

(Second Corinthians 5 vs 21.) Not only did He become the Sin-bearer, but God accepted His substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf. He was raised from the dead because He had put sin away; He had satisfied the claim of justice—"the soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18 vs 20).

When Jesus arose from the dead, He arose, not only because He had put away sin, but also because He had, as a substitute, conquered Satan. It was as though we, individually, had been the conquerors, just as though we had been there in that dark region and had conquered Satan, stripped him of his authority and risen from the dead. When Christ rose from the dead, redemption became a settled and closed issue.

Note carefully, "In Whom we have." That means in Christ we have (present tense) our redemption out of the hand of the enemy, so Satan no longer has dominion over us. We have our redemption from sin and its judgement. "Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." It is better put this way, "Sin shall not lord it over us because now we have entered the realm of grace through the new birth."

The Scriptures in Colossians 1 vs 13 - 14 says, "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Note carefully that we have been delivered out of the authority of Satan, and we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have our redemption. It's ours, just as the money we have in our pockets that we earned honestly is ours. Now this redemption from Satan is a present-tense fact, for you have this redemption now, and it is eternal.

The Scriptures in Hebrews 9 vs 11 - 12 says, "But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." 

The Book of Hebrews says that He did not only obtain an eternal redemption for us, but that He sat down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High (Hebrews 1 vs 13). He carried His Blood into the Holy of Holies, and our redemption was sealed. The Supreme Court of the universe passed upon it and declared that whoever accepted Jesus as Savior and confessed Him as Lord could come into God's family, and be free from condemnation.

Satan is eternally defeated. That redemption is an eternal redemption. God wrought it in His Son who satisfied the claims of justice. That Son is seated as the head of the New Creation at the Right Hand of the Father, and the New Creation is free from the dominion of Satan. Christ is the head. You will enjoy your rights in the redemption as you know the reality.

As long as one holds his redemption as a theory or as a doctrine it will bring him no sense of reality, but as soon as he looks up and says, "Father, I thank you for my perfect redemption, that this body of mine is no longer under the dominance of Satan, that my mind and senses are no longer to be dominated by Satan; I am free, and by Your grace I will not be entangled again in the yoke of bondage,"  then, it is real.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for all You wrought for us in redemption. Give me the grace to be conscious of what I am in Christ in my new creation, and enabling me to always exercise my rights in redemption in Christ, being bestowed with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Let the eyes of my understanding be enlightened, that I may know what is the hope of the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the believers, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

Love’s Greatest Happiness

 No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. (Ephesians 5:29–30)

Don’t miss that last phrase: “because we are members of his body.” And don’t forget what Paul said two verses earlier, namely, that Christ gave himself for us “so that he might present the church to himself in splendor.” So in two different ways, Paul makes plain that Christ pursued his joy in pursuing the holiness and beauty and happiness of his people.

The union between Christ and his bride is so close (“one flesh”) that any good done to her is a good done to himself. Which means that the clear assertion of this text is that the Lord is moved to nourish, cherish, sanctify, and cleanse his bride because in this he finds his joy.

By some definitions, this cannot be love. Love, they say, must be free of self-interest — especially Christlike love, especially Calvary love. I have never seen such a view of love made to square with this passage of Scripture.

Yet what Christ does for his bride, this text plainly calls love: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church . . . ” (Ephesians 5:25). Why not let the text define love for us, instead of bringing our definition from ethics or philosophy? According to this text, love is the pursuit of Christ’s joy in the holy joy of the beloved. 

There is no way to exclude self-interest from love, for self-interest is not the same as selfishness. Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others. 

Christlike love seeks its happiness in the happiness of others — not at their expense. It will even suffer and die for the beloved in order that its joy might be made full in the life and purity of the beloved. 

This is how Christ loved us, and this is how he calls us to love one another.