Thursday, July 12, 2012

Being freed from old things

This morning as I was getting dressed for the day, Miriam went to my jewelry box and pulled out a little gold cross I've had for 13 or so years. She wanted me to wear it. She doesn't remember, but she cut her teeth on it. Jasmine, who was three at the time, picked it out for me for Mother's Day that year and as Miriam was cutting her teeth (and was a year old) she would just put it in her mouth while I was holding her. For many years the cross was fixed to the chain- welded by the heat from her mouth and the force of her teeth. The little star/ sparkles cut into the soft metal have almost disappeared. Eventually I got it to where it would move again but it can now never come off this chain. She must associate it with me since there's never been a time she can remember when I did not have it. I haven't worn it much in recent years, but as with anything worth having, it has to be worth using.

I wonder if I have been this way with the Cross. Have I been this rigid? Have I tried to fix the Work of Christ on the Cross to a certain thing? It's funny how a small thing like this can make me look at things differently. Last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I remembered a part of a conversation I had with Scott earlier. I had something terrible that stuck in my mind that was associated with a certain song. Every time I have heard that song, the image of that thing would flash before my mind's eye and it was new all over again. It's only a few seconds of the chorus line of this song, but it's used often in commercials. Sometimes he sings it, not knowing the effect it has had on me for years. As I was telling him all this yesterday, without mentioning the song, I told him that I was trying to associate the song with something else- him singing it rather than what my mind had latched onto. So as I drifted off the sleep, it occurred to me that I can give my memory to the Lord to take care of. I realize that is such a simple though really, but I really never had that thought about it before. I had thought of Christ's work on the Cross as not for that sort of thing. I am a very music oriented person- it just stays with me. I am just so glad that the Lord puts a song in my heart all the time AND that music that should not be there, or things that bring destructive sinful thoughts also He can take away.

Now, whenever I think of that little cross, and how it's no longer stuck in place on the chain, I can remember that Yeshua is not limited to saving me for the day of His coming, nor just for directing my path from day to day, but also He can free me from things that have had me bound. I can't believe I have forgotten that- or rather not realized it applies to this too! I hope you are blessed by this and realize that you can be free from the very thing that has enthralled you so long too.

Blessings!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

What saith the heavenly Judge?



"And if men say, “What is this? A woman playeth the housewife, she spinneth on her distaff, and this is all that women can do.” As indeed there are a number of fools that when they speak of women’s distaffs, of seeing to their children, will make a scorn of it, and despise it. But what then? What saith the heavenly Judge? That he is well pleased with it, and accepteth of it, and putteth it in his reckoning. So then let women learn to rejoice when they do their duty, and though the world despise it, let this comfort sweeten all respect they might have that way, and say, “God seeth me here, and his Angels, who are sufficient witnesses of my doings, although the world do not allow of them.”" -- John Calvin, on women rejoicing in their roles as homemakers

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Teaching Daughters





Our family has been homeschooling for about a decade now. My daughters are 14 and 16 now, and we see that we are nearing the end of formal academics with them.  I say I'm nearing the end, but really we have never been incredibly heavily academic anyway. The girls like to read history, literature, and math (yes, read math). They also like to create, examine, discover, and play. Basically, they live life and enjoy what they are doing.


They spend their days learning to be homemakers, lovers of the home and the people in it. This hasn't been accidental. When we brought Jasmine home from government schooling when she was six, my Honey said something to me like:


"Don't forget to teach them to be women. It's important that they can cook for their future families. Teach them to organize, clean,  care for babies, and all the things you struggled with so they will be a blessing to their husbands and children." 

I don't remember if those were his exact words, but over the years, he has said over and over that this was my responsibility to raise them to be true women. 

The world's way of teaching girls to be women have everything to do with "empowerment" in the form of public nudity and "free love (no strings attached)." It calls being a homemaker monotonous and gives abortion as the answer to the problem of having little human beings who need everything from you 24/7. It's the opposite of what the Lord has deemed a vital role. It talks of a better future, but it leaves girls and women exposed and betrayed, alone having to struggle with all of the consequences of living a lifestyle filled with sin. 

So, let's look at our Mother, Eve. She was created FOR Adam. He could not work alone. He could never do the thing God had commanded him to do: be fruitful and multiply. Funny thing, Adam didn't even know he was incapable of multiplying until YHWH showed him that he was alone unlike the animals who all had a mate. They were created to be a team. One could not accomplish much without the other and vice versa but together they could do what our Father wanted them to do. Then enters sin and the curses. During the eating of the forbidden fruit, some things come to mind. One: Eve was deceived into eating the fruit but Adam was not. He still ate it, but he had not been talked into it using deception. Both of their curses were different: Adam was going to be working until the day he died to just feed his family and Eve was cursed to have pain in childbirth AND to be subject to her husband rather than being partners on equal footing. Even later in scripture, wives are under the authority of their husbands. 

Look at Sarah and Abraham: despite the fact that he asked her to tell people she was just his sister, which could have gotten her killed, she obeyed him "calling him lord (see 1 Peter 3)."  She is commended for being faithful under his authority. I know that's such an unpopular idea: that women are under the authority of their fathers or husbands and that even an adult woman is to listen to her father (especially an adult woman who is not married) or to revere and obey her husband, speaking in a respectful manner (Ephesians 5: 22-24, 1Cor. 11:3, Pro. 31: 23, Col. 4:6), but God's Word is always timely. So, as the girls have grown up, I have struggled to be respectful and honor my husband. He's a good man, so it's not so hard to obey him. However, every fiber in my body wants to be rebellious and do the opposite of what my husband expects. I know it's in our (sinful) nature to just do whatever we aren't supposed to. I know it's true of my daughters as well. We have spent the past decade helping them to first, Love the Lord with all that is within them, then their brethren and in doing both, understand their own natures, give themselves over to the God of our Salvation and how to be true women. It is our prayer, as parents and as fellow heirs, that they both grow more and more in the Lord. It is our hope that they will do the unpopular thing and be women of God- not just calling themselves that and living any old way while talking trash about us as parents or their husbands in the future, but really be women who love by living it. Even women married to unbelieving husbands have the same advice:




1 Peter 3 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.  Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.





Disclaimer: God's Word is HIS Word, not mine. I am writing a disclaimer in case any one wants to debate this. Take it up with the Lord, because it's His idea! :) 


Blessings!


Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Thoughts on Freedom



Today is the celebration of America's independence from England. We will grill out and blow up some fireworks to pay homage to our founding fathers who sacrificed to bring us this freedom, but what are we really doing today? Over the years I have wanted to proudly fly the American flag from my porch like other Americans I see, but my loyalties are ultimately not here.

When I was a little girl, A&E showed a musical about black folks in America. In one segment, there were slaves, singing:

This world is not my home,
I'm only passing by.
My friends and all my treasures
Are all laid up on High. 
I miss my friends and loved ones
Who have gone I know not where.
Still I can't feel at home
In this land any more.

I still sing that even though I cannot even remember the rest of the song. This world, this country, this house- none of it- is my home at all. The Lord has put me on a path to eternity in His presence and having looked and seen the Prize, how could I ever turn back? How could I be counted worthy if I ever put my hand to the plow and look back (Luke 9:62)? Ultimately, where does true freedom come from?


What even is Freedom? According to Merriam Webster online dictionary:

1
: the quality or state of being free: asa : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or actionb : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independencec : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous <freedom from care>d : easefacility <spoke the language with freedom>e : the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken <answered with freedom>f : improper familiarityg : boldness of conception or executionh : unrestricted use <gave him the freedom of their home>
2
a : a political rightb : franchiseprivilege



So, actually Yeshua the Messiah has made me free. I am liberated from sin. Of course then there has to be a definition of sin. Again, going to the dictionary we see this:


1
a : an offense against religious or moral lawb : an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible <it's a sin to waste food>c : an often serious shortcoming : fault
2
a : transgression of the law of Godb : a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God


Being free means not being punished for breaking God's law