Monday, April 30, 2007

TITUS 2 CLASS--WEEK 2 "TO LOVE THEIR HUSBANDS"

God does not leave us to flounder and figure out what to do as women. Titus 2:3-5 gives us a plumbline. It is interesting that this passage begins and ends with our relationship to husbands.

It is interesting that this word for "love" is not the agape kind--the love that has the benefit of another at heart, but it is the "phileo" love--brotherly, friendly, encouraging, harmonious, sympathetic, kind-hearted--we are to be our husband's friend!
This love, this brotherly love, is based upon our relationship, not upon our hormones.
It is based on God's will for us, not on our husband's worthiness or deservedness!

"You marry a sinner; there isn't anyone else to marry!" --Elisabeth Elliot in Let Me Be A Women

Several guidelines in fulfilling this command:
1. Remember God has placed your husband over you as your head, your authority. Look to him, not others, for leadership and counsel.
2. Watch your expectations. "You may, if very generous, allow that your husband lives up to perhaps 80% of your expectations. But there is always that other 20%. You may chip away at that 20% for your whole life, or you may choose to enjoy the 80%--and you BOTH will be much happier." --E. Elliot in Love Has A Price Tag
3. Pray daily for him. Temptation is great!! (Remember there is probably someone else who would be glad to pick up your husband's dirty socks every morning.)
4. Never correct him in public.
5. If (I should say when) you see a fault, go to the Lord first, then your husband second, not your friend.
6. Remember you are the help that is meet (suitable). We should try to fit our plans, etc., to his, not vice versa.
7. Ask God to help you cherish your husband--to hold him dear, to care for, to cling fondly to, to treat as precious.

How about writing a note to your husband that begins with: "One thing I love about you is. . . . ." You will brighten his day!

Monday, April 16, 2007

TITUS 2 CLASS--WEEK ONE

We began a Ladies Titus 2 Sunday School class at church yesterday that will run for 8-10 weeks. We will study the 7 feminine virtues mentioned in Titus 2:-3--5: that the older women encourage (teach, train) the younger women:
1) to love their husbands,
2) to love their children,
3) to be sensible,
4) to be pure,
5) to be workers at home,
6) to be kind,
7) to be subject to their own husbands----
that the WORD OF GOD be not blasphemed, or dishonored, or reproached!

If we question what is important for us as women to invest our lives in, Scripture gives us these virtues as God's guidelines, or the plumbline, for us. What a heavy responsibility we bear; if we do not exhibit these virtues, we are blaspheming God's sure WORD!

Older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers (a word used 34 times in the NT to describe Satan), not enslaved to wine, teachers of good things, and these good things are the 7 Feminine Virtues listed above. I do not think the Apostle Paul was commanding older women to organize seminars, although they can be beneficial. I believe he was thinking more about day to day living--investing your life in another, being willing to take time to show and teach by example, We have a mentoring mandate. (Mentor was the name of the man Odysseus chose to train Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey.)

This passage addresses older and younger women, so it applies, no matter your age. How wonderful that God gave us clear instructions, and did not leave us to flounder! May we fulfill (I like to say " fill full") our role as Godly women!

Saturday, April 07, 2007

JUDSON ON OUR LONG AND WINDING ROAD

ALL FIVE OF OUR GRANDS!




And soon we will have six, Lord willing. YIPPEE!