Bless You O’ Obedient and Set Free Ones In Jesus,               July 1, 2012

Well, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord! You ladies came back refreshed, regenerated, and revived. Hallelujah! It’s good to go to a retreat that turns into an advance. Hallelujah! But many of you, for whatever reason, did not go on the Women Warriors trip. Well, don’t feel left out. You can get absolutely everything they got RIGHT HERE AT HOME! Yes, I’ll admit it’s a little harder by yourself, but I promise you, you can do it. Just get by yourself, put on some powerful praise music and start praising God and worshipping Him. After a little while of praising and worshipping suddenly the presence of the Lord will surround you and you will be lifted up into His presence. As you continue to praise and worship, tune your spiritual ears to the Holy Spirit and He will begin to bless you and heal you of all kinds of things. When you finally finish you won’t be worn out or fatigued. You’ll be so refreshed and revived, you’ll feel like new power is in you…because it is. The scripture is so clear concerning this. Ephesians 5:17-21, tells us what to do, but how many of you go to the trouble to do it? “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”This is all one thought and it is so good…if we will do what it says. There are great and wonderful blessings attached to and associated with praise and worship of the Lord! Amen! Now, there are no real breaks until the very end of verse twenty-one where it talks about “submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God”. But verse twenty-two extends verse twenty-one on into the subject of marriage (Oh? Now, has the Bible quit ministering and gone to meddling?) This previous Holy Spirit injected call for submission of a believer is now extended and directed at: WIVES? Wow! “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in EVERYTHING” (Ephesians 5:22-24). Are wives really supposed to submit to their husbands in EVERYTHING??? Yes, except in the cases of verbal abuse, mental cruelty, and/or physical abuse. Yes, that’s what the scripture says! The Bible says that the man that treats his wife abusively is worse than an infidel (an unsaved person that’s going to Hell). God does not expect a wife to be abused in any form, but to be loved and treated with honor. Her husband is to make her his co-regent, along side him in the home. But, submission is exactly what the scripture means. Since the curse from Genesis Chapter Three has been handed down God has placed the man as the leader in the home. (Note: this doesn’t JUST mean the “spiritual leader” of the home only, it means “ THE LEADER”!) When women won’t submit and “allow” their husband to be the “leader” in the home, they are in direct opposition to God and nothing will work right. Now, it doesn’t mean that the wife must go against the Word of God or her conscience concerning something sinful. God has made a promise to women that, even if their husband is not a Christian, as the wife submits to her husband and makes him the “leader” of the home, then God, because she is then obeying the scriptural admonition from the Lord, will move on the “HUSBAND” and cause him to change. (Check out Abigail with her mean husband in the Old Testament.) There is a saying that reveals much about submission and control. "If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't, they never really were”. Real love is not compulsion. Many men forget or don’t know about this...of how real love works. Christ Jesus never forces Himself, nor His will, upon anyone. He leaves it to our choice.

Christ Jesus never forces Himself, nor His will, upon anyone. He leaves it to our choice. Many homes have strife and trouble because the wife doesn’t really trust God to do what He says He will do…and the husband doesn’t either. They keep looking at the “circumstances” of their husbands failures and say “I can’t submit to him. He’ll ruin everything.” The Bible says this in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Amplified Bible gives us the answer from Ephesians 5:33: “However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]. [I Pet. 3:2.].” Wives (and husbands) obey this, then wives will willingly WANT to submit to their husbands…not JUST because God commands them to. Amen? Amen! God bless you. We love you.

Pastor Lyle, Sister Jean, and your BJWC Church Leadership.