Husbands LOVE your wives: Wives RESPECT your husbands.

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto theLord.  23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as  Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wise be to their own husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.

Coming up on 19 years of marriage I am often asked; "what makes a marriage last today?."   Ironically, this is not my first marriage.( Shocker? That is definitely another post for another day.)  But I will say, in my first marriage I had NO idea what real love was, and neither did my husband at the time. We were very young in age, as well as spiritually immature.  So I must preface by saying I am no expert, and neither is my husband of 19 years.  We are still on this journey.  However, we have grown together in love with Christ as our center, and we have learned some very helpful and valuable things along the  way.  

In the book of  Ephesians, Apostle Paul gives God's expectation for  both husband and wife on what their role is in a  marriage.  Love and Respect!   Its just that simple. So why have we made marriage so complicated that  some  hear the word marriage, and it  sends them running in fear?  Its due to the lack of  Love and Respect that married couples have for one another.   Sure I can hear many women saying, "well, you have to earn respect." Who wants to respect or submit to a disrespectful, jealous, or controlling tyrant?" And like wise men may be saying, "I do love my wife." "I come home every night don't I?" "I'm working everyday and paying bills, and providing for my family"  "I don't cheat on her?"  "That should say that I Love my wife." Although both of these points of views can be understood, they do not release either party from effectively loving and respecting their spouse, as is lined out in Scripture. 

My husband and I several years ago in China Town

LOVE AND RESPECT

The photo above is one of my favorite because of the story behind it! We were on vacation in New York. We went shopping in China town and I wore the wrong kind of shoes for the journey.  It didn't take long before my feet were screaming! My little flat feet were in so much pain I was complaining every 10 minutes about how bad my feet hurt. Unfortunately we were too far away from our Manhattan hotel to go back and get comfy shoes. My husband looked at me with concern and said "aww my poor baby, come on lets go get you some comfortable shoes"  We walked into a nearby Payless shoe store (yes payless honey,  I could care less about brand names at the time). Our money was tight on this trip, we were already budgeting and trying to keep from going in the hole on this trip so for my sweetheart to buy me a new pair of shoes that we did not budget for to keep me comfortable spoke volumes to me.  This small act sent my respect radar WAY up!!!  And I could not have loved Him more in this moment.  He loved me enough, to  empathized with my pain. He set our lack of funds to the side, and got his baby a comfortable pair of shoes so she would be happy and stop complaining! lol.  Bottom line. We both were happy.  He "showed" me that He loved me in that moment(of course I know he loves me, but women love reminders ALL the time. lol!)  and I showed him the honor and respect he "deserved" the rest of the day. Whatever he asked me I did it lovingly and willingly.   Those shoes were not expensive, but it was what it symbolized to me. 

The Opposite of Love and Respect

   My husband could have scolded  me for choosing to wear the wrong shoes that day. He could have said "stop complaining Chan!? You're ruining the experience for the other couple with us?  OR,   He could have asked me to suck it up and make better choices next time.   In return I could have(And WOULD have) snapped and fussed  back at him for being insensitive.  Because although true, I should have chosen better shoes, pointing that out would not help the current situation.  Respect for that observation would not have been given lol.  

  Thank God none of that happened!  He empathized, showed his love, and got me a comfortable pair of shoes! Senseless argument avoided.   Now this is just a simple  example of what an exchange of love and respect looks like.

There are many factors that will explain why its so complicated for married couples to love and show respect, but ultimately whether you believe in keeping The Lord, and HIs word the center of your marriage or not. These two attributes will always be at the forefront of every successful marriage. It makes it easier for the wife to submit to a loving husband, and Husband to show love to a respectful wife.  

You are HIS Perfection

The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me, Thy Mercy, O lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands  Psalms 138:8.   The word perfect here means complete or finished. 

When God created you He already had a plan mapped out. As a potter selects his clay. God selects us in like manner.  He puts us on the wheel and keeps his hand there until the masterpiece is complete.  God will not forsake you.  You are His art work, His perfection!   Remember even when it's not looking too pretty,  God is still working.   Our only job is to hold still and keep trusting. 

 Paul says in Phil 1:6, Being confident of this very thing. That He which begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.   Remember as long as we are living, God is still working. 

God Doesn't Want A Robot

I have been reading this book called God's Not Dead, by Rice Broocks. Amazing movie which lead me to the phenomenal book, which is the evidence behind the movie.  I must say the way the Author brings the details of God's existence and His will for man is obviously God revealed!   I am currently reading in a chapter entitled "Good and Evil are No Illusions."  In this Chapter the Author address the question "Why Doesn't God Remove Evil From the World?"  As I was reading I was picking up all kinds of knowledge and insight for myself.  Here's a quote that I enjoyed:  

"By creating beings that were spiritual and not physical and giving them the right to choose as well, God gave the possibility for unseen evil to exist. Somehow these beings have the capacity to inflict harm as well as inject disease into the human condition. By allowing free will into the universe, God knew He would give these creatures the option to commit evil, but He prepared us with spiritual weapons, insight , and prayer to combat the evil"  

Reading that quote I automatically think about Luke 10:19 where Jesus says;  "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."   And also Proverbs 16:19, "The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps"(ESV).

These scriptures and this revelation from the book really showcase how lovingly amazing God is!  Skeptics and those who choose not to believe in God will quickly try to discredit His existence because evil exists.  But this shows us that if we are to have free will, then a person can choose evil and the fruits of evil choices will grow. But on the contrast we also have the choice to choose good, and because of that  choice fruits of our good works are manifested as well! There is as much good going on in the world, and MORE so than evil.  Evil unfortunately gets more attention by our media and dumped into our laps everyday all day if you choose to entertain it.    Also, our choice does not remove the divine intervention of God to guide our steps as Proverbs 16 states.  God will allow us to make chart our own way and He is there monitoring with divine interventions.   If your heart chooses evil and 

continue to  reject God, then you are turned over to your desires to do that Romans 1:28. (God doesn't assist you in evil but He'll let you have it, along with its impending doom)   If you choose righteousness then grace is given abundantly to you to serve the Lord and grow in godliness 2 Pet 1:5-8.    The good news is evil will not always exist. God has already defeated evil by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Right now is our chance to make the right choice. Will you choose Good or Evil?  Remember God doesn't want Robots. So you have to make a choice. 

 Sure He could have created all of us to bow down and obey His every command but where's the love in that?  God is love, and love should be  a two way street.  He wants us to love Him back.  What person in their right mind would want people to love them because they have been programmed to? No one, because we understand that its not love at all. That is like knowing your children or spouse only shows you love  because you made them do it.  Deep down that would bother anyone, we want our children/spouse to love us for real!  This attribute exist in is because it exists with God, and He shared it in us! 

One day we will live in a world where evil does not exist.  Here is another quote that I loved from the book:  " By allowing evil a momentary presence in human existence, He not only defeated it on the cross but also will ultimately remove it forever. Because of this, in eternity, we will be able to exist with our free wills intact without the presence of evil."

So we will not be robots in heaven either! Some may say, why not create it this way from the beginning? Well, He did! Check out the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  He also gave angels free will, and some rebelled, and they are fallen Jude 1:6. He gave Adam and Eve a choice and they chose to disobey which brought evil into the world Genesis 3.  Thus our need for a savior.  Evil will be destroyed, and if we choose God now, we are choosing to live in a future world where evil does not exist. It is the perfect world!  God is brilliant.    

With Your Whole Heart

                                                                

 Jeremiah 29:13

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Have you ever wanted God to be close to you but never understood why you couldn’t feel Him? Why you couldn’t hear him? There are times when we find our selves in difficult situations to which we can see no way out.  We wonder if God sees and hear our cries for help.  Never mind that we have not given God daily the earnest attention He deserves.  We often toss out that we have neglected our daily communion and relationship with Christ.  We don’t stop to think that when we find ourselves in bondage in great troubles that it could be chastisement from the Lord to place us back on track.  

In this scripture, The Lord is reassuring Israel that even though their disobedience and sin has lead them to be held captive by Babylon that He would be there if they searched for Him with their whole hearts.  See Jesus never forsakes us even when we are in the mist of being chastised.  But in our chastisement we have to accept our fault, repent to God and learn.  We learn by seeking after Him with all of our hearts. This does not mean that we say a few fleeting prayers, and read couple of scriptures here in there. But we must search for God like we are searching for lost treasure.   We have to get on our knees and search for Jesus with a heavy heart and tears in our eyes. Dwell in the presence of God until we feel the burden of bondage lift.  If you don’t know how to enter into the presence of God alone, play praise and worship song to help usher you into His presence this always works for me when I am having a difficult time.

 We must understand that our allegiance to Christ must be 24/7. We can’t serve the world, and only serve God when it’s convenient for us.  God wants our whole heart. Isn’t that the first commandment? (Exodus 20:3 and Matt. 22:37)  Remember that God is a spirit, and He wants a people that will worship Him in spirit and in truth John  4:24. This is the only way to truly find God. He knows yours thoughts and the intent of your heart. There is no way to pull the wool of His eyes.  Just surrender fully to Christ and watch Him show up in your spirit, and in your daily life.

Why you should Call on Jesus

Whenever I read Jeremiah 33:3 I always get the sense that I am missing out.  Like  there is this huge security safe that Jesus has, and it's labeled Chandra.  There's no last name needed because Jesus knows exactly who I am.  I get the sense that there are so many things that God wants to share with me but I alone hold the key to unlock my safe. I see Jesus standing there with safe in hands, arms stretched out in my direction holding the safe with the answers for this season in my life. I picture that there are many safes that can be unlocked, but He will only grant  me one at a time, or as needed for my life long journey. Will I come to Him? Will I use my key, which is prayer?  Or will I forsake the treasures that God possess to figure out things on my own. God forbid that I neglect the fellowship between us.  I know that I will do my self a huge injustice if I do not call on the name of Jesus, and go my own way.

 God wants so badly to share with us.  But many of us will sit on the keys we possess to open our own safe. There are so many riches to be shared, so many truths to uncover. Endless discoveries about our lives than can bring us joy and quench the thirst we have in our souls for more. Jesus is standing, waiting, and holding the answers but we must call on Him.  There's so much he has to tell us! Doesn't that make you excited to pray earnestly to God?!   Below is a heartfelt prayer that I prayed this morning when I first read this scripture:

"There are so many things that I don't know. Things that I don't understand. Where are we headed God? What is your plan? I know I can trust you for my future. I know you are taking care of me, and continuing to take care of me.  But, I would really like to know somethings now.  I am calling out to you because I would like to know what is to become of my future on earth, now? What are your plans for me?  I will be still and wait to hear from you. I will look for you. What great things do you know concerning me that you can share? Please, I would love to know. I will call to you daily. I need you, I can't make it without your friendship Lord". 

Go to God and pray your heart. Be open as you can be, worship in His presence, meditate on His promises, and wait to hear what He has to share. You may not get the answer right away, but keep coming back every day.  He will answer you.

~Live Abundantly
Chandra

Be Thankful

In “Everything” Give Thanks

1 Thessalonians 5:18

If we truly believe that God knows what’s best for us, there would be more praising and less complaining.  If we believe when His word says; “the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” we would recognize the trials in our lives as God’s divine appointments and not as vain interruptions. When all appears well it is easy to sing the praises of our God loud and proud! We want everyone to know how good our God is, and how He is blessing us. But when pain, disappointments, delays, and tragedy arrives we don’t always find it easy to brag about what God is doing. Well, I will be the first to admit, it’s not always easy.  I have asked God plenty of times what in the world is going on, why, and for how long? 

James 1:2 says that we should count it all joy when we fall into divers trials or temptation. On the surface that is a hard pill to swallow. People would probably think you were crazy to go around rejoicing and praising God when your life looks wrecked! But we can remain thankful to God because we know that He is not finished with our story. We can thank God because He continues to give us the grace and strength to stand in the midst of our trials. I don’t believe James expects us to show utter excitement in direct response to hardship. However, we can rejoice and acknowledge God for the opportunity to be used as He reveals His power working in us!  Wether we are prospering, or in dire need, let us remain thankful because our circumstances will never change who God is.  

He's Not Dead!

Happy Resurrection Day! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday as much as I did. This is one of my favorite holidays because I am always so humbled and so grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus gave. To allow himself to suffer so greatly. To allow himself to be nailed  on a cross that he could have easily come down from. Jesus knew that if he would have come down that none of us would have a chance at salvation and eternal life. In that moment that Jesus hung on the cross he became sin for us. He took our punishment and died our death so we would not have to die in sin.  

 But the most wonderful news in the world is that Jesus did not stay in that grave.  Satan thought he had won.  But on day three when Mary, and some of her friends went  down to visit the tomb of Jesus they realized he was no longer there. The tomb was empty. See Matthew 28:6.  Jesus Christ had risen as he promised.  And by Jesus rising from the dead, he conquered death! It was not the end. Death is  not the end for those who die IN Jesus Christ but it is only the beginning.     

By accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior you accept life. Eternal life.  You accept victory over your earthly body and everything that comes with it..sickness, temptations, limitations, the unknown, even death.  St John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe on him should not perish, but have everlasting life!    The Good News is He is NOT dead.. and because of that we can live!   Praise Him, Praise our God forever for his selfless act. Happy Easter everyone!