Marriage for Men - Study 2

I am clean before my Lord, not because of what I've done, but because of Him and His sacrifice on the cross. And even more, my heart is cleansed at the moment when the Spirit of the Lord washes it as I hear and believe His Word.

Ephesians 5:25,26 can be puzzling. It says that "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (the church) to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word." The part that says washing with water through the word is the puzzling part. I looked up in the concordance the root meaning behind "water" and "word".

"Water" here simply means water. "Word" here simply means spoken language. Clearly, physical water does not flow from a spoken sentence. So I'm thinking this part of the verse is an illustration.

To further illustrate look at a concordance for this verse. Cleansing means to fully bathe. And this use of water means a flood, or waves of the ocean. And we do this through spoken language, the word.

"Nice hat, Honey.", "Hey, dinner tastes good", "Good job!". These are nice things to say and don't give up on these kind gestures. But these are small spurts out of a drinking fountain. Men, think of what Jesus says to us through the Word and how it overtakes us. It cleanses our hearts so that we can truely worship Him! Big waves and a full bath is the illustration and example Paul brings here.

Listen closely to what our wives are telling us. It's different for each one of us, and can be different during various times in our marriages. But listen and find from what it is she needs cleansing. Be thoughtful, be helpful, be encouraging. And pour out a flood of words. For me personally, I'm not very impromptu and I cannot think on the fly. I do better by writing things down. Write a letter. Write it in a card and leave it on her pillow.

Why does Jesus do this for His church. Verse 27 says, "and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." You see how this applies in marriage? Who do we want with us, but a woman who has been cleansed of her insecurities and frailties and to be the woman God made her to be for you.

Marriage for Men- Study 1

Marriage may seem to be both a blessing and a curse, even at the same time. A Bible study question asked, "What event in your life was pivotal point for either your spiritual growth or personal growth." I answered, "When I asked Anita to marry me." Marriage, it is good, but it is not easy.

I decided to blog a study on Ephesians 5:22-33 in which Paul discusses the roles and responsibilities of wives and husbands. I'm starting with Ephesians 5:22-24. Although it talks about what wives must do I shall focus on what the husband must be doing within this context."

In v22 and v23 it says, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

Here are some observations:
a. The analogy is that the husband is like the Lord.
b. The husband is the head.
c. Paul mentions the church as his body.
d. He is the Savior.

First, this puts a tremendous amount of responsibility on the side of the husband. In relationship to the church, the Lord is the leader, he is the provider, he is aware of what is happening to his church, and he guides. He is patient, slow to anger, abounding in love. So we can easily see the application.

A new application for me is the guidance part. I would think my wife is old enough to make decisions on her own, even about small things. However, she looks to me for guidance. Doesn't a church or a believer often seek the Lord for guidance (or at least should)? Even for a small or obvious thing we pray, "Oh Lord guide us", or, "Lord lead us not into temptation". We as believers struggle and the Lord helps us, so also can be a tremendous help to our wives to guide. We as believers want affirmation of the Lord of what we are doing. Perhaps she wants affirmation from her husband of what she is doing.

I'll say something about observations b and c for later, and I'll say something about d. The Lord put something on my humble heart regarding this: the Lord is my Savior.

One time during my engagement I questioned whether getting married was something I should do. So I asked a coworker, a friend and a fellow believer this question. One thing he said that stuck out to me most was, "Well, if you want to be more like Jesus, then you should get married". He was married and he probably on purpose left out the details where there are times in marriage when you feel like you are being crucified.

Being a savior is not being a hero. It's being a sacrifice, so that a believer will have an abundant life and life everlasting. God clothed himself in humanity to be close to us and to really know us and that we can really know him. So the application is clear for husbands and what to do for wives. Dwell with her. Be with her. Sacrifice yourself to know her and so that she may know you. Take the responsibility even if your wife makes a mistake. Will a woman submit herself to a man who is an overbearing dictator, judgementally ruling from afar? Not at all!. But for a man who wisely leads with a sacrifice of himself, she will likely follow him no matter where he goes.

Men, let us not be stupid about these things. God calls us to be leaders, and he provided the perfect example of how to do so. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2)

Grace and Peace

Again I'd like to promote Truth For Life with a suggestion to listen to a message titled "Three Facts True of Every Christian". It is a short study about the person Peter and how we can really relate to him in our Christian walk. You can listen to TFL messages online here. Hopefully this message will still be in view of the broadcast archives by the time you read this.

Something that caught my attention and prompted me to post is that Alistair said this:
So we have Peter being obedient in a boat.
We have Peter being faithful on the water.
We have Peter being tough in the garden.
We have Peter running scared in the courtyard.
Finally, we have Peter being restored on the shores.

I won't elaborate further because I don't think I could say it any better than Begg, so please give it a listen.

At the end of the message he says a bit about grace and peace, from the greeting in 1 Peter verse 1:2 -- "Grace and peace be yours in abundance". This is what we need for tomorrow. If we are looking for a job, we need grace and peace. If we are dealing with a cantankerous boss, we need grace and peace. If we ARE a cantankerous boss, we need grace and peace.

I can name a good number of aspects of my life in which grace and peace would be good and is quite necessary. Think of how Jesus deals with us -- with Grace and Peace.