| By Pastor Adeboye |
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Memorise: “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, withersoever the governor listeth” (Jas 3:4 ) Read: Ephesians 5:22-24 |
| “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22).
The Bible gives the blueprint for success in marriage. If you want Heaven in your home, follow the marriage manual – the Bible. It is not enough to identify your God-given partner, even though this is very important. If you know God’s will in marriage but fail to adhere to His instructions, your marriage cannot be as pleasurable as God planned it to be. Wives are commanded to submit to their husbands. Whether he is younger, less educated, shorter, smaller, or poorer is immaterial. James 3:4 says, “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, withersoever the governor listeth”. The wife may be the large ship and the husband the tiny helm, yet to arrive at God’s destination for the family, she must submit to his authority. The woman may have the greatest and most laudable ideas concerning the home and running the family, yet God expects her to put them at the feet of her husband. If your family must arrive at God’s pre-planned destination, you have to submit to your husband. Another reason a woman must submit – voluntarily subordinate herself to her husband is because he is her cover. A wife that refuses to submit to her husband comes outside the cover God has placed over the individual and opens herself to enemy fire. Similarly, a woman must submit under her husband because God never designed her to be the head of the man. In any home where the woman is the head and the man is the one receiving orders, there will be trouble. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot be the head of that home. Submission to one’s husband is in obedience to God’s Word and therefore an act of faith. In what area should a woman submit? Verse 24 says in every thing. No exceptions! Some women submit in some mild areas but when it comes to an issue she has vested interest, she will not submit. Some sisters find it hard to submit in the area of finances, but the scriptures says your submission must be total before Heaven will count you obedient. To what extent is your submission to your husband? Ask God for grace to submit to your husband.
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| A woman who submits to her husband lives out the Heavenly mould. A woman who refuses to do this lives out a hellish mould. |
Review of ‘the Emperor’s New Cloth’s
By Emily’s Daddy
It outrages me. They are teaching our children in schools stories which lead to bad values, and ultimately bad behavior in the youth exposed to such stories. One immoral story that has me concerned is ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes.’ In this story a young boy, perhaps 15, maybe 16 openly mocks the Emperor who is marching naked in a parade. In this story the boy does not consider the consequences of his morally reprehensible action.
The boy in the story shows no consideration how his actions will affect the personal beliefs of the subjects of the kingdom. In addition the insensitive lad does not consider the chaos, the deep seated personal hurt and insult he displays toward the core beliefs held by the people who are subject to the Emperor and follow his appointed leadership. Others lives’, sensitivities he just does not take into consideration when he ‘laughs’ at the unclothed King, and this is a great character flaw, as actions and ideas have consequences. The boy’s insensitive actions clearly must have deeply, deeply hurt many of the subjects of that kingdom. This story has an inherent moral flaw, it sets a very bad principle- mainly the foundational objective fact that the emperor is nude is of no consequence when one considers the feelings that will be hurt by the boy’s grossly disrespectful laughter. Some may say the truth should be exposed, but, again at what cost? What of the civil rights of the subjects of the kingdom? Some with improper secular values may believe that placing feelings above the truth is an exercise in occluding, balming over, a diversion from the foundational fact that the emperor is naked, but we should teach our children that others feelings must always come first, and facts, truth, reality, their place of import clearly must always, always come after others feelings.
The facts, reality that the majority of people, like in the emperors kingdom are unwilling to deal with an obvious truth is not the boys, nor anyone else’s problem, being sensitive to feelings, beliefs of others is! It may be implied by those with secular values that the motive and rationale for avoidance of the obvious truth has become so ingrained that the majority do not even realize that those in leadership, or those appointed by leadership are perpetuating a falsehood, but that is ludicrous, a product of the secular mindset. Leaders know what’s best for us, have reasons for doing what they do, and it is not our place to question their authority. The issue is one of respect, respect of authority, and the respect of the feelings and sensitivities of others.
This twisted tale underscores a greater problem affecting our children, a problem such stories only render worse. One must consider an equally insidious inaudible hidden laughter, a million times more potent than that boy’s laughter, a laughter expressed by those unfeeling secularists who foist on our school children books, ideas, fossils, that second guess ‘fundamental’ feelings of many sensitive parents.
Hans Christian Anderson, who wrote the story ‘The Emperors New Cloths” was clearly missing some part of his moral education.
Len kloth