The Hard Part

To be selfless sounds like a weakness, but when we look at it from God's perspective, we see it is a great strength, and Paul spoke to this attitude from the life he lived. Paul did not leave anything to waste when instructing the church in Colossae, and the following verses are good instruction for all family relationships. Colossians 3: ¹⁸ Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. ¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not become bitter against them. ²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing ^to the Lord. ²¹ Fathers, do not antagonize your children, so that they will not become discouraged.

First of all, praise God for family. Secondly, praise God WITH family. Thirdly, God is our family, and He is Abba Father. The following verses come from a deeper walk that is immersed in all of God's truths, no matter the world's thoughts about it. Remember, we are IN the world but not OF the world, so our hearts are set on what God's word says, no matter what it says. If we have trouble with some of the truth from God's Word, we will find excuses for not following the above scripture, but it doesn't change the meaning of the scripture itself..

Wives being subject to their husbands first began in the garden with Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:^18. Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” After that, God formed the animals out of the ground like He did Adam, but there was not a suitable helper for Adam. Genesis 2: 20 Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. ²² And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Eve was the one who was made to be a helper to Adam in the garden, and God fashioned her into who he wanted her to be for Adam. Eve was the suitable helper, and her existence was vital to the man. She IS VITAL to the man in her intended role.

We live in a world that is controlled by our nemesis, the devil, and this world wants to discredit God's plans and God's intentions. Some read the above scriptures in Genesis and want to put human reasoning into the verses, but watering them down doesn't change how God's plan is a perfect plan. You can tell how important it was for the devil to crash God's intended plan because he attacked it and offered Adam and Eve the forbidden fruit, which they took, and sin came into the world. In tempting Eve, the devil was really tempting them both, and Adam needed to take a stand against eating the fruit, but he didn't. In the world today, we see a huge gap where men are not trying to lead their families, and women are in a role they were not made to take. When the man wakes up to the fact that he needs to lead, then the wives don't want to give up living HIS ROLE, and it just makes everything even worse.

We need to get back to the perfect plan God put into place, and Paul is teaching the church at Colossae that perfect plan. The question then and now is, will we change our attitude and line up with the teachings Paul is presenting? It is our choice, but the end result will only be the best if we follow God's plan. Anything less is a compromise with the world, and we probably have too much carnality anyway. Ask, seek, knock, and you will find the truth in God's Word. The only ways all of this could go bad are if the men don't let God's Word change them into a spirit-filled individual, or the wives like their new, wrong position and reject God's Word. Just trust God's Word, and it will all run like a fine-tuned machine. Even when we fail, we snap back into what's right when we pursue God and His ways.

You can find out really quickly who you are following by how you receive the above verses in Colossians, and as usual with God, it's between you and Him. Let Him win, and you will win. No reason to pick apart the above verses in Colossians, just have a moldable, willing heart, and everything will fall into place. I almost skipped the above verses because they made me feel like I would be a "voice crying out in the wilderness." Once again. I want to follow all of God's word, not just the parts I like. So there it is........

Today's Message,

David Warren