Time

As I sit here watching the NBA draft, I ponder on the lives of Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson I hearken back to a time where I would sneak and stay up to watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (still the best) if it was a Wednesday night I would have already watched Charlie's Angels and if I said I didn't like Mike, I would be lying.

While I could give a commentary on the three of them who died at the ages of 86, 62, and 50 respectively, I choose to zero in on the six year old who drowned at the Knights Inn a couple of days ago. What is my point? My point is this, 6 or 86 time is precious. You see not one of these people thought that this day would be the one that would be their last. They were in different places Ed and Farah had cancer, MJ died from heart failure and the child, well the child drowned. That's why my status showed Job 14:1, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble." Your few may be more or less than my few but best believe a few is a few. We are obligated to make our "few" count. What are you doing to make your few count? Let your loved ones know what they mean to you. Repair broken relationships, remember, you are not judged on how people treat you, but how you treat people.

Be Blessed!

Husbands

As inspired by Pastor R.A.Vernon

Men men men. We here the word everyday. Phrases like, "I am man!" "Man I ain't no punk." "Man c'mon" and etc. What is it to be a real man? Most guys mistake masculinity for being a man. Most don't think about that. I know women who are heterosexual, who have masculine traits. Most not by choice, but they have been forced into having to be that role model. Some women are just better than their male counterparts at doing things that society deems "a man's job." One of my parents neighbors can be seen outside weekly cutting her grass, qhilw hwe husband goes in and out of the house. I even recall a few years ago, having to replace the faucet in my bathroom, I was attending a memorial for the father of one of my (military) brothers. My wife had arrived a little bit late when I said that I had to get home to fix that faucet. My wife informed me that she had already installed the new one.  A pleasant surprise to me, of course! My point is this, guys want a woman who is feminine, but these are the same individuals who have forced these same women to take on masculine traits. This is not an attack on all men, this is just something that was revealed to me by Pastor Vernon, and I would like to share with the husbands.

     How consistent are we? I mean seriously, how consistent are you? Is your integrity in line, do you do the right thing, even when no one is looking? Even when you know you could get away with it? Do we tell our spouses that we will do something, and then conveniently forget? Now memory loss does happen, but does it happen often when you tell your spouse that you will do something? Let's discuss this.

First lets look at Ephesians 5:25 (KJV) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Now this is a common passage of scripture and most men always want to go to the part where the wives are supposed to submit, we will deal with that a little bit later on.

Men we are tasked to love our wives as Christ loved the church, it doesn't say that we are to be "in love," it says "to love." In the comparative voice we (men) are compared to Christ, women are likened unto the church. I think that it is safe to say that Christ loves the church always no matter what. HIS love for us in unconditional and it always exists. HIS love is consistent. This is how we are to love our wives. We need to be constantly consistent. I had to learn this because I found my wife constantly getting on my nerves. This is a constant test, however Colossians 3:19 (KJV) states: "Husbands, love [your] wives, and be not bitter against them."  Kind of simple isn't it? 

Now back to the submission statement, the Bible instructs us in I Peter 3:7 (KJV) "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with [them] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered."

 The beauty of the Bible is the symmantical aspect of how it is written. Notice the Bible does not say that the wife "is" the weaker vessel it says to honour her "as unto" or as "if" she is the weaker vessel. If you think that a woman is weak, you try giving birth to a child. I personally want no part of the physical aspect of it. Why do you think that the curse that GOD placed on woman in the garden of Eden was to greatly multiply their sorrow in childbirth? All men got was to eat bread from the sweat of our face (Genesis 3:17-19). The final strike to women was that men would rule over them, nothing was stated that men rule over them because men are superior. Take that into consideration the next time you tell your significant other that they need to submit to you. Know the reason they are to submit, and then treat them as you are supposed to treat them. If you treat them in the correct GODLY manner, you will be blessed. If you go back to I Peter 3:7 the last part says, "and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered."  

You see men, if you treat your wives the way that GOD intended, then your prayers will not be hindered. Here is a way to look at the whole thing, if a prayer is figuratively a dollar and a man is worth $.50 and you treating your wife like a quarter, you'll never add up to that dollar to get your prayer through, it will be hindered, because no matter what you do, you will never add up, but when you treat her like an equal you will make your endeavors successful. Together we are heirs, not one without the other.

Be blessed!