Thursday, October 4, 2012

And Adam Knew Eve

And Adam Knew Eve……….
Marriage takes forgiveness, work, and unconditional love!!!!! Adam and Eve show us how to love each other even when they allowed the enemy to come in and cause division, blame and strife.
· The Excitement
Genesis 2:22 – 23 NLT
22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.23At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”
All of us remember the day we united with our husbands and the joy we felt, whether it was a huge ceremony or small and private. Adam showed his gratitude as if he had been waiting for someone with a likeness to him. Someone with same spirit as him, someone he could worship God with and share the blessing God had given to him.

· The Enemy and Our Excuses
Genesis 3:1 -4 NLT
1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
Genesis 3:12 - 13 NLT
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

Marriage is the mirror image of the relationship between Christ and the church. After the Lord blesses our union and we begin our lives as a Christian couple the enemy comes immediately to bring division and strife. After they both sinned against God and failed each other (it was Adams position to cover her and her position to help) then the blame game began. Adam blamed her and she blamed the serpent. When our marriages are shaken by sin, blame, or mistakes we need to acknowledge our responsibly and own up to them.

· The Exile
Genesis 3: 23 NLT
23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.
Because of the sin of both of them, God banished them from the Garden of Eden. The place of peace. Have we ever allowed things to enter our home that took the peace and serenity from our sanctuaries?? IM GUILTY! But then what? How do we take back our home from the attack of the enemy? What example do Adam and Eve give to follow?

· What God Expects
Genesis 4:1 NLT
1Now Adam knew Eve his wife
The very next scripture shows us exactly what He expects us to do in our marriages…… RECONCILE AND QUICKLY!!!! After the greatest fall to sin they still understood the importance of MAKE UP SEX! I know it’s a cliché, but its means so much more that the worlds view of it. When I first saw this I was shocked, but then again I was reminded that EVERYTHING is in the book. It is so very important naturally and even more so, spiritually, to engage intimately with our spouses to reconnect and renew our relationship with one another. The sin committed against God between Adam and Eve had consequences none of us today could probably bear, and if they can reconcile as they did, there is NOTHING we can’t conquer in our own marriages!!!!
Brings us back to the Excitement!!

And Adam Knew Eve…..LOL!!!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The Husbandry

This one is for the husbands: Know that your actions, provisions, reactions, responses, (basically your obedience to God's word) plays a significant part in your wife's sanctification. Sanctification is a process that we all must go through. We all must go through this process for ourselves but we can not do this by ourselves.

Ephesians 5:25-27 (NLT) For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.

In order for your wife to submit to you, you must first submit to her. Humility breeds humility. Pride breeds pride. This is bigger than but yet as simple as you get what you give. In submitting to her you are not showing a sign of weakness but instead displaying great strength. In doing so you facilitate an environment where you the husband (Gardener) can till the ground. You will be able to plant seeds that produce the fruit that are required for you both to live a life pleasing unto God. Contrary to popular belief women were not made to submit. They must be taught this. When God created (before he formed) woman, He gave her the same dominion that He gave man. She is just as royal as you are. You have to understand this to understand what you have. With that said, no woman will submit to a man who does not display the characteristics of one who understands his dominion.

No gardener destroys his crops. Instead he nurtures them. He gives them what they need. He understands that what he has on his hands may very well be no more than good ground. Husbands understand that if God gave you this woman, He gave you good ground. With this good ground there will be work. You must plow, de-weed. We have to be willing to work through and pull out all the weeds and junk that her past may have planted. If we don't take the time to understand and pull the weeds out, they will grown and take over, starving every good seed we plant.

Fellas this is a process. Much like the woman with the issue of blood, when she touched the hem of Jesus' garment she was instantly made whole. No doubt that after bleeding for twelve years she was still a little bloody. Meaning she still not only displayed the same outward appearance, but she was still used to dealing as if she was still a cast out. To bring it home... She still felt like she had to run the house. She still was a little on edge. She still felt the need to prove and assert herself. We Have to be willing to deal with that in a spirit of meekness.

Don't be mistaken men even though it sounds like the end result we are looking for here is a good wife. Its not that at all. When you do these things it doesn't only yield a better wife. It first makes you a great husband. One who will provide for her, facilitate an environment of growth, one who will be patient, and kind. This will require that you bear the fruit of the spirit. It means that you will pray for her. This will mean that yes you may be angered, but you sin not. This will require you to be faithful, understanding and loving. You will learn to lead her without forcing her to follow.  Bottom line it requires you to love her as Christ loves the church. When we get in line.... and stay in line, everything else has no choice but to fall in line. In then end God gets the glory because of the fact that He get it throughout.