Dear Mothers,

Oh, I am enjoying having Olivia Jean, 4 years old, to watch each day. (Not weekends.) Yesterday afternoon we went on a picnic. My neighbor friend Linda babysits also, so we all went together. We walked to a park uptown. It’s just a short walk of about six blocks. Then later on yesterday, Johnny brought Rose and Romeo to see me. We all had supper. Just goulash. John needed to pick up his lawn mower. Olivia enjoyed playing with the grand kids. I am so surprised that Olivia entertains herself in the mornings and I can write. I thought I would have to do all of my writings about 5:00 in the morning before Olivia got here. But I guess I can still write as usual.

What has been on my heart lately is abused women. Ya know when you talk about “submission” on a group like ours, everyone thinks you mean putting up with abuse and all kinds of malarkey. But we as submissive wives use Jesus Christ as our example. (1 Peter 2 and 3) Jesus didn’t go to the cross because He was too afraid to run the other way. Jesus had prayed in the Garden about going. He didn’t want to go. But He made a decision to go in His quiet night of prayer. Many times, as the people tried to kill Him, He disappeared in the crowd. He could have gotten out of dying at Calvary’s cross. He had a choice and decided to die for the sins of His people. Women of honor are like this. No one makes a woman of dignity do anything that she hasn’t already decided to do, made a decision to do.

Jesus carried his cross to Calvary. He didn’t go because He was afraid of the soldiers. And once He got on the cross, He could have called the angels to take Him down. He who had healed the multitudes could have healed Himself. The Roman soldiers mocked Him and lied about Him. But He was a soldier of dignity and honor and He didn’t answer them back. He didn’t need to answer His accusers — he knew the truth and stood for it. And folks will lie about us as Christian Mothers and accuse us of all kinds of things. What does it matter to daughters of Sarah? Let them accuse you and mock you. A woman of dignity stands strong and tall in the face of accusations. She doesn’t answer back. She lets God answer for her. And if He doesn’t at the time answer for her, then she is still not moved.

A woman of dignity is a woman who is never caught off guard. She pivots from the inner man, the meek and quiet spirit. But an abused woman is skittish. She flits from one thing to the other. She smiles in front of her husband and when he turns his back, she is unfaithful. She has never made a decision one way or the other to be faithful. She moves by her fears and is like a hungry dog sneaking food when no one is looking. She lies continually about where she was and why it took her so long to get back home. Her husband can’t get the truth out of her for anything. And a lot of women like this scream abuse because their husbands won’t let them go to work or buy new clothes every week. But these women have a personality of foolishness. They don’t understand the woman of honor any more then they can understand their place as Keepers at Home. Many of these women are stingy with their husbands and children. They want what they want and now. They will take a man down and use up all he has and has worked for.

Now I realize children get abused. And they can’t help it. They are children and they aren’t mature enough to protect themselves. But a mature Christian wife would never live in abuse. One way or the other, she will work her way out of it. Jesus had a wonderful childhood for all we know from the scriptures. He then started His ministry at age 30 and died on the cross at 33. But He lived in a private religious home most of His life. He wasn’t beat every day or abused as a child. But when the time came for Him to give up His life, He knew it. No one browbeat Him to go to the cross.

And I realize there are some women who really are abused and don’t know where to turn for help. But to me being abused is a choice. A woman of strength and dignity will never allow anyone to abuse her.

The Word, in 1 Peter 3, says while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. In other words, when a woman has a heart like Sarah, meek and quiet, a man becomes afraid of her. He beholds her pure actions and becomes fearful to cross her. And Dang! Don’t any of you give me any dirt on this stuff because I have earned my right to say it. But, see, some of you think that submission is “Yes Sir” and “No Sir” — it’s a lot more then that. We submit to our husbands to win him and the children to Jesus Christ. It’s a long hard process sometimes but that’s why a Christian wife submits to an unsaved husband. Or one who is saved but doesn’t obey the Word of God.

Our behavior as wives is to be holy and set apart unto God. We are to learn in silence and subjection. We are to be holy in our places as keepers at home. Our Home is our ministry. As we submit to our husbands, this is our submission to Christ. And the heavenlies line up with God’s authority and under Him is Christ and under Jesus is our husbands. As we pull in under our husbands, then our husbands are forced to pull in under Christ. It is that our hearts are submissive. We have hearts that are humble and obedient.

But we don’t always submit to our husband’s flesh. If he walks in the house and says, “I want a divorce” then, no, we don’t submit. But we have a meek and quiet heart of submission. We soften his heart by our faith in him. That he is the man of our prayers and you think the better of him. And you stay in an attitude of love and holiness. You don’t receive his decision to get a divorce. I mean God is on your side. If you are a covenant woman and a woman of honor, then you don’t want a divorce. But you must be quiet and submit to your husband. And if he wants you to file for a divorce, you do out of obedience. But you pray that God will intervene.

In the early days of my marriage, Jim came in the door one day after being gone for three months and said, “I want a divorce.” Well, I was way ahead of him and was prayed up. I didn’t want to laugh in his face so I ran to the bedroom to laugh. I was so glad to see him and had worried so much about his welfare. When I came out of the bedroom, he had Jimmy, 4 years old, sitting on the table and telling him that he was to always love his Mother but that Daddy didn’t love her anymore. I laughed like crazy over that. Finally, I looked into Wild Man’s eyes and I said, “Oh, Honey, everything will be alright.” Jim then admitted that he loved me but was just so tired of hurting me. I told him I was alright and that God was going to take care of us. I didn’t stand and preach at Jim as he would have hated that. I would just say then, “Honey, are you hungry?” And I would make him some food. My heart went out to him as he wasn’t saved, as I was. My husband didn’t know Jesus and my heart of compassion cared so for Jim.

Then I think that time he stayed home for about 2 months and ran away again. His mother died and no one could find Jim. He would hide out for months and no one could find him. Oh, such a troubled man he was. But, see, the Lord has a plan for these men. He wants them to become saved. And, see, a wife can obey God until hell freezes over and nothing will happen. But there comes a day as she is obeying God with her eyes fixed upon Him and not her circumstances. And the appointed day comes and God moves like a mighty wind upon her husband. But no man comes to Christ by the obedience of the wife only. But God moves as the wife prepares the way in the wilderness. She is a John the Baptist calling for her husband to look at the Savior. And one day, on the appointed day, Husband is miraculously saved and delivered.

And ya know, dear wives, as you act like Sarah and you study her in 1 Peter 2 and 3, you will become more like her. You must cultivate your soul and spirit so that you will become the virtuous woman. Virtue means power! The woman of power in this present world is the wife and mother at home. The woman who takes on the cloak of housewifery is the woman of honor and dignity. And the day will come as you follow and are taught of Sarah that you will see your husband come to Christ.

As you submit to your husband and honor him, you are moving the heavenlies about. You are loosing things in heaven and your husband will be loosed on earth. As you stand under the light of heaven through your obedience, you absolutely move the angels to move upon your mate. You sway the heavenlies with your holy obedience to God. When you willingly take up your cross and die daily to self and to this world, you move the Father’s heart. And you become a ruby ring upon His hand. And He moves His unseen hand and causes the circumstances to change. Your obedience will come up to His heavenly throne and the fragrance of your obedience will be a fragrance that He cannot live without. You become the Lord’s bride and He cannot live without you. You become so precious to Him as He sees your life being created for Him.

And the wife learns holy obedience as Christ did through what she has suffered. She comes through the cross as only God has designed. And she takes it all as Christ did at the cross. She is lied on and gossiped about. And yet she enters a marriage that God ordained and made with His own hands. And as before she suffered more than most wives, she now rejoices as no one else understands lest they went through the same sufferings. She has finally learned the wisdom of God. She wouldn’t go through that again for anything and yet she wouldn’t trade the experience for the wisdom she learned for all the gold and silver in the world. Because it wasn’t gold and silver that brought her through. But it was a holy obedience to God and to Him alone that delivered her and her loving and now saved husband.

And, yes, you can browbeat a man into walking the aisle at church and makin’ him say he is saved. But this is not the Bible way. And you will end up with a man who is only good at church and hell at home. What you must aim for is to show your husband by your holiness in the home that we must know God in a personal way. Because church won’t take you to heaven, only through the blood of Christ. Jesus must be your God, your only Lord. And as you suffer, dear Christian wife, turn only unto the Lord.

The angels are watching you. And whether you can know it or not, your unsaved husband is watching you, too. As you press on heaven with your obedience, the Lord will pull your husband into a holy place. And a sweet hour of prayer will come and you will see the Lord’s miracles and His glory. He promised and He will answer you and give you exceedingly and abundantly more then you can ask or think. He has Promised and He is not a man that he should lie.

1 Peter 3 Likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not the word they will also without the word be won by the actions of the wife. The actions of holy obedience brings the heavenlies into place. And one day this obedience moves the heart of God. And husband hears the voice of God and surrenders his heart to Christ.

Love,
Connie

Well, Poor OLD Aunt Toot is coming for a visit this afternoon. I am makin’ coffee. I made goulash earlier, as Dan may stop by later. I want to write soon on obedience. Well, I will write a bit now on it.

I was watchin’ Pastor Hagee this morning and I liked his sermon. Part of it, he was saying the church needs to preach Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. I agree with that. But, ya know, I would add to that this. We need to accept Him and His word. So much is preached about praising Him and His glory and all. I agree. But what I would add is this. WE need a heart change! WE have to learn to submit to God.

We have such a Social Gospel goin’ on. It’s an easy Gospel to follow. When we praise the Lord and we hear the story of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, this is just the beginning. The important idea is “Do we believe it and would we offer our life for what we believe?” See, it has to hit us in the heart.

We can praise God and that is something we do, but will we submit to His will? Will we cry out, “Lord not my will but thine be done?” Most of my early marriage was a daily submission to His will. Every day I wanted to do what I wanted to do. Give Up? But I had to study the word to have a meek and quiet spirit. And even at that, it was not me who submitted to God but Christ within me did. In myself, I could do nothing. And this is to be our lives as sacrificial lambs of God. We are to die daily to ourselves and to what we want. We must cry out, “Not my will, Lord, but Thy will be done in my life.”

There are so many half truths being taught. Why? Because the foundation of the Bible and God’s plan is the family. The husband as head and priest of the home under God. The wife is to submit to her husband and the children under the parents. This is a picture of Christ and the Church. And the Bible says that any man who doesn’t have his house in order can’t be a pastor or a deacon. Women are not to take authority in the church. But now days, we have church teachings built upon half truths.

We are to build our house upon the Rock, upon the truth. So we end up only praising the Lord at church and not allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us and pull at our heartstrings. The religious teachings of the day are built on sand because the foundation of Bible teachings is missing.

The religion of the day is missing the heart of God. It’s boring and not cutting edge. It’s missing the excitement and the power. The glory so many of these preachers talk about is not based on the foundations of Christ and His word. This glory they are calling down with filthy evil hands? They better hope it don’t come? It’s God’s grace that it hasn’t come down and burned them up. We must be seekers of His truth first and then His glory will come.

Dear Mothers of the Home. Good Morning! Praise the Lord for another day to cook and bake and sew. To submit to our husbands and to care for our precious children.

I am thinking of my precious little grandbabies this morning. Oh, they are both so cute. They were very excited when Aunt Chrissy came, as she always brings them cute little clothes. She brought them two tops apiece this last time. Baby Rose ran in the our house and said, “Gramma, look at my new coat.” Her Mom said, “Kambree (her real name), that’s not a coat — it’s a sweater.” But Baby usually has the more lightweight sweaters or sweatshirts. So she thought the heavier sweater was a coat. But Baby Rose is so thankful for everything. She is just a delight. Romeo is all boy and wouldn’t try his sweater on. We love this little rascal just the same.

But this morning, as I am up early this morning, I think of the scriptures that say in 1 Thess. 4:11 That ye Study to be quiet, to do your own business, and to work with your own hands Verse 12 that you may walk honestly toward them that are without and that ye will have lack of nothing. Boy, those scriptures there are loaded. STUDY to be QUIET? We should study the meek and quiet spirit that 1 Peter 3 speaks of. The holy women of old adorned their inner man with submission to their husbands.

My friend Jill and I used to speak of the inner man as our dime — I don’t know why. But if something hit us in the inner sanctuary of our hearts, we would say, “That hit my dime!”

The inner court of our Spirits is what we need to keep quiet. We need to STUDY to keep that part of our souls quiet. That inner court is where Esther came before the King. That was a physical inner court. But we as God’s people are made up like the temple made of hands. We have a outer court and inner court and a place for the holy of holies. Decisions are to be made in the inner court. We have an outer court where we commune with other believers. But the inner court is where Jesus is and we aren’t to act on anything in the spirit that doesn’t come out of the inner court. Out of the meek and quiet spirit.

Our nervous system as women is in the inner court. In this place of submission to our husbands, we live and breath and have our being. When we get fearful and crazy and nervous, it means we have come out of the inner court. We are out there running with this and that person’s ideas. We have forgotten our husband’s heart and his ways. It’s very easy to run out of the inner court. This is why we have to STUDY to learn how to stay under our husbands.

I get out of that inner court and I am like a scared rabbit and wolves chase me like they haven’t eaten in ten days. And the Lord will let me get chased about until I am about dead then He says, “Oh, Connie, come over here.” And he shows me a rabbit hole to take refuge in.

We as wives and mothers are called to be keepers at home. We are to study to stay in this teaching. And why? So that we can walk honestly before those who are without, and that we would have lack of nothing. I know some of you work part time. But just make sure that your heart is at home. The Bible says that the strange woman is the one who won’t stay home. Jim said a few days ago about the women on TV, “Boy, those women are strange.” And they are. God has called us women to study to be quiet. To work with our own hands and to mind our own business.

The Bible speaks of the widows who are worthy to be taken in by the church. They were to live honest lives. Did they care for the saints of God? Were they full of good works? Had she brought up children? All meaning works in the home. Was she faithful at home? Did she live an honest life and follow the Word of God? The Bible tells the young widows to marry again and bear children. The Word says the young widows are the ones under 60.

We are to STUDY to mind our own business and to submit to our own husbands.

And, ya know, Jim is the easiest guy to get along with. My home is very quiet and peaceful. But sometimes I am crazy inside and so nervous I could jump through the ceiling. And wouldn’t ya know, we don’t have health insurance and if I did go nuts, I would remain nuts forever. But we women don’t have to go nuts — we can stay under the Lord and in His place of peace. We are to study to do this. This is to be our Bible study. It is to learn how to stay in submission to our husbands and to be quiet and to trust in the Lord.

See, God has a plan for us. And when we submit to our husbands, He begins a plan and then as we jump out of submission, then the plan is aborted. We need to keep ourselves under submission so that God can complete His plan. As we submit, this is as a seed planted. When we jump out of submission, we are digging our faith seed back up.

What takes us out of submission to our husbands? It is pride. “My husband doesn’t know what the hell he is doin’” type of stuff. Or “Husband doesn’t understand where I am and if I tell him, he would blow up.” No, you don’t need to tell your husband every feeling you have. But none of we women are above the laws of God just because we are more spiritual than our husbands. We are called to stay under our husbands’ spiritual covering. We are to STUDY to stay in peace. To walk peacefully as servants of Christ.

Another woman’s home is her business. We are not to meddle in her affairs. Now on this group, we have many sisters who need to be taught to be keepers at home. Teaching them the Word of God is not meddling or tattling. The Bible tells the older woman to teach the younger to love her husband and children and to be keepers at home. But when ya get out of this teaching, then you get into tattling and gossip.

We as Mothers and wives are to represent our own husbands in what we teach or say. As we run out of our place of peace and rest with our husbands, we get into all kinds of deceptions and mostly our nerves get so shot in the head. Our temple is our minds. And the devil attacks us as we run out of our places of blessings in our husbands. And to be continually in and out of submission is to be double minded and unstable in all of our ways. And it takes a lot of trust to stay submissive. Not trust primarily in your husband but trust in God.

Man, I get so upset at times with my older kids. But I have to trust in God and stay in my peace with Jim. Jim can trust the Lord for the kids most of the time. So my place is to be under him and trust in the Lord, too. And as I cook and do my homemaking, I am walking honestly before my kids and showing them the example of holiness. We live on little money and my kids have more money. But as I walk in submission to Jim, I show our kids how to be responsible with the affairs of life. Not by what we say but how we live our lives.

I had to learn everything from books as a young bride. My folks were responsible people but they condemned me to death if I made a mistake. But as older mothers, we have to encourage and to lift our older kids up by our examples. And much of it is that we build up the homes of our loved ones by our spirits. We sure can feel it when folks are cursing us and we feel it when our older mothers are blessing us. The older woman is to teach in faith as she herself submits to her own husband as keepers at home.

We as mothers have a job to do. To teach the younger mothers homemaking. But our first job is to STUDY to be QUIET and to mind our own business. As we stay in submission and we don’t run back and forth, then the Lord can give us many miracles in our homes.

It’s not good enough to be submissive for a week. We must keep that spirit of submission in our hearts and let it bear fruit. Mark 4 speaks of the faith seed being planted and how the seed is killed because of the cares of this world and the love of Money.

As we groom our inner man (woman), we are keeping ourselves strong and virtuous. Our inner court is where we go alone to God. This is where Esther went to talk to the King. And in this inner court, many miracles will happen. It is a place of great power. It is a place where I have won many victories in my life. It is a place to go to ask the Lord for a miracle.

You must bow to enter this inner court. You must bow to your husband and to the Lord. It is here that “If you live, you live and if you die, you die.” It is a place where we often come as women when we are fresh out of any other ideas. We finally give up and let the Lord take over.

Strongholds are broken down in this inner court. It is a place of power where you stand before God as Esther did. She saved her people there in that inner court as she stood before her king. And we will save our families in no other way. We must come to this inner court, too, and give Him our all and all. We must plead with the Lord to save our families, our seeds of promise. The prayed over children of our wombs. How precious they are to us.

Dear Mothers, live for Jesus and submit to your husbands. Hide in the hallow of His hands. Plant seeds in your inner court and let them grow into fruitful gardens. Every wise woman builds up her home but the foolish tear it down with her hands. Don’t pull rank out of fear. Stay under the shadow of His wings and bear much physical and spiritual fruit for Jesus. Study to be quiet.

Lately I have thought of the organized church and the discernment has been so turned up in my heart. The Lord has told me things that are scary. I didn’t want to write it all down. I thought, “Wow, I am never going to tell that on the email!” I tried to forget it. But now, as I stand here writing, I wonder why I can’t forget it.

Well, are you all ready for this? The Lord told me that many churches — not all — are a hideaway for women who hate their husbands. It’s an escape. A place to run to get out of housework and the care of the children. It’s the only place a wife and mother can go to that touches her inner court and lies to her. When she goes to the grocery store and the other wives there sympathize with her over her boredom of housework, it means little to her, as she knows these women are unbelievers. Yet when she goes to church and the Christian women pat her on the back for putting up with her husband, then it pulls on her inner court. She allows the other Christian women into her inner man because “after all, Daaahling, these Sisters are Christian.” So, unknowingly, Mother is opening herself up to a lying spirit. And she eats this lie whole hog or none.

Mother is tired and doesn’t want to do her work. So husband is off work — why can’t he take the kids so she can go get refreshed at church? When he says that he wants her to stay home, she accuses him of being an unbeliever. Mother is not wanting to understand Christ but to get pity from her friends at church.

And say she does make it out the door. She comes back sullen and prideful as husband doesn’t do things like they do at church. Husband looks like a half wit up against the so called Christian books she has read. Mother has gone elsewhere to find her spiritual authority. She has become war weary at home. She thinks her husband’s rules are too hard and she feels she can’t submit to him as he isn’t where she is in Christ.

But we miss it here, dear mothers. Our husbands rules and regulations are to be too hard for us. Our husband’s ways are to bring us crying to the feet of Christ for answers. The place of wife and mother is the place often of sufferng. Without the cross we can’t see the Savior. Christ learned obedience through His sufferings.

Yes, we learn the word often as our husbands read it to us in family devotions. And this is what the worldly church often teaches. That the true husband will gather his family up each evening after supper and have devotions and if he don’t, then, by golly, he is an unbeliever. Maybe so or maybe not. Most Christian men are not Dr. Dobsons. Most men will not pray with you over every ache and pain or emotional upset. We get the idea that if he would go to church he would pray on command. But most men won’t?

In most homes it goes like this. The wife says, “Honey, I need prayer.”

Husband: “Ok what now? Now what did I do?”

And then you say, “Never mind. I knew you would say that.”

Then husband says, “Well, soooorrry I am not as good as the preacher at church. Why don’t you just go live with him?”

Well, ya know, Husband’s authority is so stomped on that he often becomes jealous of the preacher. But, see, preacher is supposed to recognize husband as the head of his household. And preacher is supposed to let the Titus women at church teach the women to love their families and be keepers at home. Mother shouldn’t be running out from under her husband’s priesthood to another man’s authoirity. If she wants to go to church, then her husband is to find a preacher that he feels that he can learn under. And then he is to bring his family to this church. The preacher shouldn’t have a harem of women chasing him asking him personal questions.

BIBLE REALITY

As we Christian wives are compared to Christ at the cross, we have to wonder, “Why does the church teach so many ideas that are not Biblical?”

Often Preacher loves to control the women at church. He loves the way they leave their husbands at home and chase Preacher and ask him for personal counseling. They become one with him and his thinking. This is how the love affairs begin at church. The church secretary is the only one who really understands preacher. She becomes one with him in spirit and then in the flesh.

When family order is thrown out the door of a church, then ya gotta wonder why. Certainly preacher can read the word, can’t he? It’s obvious that husband is to lead the family. But if preacher is goosin’ the lady secretary, then he ain’t about to talk about male authority in the home. He wants to be the authority in everyone’s home.

And, ya know, if you ladies are like me, it’s very easy to slip out from under our husband’s authority. It’s hard to submit to our husbands — it’s meant to be hard. The heaviness of the yoke of submission is to keep you running back to prayer and to Christ. But we miss it all, right here. The heavy yoke comes upon us and we run for an easy escape and, sadly, a lot of Christian women run to preacher and to the church to escape their places at home.

As Jesus prayed in the Garden for this cup of suffering to be taken from Him, we as wives come often to this garden of suffering, too. We are called to take on a yoke that we never bargained for. We are asked to carry a load that we know we can’t carry. We want things to go smoothly at home and it don’t and we think, “Why, Lord, what is wrong?”

And the answer is, “Nothing, dear heart … all is well.”

And we speak out of a bitterness in our hearts as the work is overwhelming and the baby is up in the night again and again. We so long for a sweet hour of prayer. We can’t think, let alone pray. The enemy tells us that everything is all wrong. We are out of control and we think God is not watching over us. Yet He is, and He understands a Mother’s Heart. But “church happens” in this place of mental suffering as you continue to persue your true Husband, Jesus Christ. As you will refuse to give up. As you refuse to escape your place in Christ as keeper at home.

Some of you flit from feminism to homemaking and back and forth. This causes you to be unstable in all of your ways. You become double minded. As the problems at home heat up. you change back to feminism. You feel things are hopeless. Yet, if you will just keep persuing Christ as the pressure mounts at home, then the anointing will come. You will find a new strength and a more powerful anointing. Don’t run to church to escape your callings. The answer is at home.

And, ya know, if your husband is such a problem, then the Lord will cause him to leave you to protect you and the children. The Bible speaks that if the unbeliever should leave, then let him leave. But the Christian wife has no place in Christ to leave her husband. That’s not Biblical. It’s a religious idea that the worldy church has taught, and this teaching is blaspheming the word of God.

We miss it if we as women run out of our places of obedience and try to espcape our callings in God. The church is at home. Your place of teaching and spiritual growth is in your home where God has called you to be. Satan will try to chase you out continually. You will not learn faith and perserverence at church like you will at home.

If God can’t change your husband and you have to give up on him? Then this alone will scar your heart for life. You will never get over it. In the back of your mind, a demon has taken up a residence. He will forever tell you this, “Some husbands can’t be saved. Yes, God can perform the impossible but not always. Some people’s sins are too big even for God.” Now you may not say that openly but it’s in your heart.

THE SUFFERING WIFE

Dear Hearts, I am writing to you who suffer in your homes. I am sorry for your sufferings. But don’t be tempted by the worldly church to give up. They will offer you and your children food and shelter for a while. But in the end, they will gossip about you and wonder about you. “Why couldn’t you please your husband? Was it your fault, too?”

Many churches have no guts or backbone. They won’t teach the pure word of God concerning suffering. It’s all this teaching about “God doesn’t want you to suffer.”

Well, ok, here is some reality for ya. Women who are submissive to their husbands can never be owned. They are not putty in Preacher’s hand. But you get a woman who is boss in the family with a job? Oh, how preacher loves her! He knows the wife will tithe to him and make her husband tithe, too. So he doubles his money if he can get wifey to be Boss. In most churches of today, the wife runs the show. And she is just foolish enough to give her life and her sacred honor to the preacher. You see pews and pews of women at church, with a man here and there. And if this man was to stand up and preach wifely submission, then most of the church would get up and leave. And “Good Riddance.”

Come on, fess up, you know I am tellin’ the truth. I know I am just dumb enough to be the kid in the back who yells to the crowd, “The Emperor has no clothes.” The crowd is yelling and having a great time ooohing and aaahhing over the Emperor’s new clothes.

The herd loves to run together and to please one another. And, like a stampede of buffalo, they all run off a cliff together. As if murdering yourself was a good idea, as “Darling, your friends are all doing it, so it must be right.”

And this is how most divorce comes about in the home. “My goodness, it must be ok because Sally Jones got one and she is a Bible teacher. She went to church all of her life and her parents have been in the ministry for 100 years plus. And she got a divorce so I did, too.”

Well, Sally Jones ain’t takin’ you to heaven, Baby Girl. And the only way to heaven is through the truth of God’s word. And the Bible does not tell a Christian woman that it is ok to leave her unbelieving husband. We as women who love God should be examples to the unbelieving husbands. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. He died upon the cross for the unrighteous and not the righteous person. Until we suffer for the unrighteous, we will not share in His glory, as we have not shared in His sufferings.

Don’t miss the lesson here. Don’t miss your opportunity to be like Christ as you suffer for righteousness sake. Be aflame with love for Christ and be the first in your family to say, “I am sorry — it was my fault.” Quit trying to win the battles with your husbands and give up.

Be zealous to please Christ in your sufferings. Be grateful to suffer for Him and His body. Count it all Joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Knowing that the trying of your faith works patience. Let patience have her perfect work that you will be complete and entire wanting nothing. Rejoice when men speak evil against you, knowing that the true men and women of God were also spoken evil against. You will be misunderstood as you follow Christ.

You are bought with a price. He shed His blood for you. Will you give up your will and your high honors in this world for Him? Will you take up your cross and follow Him? Your cross may be a hard marriage. Will you stay in your place of obedience and calling for His sake? Or will you come down off your cross and miss the calling He has given you? Do you love Him enough to suffer for Him? Will you give up your life for Him?

I am so glad that Jesus was faithful to the Cross. He could have called 10,000 angels to come to his rescue. But He didn’t. He died alone.

SURVIVAL

Ya know, yesteday I got one of my favorite magazines in the mail, “Countryside.” I read a story about the Depression era. This man was saying that during this period they worked mainly for survival. Meaning that they had few luxuries … well, none, really. They had to work from dusk to dawn to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. And I thought of today and I said to myself, “Well, what do ya think we have to do today?”

But, see, it’s a spiritual thing now. I mean we all have the food we need for the most part and we have a roof over our heads. Well, the ladies on this group I think do, for the most part. But our Depression Era that we Mothers are fighting is mostly at this point spiritual. There is a famine in our world right now and it is a famine of the word of God. The word is not taught as it once was. And, of course, the collapse of the church will eventually cause a physical Depression like the 1930s. And we must be diligent to continue to build our temples … our homes in the wilderness.

Nehemiah taught the people of God to build their walls of protection back up with a sword in one hand and a building tool in the other hand. The Jewish people had to make a physical home and a spiritual home at the same time. And this is the game plan for us as keepers at home. We must fight two wars … one spiritual and one physical.

We are called as keepers at home. This is our place under God’s obedience. As we stay here, we are safe in Him. But we will go from spiritual wars to physical. As we fight a physical war to keep the money flowin’ into the home, we may say, “Well, I sure can’t afford to get pregnant. We can’t afford the children we have.” And yet in the spiritual war, you can’t afford not to have the children. The spiritual realm is the true you where your conscience lives. You best not offend it as you will lose your physical war eventually if you aren’t true to your spirt. Or true to your inner man. Your spiritual self is what goes on to heaven to live forever and ever, so don’t sell your soul for a pot of soup. Or for a moment of pleasure in this life.

Well I am needing to quit writing. I am getting clear into another writing. But today, let’s get out our Bibles and lay them on the table and refer to them as we care for our families. Let’s take up our rolling pins in one hand and our Bibles in the other. Let’s fight the good fight of faith and not give up until we see His glory. With one hand we carry our swords, the word of God in our hearts. And with the other hand we carry the baby. As we fight the good fight of faith, we learn to know Christ. As we suffer, we become good ground for the word of God to be planted. Our hearts suffer as it seems they are pierced with fear. And yet we become yielded to Christ.

Jesus never defended Himself. He only defended God. He never stood up for his rights but only the rights of the Father God. And as we lay down our desires and take on His understanding, we become true soldiers of the Cross. True believers. Branches extending from the True Vine Christ Jesus.

The word “Christian” means little Christs, and the Lord calls us Christian Mothers to live a life of self denial. He calls us to buckle our flesh down with His word. He calls us to lay down the flesh and let the Holy Spirit have a free realm to walk in.

And how do we do this? We submit to our husbands. We submit to our callings as Keepers at Home. And, as we are casting down the “I want” within us, the Holy Spirit is free to make a home through us. As we say “No” to our hands and yield our hands to the rightoeusness of the mixing bowl, we say “No” to satan and “Yes” to God.

And ain’t nothin’ good in the flesh unless it is trained by the Spirit. We as Mothers at home need to train ourselves in righteousness. And we do this by bridling the flesh and teaching our spirits to mind God. We stay out of the way so that God can work. We keep our mouths under the law of kindness and we train our tongues in wisdom. We lay down the right to be right. And we cast our lives and our honor upon the cross of Jesus. We lean not to our own understandings but in all ways we trust in God. We understand that our hearts are desperately wicked and easily deceived and we vow to give our lives to our husbands and to God. We trust in Him.

And as we give up our lives, we get them back. As we are free in our whole hearted desire to give it all to our Jesus, He freely gives us His life back to us. And in our brokeness, He enters our souls and makes a place in our spirit that He can use. And in our death, we find life and happiness.

The crucified life is a life who has given up what they want and will live for Jesus Christ. As we train ourselves in righteousness and show that we have a pattern of good works, then the Lord can trust in us and move freely about our homes in power. The old time Mothers understood this. If she didnt have enough meat to go around at the table, then she pretended not to want any. My Grandmother said that her favorite piece of the chicken was the neck. Well, there ain’t no meat on the neck. And I never understood until years later that she was giving the best pieces to her family, and I, too, have pretended not to be hungry when I had all of my children to feed. And this kind of giving up what you want is precious to God and is good for the soul. And every time our husbands ask something out of us that we don’t want to do and we do it for the Love of God anyway? This is so good for us and we should thank the Lord for the opportunity to do it.

And, see, as we give up in the flesh, we glean to ourselves spiritual treasures. If we want the gold and silver of heaven, then we have to give up the love of money here. As the Spirit takes full control of us and we begin to seek the heavenly treasures and wealth of wisdom, the gold on earth will follow. But we must also die on a cross that ruins our reputation and our confidence in ourselves. We die in the spirt and are raised again with healing in our wings. But the crucified life must come before the glory of God is shown.

Ya know, many years ago, I sat on a 3-legged stool, talkin’ to Jim through a screen at the county jail. I said to him, “Jim, I have so little money. Tell me what bill I should pay first and forget the others.” I let this man know that he was still my priest of my home. I had no money to speak of … just enough to get by on welfare. But in my shadows and afflictions, I didn’t give up, and still called my husband the priest of my home. I saw victory coming, and the death I was living was but for a moment and was to yeild a great reward.

Oh, we suffer, yes, and dyin’ comes hard for some of us. But there is no victory wihout the bruised rose. Oh, the crimson stain that washes us white as snow! And the sword in our chest is pulled out by the Master and the wound is filled with a glorious Victory. And we go from the death of self to the Victory again, and we bring Him glory.

And we win many victories upon this earth for Jesus Christ, and yet, we win none until we are willing to go to the cross. Satan tries to kill us, and in this, he builds us a testimony if we are obedient to be risen again. I sometimes don’t want to rise again. It’s easier to just stay laid down and play dead.

Ya know, back in the old days, when I was in more hot water than even now? There was the teaching of living the crucified life, but it ended there. Some Christians who had an easy life would tell me that you had to trust in God, even if you were standing with your hand caught in a meat grinder. I could never figure that out. I mean, it’s easy for them to say, “Trust in the Lord.” They had three square meals a day, and no kids, and a mate that was faithful, and they would tell me when I was every way but loose to just trust in the Lord. They would say, “Well, ya never know what God will do.”

Well, Hello! I am not serving a God that is gonna torment me day and night for 12 years. They wouldn’t tell me that there was victory in Jesus. A Victory on this earth. That I would win the war if I didn’t give up. We don’t suffer so that we can suffer. Just like we don’t go through childbirth so we can go through childbirth. We labor to bring forth the answer to our prayers.

The word of God says in Psalms “I had fainted lest I had believed to see the GOODNESS OF THE LORD HERE IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING.”

And also the word says that many are the afflictions of the righteous but He delivers us out of them ALL. There is victory in Jesus, and we win many battles here on earth to show the world Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And we don’t win souls by our power or by our might, but by His Spirit. He lives in us and we walk out His life. The life of crucifixion and life and victory on earth. We win many crowns, and when we get to heaven, we will gloriously and happily throw our crowns at His feet.

And we learn as true servants and handmaidens of God to do the dishes for His glory. And we pick up that piece of mud in the floor that the kids tracked in AGAIN! And we do it happliy, as we are learning to bridle the flesh with the works of righteousness. We willingly lay our hands to our mixing bowls and our stirring spoons. We lay our hands happily to our brooms and our dust pans. And we sweep and scrub for His glory. And His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. And the Lord looks upon the earth for the faithful housewife who won’t give up. And he shows Himself glorious on her behalf because, in the night, she arose to be faithful unto Him.

And the victory comes in our souls first. We find His peace. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our PEACE was upon Him, and By His stripes we are healed. We serve a risen Savior and not only a suffering Saint.

And the pure white rose is made more lovely and stunning as we see beneath her white petals crimson stains. And atop the whiteness, the dew of tears she has prayed. And the Lord comes and gathers her tears and places them in golden vials. Each tear as a precious drop of gold. And she has written His name in her heart, and He has written hers on His heart. And the mingling of her tears and His blood is her vows to Him. And she is now the glorious bride of Christ. She becomes more than His handmaiden … she becomes one with Him as His bride. She waited upon Him and would not give her oil away. She was found faithful when He came to get her.

And she has shown Him her faithfulness through her submission to her husband and faithful prayers for her children. She would not pull rank out of fear, and stands as the wise virgin, the pure white rose. The anointing Holy oil is in her lamp. She won’t let the world have her oil and she remains faithful in the dark, waiting.

I think we kinda get off the mark sometimes with our homemaking. I know I do. Then I get discouraged and think, “Well, I goofed again” and then I don’t want to get back up. I think, “What’s the use? I will never show a pattern of good works, as I keep falling.”

Well, sometimes the Lord calls ya out of your homemaking for a time, and then ya just stay out there. Like duh? We don’t go back in. Well, we must be normally into our homemaking … day to day, I mean … and if the Lord calls us out for a time, we shouldn’t make a religion out of it. Just get back with the program.

I read a story once about this dear mother of many children and a dear husband. It was during the Depression era and most people were very poor and couldn’t afford a doctor. Mother had a gift of doctoring, and she kept her family well with her gift. But then there was a flu epidemic. The neighbors began calling for her to come and help. Her famiy knew that she was gifted but hated to see her go out in the night and away from them. But she was faithful and wouldn’t turn anyone down. But then, as soon as her job was done, she was back to her famiy, ministering to them again. She showed a pattern of good works as a stay at home Mother. Years later, her family needed things, as they were poor too. A package came in the mail for their family. It was clothes for her children and material to make things with. No one knew where the package came from … no return address. But everyone knew it was a payment to the Mother for saving someone’s life during the flu epidemic.

This mother was faithful — she was a faithful mother and wife and neighbor. She was a keeper at home and her husband trusted in her. He knew that her heart was home, and he was at peace as she ministered to others. The children were at peace as they, too, had compassion for others. Mother had a servant’s heart. She loved the Lord and couldn’t stand aloof as His sheep suffered. She knew how to wash the saints’ feet and yet, she was a keeper at home and her mainstay was husband and children.

It takes a wise and strong woman to burn both ends of the candle this way. It takes a wise and discerning mother to be trusted like this, to minister to the sick and maintain harmony at home at the same time.

The virtuous woman could do this. She could reach out her hands to the poor and yet look well to her household at the same time.

And mother Connie is learning how to do this and don’t have it straight yet. I either go one way or the other and, often, Papa’s blood pressure then goes one way and another, too. I am not spiritually strong enough yet to maintain my walk. I will get it, though, as the Lord leads me along. As I go from here to there, Papa chases me in his heart, wondering when supper will be ready, and duty calls me back to reality and my place as wife and mother and keeper of my home.

And I try to teach you all to be at home and be lovers of the family’s soul. I don’t seek to teach you to be selfish and just serve your own. But I long to teach you to be faithful, and we learn to be faithful first as we forgive our husbands seventy times seven. And we keep our hearts clean and in love with our babies. And then God gives ya extra to give it out to the saints still under the heading as keepers at home. You learned to be faithful at home and now you become powerful to reach out to those who are suffering.

But, ya know, a woman who is faithful is faithful in all things. If she is a faithful mother, she will be a faithful wife and neighbor. Yet, she has a discerning spirit and she gives first to her own children, and she stays under the authority of God as she stays under her husbands authority. This woman is a soldier, a servant of Christ. She is an obedient servant. She goes when He says, “Go” and stays home when He says, “Stay Home.” She doesn’t run out of the house for the almighty $ but with compassion and love.

Don’t ya know, dear kitchen saints, that it is very romantic to make things from scratch for your beloved and his seeds? To have a home that is a love nest and to live out of your own garden. To plant seeds in your private garden and to delight your husband with the flowers you grew in your flower bed and set on the table.

It’s a feeling of back to the land … back to what is real and natural. To set a table with what you have grown yourself in your garden is a very romantic, creative display of love for your husband.

Some women think that the low cut outfits are romantic but, no, that is not true. The truly romantic wife is one who will work for her husband and put him first in all that she does. She puts the Lord above everthing and everyone … but her lord on the earth is her husband. She is forever true to him and she rises and falls with him. She knows his mistakes and yet, she covers them in her heart and doesn’t reveal them.

Her children watch her, and she continually praises her husband and keeps his place open as priest of the home. Mother is quiet. Papa can stand up for himself. She doesn’t excuse him to the children. And yet, she continues to remember that he is to glorify God, and the wife is to glorify her husband.

The children are to honor their Father and Mother. Mother is more sensitive to the family, and she is often the family conscience. Husband learns from her to be tender hearted, to notice the heart and soul of the home. Often Father doesn’t learn this for many years, but it is the saintly mother’s job to continue on in silence and good works and faith.

Without a word, she wins her husband to Christ by her behavior. Mother stands against the storms of life when they hit her family, but Father wants to double up his fist and fight it. He learns to wait upon the Lord as he watches his wife as she continues in faith and soberness. He looks at her and admires her from afar off. He thinks about her and her walk with the Lord. He ponders her godliness as he sits in the house and as he goes to work in the world. Who is this woman he loves? Who is this woman who has prayed him from one difficulty to the next?

1 Peter 3 says that this man beholds his chaste wife coupled with fear. It means that her actions are so holy, that it causes her husband to fear God. This is how she brings her unsaved husband to Christ through her prayers. It’s her actions that cause him to fear the true and living God.

As Mother works obediently in her place as Keeper at Home, the true and living Holy Spirit can be free to teach the family. It is only His Holiness that can break the bondages of sin in a family. As mother works with her hands and plants her garden in silence, the Holy Spirit is free to convict the sinners, whether they be the children or the husband or the Mother herself. Her holy silent work causes the conviction of the Holy Spirit to fall upon her home. She becomes like Jesus on the cross. She gives her life to her family and, when she is accused, she doesn’t try to excuse herself. She remains silent in front of her accusers. She commits herself to God who, she knows, will rightly divide the word of truth. The one who will judge righteously.

This is a picture of a true wife of the Bible. She is a door mat. She is the servant who is often misunderstood. She shows her family a picture of Christ and she acts out the heavenly order. She is the church, the temple where Christ lives. She carries the word of God in her heart; she acts it out through her silent, holy behavior as keeper at home. And the wife who says, “Well, ya know the Lord didn’t call me to have a meek and quiet spirit.” Well, He called all the rest of us to one. No, Darlin’, you are only ignorant of the word of God.

You need to get away from the unholy women and learn a servant’s heart.

We all get discouraged at times with our homemaking. And the scriptures say in Proverbs 14:1 … EVERY wise woman builds her home and the foolish plucketh it down with their hands. The scriptures, in Romans 6, speak of yielding our members to righteousness … our members being our flesh … like our hands and feet and minds.

So, here is a way to use these scriptures. Proverbs 14:1 does say “every” wise woman, not just some wise women. If you are a wise woman, you will build up your home. Sometimes we just want to sit on the couch and look out the window in discouragment. And yet, we must yield our hands to God. We must yield our hands to His righteousness. We must yield happy hands to our mixing bowls. We must take on our aprons and pick up our wooden stirring spoons. We must yield our hands to our rolling pins to roll out our pies and cookies for our families.

When I get up in the morning to care for my family, I begin right away to yield my mind to my home making. My mind may want to dwell on the negative or the past, but I say, “No, I must be a kitchen saint and an example to my grown children and their children. And I must submit to my own husband as unto the Lord.” I must serve the Lord, not as a man pleaser, but as a God pleaser. So when I wake up in the morning, I get dressed and put on my apron and look to my pantry to see what I will make for a family meal for today. I make sure my table is cleaned off and pretty and neat and, often, I light a little scented candle to put on it. And I will lay my Bible out on my table, open to a scripture, usually in Proverbs, about the wisdom of God. And when I go by my Bible as I do my housework, I read a scripture and try to meditate on it.

But through obedience to God as a keeper at home, I continually take on my cloak of humility as a servant at Home. I know that I want to be a wise woman and I want to please the Lord. I have six children and two baby grandchildren that Papa and I happily help with. And often, the family comes over for a meal, as we invite them often. I want to be an example to them of the word of God and of a wise woman. Papa still goes out to work, even though he is at a retirement age. We feel we must be examples to the young families about us.

Upon my old wooden family table, I set a kerosene lamp. As I light it, I think of how the wise virgins had their lamps full of oil when the bridegroom came back for them. If an angel was watching you through your kitchen window right now, dear Mother, would he have a good report of faithfulness to tell the Father about? Or would he say “Mother is slow in faith and will not yield her hands to her mixing bowl … or to a hanky to dry her children’s tears.”

Dear Mothers, we only have one life to live for Christ, and only what is done for Him will last an eternity. Where is your treasure laid up? Is it in the bank, or in stocks and bonds? Or is your treasure in heaven … your rewards that rust can’t corrupt or a thief steal?

Dear Mothers, yield your eyes unto the word of God that says that EVERY wise woman builds her house. Yield your hands to your sewing and to your brooms to sweep your kitchen. Yield your minds to songs of joy and praise as you thank the Lord for a kitchen to clean and children to teach and dishes to wash. Keep your stoves warm with meals prepared with loving hands … don’t let your kitchen lights go out or your stoves grow cold. Keep your warm heart lit with songs of joy as you yield your minds to wisdom.

We all have children that we are praying for. We all have times of discouragement. But we must keep our candles in our windows, dear Mothers, calling our prodigals out on the dark night. We must not falter or fail, as He hears our prayers.

We must set our hearts upon Him and upon being wise women who build up their homes.