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.
