| Heaven
Ministries March 2007 Issue 42 |
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Marriage Articles Question From A Reader Health Tidbits For Thought
Preview or buy Love The Woman You Married
Preview or Buy Love The Man You Married
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It’s perfectly fine to want and
have nice things if we don’t get in over our head because of it. And
it’s even better to pay cash for the nice things we need and want so we
never owe anybody or any institution anything. Being in
debt and owing more money than what we paid for something because of
interest on loans can be detrimental to our spiritual and mental health.
Some families have to work more hours just to pay off their debts. Some
debts never seem to get paid off because they keep buying more stuff they
don’t need. Ever wonder why God says the love of money is the root of evil? Greed stirs up dissension in all types of relationships, breaks up marriages, and causes one to lose sight of what is actually important in life. Because of the “keeping up with the Jones” attitude, even the wife feels she needs to work to support the family. But what if they budgeted their money better and didn’t buy stuff they didn’t need? Would that help? For the love of money is a root of
all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wondered from the
faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Is being in debt worth having all
those nice things over? Most people would say it isn’t worth all the
frustration and worry that being in debt does to the mental and spiritual
self. Being overdrawn financially keeps us further away from Christ in
that we’re either so worried about getting out of debt, or too consumed
with buying nice things, that we forget about what God wants for our
lives. Jesus said, “No one can serve
two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and
Money.” (Matthew 6:24 NIV) It says in the bible, owe no man
anything. So how do we do that? How do we buy one of the biggest purchases
of our life without owing no man anything? We do it with much patience and
due diligence. Here are six ways to buy a home without going into debt.
Anyone can own their own home in this way if they are serious about staying out of debt. Buying a home without getting in over your head is a blessing from God. We ask for what we need and He will supply us with our needs. If you think you need to have a luxurious home now, and in the best subdivision then you will probably get into debt over it. And what about a car? We should
never get deceived into buying a brand new car. Some people like the
status symbol a brand new car brings them. Unfortunately,
this kind of attitude isn’t going to get you very far in God’s world.
The minute you drive the car off the lot it depreciates in value. Buying a
good used car instead costs way less, and hopefully you won’t get into
debt over it. The world promotes materialism
everywhere you turn, but that is not what the Christian should be racing
to promote. As Christian’s we should be promoting how to live our life
with the least amount of stress and worry as possible. Believers are
God’s messengers in this world. What kind of a message are we really
promoting here? The more a person becomes in debt, the harder life becomes
for him and the least likely he is to go to God for the guidance his life
truly needs. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given unto you as well.
(Matthew 6:33,34 NIV) Wanting nice things is great, but
if the consequences of those nice things keep us from the love of God, or
loving others in the way we should, what good are those things?
Being too much in debt can bring us so much frustration, worry,
stress, and panic because we are afraid of losing our nice things we have
spent lots of money on. This is not the Christian example we are supposed
to represent to others. As God’s children we ought to be free from the love of money so we can be free to work for God. As believers in this world we should not be working to make ourselves look good to others but we should be working to make God look good to others. Wanting nice things is not a sin but striving to keep up with the Jones makes people turn away from God and into sin, for the love of money and material possessions will overtake the Spirit and they will lose sight of God’s kingdom here on earth. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. (Hebrews 13:5 NIV)
Jesus said, “I am the bread of
life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me
will never be thirsty. (John 6:35 NIV) When our bodies are hungry or
thirsty we open the refrigerator and eat or drink to our hearts content.
When we are spiritually hungry what do we do? Some of us do nothing and we
remain starved for spiritual nutrients. Some of us don’t go to the
correct sources for our spiritual food and become vitamin deficient
spiritually. It is my belief that the only way we can really satisfy our
spiritual hunger is by getting to know Jesus Christ and having an ongoing
personal relationship with Him. When we feel hungry we can just ask Him.
When we feel dehydrated we just ask Him. Jesus is the
only way. Jesus said, “I am the way and
the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 14:6 NIV) In marriage, husband and wife eat
together and work on digesting the Bread of Life into their marriage with
care and wisdom. It is one thing hearing the message, and it is another
applying what we hear into our lives. What would happen if we didn't do
anything with what we heard or read? We remain hungry and not
satisfied with anything that life has to offer. We need the Bread of Life
because without it we will die of starvation. Marriage will have its
trials and tribulations, no doubt about that, but whenever we need wisdom
we can go to God and ask Him, and He will supply us with what we need. If any of you lacks wisdom, he
should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it
will be given to him. (James 1:5 NIV) We absolutely do not have to go
hungry or become dehydrated with thirst when we have the Bread of Life at
our fingertips. We have all been blessed with the great and awesome love
that can fill us up like no other food in this world can. The
Bread of Life urges us towards salvation, while bringing deep and
everlasting peace for the soul. “I tell you the truth, he who
believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers
ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is
the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of
this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:47-49 NIV) Believers certainly do not have to
go hungry spiritually hoping that somewhere out there in the world their
questions will get answered. We do not have to rely on our own
understanding when we have been given the Bread of Life. God has already
freely given us food for the soul that leads to right living and
contentment. All we have to do is apply it into our life. Give us today our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11 NIV)
Q: Please send me information about not being bound to submit to a husband in an abusive relationship. Thank you, P.B
Dear P. B
A husband who is consistently abusive
to his wife, physically, emotionally, or spiritually is not LOVING GOD
FIRST -- that means, he himself is not in submission to Christ. A woman
does not have to submit to abusive behavior. But a Christian wife should
try and help her husband get help and keep herself focused entirely upon
the Lord for healing of her husband and restoration for her marriage. A
man's abusive behavior comes from deep within him and can only be healed
by humbling himself to the Lord and having the faith to ask Christ for
forgiveness and healing. Sometimes in certain situations a woman must
bypass her husband so she may submit her will properly to the Lord. God
does not want us to hurt our own position and faith with him to
submit to an abusive husband. that would not be very productive, would
it?
In all things a Christian wife should be
discerning and look for the fruits. A fruit would be anything productive
for the marriage. It would be far better for a wife to not submit to an
abusive husband and instead rebuke her husband for his ways and help him
to come to Christ. In this way, she is doing something productive for
her husband and marriage. If she submits to his abusive behavior she
would only be enabling it, therefore, keeping him from the love of
Christ and ever knowing he may have a problem. It is the same with
enabling an alcoholic. If a wife keeps enabling her husbands addiction
how will he know that he has a problem? So, to answer the question a
Christian wife must first submit to the Lord, and if her husband will
not allow her to do that because of his own sins, then she must bypass
his authority.
If a husband comes home from a hard day at
work, and out of the ordinary, takes his temper out on his
wife, than that is not the same thing as the husband above. Even
Christians err and make mistakes in life and marriage. This man should
realize his wrong, repent and ask forgiveness.
When a woman submits to her husband's
authority she is actually submitting to the Lord, because, her husband
is also submitting his will to the Lord. Do you see how that works?
That means in marriage there are certain
positions that a Christian husband and wife must take so they may follow
the example set down in the bible. A Christian husband should submit his
will to God. If he is a Godly man, he won't abuse his wife in
the first place. The foundation of submission starts with God and
rests with God.
Did you know that in all types of
relationships there absolutely has to be some form of submission. College
students submit to their Professor, whether that professor is a woman or
not. The professor submits to the dean, whether she is a woman or not.
It's not about the difference of sex but about GETTING ALONG.
Children must submit to their parents. And husbands must submit to their
wives too, it is scriptural. In a marriage relationship, what do you
think is going to happen, if neither husband or wife submit to each
other? Chaos and havoc will ensue. Two captains directing the ship will
not work. One must be the first-mate and they both help each other
through acts of submission.
What makes a woman feel like a
doormat is herself. Some women believe that submitting to their husbands
headship makes them somehow lower then him, but actually they put that
on themselves by making a big deal about submitting. they listen to how
their own friends rule and boss their husband around and so they think
and believe it is the right thing to do. But LOVING YOUR SPOUSE TAKES
SUBMISSION. I'm not yelling but only trying to make a point here. Love
takes action and all acts of love are submission. When I am being
considerate of my husbands feelings, I am in some form
submitting myself (will) to him. In marriage submission is love.
In a workplace environment, it is consideration. In colleges, it is
respect, and in sports teams it is team spirit. This is how the world
works best. People must get along with each other for the world to work
in a proper and peaceful manner. In marriage it is the same way, if God
would have made the female first, then probably it would have been the
male made out of Eve's rib and she would be head over her husband, but
as it is, it is proper for a Christian woman to submit to her
husbands Christian authority and be in submission to his love for her.
About
Raw Milk Dear Friends: Six years ago, I took my
first drink of raw milk. I was scared to death. As a city girl, raised
with all the pasteurization propaganda in my public school text books and
media, I thought I was going to keel over dead. (Lucky you, I am still
alive.) I am an inquisitive
person. Consequently before I would consume raw milk, I decided to learn
all there is to know about the substance. Since we were home schooling I
decided to do a unit study with the children, too. As a student of the
bible, I realized that milk has been around since God created animals.
There are many biblical references to milk. I took note of the verse that
described the Promised Land. It was a land flowing with "pasteurized
milk and well cooked honey". Well, according to the American mindset,
I am sure it had to be pasteurized and stamped with the FDA safe handling
label. The point is this. Cows
have been around a really long time. Pasteurization is a relatively new
phenomenon. How did our ancestors live without the FDA and other food
regulating bodies? I am sure that according to these agencies, the world
was a dismal place. They would like for you to believe that all illness
and death was caused by fresh milk. The study of raw milk
proved to be a fascinating undertaking for our newly emerging home school.
According to our study, access to milk became a real problem because
people stopped living in the country and began congregating in the city.
They gave up their milk cows. People turned to the country dairies to get
milk until a new kind of dairy arose. The manufacture of
alcohol on a large scale led to the development of distilleries. Corn and
rye were used to make whiskey. The by-product of such manufacture was
called swill. It wasn't uncommon to hear the lowing of a cow in a shed
near a distillery. The cow consumed the swill. It didn't take long before
distilleries figured out a good amount of money could be made by selling
milk on the side. City folks no longer had to go buy expensive country
milk. They could purchase milk from a distillery. The conditions the
animals lived in were appalling. They were in filthy sheds wading in their
own manure. Many never saw the light of day. (This doesn't sound all that
different than corporate dairy farming today, does it?) The milk from
these cows was bereft of nutrients. The overcrowded conditions led to
disease. The distillery continued to sell milk from sick and dying cows.
One report showed that a cow was milked while in a hoist. It couldn't
stand up because it was so sick. By the time they lowered it to the
ground, it was dead. It is not surprising that infant mortality rates
skyrocketed. This experience left many
people fearful of raw milk and opened the door for German born Nathan
Strauss to begin an intense, and ultimately effective, political campaign
to ban the sale of raw milk. This campaign was emotionally heated and
Strauss equated raw milk with dead babies. Lost in the shuffle was the
known fact that milk from healthy cows, cared for with good cleaning
practices, was not poisonous. The fact that greed and diseased animals
caused the outbreak of illness was blurred. Raw milk became equated with
the word poison and there has been no turning back. During Strauss'
pasteurization campaign there were many physicians who highlighted the
problems with pasteurized milk. There were a few certified dairies. The
process of milking the cow was monitored heavily to ensure sanitary
conditions. The milk from these dairies was expensive and only prescribed
by doctors. Upon the conclusion of
our study on raw milk, I felt disenfranchised. Greed led to the alteration
of a healthy food, and to subsequent deaths. Media and political bias has
left the truth about this food hidden from the general public. Many will never try real milk because the fear factor has been masterfully exploited. Media plays on the ignorance of the general public, and their inability to think critically. E. coli is inevitable in fresh milk according to general media. The media won't tell you that E. coli can be found anywhere including in fresh spinach. E. coli found its way into our food chain because of overcrowded feed lots where cows are housed. Cows who have exposure to
plentiful grass do not present a risk for E. coli contamination. Chlorphyl
found in grass is a natural detoxifier. Chances are the E. coli outbreak
came about because food lot waste was spread on the plants. Lost in the
shuffle is that unhealthy animals, unsanitary practices, and overcrowded
facilities led to the tainted milk. If you would like to learn more about fresh milk, visit www.realmilk.com/ The above
information can be found in James Giblin's book "Milk: the Fight for
Purity". You can find a copy of this book at Amazon.com/ Christina, aka,
KSMilkmaid. www.fullerfamilyfarms.com/topics/blog/
A blog for those who want *******************************
I hope you enjoyed the Heaven Ministries Newsletter! Take care. God bless! As always, your Comments and questions are welcome. Copyright
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