Good day dear friends. Men, don't forget our noon Lenten luncheon class, today in Room 129. We start at about 12:10 and end at 12:50.
Reports in: Dee Dee Murdoch's surgery went well, now four days in the hospital then home. Ed Teeter is having surgery today in Austin.
Here is our study guide for today:
Thursday: Read Ephesians 5:22-33. What is your honest reaction to those words found there? Can you make these words apply to your situation in 2005? Why or why not?
Here is that classic passage in the New Revised Standard Version:
22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. 33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.
Ah, submission, that controversial Baptist issue. The classic language does bother many. Read it from Eugene Peterson's eyes now. Dr. Peterson wrote his own version of The Bible called The Message. The first editions were in novel form with no chapter and verse divisions to confuse first-time readers. But here is that same passage in this newer language. Not everyone will agree with it, but read it nonetheless:
22. Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. 23 The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. 24 So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. 25 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting. 26 Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, 27 dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. 28 And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor - since they're already "one" in marriage. 29 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, 30 since we are part of his body. 31 And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." 32 This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. 33 And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
Quite a difference, no? It's quite refreshing and more to a modern understanding. Enriching your marriage is not about who controls who, but how together the two can best serve God. Marriage is a ministry and both partners should be ministers one to the other, together ministers to their children and as a family ministers to the world. So, as most ministers do, begin, live, and end your day with prayer.
PRAYER: Gracious God, we thank you for the gift of marriage. We thank you for the love that fuels our relationships and we pray that we would take seriously our role as ministers to our spouses, our children, and the world. Use us after enabling us to do this for all. We pray in Christ Jesus' day. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
