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Showing posts with label King Josiah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label King Josiah. Show all posts

Monday, April 22, 2013

The ONE Thing Christian Women Long For From Their Husbands

I've often heard it said that men are pretty simple with regard to their needs in marriage.

At the top of most of the lists are respect (that's Biblical); adequate time making love (that's Biblical too-and fun!); food to fill their tummies (women are to be lovers of their husbands and keepers of their homes, so this is also Biblical).

Let's see...
Respect
Naked time
Food

Doesn't seem too hard to please my man...and my guess is that yours isn't much different.

May I be so bold to speak to Christian men for a minute?

I gotta say, this is new territory for me.

My blog has been for women...for years.

The ministry God has given me has been to women as well. Since I started teaching women how to study the Bible in 2004, there have been hundreds whom I've worked with.

If I had $5 for every woman who told me the ONE THING that would mean the world to her in her marriage, I would be sailing the Atlantic Ocean on my dream boat right now.

Guys...I promise, we're pretty simple too.

Christian women want from our husbands what 
Christ placed in our hearts as our deepest desire.

WE WANT YOU TO WASH US WITH THE WATER OF THE WORD!

We want you to be IN THE WORD.

We want you to WANT TO KNOW GOD, and this comes by knowing His Word.

We want you to GROW in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, by getting to KNOW HIM in the very Word that He has given you.

I was telling a man recently about the story of King Josiah.


  • He became the King of Judah at 8 years old. 
  • At 16 years old, he began to seek the God of his father David.


Hold up here...David wasn't his father! 
Amon was. 
David was his forefather. 
Josiah's own father was an idol worshiper who lived an incredibly pagan life. He forsook God, and thus Josiah couldn't look to his own father's example for guidance on how to rule. 
Josiah discounted his father because his father discounted GOD!

DADS, IS THAT THE LEGACY YOU WANT TO LEAVE FOR YOUR CHILDREN?


  • When he was 20, Josiah began to purge Judah, Jerusalem, and Israel of all idol worship in the land. 



  • At 26, after he had purged the land and the house of the Lord, he began to repair the house of the LORD, which had fallen into great disrepair due to the neglect of it and the idol worship that was taking place.


In the midst of repairing the house of the LORD, the book of the law was found. 
When it was read to Josiah, (who had been seeking the LORD for 10 years by this point) 
he:
tore his clothes; 
immediately sent his servants to inquire of the LORD for him from a prophetess; 
tendered his heart; 
humbled himself before the LORD; 
and wept before God.

AND AS A RESULT, GOD heard him and did not send His burning wrath upon Judah until Josiah had gone to his grave in peace.

When I shared this story with a man recently, he said, "THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT! 
It starts in the White House! 
Our President needs to humble himself before God. 
It starts in the White House!"

MEN....listen up, PLEASE!

IT STARTS IN YOUR HOUSE!

WHEN, OH WHEN are the men of this country going to make the Word of God a priority in your own homes?!

WHEN, OH WHEN are you going to start obeying God's Word and wash your wives with the water of His Word?

WHEN, OH WHEN are you going to take GOD SERIOUSLY when He commands that you teach your children His Word?

I'm not trying to man bash, and I realize that some of you will take it that way.

I can't change how you choose to receive this exhortation.

I just think it's time that someone tell you straight up that your wives are STARVING for you to be the spiritual leaders in your homes!

I hear it so much that it's like a broken record.

Your sons are being discipled by your wives...either that, or you're leaving it up to their Sunday school teachers and youth group leaders.

EPIC FAIL, DADS. 

Your boys need to be taught God's Word by YOU!

They LONG to be led into the rich meat of God's Word by YOU!

Your daughters are going to grow up and look for a man much like you, most likely.

Don't you WANT her to have a man that will pray God's Word over her?

And your Christian wives?

They NEED you to lead them according to the Word of God. 

You want to know something else?

You know how you struggle with your eyes? 
You know how your thought life can too easily take you down the path of lust?

Want a tough wake up call?

Your Christian wife who has been praying, begging, and longing for you to lead her and your family in the Word may very well be struggling too.

Know what her struggle is?

She sees the men in your church who ARE in the Word...who are passionate about their walks with Christ...and if she's not totally surrendered to Jesus, her thought life can too easily become, 
"I wish I had a husband like that. 
I wish MY husband would do family devotions with us. 
I wish MY husband would turn the stupid t.v. off and open the Bible with me.
I WISH MY HUSBAND WOULD LEAD ME IN THE WORD."

Guys...our days aren't so much different than the days of Josiah.

Our fathers have shirked their responsibilities with regard to God's Word in our homes, and as a result everyone suffers.

Our kids are falling away from church in droves once they hit high school or college, and we wonder why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Marriages in the church are falling apart and we wonder why?!?!?!?!?

Pornography addictions; sexting affairs; extramarital affairs; lack of heart intimacy in marriages; disrespect from our kids...it's all so prevalent, and we really have to wonder why?!

MEN...PLEASE, I BEG YOU ON BEHALF OF YOUR WIVES who have cried many tears sitting on my couch, have shared many heart desires about their longing for you to lead them...

I BEG YOU...

MAN UP!

Decide TODAY that you are going to OBEY GOD and lead your family in the Word.

We don't expect you to be perfect at it.

WE aren't perfect at it...none of us are. Your wife isn't, and you won't be.

GOD doesn't expect you to be perfect either.

He only asks that you be obedient and make His Word preeminent in your home.


GUESS WHAT? 
HIS WORD IS PERFECT! 
JUST READ IT!


Want more respect from your wife? 
Want to be the man she's always dreamed of? 
Want to help protect her thought life?

LEAD HER IN THE WORD!

Want more naked time with your wife?

I PROMISE YOU, she is going to find you so amazingly sexy the minute you start obeying God and assume your rightful role as loving spiritual leader of your home, that you're going to have to fight her off!

Want more yummy food from her?

My best guess is that if you tell her brownies will help you be a better expositor of God's Word, you'll have a batch waiting for you when you get home.

Please..quit wasting time complaining about the government, and govern your families according to God's Word.

It doesn't start in the White House.

It starts in YOUR HOUSE.

In His Love,
Jes






Tuesday, July 14, 2009

HOW Did She Do It?

Do you ever stop and think about the mothers of the great men of the Word?

HOW did they do it?

I mean, seriously!

Think of King David's mother.

How did she raise a man after God's own heart?

HOW, Lord....oh how?

What about Daniel's Mom?

HOW DID SHE DO IT?

How did she raise a young man who, after being taken into captivity by a Godless nation, would stand up and offer HIS LIFE as a living sacrifice to God...at 15 years old!

I confess, I don't even know her name...I haven't studied Daniel extensively. I'm not even aware of whether her name is listed in the Word or not.

Yet still my question remains...HOW did she do it?!

What about King Josiah's Mom?

Is her name listed in Scripture? Anyone know?

Whomever she was, this I do know...Josiah's father was a Godless man, as the Word makes it clear that King Josiah's father was an idol worshiper, who DID NOT tear down the high places in Judah, who DID NOT rip out the idols from the land, as God had commanded.

No...it took his son to do that.

His son, who became the king at the ripe old age of.....

hang on.....

wait a second....

you ready for this.....

EIGHT YEARS OLD!

It was during Josiah's reign that the HIGH PRIEST (hello!) found the Word of the Lord in the House of the Lord!

HELLO!

The Word of God was lost in the temple of God!

You know what King Josiah did when they told him what they'd found?

He tore his clothes!

He mourned.

He knew that the judgement of God was coming because of the grievous sin of the nation and the rulers.

Then, he commanded that every high place erected to a false god, be torn down.

Oh, how I want to meet him!

Can you imagine?!

A boy king with that kind of heart to obey God.

Oh, that I will raise one just like him!

( You can find his story in 2 Kings chapters 21, 23, and 2 Chronicles chapters 33, 34, 35 and also Jeremiah chapters 1, 3, 22, 25...or just go to BlueLetterBible.org and enter "King Josiah" into the search bar.)

What about Paul's Momma....who was she?

HOW DID SHE DO IT?!

Granted, Paul was lost under a false system of "righteousness" for a long time, but when he was called by God, for HIS glory...oh how God used him to impact the Kingdom!

I am the mother of a David.

A Daniel.

A Josiah.

A Paul.

Oh, how I want him to walk as they walked!

Oh, how I want him to choose their path instead of being a Jonah.

I'm sorry. I'm just being honest here..I find Jonah to have been a whiner. Maybe that's just me.

So today, when I was ready to start spitting green goo out of my head because I was so done,
I asked my son...

Whom I just told LAST SUNDAY, that I know he's a David, a Daniel, a Josiah....

I asked him, "Son...how are you going to live? Are you going to be a Jonah? Is it going to take being in the belly of a fish before you choose to walk in obedience? What's it going to take?"

Now mind you, he's such a good and kind little boy on most levels...but DADGUM if he didn't get his Mommy's strong will!

And I gotta say, by comparison, I look like a wimp!

The problems present themselves when he has an idea that is contrary to ours.

He even had the gaul to say to me today,
"Mommy. After the 3rd time, I was going to listen to you and not tell you again what I wanted."

Um. Oh, no you didn't!

Hello!

McFly!

What's wrong with this picture?!

I asked him, "Caedmon, how many times it is supposed to take before you obey?"

"One."

Darn-tootin!

Oh boy...I'm still left asking, "HOW DID THEY DO IT?"

I thank God for His Word, into which I told my son to run today...that is, after I told him that he was taking a nap!

I thank God for my husband, the leader of our home, who leads with a love of the Lord, but doesn't allow his 9 year son to treat his wife poorly.

I thank God for chocolate...I need a piece right now! I'm going to the pantry!

Whew! Tomorrow will be here in T-7 hours!

Love you today,
Jes