Water into Wine

I already know the story of Jesus turning water into wine, so when he tells the men to pour in the
water I think "Of Course!" But what if I was one of those men, and I didn't know the water was going to be wine in a matter of seconds. Would I have followed orders or would I have argued? So often following God feels like pouring in the water. We don't see how what He has asked of us is going to fix the problem at hand. Just remember that the water did turn into wine. God always follows through on his end. Do we always follow his directions?

John 2:1-10

      "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”it.” Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

A Virtuous Wife (3 of 3)

Quality Number 2:

"She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life."
Proverbs 31:12

Doing good to your husband is different from simply not hurting him. As wives we have the ability to build our husbands up or to tear them down.

How do you build him up?

• Show him unconditional respect. This means you respect him even when he fails.
• Unconditional support and encouragement. This is what it meant when you said for better or for worse.
• Unconditional love. This one is important, but focus on the two points above. He will feel loved if you are respecting and supporting him. 
• Encourage hum in his interests, strengths, and to be the best he can be in whatever he tries. 
• Don't let him feel belittled in your eyes.
• Let him know how much you respect him and appreciate what he does or tries to do. 
• A man should not be ranked by his success in his wife's eyes.
• Never say I told you so when he fails and don't expect perfection.

Marriage isn't made great by only putting the work in when you are feeling it - the love born through marriage is the love you learn through choosing to love, respect and support your spouse even when it's hard.

Be his rock. He wants your respect and he needs your strength. With you behind him, he can tackle anything.

A Virtuous Wife (2 of 3)

Does your husband trust you?

"The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain."
Proverbs 31:11


A virtuous wife can be trusted because she is honest.

• She doesn't lie, intentionally mislead, conveniently forget to mention, or intentionally hide things from her husband (no hiding those shoe purchases) 
• She is trustworthy with finances (honest)
• She doesn't hide who she spends time with or what she does with her day.

If you do anything you feel you have to hide from your husband in any way, you probably should not be doing it and are most likely not being trustworthy.

Most importantly, a trusted wife does not publicly humiliate, criticize, or disrespect her husband.

If your husband criticized you to his friends, coworkers, family or anyone else for that matter - Would you trust him? No, because we do not trust people who hurt us, or air our weaknesses to the world.

Disputes or disagreements are between the two of you and few things can do more damage to a marriage than airing private matters publicly.

Above all a trusted wife desires her husband to be respected, protects his reputation, and his heart as if it was her own.

Are we worthy of trust?

A Virtuous Wife (1 of 3)

"Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies."
Proverbs 31:10

Every new bride would love to be described by this verse...so what happens? Why are so few wives actually considered virtuous? Why don't husbands sing their praises?

What makes a wife so valuable to her husband? It's not beauty - or else Hollywood would be full of happily married couples. So, ladies, you can throw your looks out the window. While your appearance is no doubt a perk it isn't what makes or breaks the virtuous thing.

Wives: What does your husband value most about you as his wife?
Husbands: What do you value most about your wives?

The next two posts will focus on two of the qualities proverbs mentions in a virtuous wife.

Salvation in Scriptures?

"You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 

But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."

     John 5:39-40

  
     It's amazingly easy to lose our focus of Jesus, our living Lord, in favor of Jesus, the man in our bibles. While I do believe these verses were initially directed towards the Jews that did not recognize Jesus as the messiah, they seem equally applicable today. Our salvation doesn't come from the scriptures. Jesus wants us to come to Him. Our bibles are simply the means to the end - not the end itself.

Sleep in the Harvest

"He who gathers in summer
   is a wise son;
He who sleeps in harvest is
   a son who causes shame."
                     Proverbs 10:5

I found this verse thought provoking because of it's dual application.

Certainly it applies literally to our responsibilities/work, but does God also have a harvest he wants us bringing in, and we're just sitting at home?

I find it easy to say things to the effect of, "It's just not my gift" or "He hasn't put me in a place where I can help." But I don't for a second expect those lame excuses to hold up on heaven. Am I sleeping? Are you?

Do I fear God?

I've asked myself this question many times. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but does God become such a comfortable concept in our heads that we lose our sense of fear?

I offer a test: Proverbs 8:13 says, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate."

In thinking about this verse I realized that part of the reason I hate evil so much is because I have a healthy respect for God's wrath. Is it possible then, that when we are getting desensitized to sin we are actually losing our fear of God?

Consistency

“This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah begot three
sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

Genesis 6:9

Most of my life I assumed that the phrase “perfect in his generations” was comparing Noah to all the others that lived during his life, but it occurred to me that the plural on the generations has meaning. Noah lived for 950 years, that is a lot of generations. To remain a just man for that many years and not become callused by life or loss in that time is significant. How many people these days loose faith in goodness before the age of thirty, let alone eighty. A cut throat world requires a cut throat lifestyle, right? And yet Noah was just for 950 years. That's admirable consistency.

Intent

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Genesis 6:5

Have you ever used good things you've done or failures of others to stroke your ego. We easily slip from a place of humility to a place of self-serving. It's not a pleasant truth, but it is a truth none-the-less. Examining our hearts' true intents can be a painful process, but a powerful eyeopener into what God truly desires for our hearts.

Wording: Adam begot Seth

Adam – son of God talked about how God gave Adam the same recognition as his son as Seth was Adams and The image of . . . discussed how God made Adam in his image in the same way that we want our kids to resemble us.

I find it interesting that when the bible mentions Adam's son's birth it says that Seth was in Adams likeness and after his image. As if God wanted it to be abundantly clear that the relationships are the same. Obviously He is God and we are not, but the idea that God sees us as we see our children is a powerful picture of the love He has for us, the joy He takes in us, and the forgiveness He desires to pour out on us.

“And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”

Genesis 5:3