2/18/2017 2 Comments Marriage & MinistrySo, Marriage & Ministry!
This is not a topic that can be covered in just one post. I am sure I will have to revisit this topic again and again from different angles. However, today I want to talk about Marriage & Ministry and what I consider to be their proper order. In case you didn't know, I believe I am called to be an order setter. I didn't always know this, but recently I have come to accept it. Last year, I was struggling with the place I was in. I felt like I once again was involved in some things that seemed so out of order! It was really difficult for me because I like order, I thrive on order, and I hate to be connected or committed to dysfunctional, out of order things. So, I begin to seek God on where I was and what was my purpose for being there. I begin to seek God on why I was seeing the things that I was seeing and why couldn't others see what was so plainly in my face. During my struggle with this, I heard a speaker at a women's conference talk about some of us having a calling on us to set order. She highlighted that one way that we can discern this is that we normally find ourselves in dysfunctional or chaotic places, driven with a passion to set order. Normally these places trouble us because they are out of order. Normally, we don't have peace or comfort until we put back or assist with putting them back in order. This is not OCD, or something like that. This is spiritual! It means we see things as they apply to God's order and when they are out of order, it is troubling. For instance with me, I can even remember during times that I have experienced out of order, sometimes I didn't quite know it was out of order I just knew something felt wrong and from there someway or somehow I would end up in the word EXACTLY in the section of the Bible that would deal with that particular set of order. One thing I'm learning on my journey to becoming His first lady is the order of marriage and ministry. Marriage is a ministry. It is our first ministry. In Titus 1:5-9 & 1 Timothy 3:1-13, when directing how to appoint or select Elders in the church the scripture deals with family first, then individual characteristics, before addressing spiritual aspects. This is how important the ministry of marriage of is. It is so important that when we select leaders in the body based, we are charged to look at or consider their marriage and family life. So.....what does this tell us about how we should prioritize ministry and marriage in our life? I believe we are expected to take care of home first, and I do NOT mean just women. I mean us, saints, are expected, if we are married to make sure that we take care of home first. "Taking care" of home can vary from home to home, but the over all point remains the same, do what you have to do to make sure your spouse and family are secure first. I have learned to make sure that my house is in order first before I go out and try to pursue anything else. I am not going to go into detail in this post as to how I do this(I want you to seek God on what is for your house), or what works for my house, lets just start with the order first. I urge you to read those scriptures mentioned above and others and seek diligently to confirm this order. There was a blog post I once read "Should a Husband place Ministry or Family First?" that was thought provoking but especially a specific part that I am going to share below: How husband and wife relate to one another couldn't be more central to the building of God's kingdom. Why is that? Because God designed marriage to refer to, or be a picture of, a cosmic reality (Ephesians 5:31). He intends that how the husband treats his wife will tell us something about how Christ treats His bride, the church. And He intends that how the wife relates to her husband will tell us the truth about how the church is to relate to Christ. Marriage is ministry. The stakes are high — infinitely higher than we realize. It is important to remember that the order of priorities in our life, is a precursor to establishing the order in the church. For me, it's God, Marriage, and then Ministry ...... in that order! What is it for you? I would love to hear what you think?
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2/10/2017 0 Comments In VS. THEToday on my Instagram page (@queenofmykastle) I shared this post and I felt that I should come to the blog and elaborate a little further on what I'm saying, although I feel it's pretty plain!
Please do not get into the habit or the ideology of equating time in Church as time being The Church. One does not necessarily equal the other. I know this firsthand because it was me. I grew up in the church, so my Sunday's have always consisted of church! However, I was not always The Church. Yes, I would attend service, sing in the choir, do the welcome, pay my tithes, and amen the preacher but my soul wasn't connected. I had learned how to be religious. Now I don't blame anybody but myself for this and I believe that it is a natural transition for those of us that grow up in the church. I believe we can be there so often that it becomes monotonous and thereby we begin to just go through the motions. So I believe there comes a time of maturity where we are presented in our walk the option to go deeper in Him or just to stay at the surface level. Sadly most of us will chose to live the idea of Jesus and church but lack the reality of what it really means to follow Jesus and be "The Church". This is not everybody. This is just me I'm talking about! You have to be intentional about being The Church! When you are The Church, that doesn't just take place on Sundays. When you are The Church, everywhere you go, everything you do is connected to and about Him! It means consistently, religiously, diligently seeking Holy Spirit in all matters! It means being concerned with more of His will than your own AND submitting to it. I have witnessed many, many people sitting up in the church, every day for every event but falling every day by every event further away from Him! I have witnessed the very ones that deliver the messages of warning fall victim to the very thing they warned about. It can happen to any of us at any time if we are not careful. We have to be diligent about not just time at church but time with the head of the church. And for those who don't know, the head of the church, the ultimate head is God! If you spend more time in service than you do with Him, you are out of order! If you spend more time serving the body than serving God, you are out of order! We serve Christ first before everything else, before spouses, children, careers, and personal aspirations. We must yield ourselves wholly to Him! Make sure you hear me clearly before you jump off here and be ready to tarnish my name. Church is NOT bad, serving is NOT bad, but yielding your life to those things more than you do to GOD ..... is really BAD! We know that anything we worship outside of God is an idol and yes, some worship the church. Make sure your house is in order! Prioritize your life accordingly and place your Lord and Savior at the top of the list! Everything will fall in place better once you do so..... believe me, I know! But you don't have to take my word for it You can try it for yourself Exodus 20:3 Proverbs 3:6 NIV Selah #becomingHis1stLady 2/7/2017 0 Comments HelloHello!!! I am so excited and appreciative that you took the time to stop by and visit little old me. I am currently busy transferring my content from my old site, www.becominghis1stlady.wordpress.com to my current site. I hope to be done soon but in the meantime please feel free to visit my WordPress site and catch up on my writings so far.
I am currently trying out a couple of blog sites and DIY websites to find out what works best for me. I will make sure in a future post to share my findings in case anybody is interested in blogging. So.... Let me get back to work building this space so I can get busy sharing!! I look forward to sharing with you soon. In the meantime, follow me on social media!! I would love to connect with you. Selah #BecomingHis1stLady |
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