…but not enough to tell you who they are. 
Some things shouldn’t be announced on a public forum, lest the enemies of the cross attempt to disrupt my church service. (Not that that would happen, but you never know what loons out there take their obsessive personalities too far, as I have had some wackos call me and leave nasty messages due to my biblical stance on homosexuality)
Anyway, all that to say, that I really do appreciate my pastor and his wife because they really do serve the Lord with joy and gladness. In fact, one of the things I appreciate about them is that they are both mature and strong in their faith and they appreciate everyone.
Today my pastor started a sermon series on the biblical family. He used the passage out of Ephesians 5:18-21 as his main text. It reads…
Eph 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
Eph 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
Eph 5:20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
Eph 5:21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
The gist of his sermon was this. The reason that so many families, including many in the church, suffer from problems like divorce, sexual abuse, homosexuality, anger, resentment, and many other things, is because these families are first and foremost not filled with the Holy Spirit. In other words, the people claiming to be followers of Jesus Christ, are not yet saved.
This makes total sense to me, especially in some of the work that I do. And I have been in the ministry and church long enough to see couples divorce who attended church services, but really didn’t know the Lord.
My pastor’s second point was that we should be thankful in our hearts with praises to God. Which reminds me of another pastor friend that I had years ago when I attended a Vineyard Church. This guy was the most thankful man I’ve ever met in my life. In fact, to this day, I don’t think I’ve met anyone else that displays the same joy of spirit and thankfulness that Dave displayed.
And so to have a healthy and happy family in the Lord, we need to be thankful. One thing I personally try to do daily, and sometimes even every hour, is to simply thank the Lord for all that He has given me. Even today, I joined with two dear sisters and prayed for the first service and one of the things we prayed for was the service of the Ushers. I admitted right then that I had never thanked God for the services of the Ushers in my whole life. (Yes, sad but true) So today, I learned that I still have more opportunity to grow and thank God for all things and make a merry melody in my heart to Him.
The third point was to be thankful. I kind of covered that already.
The last point in the sermon was that we need to be submissive to one another. I really appreciated this point because I often hear women who don’t know the Word of God say things like “I’m not submitting to my husband or any man!” when in reality that’s not what that verse was talking about. In fact, my hunch is that it will probably come in next weeks sermon.
The point of verse 21 is that all believers need to be subject to one another. We need to respect one another and realize that we are all equal at the foot of the cross. Once I can get my new Logos bible software fully installed, I will share more about this.
In fact, I decided today to buy my pastor and his wife a copy of the software because I want to encourage them in their ministries. I can’t wait for it to arrive so they can enjoy their bible study even more.
And on a final note, all I can say is that the Lord is so good to us. Especially here in America where we still have freedom of speech and freedom of worship. May we all redeem the time for the days are evil.
