Obedience

Proverbs 14:1
Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

 Hey everyone, sorry I am not more active on this blog...please know you are free to email if there are any topics of interst you'd like me to share:
( holywomenofold@gmail.com ).
Thankfully, the Lord has kept me busy doing good things, so a good reason not to have time to post more often. Although, I am not always as pressed in as I should be with time management, therefore I could possibly get more posts out.

We recently were helping a family in Romania. The wife has a zeal that is inspirational. She is in her 50's but runs to & fro serving others like a lively 20 year old. She was teaching me some Romanian and one word she taught me that well defines her is "Haideti" sounds like "Hi-dets" it means, "Let's go!, Let's do it!"
You can see her lesson for me in the above picture. It says, "Let's build a house." We were there to help her build a larger home that the Romanian government required of her because she has been adopting orphans with heart conditions.

The topic that is on my heart today is obedience whether it be to an earthly husband, God himself, mother or father (if they are overseeing you). Sadly these younger generations are being taught complete independence: you are your own boss, you don't need nobody, ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do, it's all about ME, I'll do whatever I want, whenever I want, etc...
When I was a young lost teen unfortunately I had a "boyfriend".
I remeber one day telling him, "You aren't my father!" as if that really meant anything, seeing how I didn't even want to obey my dad either. So, now that I am in my 40's it has been a struggle for me in my marriage to respect my husband as I should. He is worthy of the respect, but sadly I was raised amidst a rebellious generation. And as the generations continue they have only gotten worse. I remeber how the things I used to do & say shocked my parents. Now I am feeling shocked even moreso by what I have seen coming out of younger generations. I remember when the term "lame" became popular slang, it was no big deal among teens to say, "Man, your so lame!" Well, one day I said it to my mom, "Mom, your so lame!" My dad could not believe his ears, I was reproved by them both. But, I couldn't relate to why it was such a big deal. Today it is much worse, and very few children have a good example to compare and see how wicked their actions are.
We can not blame our parents and the circumstances we were raised in for our rebellion. There are examples of people who suffered so much, yet love much, have much grace and wisdom. Truly their help came from the Lord. We all need to do our part to draw near to God and be cleansed from the world that took root in our hearts before we came to the Lord. God is able to give us new hearts & cleanse us from our wrong ways. Sometimes it takes falling and standing to brush off the dirt, and faith to keep trying to walk forward, just like children learning to walk. We can't stop getting up and trying; if children did that they'd never learn to walk properly. So, I have failed time & time again when it comes to speaking properly to my husband & to others....so please know I press onto perfection, but I have not arrived. But we must STRIVE to enter in....we don't see God's commands as mountains that are too hard to climb, we take courage knowing if we have a faith the size of a tiny mustard seed we can MOVE MOUNTAINS.

So, recently my husband made a Facebook post emphasizing the need for women to OBEY, he wrote it in all caps and he left Titus 2:5 as the reference. I was amazed by the many responses that were emotional and negative. So many woman took his word of encouragement as a beating. Like he was some wicked woman abuser. Some even wanted to say the Word does not say "obey" but rather submit and they built up some wordy idea that there is a difference between submitting and obedience, as if obedience was a negative abusive word. Seems so many women have had negative experiences with men that they assume the command for obedience to man is wrong. What does the Word say?

Titus 2:5  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

See the word "obedient"? I don't think we need to learn Greek or anything to rightly divide this. This verse is simple instructions for married women. It should not offend us...but sadly we too often comprehend and interpret things through our own life experiences & emotions. If you read these words plainly there is no reason to think, oppression or abuse, or manipulation or any other negative idea that so often weighs the minds of women who hear these instructions. There are also instructions given to the husband; they are to love their wives respect their bodies as they would their own, honor their wives, etc. Notice the reason for these instructions to women:
"...that the word of God be not blasphemed."  
When the unbelievers see believers acting just as proud, irritably, belittling, disrespectful to their husbands as they do, this is shame to the name of the Lord who willinging obeyed the Father and layed His life down to deliver us from such sinful acts. There is no inspiration or motivation to believe like you, because they do not see the power of grace in your life. This is why we must recieve instruction and have the faith and humility to apply it to our lives that our Savior will be magnified and all men will be drawn unto Him seeing the power of His grace in our lives.

So, yes, these instructions are much easier to recieve for women who have husbands that are also in obedience to God. Nevertheless, a wife must do her best by God's amazing grace to honor and respect the husband even if he does not honor and respect her. Now a controversial topic: if one has an unbelieving husband , or a husband that requires a wife to commit sin..... The Word says we are to obey God over man. God is always first. What we need to learn is what would God have us do. Just beacuse He is first doesn't mean we ignore our husband's requests of us because we want to spend our days sitting at the Lord's feet instead of doing things the husband has asked us to do. God first can mean we yield to our husband's request to get the laundry done, the children's room cleaned, the garage cleaned, etc. even though we'd rather be sitting at the Lord's feet all day instead. This is because obedience to the husband glorifies God. The husband is strengthened by the wife's faithfulness, and if he is not strengthened or thankful, God is still glorified and the wife is blamless amidst a wicked and perverse generation. Now, this is not to say we should never take a day to spend being still before the Lord instead of being busy with the cares of this life, but we need to be discerning of what would best glorify God at the given time. Sometimes we need to muster up faith and trust if we do the duties the husband has instructed us, or expected us to do, that God will minister to our needs as we lay down our life to serve others. We shouldn't excuse ourselves from reasonable services because we want to be so "spiritual". Oftentimes the spiritual thing to do is serve others, work hard, deny ourself. The Word says, it is more blessed to give than recieve.....have you ever ministered to someones need and found that God ministered to your need while you ministered to someone elses? I hope dear ladies that you will learn to rightly divide these things and forget about all this "woman power" the world is preaching that teaches women to be their own boss and belittle & disrespect their husbands. A woman of true strength knows how to cleave to the Lord, trust in Him, obey Him & glorify Him even when she must suffer in the flesh doing so. The Word speaks of a divine nature that we are to have....it is a nature that seeks the Glory of God above it's own comforts. A nature that can endure gracefully much hardship. A woman of true strength can endure by God's grace the reproach of her own family when she stands alone for the right ways of God. God does not contradict Himself; people simply do not rightly divide His word, thus there appears to be contradictions. When God commands women to be in obedience to their husband's it is not unto sin, but as unto the LORD. Let me give some examples:
If a husband says, "Wife your clothes are dull, put on those tight jeans and that tank top." Here the husband is commanding the wife to do something sinful, to wear clothes that appeal to the lust of the flesh and likely create a stumbling block for other men to commit adultery with their eyes. Would the Lord command such a thing? No, He would not. And this is where the wife must obey God over man. But not pridefully, or arrogantly, on the contrary with that divine nature God can give a woman in this situation who earnestly seeks Him. She can simply say, "Dear husband, I am happy to obey you in all good things, but this thing you have asked of me is sin & therefore I cannot consent." Remember the couple in the book of Acts that fell dead? The wife would not have fallen dead with her husband if she had not yielded to his sinful plan to decieve the brethren. We all stand alone before God on the judgment day. We can not point a finger at others and say, "He made me do it!" God does not expect us to yield to sin.
Many try to use the example of Sarah obeying Abraham to say she was his sister when it put her in jeopardy of being taken by another man to say "we must obey the husband even unto sin."
I highly disagree, seeing how it contradicts God's word and the example we see under the New Covenant teachings which we are to live by. Jacob obeyed his mother to decieve his father and what happened to Jacob? He was decieved by his father in law and suffered much. We will pay a consequence for knowingly doing wrong. Ladies, you are not obligated to obey your husband unto sin.
I would also like to caution not to take your "obedience to God" out of context and justify your will by telling your Husband "God does not want us to eat white rice, therefore I will not make it..." or I do not believe it is God's will for us to live in Arizona, etc. These are things that could be called into question; but issues of morality are more clearly defined and therefore we know God does not want us to do them, such as lie, watch movies with wicked contents, swear, dress immodestly, help take your children to a school that will teach them anti-christ practices,etc.

Let's look at another part of Titus 2:5, it says, ...."good"....married women are being exhorted to be GOOD. How does that make you feel? Does it bother you like the word "obedient"? Think about it this way.....we want children to be good, and sometimes we tell them, "be a good boy." What do we mean when we say that? Do we mean DISOBEY me or do we mean OBEY me. Do we consider the child good when they obey or disobey? Do the children give us peace and joy when they disobey?
3 John 1:4  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
God has created an order that we would all do well and be pleasing to God and all mankind (even ourselves) if we simply obey that order. Everyone is required to obey: the men must obey Christ, the women must obey their husband and Christ, the children must obey their parents and Christ. And when we all willing do this there is peace and harmony.
Ok, so the husband doesn't obey, this makes life harder on the wife. And when the wife dosen't obey, this makes life harder on the man who has been placed with the responsibility of overseeing his wife and children. Ladies who have been abused by men & husband's you will not heal from this by rebelling against God's order or by seeing obedience to the husband as oppressive. Remember, it is as unto the Lord we are called to serve our husband. We must love the husband regardless if he loves us. If he is an enemy to the faith, God calls all people to love even their enenemies. But this does not mean we yield to sin. Sin is not love. It may cost some women their marriage to live in obedience to Christ if they have an unbeling husband. In such cases the woman should obey all her husband requiers that is not immoral/ sinful and she should labor to respect him even if he is not walking worthy. Christ layed down His life and died for us when we were yet sinners and this is what won our hearts to Him; His amazing sacrificial love. This is what has the chance of winning the unbelieving husband to Christ, loving him selflessly. Marriage is a sacrificial love, Christian love is a sacrificial love & true love. Without God, love does not exist, "God is love".
Eternity without God is eternity without love, indescribably painful. And this is where all will end up who despise God and His ways. The husband that despises God and abuses his wife will have an eternity without love; wives you have the opportunity to save your husband from such an end, and to enable him to experience the only love he will ever experience if he does not repent. Your life on the altar for God glorifies God as did the life of Christ.
So to this call to obedience I say, "Hi-dets!"  = "Let's do it!" for this is wisdom to obey God and His high calling, and this is how a woman can build her house on a sure foundation; but she that lives in self-will & rebellion will tear her house down with her own hands.

How I came to Veiling

I thought to share my experience with veiling...

When I first came to read the Bible I was very ignorant about religion....I was able to read the Scriptures rather freely having heard and known little to nothing about the theologies of men. I soon met a fellowship whose faith & living example inspired me to believe & obey the teachings of this Jesus character I was reading about. I was wrestling with believing in Christ because no one I knew was obeying His teachings; not even in the "Churches". I ended up forsaking my life ambitions, selling a good portion of my belongings & giving some away, stepping out in faith to obey Christ... The believers I lived & traveled with adorned themselves with shamefacedness & modest apparel as the Word teaches (even the men wore long tunics for modesty). The women did not cut or style their hair but used what "nature" had given them as a covering citing 1 Corinthians 11 for this conviction:

1 Corinthians 11:14-15 " Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?

But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering."

That made a lot of sense to me....I already had long hair and I never really liked cutting it; so I went on believing as they did.

About 12 years had passed and one of the sisters who appeared to be getting unstable in her walk questioned the Brothers whether or not the hair was the covering or a cloth. I thought she was really losing her understanding....For some reason, in all my years I never made a connection that some who professed Christ wore cloth coverings....I don't think I noticed women of such sort or knew that is why they had something on their heads. Time passed and my dear sister-friend left the fellowship...I saw her sometime later at a home "Church" where a man approached me and wanted to teach me about women covering with a cloth covering. He opened the Scriptures to me and pointed some Scriptures out. I heard him and was willing to consider what he shared. Time went by and I was no longer a part of that fellowship....I met other believing women who used cloth coverings....then I learned about a man named David Bercot who put together a historical teaching regarding early Christians veiling. 

Over 14 years on pilgrimage for Christ and I never knew about the early Christian women veiling their heads! The facts Bercot presented made a lot of sense....and the
 1 Corinthian 11 passage made much more sense...seeing how Paul was only using nature itself as an example that women ought to cover with a cloth....if he had only been speaking of the hair that would mean men would have to keep their heads shaved, 

1 Corinthians 11:7 "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man."

Through *early Christian writings we learn that women veiled not only during services but whenever they were in the presence of men because it was considered a part of their modesty & disrespectful to do otherwise. Later on in history there became a controversy as to whether or not virgins also needed to veil....I never heard of controversy between whether or not the covering Paul spoke of was the hair or a cloth in history until about 100 years ago. I believe this is because men & women had finally reached utter failure in keeping the Apostolic tradition (also referred to as a commandment). You can see throughout history for thousands of years women upheld the covering of their head and their bodies....but the coverings became vain & ornate bonnets, then hats, then little doilies, until they were not only lacking a veil, but also their clothing became less & insufficient. 

To see examples of the changes in covering throughout history click on the following link:

https://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/head-covering-history.html

Thus was born ignorant generations knowing little to nothing of women veiling or dressing modestly. So now there is us, a lost generation ....having to research and dive into history to find clarity & examples of truth pertaining to conducting ourselves as the Holy Women of Old (unless we receive divine revelation on the matter alone). There was an understanding and a faith once delivered unto the saints that is seldom seen in our time. And Jude was even exhorting the godly of his time to earnestly contend for the faith:

Jude 1:3

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Notice what Jude says after the above statement:

Jude 1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

These ungodly men have prevailed by their offspring into our present times...turning God's grace into lasciviousness, handing out fraudulent licenses to remain in sin & darkness....
But the true grace of God...(Titus 2:11-12 )  "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;"

Getting back to my personal experience... That grace of God was working in me to search out this head covering issue through study & prayer....as I realized this was what the first church believed and practiced there was no reason I should do otherwise; I saw the only thing holding me back was a fear of the humiliation from adhering to such a practice....I didn't realize that I actually had pride in my heart concerning my natural covering. I didn't think I did because the attention I got from my hair had irritated me from childhood... throughout my life, I had tried to think of ways to divert people from associating me with my hair: dying it green (I didn't actually do that, just a thought) putting it in numerous tiny braids (that actually still got me compliments, I wasn't wanting) then I finally thought to shave my head, thanks be to God that didn't work out! So, when it came time to really get the attention off my hair I saw that a part of me was holding unto pride in my hair, I saw I needed to destroy that pride, and that veiling was an act of humility (if done for the right reason)...I began to veil....I was surprised how different the general public looked at me and treated me: men were opening doors for me & giving me respectful nods, people began to approach me and ask me what my religious beliefs were, somehow the covering was speaking to people's hearts that I was religious & they wanted to hear about it....
On the contrary, when I thought my hair was my only covering and I wore it down and uncut, people often approached me in awe of the glorious natural covering I had; they wanted to touch it and talk about it...men were especially drawn to me and some assumed by my appearance that I was a "hippy chic" and perhaps into "free love".  I remember sitting in a park one day and a man who was far across the park walked over to tell me how much he liked my hair and how it caught his eye across the park....
The cloth covering freed me from being a magnet to carnality. It was a blessing to see how something as simple as a veil on my head had the power to drastically change people's response to seeing me. It has been encouraging to have men share an appreciation for the modesty.
 In my experiences interacting with men, many are attracted to a woman's hair. Godly men find the covering of a woman's hair to be more peaceful and less of a distraction. Even if a woman has her body covered, the hair being uncovered can draw more attention to a woman's beauty and bring unnecessary distraction to a man's thoughts. The femininity of a modestly covered woman with long glorious hair adorning her can be more of an attraction than a worldly immodest woman. Now, this is when some women object saying, "should we wear bags over our head! Men will lust on anything, why should we have to be uncomfortable when they are the ones with the lust issue!?" The motivation to cover should be love, love for God, and love for man...we all have our weaknesses....what if you couldn't eat chocolate but it was your favorite, and someone started baking sweet good-smelling brownies and eating them in front of you when they knew how much you like them and can't eat them....what if they thought well I want a brownie, she'll just have to get over it! If one truly loves God and man they won' have such a hostile response to the idea of covering. They won't care so much about their own discomfort as they will care for that of others.
 I do have occasional reproach to bear from those who lack understanding about covering; but I would rather bear reproach and be free & set apart for the glory of God and in obedience, then please people who did not die to save me from sin and death and the power of the enemy.
 I encourage all who have yet to embrace veiling to seek the Lord, and ask yourself what holds you back. Is there pride in the heart, fear of man, not persuaded it is God's will?

If any other ladies have a testimony on the issue of how they became persuaded to cover and would like to share it on this blog, feel free to email your testimony for consideration. God's work in each of our lives can have unimaginable power in the lives of others...don't be afraid to declare His doings.

P.S. We do not veil because it says to "pray without ceasing" this is not a good reason to give for veiling. There is a time to cease from praying and a time to pray.
I would say veiling has more to do with obeying the command (ordinance, apostles doctrine) and following the godly example of the early Christians.

Acts 2:41-42  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Notice how Paul starts off talking about veiling:

1 Corinthians 11:1-2  Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.

He is teaching us the ways of Christ, and giving  **ordinances to
follow.

**ordinance:

"an authoritative order; a decree.

synonyms:

edict, decree, law, injunction, fiat, command, order, rule, ruling, dictum, dictate, directive, mandate"

For further understanding and edification please listen to an audio sermon my husband shared on the topic:
A Teaching on the Headcovering

* To see some early Christian quotes about veiling click on link:
http://holywomenofold.blogspot.com/2013/01/head-covering.html