Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
What we are going to look at today is Jesus Christ and healthy submission.
We are going to talk about what healthy submission looks like and what healthy submission does not look like. We are going to use marriage as an example of a relationship in which submission is present.
How many of you are not married?
How many of you hope to be married someday?
Even if you just have married friends or if you just have a relationship with Jesus Christ, this is a topic that applies to all of us. We are using marriage as an example to show how relationships work, so we will be referring to marriage often. This can also be extrapolated to any kind of relationship, and we will make mention of that as we go along.
How many of you know that within the Bible another gifting occurs besides marriage? That gifting is to remain single and serve within the church. This is a very highly esteemed gift that has been degraded within the last couple of decades. We want to take a look at this because this weekend is all about living life in balance and we want you to understand that within the Body of Christ there is incredible balance.
For those of you whose gifting is to remain single so that you can serve the Lord in any capacity, I want to start our sharing by saying that we totally esteem you and honor you. For those young people in the audience, who do not have it on their hearts to get married, I want to affirm in you that that is a good and healthy desire for you to have. I do not want you to buy into the worlds lie that you have to have a partner in order to fit into the world. That is not at all the truth. Jesus Christ went through his entire life without a marriage partner.
Jesus Christ chose the marriage relationship as the example of how he works with the Church and how the Body of Christ is supposed to work together. That will be the focus of this teaching.
We will look at Ephesians chapter five. This is “ground zero” for submission in a lot of respects in the Church Epistles. Ephesians 5:21 is really the beginning of any relationship. This comes at a very key point in Ephesians because it is the verse immediately before where Paul launches into verses on marriage, upon which we will touch.
Here is a significant verse that caught my attention this morning:
Ephesians 5:13
but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,It is important within families that the family is a safe community where we can confess our struggles, our sins. No perfect family exists. I lived for awhile with the myth that if I could just be the perfect parent, then I could produce the perfect children. Who else in here has had that drummed into your head? Look at all the women’s hands go up! That is the perfectionism thing amongst us women. I wonder if our culture has anything to do with it? Think about it. Who was the perfect father, and who is the perfect father? God is! Did He have perfect children? Does that not just take a load off of your shoulders? What we can learn is how God chose to stay in relationship with His children and support them. Again, I wanted to bring your attention to where it says:
Ephesians 5:13 and 14
(13) but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
(14) for it is light that makes everything visible.In a healthy family it is important to have that environment where we can confess to one another that we are not perfect. We have good days, and we have some not so good days. It is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Wake up oh sleeper. Rise from the dead” (Eph. 5:14). We certainly do not want a community of believers where people walk in and it is kind of like what I have termed in my area the “Christian country club.” Everyone puts on their nice clothes on Sunday and walks in, “How are you?” The person’s heart could be breaking, they might be on the brink of divorce, or their children might be off in never, never, land, but they slap on the happy face and say, “Fine, bless you.” That is not the kind of community that we are trying to establish here in Spirit & Truth Fellowship International because that is not a biblical community. We would much rather have a community where people could say, “I am really struggling, and I could really use your prayers.” What then would be the result? It says, “Wake up oh sleeper. Rise from the dead,” which takes some effort, does it not? It takes effort to move out of the comfort of pretending and into being authentic, but look at the results, “and Christ will shine on you.” As a body, the Lord can shine not only on us but also within us.
Let us back up even more in Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:1
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received [referring to chapters one, two, and three].Ephesians 4:2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.Verse one says to live a life. Well, where is life lived? Life is lived among others. To be completely humble and gentle, to be patient, bearing with one another in love—this is the start of submission. This is the mindset. This is where the heart needs to be in order to get to the place where you are ready to deal with others.
Ephesians 4:3
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.The word bond is a very anatomical word. It is a word that is used when they talk about how cells are joined together. In certain junctions between cells, they still use the root of that word bond.
Ephesians 4:4-6
(4) There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called—
(5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
(6) one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.Life is not lived in a vacuum. Life is lived in a place where you run into others, so we need to prepare our hearts to be among others.
Read the rest of the article here.
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Thanks for reading.
(Comments have been turned off because I’ve been receiving some really odd, and incoherent comments lately. These teaching posts are meant to bless and educate you. The information is here, it’s up to you to accept, or deny, it).
Write From Karen 