At the top of the Home page
of Sarah's Tent, an unassuming form-box awaits
visitors to ask a question. The following is our first
of two questions received since we posted the form. My
personal response follows. I encourage those of you
who would like to respond further to visit our message
board and so that all can view your input.
QUESTION:
"If I have
misgivings about a direction my husband is taking in
ministry, does it necessarily mean that I don't have
faith?"
RESPONSE:
Not at all, it simply means you are seeing another
point of view. This doesn't mean that you are
right, or wrong, or that your husband is right or
wrong. What this means is that you may have a part of
the bigger picture as does he. A husband and a wife
are a team, not opposing forces. Let me give you an
example from my own life:
Years ago, when my husband and I were associate
pastors of another church, God began to lay some
'impressions' or visions upon our hearts. My
husband said to me, "God is showing me that I
will become a Senior Pastor of a church where the
pastor has left. When ever I pray about it, I
see myself standing on a platform that has a white
picket-fence-like railing surrounding the stage."
Every time I heard him tell me this, my heart went
into panic, because what God was showing ME that we
would be pastoring the very people we were now
pastoring, and my love was great for them... I saw
purpose and destiny for the sheep we were already
pastoring! We fought continuously on this issue and
struggled in anguish, convinced that the other partner
wasn't hearing God and distraught over what direction
we would be able to take because there was this
division.
I resolved that (knowing my husband was 'wrong'), I
would be the brave one and follow him anyway and pick
up the pieces of his poor decision. (ahem, arrogant,
aren't we? LOL)
To make a long story short, we were BOTH right! My
husband DID take the pulpit of a pastor who had left
his congregation - it was OURS. And shortly
after the crisis, we moved the congregation into a new
building - with...you guessed it, a white
picket-fence-railing that surrounded the pulpit area.
We still had the same congregation, but now he was
Senior Pastor, and we were in a different
building. We both had heard God correctly, but
saw two different sides to the call.
NOW when we come to an impasse, we've learned to
wait upon the Lord and see how things will unfold. The
greatest lesson we learned was to not only trust our
spouses, but to trust God IN our spouses. What
if my husband HAD been wrong? What if I WAS wrong, and
had insisted my way - was I willing to take the
responsibility of my actions and reap the harvest? Is
not my God big enough to lead the way? What God cared
about the most was that I keep a pure heart, and trust
HIM. Don't knock yourself or your husband. Wait
on God and learn ...to everything there is a season
...share with your husband your concerns, and take the
time to articulate thoughtfully with each other
your misgivings. Then pray together for God's wisdom
and timing. Giving honor and respect brings honor and
respect back to you. Who knows, maybe his decision
or the misgivings you have, are rooted elsewhere in
something in the past? It would be a shame not
to take this opportunity to investigate further and
bring healing and strength to one another and your
marriage.
NEXT WEEK'S QUESTION = Family
of the pastor, now in his church, are defying the
pastor's authority, what to do?
Matt 18:19-20
Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
Books
on Auction!
From Tina
Since
my husband retired from the ministry last year, we
find ourselves with a library of several hundred
books, with no possible way to keep them at home, and
no longer any need for most of them. I'll be
selling them on Ebay during the next couple of months,
and I wanted to give the ladies the opportunity to see
if there might be anything they need, since there are
several things that may be of interest to ministers.
I sell under the name "thebellecottage", but
I'll only have between 25 and 50 books at any one time
on auction. I've made a web page where I'm
listing all the ones I have yet to sell, and I'm
continually adding to it, also. As a book is put
on auction, I will take it from the site, but I will
be happy to sell books directly from the site, also.
The URL is: http://members.aol.com/bellepics/books.html
There are links on that page to other pages of
materials, and to my Ebay seller page, as well.
If you have any questions, please email me at Lambiee@aol.com.
Thank you!
| Book
of the Month |
 |
Calm
in My Chaos
by
Elisabeth K. Corcoran
At times, a mother's life can be anything but inspiring-2 AM feedings, loneliness, no vacation days, sibling rivalries. Even the best intentions of raising God-fearing, obedient, happy kids can spiral downward in the midst of her chaos.
<< Book of the Month for March
| Purchase
this book.
|
MEET THE
AUTHOR : Curious
how Elisabeth writes with little ones under
her feet? Write
us for a SPECIAL CHAT
announcement!
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Words
That Don't Exist, But Should
AQUADEXTROUS
(ak wa deks'trus) adj. Possessing the ability to
turn the bathtub tap on and off with your toes.
CARPERPETUATION (kar'pur pet u
a shun) n. The
act, when vacuuming, of running over a string or a piece
of lint at least a dozen times, reaching over and
picking it up, examining it, then putting it back
down to give the vacuum one more chance.
Visit our LINKS page for a wide variety
of resources.
Trade
permanent links with us
 |
CARMAN:
The Champion
In
Carman: The Champion, Carman
plays a former boxing champ who now runs a youth center and also
teaches the kids about God. To pay for the new youth center
building he has to go back into the ring. Only his faith in
God helps him through the hard times.
<<
Click on the picture to the left to get more information.
|
Joy in The Kitchen Volume
5 Issue 4
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