What would your counsel be in this situation?

My ex-husband is running from the Lord. He made a profession of faith as a young boy, but has always felt like "God left" him. Pastors, deacons and other Christian men have been unable to help him thus far. My children and I pray for him faithfully though.

 

We Baptists have been raising holy hands (both hands with arms outstretched) in praise to our God ever since the first century, I'm not going to stop now!

If I were in a church so dead that it is frowned upon for praising the Lord with uplifted hands, I'd leave and find one that doesn't, or start my own! Isn't the Lord worthy for us to raise both our hands in honour ,worship, and praise?

 

Could you explain the connection of this to the rest of the thread? </font>[/QUOTE]Without getting into a full discourse and exegesis on "Lifting up holy hands", I'll keep it short.

My reply was to "qwerty". His post stated that an emoticon raising both hands wasn't available in a baptist forum. I can only presume that qwerty doesn't think you should, and possibly doesn't believe you should shout unto the Lord either.

The husband is the priest of the family, not the "lord" over it. When the man of God endeavors to do what he believes to be the will of the Lord, it is just like Israel in battle; when Moses' hands began to fall, the childern of Israel were losing, and when Aaron and Hur lifted up Moses' hands, Israel was overcoming the enemy.

This is directly related to the husband being the head of the wife, Sarah called Abraham, "lord". This shows her submission to his God given authority over the "business" of the family as head of household. Sarah was willing to follow Abraham anywhere the Lord was leading him. If you study the life of Abraham, you'll find that when he was out of the will of God, defeat came his way, this was due to his deceptions and disobedience, which are NEVER the will of God.

Much counsel is to be the endeavor in the marriage, if not for any other reason, to keep the wife in her place as under the "umbrella" of protection the LORD has for her, under the authority of her husband. Again, not lording over her, but in the position of making the family decisions concerning the income, expenditures, and the local the LORD would have this take place.

In another day and time, there wouldn't be the need for as much counsel in this scenario, the wife would more likely just obey the wish of her husband and go.

The problem now is all the extra-ordinary factors concerning the workings of the family. The man can very likely be less of the type that his character ought to be, and needs certain tuning up. The wife as well has been sold the ideal of having more say so than she ever was given by the Lord in the first place. Call it ERA if you wish. TRhat is why the need for MUCH counsel when there are conflicting ideas concerning a situation like you created.

Let me go on to say this in closing. The communication between the husband and wife should always be wide open, leaving absolutely no room for question of the way the other feels.

The Lord has given the woman as an helpmeet, not a helper/laborer/slave. She is to HELP in determining the will of God in any situation of such magnitude, but not to totally buck-up against his desire to change jobs and move to another location. She should follow, and you can't follow some on as they walk in the light, if you don't know where they're headed.

The wife can easily see things the husband has been blinded to. Therefore she can prevent something from hitting the both of them from the "blindside". She can most easily do this by holding up his hands in the matter, and not pull them down, or let them slip as he may tire.

It works the same way in worship in the church. We can be a help to the man of God as we "lift up his hands" and follow his lead, as he is following the Lord. And believe me, when this happens, an elated form of worship is sure to happen, but let me say, I'm NOT advocating anything more than that which is decent and in order.

See! I told you I'd make it short!


Brother Ricky