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by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2012. Dear M: Hope you've read my most recent email, in which I responded to things in your email. But also, you mentioned that you have a desire to be in the pulpit. I believe you have a significant ministry there as a wife and as a mother with two children in grammar school. It might seem like a long time before your children will be adults, but as a senior citizen, I assure you that it won't be very long until your son is a man and your daughter is a woman. If you will diligently teach your children the word of God and the fear of God and how to be the best Christians, your son can be an important man of God, and your daughter can be doing important things for the Lord. Here's a scripture for you from Matt 10:39 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Who is talking there? Jesus. Jesus says you have to lose your life for his sake. Not just you, but me and all Christians. That doesn't mean die right away. It means die to self. We must be willing to not have some of the things we would prefer to have, for Jesus' sake. In Psalm 37 it says if we delight ourselves in the Lord, he'll give us the desires of our heart. But sometimes people fret and say, "But when is it going to happen?" Just keep on with the Lord, commit your future to him, and let him lead you. But we need to be seeking the Lord every day in prayer, and getting the word every day. In 1 Cor 11:1 we read, "Be followers of me even as I also am of Christ." Who's talking there? The Apostle Paul, apostle to the Gentiles, and who wrote like half of the books of the New Testament, a very important man of God. Should we be followers of Paul? Yes, we should. Paul went through a lot of suffering as an apostle for the Lord. He was stoned. He was whipped. He was apparently not wealthy. His great burden was that his fellow Jews should find salvation in Jesus. It is from Paul that I've learned that though I was born into a Gentile family, I'm grafted into Israel. But Paul tells Timothy: 1 Tim 2:12 "But I don't allow a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." Some have thought that Paul hated women. No, that's wrong, and Paul speaks affectionately to various women in some of his letters. To one he speaks of a certain man's mother, and his mother. So did Paul and that man have the same mother? No, I think Paul was just saying that man's mother was like a mother to Paul. But M, I'm a follower of Paul. I believe it's supposed to be the men who are the preachers. I know of some exceptions, though. Kathryn Kuhlman was an importan woman preacher who got a lot of people healed. She held meetings in Los Angeles, and seems like Pittsburg. Norvel Hayes said that Kathryn Kuhlman said that the Lord tried to give that ministry to two different men before he gave it to her. Apparently the men weren't willing. Aimee Semple McPherson did important work for the Lord in Los Angeles about a century ago. Lillian Thrasher was an important person in the ministry. She had had a severe disappointment. Don't think I know the whole story, but apparently she was engaged to a Christian man. Don't know if he died before they married or shortly after they married. But Lillian continued on with the Lord and wound up in Egypt starting an orphanage that touched hundreds or probably thousands of lives for the Lord. She lost her life for the Lord and found it. I heard of a couple that went as husband and wife to the mission field in a foreign nation. The husband died. That left no one to teach the natives the Bible, so the woman did that work, and the Lord blessed her ministry. I've heard that Billy Graham's wife, seems like her name is Ruth, wanted to preach, but she lost her life for Jesus and helped her husband to be an important preacher and soul-winner. I've learned some things from Win Worley, who was pastor of a church in Indiana. His specialty was casting demons out of people, and he said that most of the people they were casting devils out of were Christians. Worley had a list of eleven hundred names of demons. I have not tried to keep track of that list, but one of the demons was the demon of "woman preacher." It would be good to pray like this, "Lord, help me to be whatever you want me to be, and please show me what that is. I don't have to be a famous preacher, or, if that is what you want, not my will, but your will be done." Meanwhile you have the ministry of being a wife and mother. Have you noticed in the Old Testament books of history, like 1 Samuel through 2 Chronicles, that as the Bible gives the history of the various kings of Israel and of Judah that usually it tells the name of the mother of that king? By doing so, God is honoring those mothers who raised the good kings, and also showing which mothers didn't do such a good job with the bad kings. Be the mother of a good king, my friend, by teaching your children all you can about serving the Lord properly. Get them born again and baptized with the Holy Ghost, so that they pray in a language they don't understand. Teach them to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." But why does the Bible say "with fear and trembling?" Because it's so easy to get sloppy, to get lazy, and neglect the things of God. Be one of those women, before your children, like it talks about in the Bible "in whose mouth is the law of kindness." It's contageous, and your children will catch it.
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