Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray for the church (and other things -- 7:00 PM Wed., LHF time).

Text: Eph. 5:21-24

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." (Eph. 5:21-24)

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." "Submit" is a very strong word, as I tried to point out last week. In the active sense it means to subjugate or to bring into submission. In the passive sense, it mean to bring yourself into submission. It means to let someone else exercise his will over you. It's what Jesus did when he let them crucify him in our behalf. He submitted himself, first, to the will of his Father in heaven. Then he also submitted himself to those who wanted to crucify him. He was able to do it because he trusted his Father.

When Jesus comes back, he will force his enemies to submit to him. He will subjugate them under his feet (1 Cor. 15:25-28). However, I think that what the apostle Paul is talking about in today's passage is an attitude of the heart -- an attitude of submission -- something that is done willingly and voluntarily, rather than something that someone forces you to do by intimidation through fear or simply, by brute force. When your perception is, "I'm being forced to do this against my will," your fleshly attitude will most likely be, "I will do the absolute minimum I can get away with." The focus will be on yourself and on how you can protect your own interests. But, with a godly attitude of submission (which is only possible by faith and through the power of the Holy Spirit), you will serve wholeheartedly. Your focus will be on how you can bless your brother or your sister. It's all done by trusting God.

The rest of today's passage gives an example of submission: "Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord." (V 22) Paul also gives the reason for this submission in verse 23: "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church." This is according to God's established order.

Verse 23 also tells us that the church is Christ's body and that he is its Savior. And verse 24 tells us that, "...as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." How does the church submit to Christ? The church does not submit to Christ the way the world will submit to Christ when he reigns until all of his enemies are under his feet (1 Cor. 15:25). They will be destroyed. But the church will be saved. The church submits to Christ as to its Savior -- and we are the church and Jesus is our Savior.

The relationship between husbands and wives is like the relationship between Christ and the church. We don't see it quite yet. The Church is still divided, and according to George Barna (as quoted by Andrew Matthews), the divorce rate among evangelical Christians is the same as the divorce rate in secular society. But God is committed to perfecting his church. He will do it. He sent Jesus to die for us and he raised him from the dead. Why should we not think he will do everything he has said that he would? Let's pray to have the attitude of submission that comes from gratitude to our Savior -- from the knowledge of his absolute righteousness -- from the knowledge of his goodness and mercy -- from the knowledge of his complete sovereignty and his almighty power and from the knowledge of his absolute commitment to us.

Come on Wednesday and pray for the Church. The Church is the overflowing abundance, the wealth beyond measure and the full and perfect nature of God who fulfills and completes everything in every way.

Grace and peace,
Dean Svoboda

PS: You can also bring you own prayer requests and pray for them with your brothers and sisters in Christ (i.e., with the Church). Bring your requests to God with thanksgiving and receive his peace.

PPS: Pass this invitation along to others in your household or to someone who doesn't have an e-mail address in the LHF directory