Gods Love and Eight Cows
I got both of these stories and verses from Paul Washer. Check him out on www.sermonaudio.com
God loves us, isn’t that amazing? Just stop and think about that for a minute. That would be like us loving worms. Still, that isn’t even an adequate example. What have we done to earn this love? Nothing!
We couldn't earn it if our life depended on it. By the way, our life does depend on it! The same is true for our children; we love
our children before they are born. They
certainly haven't earned that love. Wives
and husbands are no different. We should
love our spouse no matter what. I know that
can be a statement can be more difficult for some than others, but it’s true. If Jesus can forgive us, what right do we
have to be mad at each other? What comes
of it in the long run anyway? Your wife
knowing you’re right and she’s wrong?
Who are you trying to impress, yourself?
Your spouse certainly isn't impressed.
Last time I checked they don't give out trophies for the 1st place
winner in the passive aggressive home contest. We are Christians or "little Christs" Jesus is our
role model; we should strive to emulate him.
That is setting the bar at a level that is impossible to reach, yet we
should never give up.
Here's another
story from Paul Washer on that subject...
The Christian ought to walk as Jesus walked, and you say,
Brother Paul, you've gone too far now. Who can walk like Jesus walked? Let me give you an illustration to try to
explain to you what I mean. When I was a little boy, my father was a very big
man, very smart man, and like all little boys, I wanted to be just like
him. Now, up north, we raised cattle and
raised quarter horses. We'd get big snows and my dad would come into my room at
five in the morning. Even when I was a
little boy and say, “Paul boy get up.” No
rest for the wicked. And when he said, “get
up”, you got up. We would walk out there
in the snow, and the one thing I can always remember is that my father would
take these big strides and leave these footprints in the snow. Now, I wanted to
walk like my dad walked, and so I would try to stretch my legs out and put my
foot in his footprint. Now, you can
imagine, I was stretching out farther than I could ever go. You can imagine I
looked ridiculous, and you can imagine I fell down, but you will also know by
looking at that picture that the greatest desire in my heart was to walk like
he walked. You could tell, looking at that little boy, he wanted to be like his
dad even though sometimes he didn’t look anything like him. Let me ask you.
What’s the greatest desire in your heart? Is your great desire to walk like He walked?
To be like He was? Is that your great desire? Are you seeking to put your foot
in his footprints?
In the same way, when God loves any of us, he will withhold
nothing from us that is truly good for us. He does not hold back his own only
begotten Son, Rom.8:32. When Christ
loves us, he gives us everything we need-- his merits to justify us, his Spirit
to sanctify us, his grace to adorn us and his glory to crown us. Therefore,
when any of us love Christ sincerely, we lay everything down at his feet, and
give up all to be at his command and service. "...they did not love their
lives so much as to shrink from death." Rev. 12:11. -Spurgeon
Men, it starts with
you! If you invest little in your wife’s,
you shouldn't demand much from them! If
a husband values and treats his wife like he should, she will live up to that
value.
That reminds me of another
story…
This man in a tribe far off somewhere was looking for a
wife. The custom in that country was to
buy the daughter from their father with some cows or chickens. Well this man had this daughter and she
wasn’t pretty. He thought, “I’m not even
going to get a chicken for this daughter of mine; she’s not pretty at all!” So one day this guy comes up and says I want
to marry your daughter. The dad says
“You’re kidding right?” The man says
“No, I want to marry your daughter.” The
dad is thinking, “I wonder how much I’m going to have to pay this guy to marry
my daughter.” So the dad says, “So what
will you give for my daughter?” Well the
highest price you could pay for a wife was eight cows, yet most wives went for between 4 and 6 cows. The young man says “I want to pay eight cows
for your daughter.” The dad says, “WHAT?
Have you seen my daughter?” The guy
says, “Yes, I want to pay eight cows for her” and he did, he paid eight cows
for her. It was the talk of the
town! It was unheard of, an eight cow
wife? Guess what, she came to be known
throughout all the land as the eight cow wife.
She became the most respected woman among all the tribes.
Her husband valued
her and she lived up to that value!
Comments
Keep up the good work!