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Where Christ Is
by Phil Maxwell
June 26, 2002
With the voice of an angel saying “LOOK” some 24 years ago, I both laid
my eyes and set my heart towards the woman Yahweh both made me for and for me. I
had barely seen her face on the opposite side of a VW Bug as it passed by. Yet,
without any idea of her personality or overall appearance, I knew this to be the
girl I would marry and spend my days on this earth with.
Several years and three children later, in the midst of storms in our life, I
was rebuked by the same voice for thinking my love for her above reproach. He
told me to be the husband to her that He wanted me to be, and I repented and
agreed in a pool of tears. We were restored better than before, which was
necessary for the trials ahead. Brenda needed healing over things deeply hidden
away until then, and I didn’t have enough love in me to fulfill my part in
that, so the Lord fixed me that He might use me to fix her.
We’ve been through much over the years, but one thing that has always been a
mainstay for us has been our agreement on the place we have in relation to each
other and Christ. This has been challenged many times and in many ways, but we
have held on to the fact that Christ is my Head and I am hers. I am her teacher
and apostle in the Lord, a responsibility I take very seriously. Likewise, she
is a student and follower to me in Christ, and she takes that very seriously,
too. In this, we are gathered together in Christ’s name – fulfilling the
roles and responsibilities He so clearly set forth for us. He dwells between
us in how we relate to one another, and the evidence of His presence is
manifested both in the strength, endurance, and blessings we have thrived on,
and in the opposition we have faced and overcome over the years. We have hours
of what many would call “church” every day and have for all these years with
few exceptions.
When my bride looks to me to hear and understand the things of God because He
said to do so, and I in turn look to Him for the words to speak, we do not go
away empty. This is how Christ is brought forth, through the fruits of His
Spirit as grown by the words and works sown by those who accept the place He
gives them in His body. The fruits of the Spirit don’t grow out of
individuals, they grow out of relationships amongst individuals truly gathered
together according to His will through the bond of the Spirit between
them. Married couples who do not walk in their respective roles according to
Christ’s design will never find the fellowship of the Spirit elsewhere unless
they repent. However, those who DO will stand when everything else fails, for
the promise of God is that Christ will be amongst even two gathered in His name,
and He's already beaten every weapon the devil and this world have against those
who would be saved.
A perfect man is both male and female made into one flesh by the same power that
divided one man into two distinct parts long ago. The only place the body of
Christ has for believing husbands and wives is together as one. Otherwise, they
are but disjointed stones laying on the ground in the way, not a single living
stone properly aligned and joined to the Chief Cornerstone, Christ.
Whether we join together as Christ commands or not, He is a witness between us.
May His witness bring the blessings of His favor, not the curse of His rebuke.
“And this is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with
tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the
offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. Yet you say, 'For what
reason?' Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of
your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is
your companion and your wife by covenant. But not one has done so who has
a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly
offspring? Take heed then, to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously
against the wife of your youth.” (Mal 2:13-16)
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