WOYWW: An 8 Cow Wife

 My desk is a little cleaner this morning. 

I decided to have a bag beside me and just dump everything there,

and just look in it every day so I don't forget

what I put inside,

My new organization tip!

I can write a whole book about how NOT to clean up!!!

 "Until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of the letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true." Matthew 5:18

Seems like I need to be a lawyer or a Greek scholar to be able to understand Jesus' words in Matthew 5! 

Hebrews 10:1 reads: "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship."

Romans 7:6-7, "But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."

2 Corinthians 3:6, "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

 Sometimes it can seem like the words of Saint Paul contradict Jesus' words! But Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. The good thief who was crucified alongside Christ also reviled Christ at the beginning along with the crowd. "But one of the thieves repented and rebuked the other. 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' And he said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise'" (Luke 23 39:43).

I may not understand everything in the Bible. But one thing I understand is, I need to repent. I need to stand beside Jesus and defend Him. And I need to say, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom!"

 "Jesus Christ was never anything but "yes"...it is He who anointed us and has sealed us, identifying us as His own, thereby depositing the first payment, the Spirit in our hearts." 2 Corinthians 1: 19, 22

When a man proposes to a woman, and asks for her hand in marriage, he eagerly waits for the woman to answer, "Yes". With Christ, He does not wait for us to say yes, He has already claimed us as His own. It is as if He says, "It does not matter if your answer is 'no' now, I will wait. I will do everything, anything, to have you as my own!" And not only did He propose, He has also given us what is known in some societies as a "Bride price".

There is a controversial new app in South Africa that calculates how many cows a groom's family should pay for a bride-to-be. Can you imagine how a woman would feel if her worth was calculated at one cow? Or even two? There was a man named Johnny Lingo who was known as the sharpest trader in all the Pacific Island, but they were laughing at him because he paid 8 cows for his wife. Sarita was homely, thin, her shoulders were hunched, and she seemed to have nothing to say for herself. But when a missionary who heard the story visited him, he could not find any trace of the woman they told him about. Why, Sarita was a beauty! Her hair, her walk, her grace! He asked Johnny Lingo what happened.

"Do you ever think," Johnny asked reflectively, "what it does to a woman when she knows that the price her husband has paid is the lowest price for which she can be bought? And then later, when all the women talk, as women do, they boast of what their husbands paid for them. One says four cows, another maybe six. How does she feel--the woman who was sold for one or two? This could not happen to my Sarita."

"I wanted Sarita to be happy, yes, but I wanted more than that. You say she's different from the way they remember her in Kiniwata. This is true. Many things can change a woman. Things that happen inside, things that happen outside. But the thing that matters most is what she thinks about herself. In Kiniwata, Sarita believed she was worth nothing. Now she knows that she is worth more than any other woman on the islands." (Find the whole story here.)

Jesus paid for me with His very life! I am soooo valuable to Him! How does that make me feel? It makes me feel as if my heart wants to burst!

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Patsy