Nancy and I were privileged to have Ben Wolf (a CQI Fellow Warrior) and his wife Katie from Kansas come to Phoenix to visit us for a few days. We were able to enjoy some very rich fellowship together.

Then, that Friday morning, I also had an appointment in our home with another CQI Fellow Warrior, Jacob Leenerts.

Since Ben and Katie were having breakfast with us that Friday morning, I asked them if they would mind another Fellow Warrior (Jacob) join us. They were pleasantly agreeable. Not only did we have breakfast together, but a good part of my enthusiasm is the instant fellowship experienced by these Fellow Warriors. The name Fellow Warriors is significant since all of us warriors/husbands, are in the same war/battle to defeat our flesh — our sin nature.

While we’re on the topic of the Fellow Warriors, along with husbands participating in the two-year Christ Quest Institute, graduate-level, Bible study and discipleship for attaining Christ-likeness — we also occasionally send them motivational Scriptures.

Tim and I want to inspire them as we are with God’s words of encouragement. Like in I Thessalonians 4:1 (AMPC), where the Apostle Paul preaches — Tim and I shared our joy with our Fellow Warriors: “Furthermore, brethren, we beg and admonish you in [virtue of our union with] the Lord Jesus, that [you follow the instructions which] you learned from us about how you ought to walk so as (with the singular goal) to please and gratify God, as indeed you are doing (thank you Fellow Warriors from Paul, Tim and I as you become encouraging examples), [and] that you do so even more and more abundantly [attaining yet greater perfection in living this life].” (Underline and parenthesis mine.) 

Psalm 119:11 (AMPC), gives another verse that provides guidance. “Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

Oh yeah, have we mentioned reading the Bible from cover to cover?

Ken and Tim

God decides to bless Ken Nair:

As I mentioned, I shut my spirit off at age four. I wouldn’t open it up for anyone or anything! However, 84 years and 9 months ago, God decided He would bless Ken Nair by having him meet and open up his spirit to Nancy. God’s purpose? To show him what the Fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23 (AMP) consisted of and He used Nancy to do that for me. Here’s what God used Nancy to illustrate to me, “But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Notice they’re all emotions.)

For 66 years He’s used Nancy to show that, and more, to me. So, to honor God’s Helper in my life,

Happy Birthday Nancy.

Since I love it:

Every morning, because Nancy takes such good care of me, I have the equivalent of two eggs made into what we call egg-bites containing milk and cheese with diced, turkey sausage, green and red bell peppers, green olives, stem onions, mint and basil leaves with bagel seasoning. (She cooks it in an 8” by 12” ceramic dish and cuts it into ten pieces which will last me for ten breakfasts.) Along with that, a cup of yogurt with a tablespoon of honey and cinnamon, finishing with a banana.

Then too, Nancy makes at least three loaves of Ezekiel bread a week, where she uses a half quart of honey mixed into the Ezekial bread flour. Talk about healthy and delicious!

I love landscaping. Here’s a picture of one corner of my yard that I have finished. It gives me two things in return, praise from Nancy as well as a special treat! Notice all the flowers? I’ve got them all over — plus a flowering orange and peach tree.

So, with all the flowers and her needing that much honey (at $14 to $21 a quart), why not get some honeybees?

There it is! Next to the birdbath with rocks so they can get their drinks of water. Here are the features of this hive. When ready, as I turn the little wooden lever you can see on the front of this beehive, it allows me to remove the wooden cover panel which exposes the top and bottom of all the honeycombs. That exposes a small opening at the top where I can insert a lever over each comb, give it a slight twist, that separates the comb ever so slightly — just enough to allow it to drain down and out through the tube that I insert at the bottom — filling multiple glass quart jars. Since the honey costs me nothing now, I’m wondering if I’ll have enough to give some to the neighbors along with our oranges, peaches, tomatoes, squash, sweet potato leaves, and whatever else we have plenty of?

I wish you were my neighbor; I’d love to give you some too.

Gaining Praise from God

I Corinthians 4:5b (ASV) has some encouraging words for us. It says, “…and then shall each man have his praise from God.” God’s going to praise us?!

Here I go with questions again, “Why would God praise us? I believe that would be His response to our having been obedient to His words. For example, we’ve made applications of His instructions contained in Ephesians 5:25 through 27 and I Peter 3:7 to name a few.

Here’s how God prompted me to understand how to make personal application of Ephesians 5 and I Peter 3.

Due to the Christ’s example, I need to learn how to stop living my life to accomplish what I want — and obediently live my life in accordance with God’s word. Doing that makes it possible for me to accomplish what He wants to accomplish within me and through me.

One of God’s goals for me is that I become spiritually mature enough — like the Christ, so I can care for my wife’s spirit just like Jesus would, as demonstrated by the fact that Jesus died to Himself preferring me, and I too am supposed to die to myself by preferring Him and His ways with my wife.

Let me make a comparison between what the Christ did for the church (the members, not the organization or building) and how the husband is to be the Christ’s example to his wife.

First of all, the Christ being completely a man, we’re told in Philippians 2:5-8 (NASB), “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.” — for us — the “church”.

Death to Himself was illustrated in that He set aside establishing any earthly goals that would be normal to men. He had to overcome the aspirations of a being a man and acquire God’s spiritual aspirations. The husband is to also acquire God’s aspirations for himself.

God’s goals for a husband are established in Ephesians 5:25 through 27. When practiced in his marriage, he will have the same spiritual power as the Christ did for His church. I don’t mean the building or those who attend, but those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior. When I acquire God’s aspirations for me as a Christ-like husband, I’ll have the power to present my wife Holy, without spot or wrinkle, glorious like Ephesians 5:25 through 27 states.

And why wouldn’t that husband be praised by God… for obediently applying His words?