The Acceptable Day – Part 2

Michael continues: Last month Jane was having stomach pains.  About the same time, John hurt his wrist and his wife made an appointment and insisted that he go to the doctor. Jane told the doctor that John would have surgery to repair his wrist instead of an injection that may or may not alleviate the pain. The next week John returned the favor by taking his wife to the hospital to have her checked for her stomach pains. After the examination, Jane’s ER doctor and an oncologist came to the waiting room and reported that Jane had a large cancerous mass on her pancreas that had spread to her stomach. A few days later the doctor reported that Jane also had a large mass on her spine and that the cancer had spread to her vital organs. The oncologist kept mentioning God during the report. John asked the doctor if he was a Christian and the oncologist answered: “yes.” The doctor’s prognosis was that Jane only had about two weeks left to live and there was nothing medically that they could do for her. Her life was completely in God’s hands. 

With only two weeks left, there is no time to start loving your wife as Christ loved the church. Jane told John a long time ago, that if he died before her, she didn’t know if she could make it through life. At that time John prayed, “Lord, please take my wife before me.” He wanted to spare his wife the pain of seeing her beloved husband suffer before dying. John reminds us that we must take the time now to love our spouses as Christ commands. The context of this commandment is Ephesians 5:22-33: “Husbands and wives submit yourselves one to another out of reverence for Christ.” A similar passage in Colossians 3:15 says: “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye have been called in one body, and be ye thankful. And whatsoever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father through Him.” John once asked Jane, “Have you ever met someone you didn’t pray for?”  Her answer was: “I can’t think of anyone.” Before that day’s Bible Study, Jane said, “Tell the group that they need Jesus, not just in times of disaster, but that they need Jesus today.” 

Today is the acceptable day of the Lord. How do you accept the Lord Jesus?  According to Romans 10: 9-10: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe with thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Today is our moment of destiny …now is our “come to Jesus moment.” Now is the day of salvation. Before we can minister to others, we must first allow God to minister to us through the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.  For He who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him – 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Only when we allow God to love us by accepting His gift of salvation through Christ, can we in turn love our husbands and wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Now is the acceptable day of the Lord … today is our “come to Jesus moment.”  As God reveals to us how Christ loved the church, we can love our spouses with this same love.

May God richly bless you.
Your brother in Christ, Michael