Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
Yesterday Pam Padgett presented a meditation around the following scripture: Psalm 119:23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
She told how she was hated at work when she wouldn't go along with something dishonest.
I was reminded of the following words of Jesus:
Lk. 6 ... Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they
shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast
out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. 23Rejoice ye in that
day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for
in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
... 26Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
(When everyone speaks well of you it is because you are telling them
what they want to hear and you are living in deception, refusing to
speak the truth, and deceiving others when you know the truth.)
As I thought about Lk. 6 and being blessed when you speak the word of
God and they hate you, I thought of the following story told by Pam ...
(From Pam Padgett:)
During the last months of college, I rented a room in a house owned
by a woman I met in the singles group of the church group I attended
at the time. This woman had been divorced twice and had a young
daughter. At first she seemed content to remain unmarried and raise
her daughter. But then she started looking for another husband. I
shared with her scripture that tell us that a divorced woman commits
adultery if she remarries, such as
Matthew 5:31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his
wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 32 But I (Jesus)
say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for
the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and
whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Mark 10:11 And he (Jesus) saith unto them, Whosoever
shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery
against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and
be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the
law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be
dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if,
while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she
shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she
be married to another man.
After sharing these scriptures, I was shocked when she told me that
she didn't care what the Bible says, she knew what she believed. I
moved from her house shortly after this.
The place I moved was quite a distance from where this church group
met. Although I continued to attend the Sunday services and would
sit in the area of the auditorium where the singles group sat, I no
longer attended the singles meetings. I heard this divorced woman
was engaged to a man I also knew from the singles group. I went and
spoke with him, sharing scriptures such as Matthew 5:31-32 showing
that they would commit adultery if he married her since she was
divorced. He said he would consider these things, but he did not
stop the engagement.
Then I heard that the maid of honor at the wedding was to be a woman
I also knew. I went and spoke with her, sharing scripture about the
adultery that would be committed by this marriage. She said she
knew it was wrong for them to marry but they would get married
whether or not she was the maid of honor, so she was going to do it.
About this time, I went to one of the Sunday morning services. I
arrived before any of the other singles, and sat in the area where
we usually sat. But no other singles came to sit there. Right
before the service began, I looked around and saw that the singles
were sitting a few pews behind me. I thought this strange, but
didn't think a lot about it. The next Sunday I sat in the "new"
singles area, but they sat in the "old" singles area. The following
week, I got there shortly before the service began, and went to
where the singles were sitting. Without saying a word, those I sat
next to got up and moved away from me. It was obvious they wanted
nothing to do with me, but I had no idea why. I cried out to God
asking what was going on? Had I done something wrong? For a few
weeks I didn't hear anything, and didn't know why I had become an
outcast from the singles.
Then after the service one Sunday morning, a woman I didn't know
very well stopped me and said she had a message from God for me.
The message she delivered was that God knew how I was being treated
by those in the singles group, and that I needed to know it was
because of what I had spoken about this divorced woman remarrying
and that this was what HE had wanted me to do. I was so helped by
this message, now knowing why I was being shunned and that it was
for doing good in the sight of God. It was also very helpful to
realize so strongly that God was watching over me, and the mercy and
kindness God had shown to me in having this woman deliver this
message to me.