This sermon emphasizes the importance of building the body of Christ as women in the church. It discusses the significance of having a meek and quiet spirit, forgiving others, being a Mary in a martyr world, and seeking godly wisdom to build godly homes that contribute to a godly church. The speaker shares personal experiences and insights on prayer life, obedience, and surrendering all aspects of life to the Lord.

Let's begin with the word of prayer. Our heavenly father, we praise and thank you that you have given Jesus for us, and he died and rose again, and because he lives, we can have no fear about anything, we can face the future, we can have him with us, Lord, in every daily circumstance. We thank and praise you for all that you are to us, Lord Jesus. We pray that you will be with us in this time, and the speech we spend in your presence. Speak to each one of us, we ask in Jesus' name. I want to speak a little bit on this topic which we are meditating on for the camp, that is, building the body of Christ. Building the body of Christ, and we've been listening to the morning sessions, and we think, like, how can we as sisters contribute to the building of the body of Christ? Like, we come across many churches where sisters have a lot of prominence in the church, and they speak, and they sing, and they have ladies' meetings, and they have children's things, and they have some churches, they have choreography, and all kinds of practices go on. And we think, like, in our, what we are doing in the new covenant churches, what is our part in building the body of Christ? You may think, like, sometimes we think it looks like we sisters have nothing to do in the body of Christ, except maybe cook and serve and look after the children, but it's not true. There's so much which we can do if we read the scriptures and we, especially what we read in the New Testament for women. Of course, God has given us warnings for us to, for our protection, that we don't go astray. But if we follow the teachings of the New Testament and Jesus' words, we can learn a lot what women can do. I was thinking of the, what is the foundation for the church in the New Testament? What is the foundation that the apostles said? They said, if you, I don't want to ask that question, but I can give the answer myself. Peter and all the apostles said, we are witnesses of his resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus was the most important event. If Jesus died and remained dead, he would have been just like any of the prophets. And that doesn't mean anything for us. But because Jesus rose from the dead, that's the most important event. And that is the only thing which means anything to us. And you know who is the first person who saw the risen Lord Jesus? He could have chosen, yeah, he could have chosen Peter. Jesus told Peter, you're going to be the apostle and the rock on which I'm going to build the church. And building the New Testament church, we could have thought Peter was there at the tomb of Jesus. And Jesus could have just said, Peter, look, I'm here. I'm going to build the church on you. Even though you betrayed, I'm there for you and you're going to be my apostle. He could have come to Peter. Other apostles also came. Other disciples came. But I thank God that he first revealed himself to Mary Magdalene. She was weeping. And Jesus revealed himself to her, first of all, because I think he must have thought, here's a woman who's just like all the women in the East. We have taken a secondary place. And to encourage us, Jesus appeared to her, first of all. Even though she couldn't recognize him, he appeared to her and said, Mary, don't be afraid. Don't weep. I'm alive. And go and tell. He sent that message through her to the disciples. Go and tell the disciples I'm alive. And that gives me a lot of comfort to think that God hasn't put us women aside. And he's got a hope for us. And a small part in the church that Jesus is alive. And by our lives, we can show that Jesus is alive. And he's not dead. And he's not in the tomb. And there are people who are ready to anoint the body of Jesus. Even they came, but they didn't get the chance to do that because Jesus rose from the dead. But I thank God that Jesus appeared to Mary, Magdalene, first of all. And that gives us hope that he can appear to each one of us, not with our human eyes or as a vision. But in our heart, he can appear to us and give us some revelation that he's alive. And we can be a blessing to this church. Not that we have to teach the brothers because our place in the church is not to teach as we read in the epistles and all. But we can have a revelation of Jesus in our life. So in whatever daily situation we are facing, maybe in the home as young girls, or not married, or married women, or grandmothers, whatever our situation is, Jesus has a message for us and he can give us help. Now when we think of the body of Christ and we think of building the body of Christ, what we can do, I thought like, we can think like, oh, we have to go out and do something for the Lord, like as a missionary go out and speak about him and tell about his love to other people. But I heard my husband say that Christian life can be divided into three sections, like a building. You must have heard that in some of his talks, like a building has a foundation. This building of our Christian life, you can say it has three parts. One is the foundation, and then the first floor, and then the superstructure. And for the foundation, I thought of this, that is our own personal life. Foundation is our personal life. The first floor, I thought of, is the family life, our family. And above that comes the church. So when we think of building the church, as we've been meditating, we have to think of, first of all, where to begin. We have to begin with the foundation. Is the foundation okay? If the foundation is not okay, there's no point in building the church. We might think, oh, as a sister, I must do this for the Lord. I must do the Sunday school program. I must go out and witness. Maybe we might think that I should go and do this for the Lord or do that for the Lord. But if our foundation is not right, there's no point in us building at all. The whole building is going to collapse. So as all of us know, the most important thing is the foundation in our Christian life. Whether we have come to know the Lord as our own Savior, and I'm sure all of us sitting here have accepted the Lord sometimes in our life as a child, or sometimes we have come and surrendered to the Lord and given our life to the Lord. But what is our condition now? Are we abiding in Him? We can say that maybe 20 years back I accepted the Lord, and we can think, oh, now I'm okay. I'm going to be with the Lord, and my seat is secure in Heaven. But very often people who have had just a date to remind them of, they may not be walking with the Lord. They may not be abiding in Him. And the Lord said, abide in Me, and then you will bear much fruit. So if you're not careful about your Christian walk, and you think like, oh, I asked Jesus one time to accept, I came to Him, everything's okay, then we may be far away from the Lord without our realizing it. If you read John chapter 7, John chapter 14, that's the verse I was mentioning. John chapter 14, John chapter 15, I am the true wine, and My Father is the wine-dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear much more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Verse 4 is what I was mentioning, abide in Me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. It's just like what Jesus was talking about in the tree. Any time when there's a break in the branch, even if it's a small break, and that branch slowly withers, it's almost like it's, and it's cut off from the main tree, it's almost like a useless branch. It's of no use, and we have to be very, very watchful that our union with the Lord, with our heavenly bridegroom is always there and it's alive. Otherwise, slowly death can come in. What's the meaning of abiding in Jesus? Can you say that? You have any suggestions? Just to, so that you'll use your mind a little bit. It means a lot, but one of the things is like we are in constant connection with the Lord. There's no break in our connection with the Lord. What can break that connection with the Lord? What are the things that can break that connection with the Lord? Sin. If there's any sin in our life, anything which you have not confessed, that can break the connection with the Lord. Now when we look back, we can think, when we look at our own lives, we can think of so many things which can crop up. We may have confessed everything to the Lord, but sitting right here, we might think of some judgmental attitude to someone. We may, even sitting here, we might think, oh, look at the person, how she dressed. Or we look and say, oh, this is worldly. Or say, oh, she hasn't brought up her children properly. Any small thing, when we judge another person, slowly that connection with the Lord gets broken, cut off. So we should be very, very alert in our spiritual life that we don't let anything break that connection with the Lord. That's why we hear in the church so much about judging ourselves. If we judge others and we don't judge ourselves, then we focus on the other people's fault and we don't think of our own, and we ourselves are going far and far away from the Lord. That's why it's very, very important as sisters, and for all of us, children also, in order to keep our connection with the Lord alive and alert, we should always have an attitude of judging ourselves, not judging others. Then another thing which I thought of was have we surrendered everything to the Lord? Sometimes we accept the Lord, then we ask Jesus to come into our life, but some portion of our life is not surrendered to the Lord. We think, Lord, I can give you everything, except this part, like maybe some type of programs that we watch over TV, or some particular dress that we like, or some type of books that we read, or the way we spend our free time. Or maybe sometimes we haven't surrendered our love for our loved ones, we are so attached to our parents, or something is not, and we haven't surrendered that to the Lord. That can bring a break in the connection with the Lord. So that's another thing which I thought of. Daily what we need to do is to surrender ourselves completely to the Lord, and say, Lord, here I am, I place myself on the altar. Now all these are concerning our personal life. Then if the Lord shows us anything, we must be quick to obey. If the Lord has shown us something in our life, like while we are sitting here in the meetings, there's something, some habit, which the Lord is pointing out, and He wants us to obey Him, we should not hesitate about obeying Him in that area. Whatever the Lord shows us, it's not that somebody else needs to show us, but the Lord Himself will show something in our life, and we have to be quick to obey. Then if you turn to John chapter 7, in verse 37, verse 37, the last part, it says, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture says, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. That's another important thing, I should say, a person we need in our life is the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit. I know, looking back in my life, apart from being born again, there was one very important event which took place in my life, which changed my life completely, and that was when the Lord baptized me in the Holy Spirit. I remember, just after our marriage, things were very difficult financially, and I was struggling, and I had a small child, and I didn't know how to, I didn't know what, it looked like I was in a dark room by myself, like a prison, because I couldn't go anywhere, I was stuck with a child, and until then I had a job, I had a lot of money, I could do what I wanted with my money, and now I was at home, sitting at home, looking after the child, and I felt a dryness coming into my life, and I didn't know how to deal with it. Here my husband was preaching, and we were doing such wonderful things for the Lord, and here I, in my room, cut away from all my relatives, and my job, and everything that I enjoyed, and I felt that I was like becoming a prisoner, and I think like many of you who are young mothers, who are married, and maybe you have come away from your home country, and you are in a new country, and you are married, and you hardly know your husband, and you are living there, and you pine for home, and there is dryness coming into your life, and that was my situation, and then I said, Lord, at one time you were so close to me, I could talk to you, and you were leading me, and you were speaking to me, every time I opened the word, I felt that you were there so close to me, but now it looks like you have gone so far away from me, and what's the matter Lord, and the Lord, it was a few days like that, and then I was praying with a sister, in the Lord, not my, I mean a spiritual sister, and suddenly the Lord started showing me, that I had allowed, unforgiving spirit in my heart, not towards any particular person, but maybe like I was not content, with the position God had put me in, discontentment, and why God led me like this, am I in God's will, have I made a mistake, or maybe judging other people, unforgiving people, and all that the Lord started showing me, and those were the things which I had allowed, to creep into my life, and that was like blocking the, blessing in my life, and connection with the Lord, I was talking about being connected with the Lord, and especially, I can say if any of us, if we harbor an unforgiving spirit to anyone, now unforgiving spirit can come to us so easily, we don't realize it, that somebody can do something to us, or not do something for us, and we can, have a slightly bad attitude to that person, and we allow that to grow, maybe that person has harmed us, maybe it is someone who has harmed us many years back, maybe in our childhood something happened, and we allow that to stay there, that becomes like a big rock, and blocks the, Lord's blessing from coming to us, and that connection with the Lord, and the river of living water, from flowing into us, and in my case, it was like small small things, I couldn't forgive, my family members at home, which they didn't do for me, I don't want to go into details, but those things are allowed to come, and I was, I didn't want to think that I didn't forgive my relatives, but definitely it was not in the, not a good attitude towards them, and was growing and growing, and that was hindering my spiritual life, and when the Lord showed me that, I said Lord, thank you for showing me, that was like, even though I considered it like small stones, all of them I've collected, and become like a big boulder, like a big stone, blocking that connection with you, please Lord, I'm really sorry about it, as soon as I confessed that to the Lord, I felt like, the Lord himself by his mighty power, like the stone rolled away, I felt such a relief, that attitude towards others, just changed, and the Lord gave me a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, and I who was against speaking in tongues, the Lord gave me a gift of tongues, and I could praise God, and from that situation I can say, though I faced many ups and downs, and people have done more wrong to me, even my relatives, but the Lord reminded me of that past, that day when he showed me, how dangerous it is to have, an unforgiving attitude, and from that day, it has been new for me, to say Lord, I want to keep that freshness in my life, I don't want ever to have, an unforgiving spirit to anyone, so, I can look back to that day, and from that day, it's been like rivers of living water, I know it's not like the mighty rivers, that the apostles felt, but I know, it's in a small way, God started a work, and is growing more and more, and he gives me sufficiency for every need, although I, although I, I don't have, I didn't want to have a ministry, like a public ministry in the church, I said Lord, all that I need is to give me grace, to be a good mother, and a good wife at home, that's all I want, because my husband is speaking, and he speaks, and I can do my part, in helping him to preach, that's what the Lord showed me, when he was speaking to me, about getting married to my husband, I felt, that the Lord was telling me, all you have to do is, here's someone who's serving me, that is the Lord, you have to just take care of him, and encourage him, and sisters, because that's our contribution, which we can do, if we take care of things in the home, and things for our husbands, or our fathers, who are serving the Lord, it makes such a big difference, now suppose, there is, there's a wife who always complains, and calls, and not satisfied with her position at home, and all that her husband is hearing, is complaining, grumbling, what kind of vessel can he be in the church, how can he speak God's word, in the church, because he's all the time, it's almost like living in a sick atmosphere, where there's so much of sickness, or suffocating, smoky atmosphere, it's like that, if we have that type of atmosphere at home, and then the husbands come, to share God's word, or to, take a, maybe even to speak to the children, what can they do, they have to fight against that, that, that negative feeling, which they had at home, they have to fight against the, effects of the grumbling, and the murmuring, and the scolding, and the discontentment, or suppose we have a wife, who can't manage, with what income, her husband brings, that was something that the Lord showed me, to be content with whatever income I have, what my husband, I mean those days it was very very little, but to manage with that, I thought that's my contribution to the body of Christ, if I am content with what, he makes, and I'm not saying oh I want new clothes, or I want this, or even if I say I want a maid, in India we can get maids to help us, I want a maid, I want somebody to, do the house work, or I want this particular gadget, in the home, otherwise I can't work, or anything like that, if I have a discontented attitude, and then her husband can think, oh I have to work hard to make that money, in order for my wife, and that also can be a hindrance, to her husband's ministry, so to be content, is such an important thing, to be content with what our husband earns, to be content with what, place we are in, if God's will is that we should be in Paris, or in India, or England, or wherever you are, or maybe in some remote village, where there's no facility, if that's God's will, then be content there, and that's our contribution for our husbands too, or our fathers, in building the body of Christ, now suppose, those of us who are here, suppose a time comes, when you think like your husband says, we should go back to India, or Sri Lanka, what will your attitude be, when you think, oh so many years, I lived in France, how will I go back to India, and live there, the climate is not good, we don't have this, that, and so many things, you know how it is in India, when you think like, oh I don't want to go back, even if I starve I will be here, then it will be a hindrance, suppose the Lord wants your husband, or your father, to go to some other country, maybe a poorer country, are you prepared for that, the Lord may not ask you, but the Lord asked me, many times He asked me, if we were to move to a very small village in India, are we prepared for that, or to another place which is harder, maybe places where there is opposition to the gospel, am I prepared for that, that's one area we can contribute, to building the body of Christ, see Lord, I am prepared to obey, wherever you want me to go, whichever place you send me to, if my husband feels that I should go, I am prepared to do that, in 1 Peter we read about women, and there is one portion where it says about Sarah, we should follow Sarah's example, I used to think, what was Sarah's example, I mean she didn't have children for a long time, and the Lord gave her a child, that's not an example, sometimes we think, God allowed it, it's not her choice, that she didn't have children, what was Sarah's example, I used to think, I thought Sarah's example, must have been this, could have been this, one day Abraham said, we have to pack up and go to another country, and here she was a very rich woman, she had a lot of servants, cattle, everything she had, so she was asked where are we going, and he said I don't know where we are going, but we are going somewhere, so can you imagine what her reaction would have been, like suppose one of your husbands says, we are going back to India, or we are going to a poorer country, some village in Sri Lanka, and what would our reaction be, especially if we don't know where we are going, but she just, we read that she called him Lord, she had reverence for him, I mean she respected him, and she just went with him, and that is the example, we as wives, married women can have, we can say, take that as an example, and, we should not think like, oh, the Lord hasn't guided me, if God guided you, let him give me also a word, some wives think like that, unless I am also convinced, I am not coming, but it is not so in Sarah's case, and that is our example, I feel sometimes my husband, God guides him in a certain way, and I feel like, I may not know every detail, of why God is guiding him in a certain way, I just trust yes, Lord is guiding him, and I know that he is going to, be responsible to the Lord, all that I need to do is to, support him, and do my part in the whole, and that often has come to me, and later on I find, it was good, the Lord only led us, sometimes we both have guidance, like when we first moved to Bangalore, both of us felt, that we should go to Bangalore, I felt ok, but though we didn't know anyone in Bangalore, I felt, Bangalore is the place for us, and my husband also felt, Bangalore is the place, and we both went there, from the first day we reached there, he started having asthma, but we felt like this is the place for us, God wants us here, and I started getting rheumatoid arthritis, but still we felt that God wanted us both, to be there, but sometimes the Lord has guided us individually, especially my husband has shown him, to do a certain thing, and then he says, what do you think, shall we do it that way, and I feel like, I think of Sarah's example, and I think yeah, I'll support him, and later on I find that the Lord has been backing us up, and taking care of us, that's the example we learnt from Sarah, another thing, about our personal life, which I think of, in the foundation, is our prayer life, now prayer is not something like, we do to show others, we all like to, be women of prayer, but we think like, I should be a woman of prayer, by praying long prayers in the church, that is to show others, Jesus said when you pray, don't do like the Pharisees, who show off their prayer, they stand in front of people, and they are long speaking, many words, they want to show that they are very prayerful, but our prayer life should be, secretly in our hidden area, and as wives, and mothers, that's an area we have to really battle to take, I find that, when I was single, as soon as I get up, and when I was staying in hostels, as soon as I get up, I could have all the time, I could take my Bible, read and pray and spend time with the Lord, but when we have small children, we wake up, our alarm is the children crying, as soon as they cry, that's the time when we get up, and we think, where is the time for us to pray, and spend the time with the Lord, and then we can condemn ourselves, and we think, I haven't been praying today, I haven't spent enough time with the Lord, so God is angry with me, and I'm going to have failure in my life, no, I thought, even if I didn't get time in the morning, as soon as I can, I must take the time, like suppose we are on some medication, like blood pressure medication, or something, and we forget to take it in the morning, what do doctors say, even if you forget, as soon as you remember, take it, take some food, and take that medicine, don't let the whole day go, you should not think, today I didn't pray, so tomorrow I'll pray, or today I didn't take my medicine, so tomorrow morning I must take my medicine, no, you think, this morning I missed my prayer, time with the Lord, but right now, as soon as possible, I'm going to spend the time with the Lord, then immediately we think, oh, we have to start the dishes, we have to do this, and today is the day for something, we have all the things the devil brings in our mind, oh, I must do this first, that's the time we have to decide, ok, I missed till now, now I'm not going to listen to the devil, and lose some more time, I say, Lord, I want to spend this time with You, even if it's for 2 or 3 minutes, I want to spend the time with You, I want to come back to You, and spend a few minutes of worship, and ask You for His help, in our daily situation, or whatever is uppermost, I found that my prayer life was most, really really most, because of my children, I think most of you sitting here, have small children, or no children, but I found that, when my children were teenagers, that was the time when the Lord taught me to pray, because when they are small, we can take them along, make them sit with us, make them obey, but as they grow older, they have a will of their own, and they are not going to do whatever we want, but that's the time when the Lord taught me to pray, and pray, and I found so many times, the Lord helped me, helped in my children's situation, in the decisions that they had to make, in their studies, in many many small and big things, which they faced, sometimes one or two of them would be sick, for a very long time, like two of them had, they were born with some problem with their eye, and many times my husband would be travelling, and my children would have this eye trouble, it would flare up, and they needed antibiotics, and all that, and I found that during that time, when I prayed and asked the Lord, Lord please help me, I don't even have an opportunity, to go out and see a doctor, but you have to be there, and you have to take care of my children, I found that the Lord, undertook for my children, and that I have used that, to encourage so many mothers, I know one sister in Bangalore, was having trouble with her, teenage son, and he was very troublesome, and she came to the church, later on, so he was giving her a lot of trouble, and she was a widow, and she didn't know how to handle him, so we used to pray together, whenever we met, but it was like a daily prayer that we needed, so I told her, every day when the church bell, the Catholic church bell rings at 12 o'clock, you stop whatever you are doing, and I stop when we hear that bell, and wherever you are, you pray, and wherever I am, we pray, and we pray for your son, and any other request, I'll say, if I have something I'll tell you, but right now we pray for your son, at 12 o'clock, to remind ourselves, and sometimes we would, telephone each other, and over the phone, we would pray, but even phone calls in India, are expensive, so I said, we can't phone, let's pray, when the bell rings, we'll pray, and every day we made it a habit to pray, and Sunday we'd meet and say, every day we'll pray together, and in a matter of weeks, that son changed so much, and it was such an encouragement to us, to see how God answered prayer, I mean the Lord could have changed him, without our prayer, but maybe if we hadn't prayed, he would have continued longer, and then only he would have changed, but we saw how specific God, specifically God answered, so like that, if there's anything, which you feel that is uppermost in your heart, maybe some unconverted relative, or maybe you're looking for a job, whatever it is, make a list of all the things, which you feel, God wants you to do, or is it some personal thing, Lord I'm a person who gets angry so quickly, I hear so much about vitriol, anger, and I'm still getting angry, please deliver me from that anger, or I'm a person who, get depressed easily, I want to get vitriol, getting depressed, whatever is uppermost, in your case it may be something, some family, whatever it is, the Lord said, whatever you want you can ask in my name, he doesn't say, just ask spiritual things, no, he said whatever you want, you ask in my name, it's up to him to give it to us, if he doesn't give it, he'll tell us why he's not giving us, so make a list of that, and say Lord please answer this prayer, and you'll find that list gets smaller and smaller, or he'll tell you, wait, I'll give that, that's what I found in my spiritual life, to battle in prayer for something, we may think we need to pray, and we need to spend time in prayer, and without any aim, we might be just praying and praying, but when we find that there's some specific need for which we pray, and the Lord gives an answer to us, it's an encouragement, then I also said about forgiving others, I want to emphasize, that's a very very important thing, to forgive others, you know that parable that Jesus said about two people who had a debt, and one person was forgiven, he went to his debtor, and he asked him, I mean the person to whom he owed, and he said please forgive me, and that man said, okay I'll forgive you, then he went out and he saw another person who owed him very little, and he couldn't forgive, and I thought, may I like that person who had gone to the Lord, and he asked him, Lord forgive me, my sins are so many, but please forgive me, but when we come to fellow sisters and brothers, family members, husbands, or maybe parents, whatever, we find it hard to forgive them, one small thing, they have done, some word by which they have spoken, we are not able to forgive, and we keep it in our heart for a long time, and we are not able to forgive, and the Lord spoke to me at one time, some years back, about that, he said, just like that man, that man who was owing a small amount, he went and said, have patience with me, I'll repay you, that means forgive me, I'll do what I can, there are so many people in our lives who come to us, even though they don't see it, forgive me, forgive me, in their lives, they need forgiveness from us, for example, it started at one time, I had a maid, who was very, very difficult to manage, and she was always stealing things, and doing everything so clumsily, I needed a maid's help, but I found it very difficult to help her to understand, and then the Lord was speaking to me, saying, think that she's asking you, have patience with me, forgive me, I'll try and do things better, and the Lord was speaking to me, like, you forgive her, even if she's done things, even if she breaks things, or she's stealing things, or she's even rebellious, or stubborn, or telling lies, or whatever it is, even though she doesn't say it, you think that she's asking you, please forgive me, just like, and just because God has forgiven me, I can forgive her, so starting with her, I thought of so many others, my children, however much and many times I tell them, do something, they would still do something wrong, and I felt like they were, even though they didn't ask, they were telling, mummy, please forgive me, have patience with me, then at that time, my parents-in-law were living with us, and both of them were getting older, and one was sick, was paralysed, and he couldn't move, and I had to take care of him, and I felt like my father-in-law was telling me, have patience with me, I'm sorry to trouble you at this time, but I need your help, I really appreciate it, he couldn't talk, but I felt like he was telling like that, through that word in scripture that became so alive, he was telling me, I have no one to help, but I appreciate the fact that you're helping me, and taking care of me, and taking, giving me bath, and bath, cleaning my bedsore, and all that, I felt that he was telling, and later on, my mother-in-law was getting forgetful, you know, she was getting Alzheimer's, and she was acting as if like, many things she couldn't remember, she couldn't remember that she had had her food, she couldn't remember she had her lunch, and I used to think like, how will I take care of her, because she's become so forgetful, and then I felt like God was speaking to me, through her also, have patience with me, I'm sorry that I have to come and live with you at this time, but I need your help, like almost everyone, every sister in the church, every child, anyone who was a little difficult for me, I felt like they were telling me, have patience with me, and that was such a big, big help for me, and it helped me so much in my spiritual life, that I want to pass on to you, it came like a revelation to me, even now I feel like, when we travel, and then you know, when you travel, all people are not nice, there are people who are selfish, and want to occupy more space, or their luggage to have, and they like, they don't care that you are old, and you need some help, and I felt like, even they are telling me, have patience with me, because everybody's word is, have patience with me, towards me, and I felt that that was, helped me so much in my spiritual life, and I had so many parables which the Lord said, I feel, I can apply it to myself, in my daily situation, and I found like later on, my brothers were, I was having problem with them, my mom, I was having problem with them, and I couldn't hate them anymore, because I felt that the Lord had poured His love in my heart, and all I could say was, they don't know what they are doing, I need to have patience with them. Then another thing, time is running out, another thing which came very, very as an important thing to me, in my spiritual life was, you know, we hear many times about sitting at Jesus' feet, how Mary sat at Jesus' feet, and we, all of us are like martyrs, we have so much to do in our home, I mean, if we are just sitting quietly, and we think that the work is going to get done, husbands or our fathers are the ones who have to do all the work, but we have to do a lot of work, and we can't say, oh, I'm a martyr, what to do, I'm a martyr, but the Lord told me that I can be a martyr outside and be a Mary inside, that's what one of my children was saying, be a Mary in a martyr world. See, nowadays the world is so busy with so much, many of us, in our parents' time, mothers didn't have to work, they could stay at home, but nowadays with the cost of living so high, and we can't make ends meet, many mothers have to work, and they're always being martyrs, martyrs, working, working, working, then how can we, do we have to stop being martyr and just say, oh, now I'm going to stop, hereafter I'm going to just listen, because I heard I have to be a Mary and sit at Jesus' feet. No, while we're doing our work, while we're being a martyr, we can still be a Mary inside, we can listen to His word, we don't have to sit at His feet, because Jesus is not actually here anywhere, He's in our heart, He's living there, and in our heart we can be in tune with Him, and say, Lord, I want to hear Your word, what do You want to speak to me, I want to obey. Sometimes I used to think, what was it that Jesus was telling Mary? Nowhere in the Gospel it says what Jesus told Mary, I wish it was written what Jesus was telling Mary, it would have been so helpful, because it was so important that Jesus said, one thing is needed, that one thing Mary has chosen, and Martha, you're busy about all these other things, but Mary has chosen that good part, and it won't be taken. And Mary found it so interesting and important to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to Him, and He doesn't say what He was telling. I used to think, Lord, what were You telling Mary? Can You please tell that to me? Because You were asking me that that's needful, and that's needed, but what is it that You were told Mary, I wish I knew, that would have been so good for me to know that. But I felt like later on, I don't know, this is my feeling, later on we find that Mary, after Lazarus was raised from the dead, Mary brought that offering, she put that perfume at Jesus' feet and anointed His feet, and as a gratitude to Him. And then Judas said, why all this waste of money should have been given to the poor people, but Jesus said, leave her alone, she has done what she could. So, maybe God was telling, Jesus was telling her, do whatever you can when you can, at the right time. Because many people wanted to anoint Jesus' body, after He died, they didn't get the chance, but only she got a chance to anoint Jesus' feet when He was alive. And He said, she did it as a preparation for my burial. So, maybe Jesus taught her something about offering, some offerings to the Lord, or brokenness, she broke that vessel and poured, maybe she taught Mary about being broken, and when you are broken, then the perfume that comes out of your life is a sweet perfume, the whole house will be filled with the smell of that perfume, and people will be blessed. So, I take it like that, the Lord wants me to always have that brokenness in my life, and then the sweetness of the Lord will come out of my life. So, those are the things I just want to say, a few things to give you a desire to read God's Word and say, Lord, all the things which was concerning women, Mary and Martha and Mary Magdalene, you revealed yourself to Mary Magdalene, so many things that you had to do with women, I want to meditate on that. And then Peter and Paul say so much about how women should be in the church, they should have a meek and quiet spirit. It's not like we should be meek and quiet means, oh, I'm not going to say anything, if anybody answers, ask me something, I'm going to be quiet, or give an appearance of quiet. No, it's a meek and quiet spirit, that means inside of us, there's always a quietness, whatever may be happening outside, things may go wrong, things get broken, food may get overcooked or burnt, those are the things which we face as sisters we face. In our work situation, boss shouts at us, colleagues, there's jealousy, and we are trying to be nice and Christian women in the work atmosphere, but there are women and men maybe who take advantage and put all the work on us and say, oh, she's a Christian, she can do all that work. Or they act selfish and they don't care for our feelings or they say hurting things. Whatever this happens, then Lord, give me a quiet spirit or let me not talk back like worldly people talk, let me not shout, or even if I don't say anything, let me not be angry inside, let there be quiet, calm, and that's the meek and quiet spirit must be which you want all women to have. And we find that as we come to the Lord and we tell the Lord, Lord, I don't have that meek and quiet spirit. I don't even have a meek and quiet tongue. Far more. And the Lord starts working in us and slowly, slowly, He changes us that we don't talk back, we are quiet. Maybe first few months we are insiders, all agitated, but then the Lord works in us and inside also it's all fine. That's our growth in our spiritual life. If you read in Proverbs 9, sometime when you get time, I used to read that and meditate on that. There are two parts in that. The first part speaks about wise woman and the second part about the foolish woman. And both are calling out. It's almost like two types of women are calling. One is the worldly woman, that's the foolish woman, all the world ideas, oh, you must dress like this, you must do like this, everybody in the world does like this, they behave like that, they dress like that. And they think of their jobs, their career and everything. And that's what most of what we hear about in the world. In the TV and in the newspaper, magazines, our friends talk about it and that's what we hear all the time. And very few people can hear what God says in His word about a wise woman. A wise woman's clothes, a wise woman's attitude. And that's so faint. But when we come to the Lord, that comes clearer and clearer to us. And then we think like, I don't want to hear anymore what the world's ideas are. I want to hear what God wants me to be and I want to be a wise woman. It says about a wise woman, a wise woman builds her house. A foolish woman tears down her house. If we want to build up our house, then we need to have that godly wisdom. That wisdom which is not that earthly wisdom that we read of in Proverbs. It's a godly wisdom which only God can give. And say, Lord, give me that godly wisdom to build my house. And when houses are built, our homes are built in a godly way, that's the way many such homes come and build a godly church. So building the church, the body of Christ in the church, we can do our part as being children or wives or single sisters, to be submissive and to do all that we read of, make a quiet spirit and to obey our husbands, respectful to our husbands. Some husbands are unconverted, but even without a word we can win them. Do all those things and we contribute, do our part in building the home, make it a godly home. And such godly homes are like bricks building the church. So time is up and 3.30 they are going to have a family meeting, so we'll close in prayer. I had a lot more, but I thought we'll stop now. Thank you all for listening, though it's afternoon time and it's a very tiresome time, but it so happens that that's the time when we sisters can spend together. So we'll close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for calling us with such a high and heavenly calling. Lord, you didn't make a mistake in making us women. We are so thankful that you made us women so that we can feel and we can understand people and we can have a sensitive nature. We thank you for all that you have blessed us with, Lord. We thank you for your word, Lord. We pray that you'll help us to hear your word and listen to it and obey your word and apply it in our daily lives. Give us grace, Lord, so that we can be godly sisters and build a godly home and bring those homes as an offering to be a godly church also. So bless each one of us, Lord. You know our needs. Please meet with us the rest of today and tomorrow and help us to go from here in courage so we can be faithful to you. And when you come, we can...