by Don Hatfield
filled with His Spirit you will appear to them to be talking to yourself but in reality you will be talking with your Father. You will be like a finely tuned musical instrument perfectly in tune with your Conductor. The strings of your soul, your mind, your will and your emotion will be giving thanks in your heart for everything that comes your way. Tychicus, you will know that nothing can touch you that has not pass through Him for you are His and He is yours for all of eternity.” I said to Paul although I already knew how he would answer, “Where did you come up with that?” Of course he answered, “From God.” With this we stopped and gave thanks for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Next discussion, after we had prayed Paul said to me, “Tychicus, something has been on my mind for some time. Men do not treat their wives as they should nor do their wives respect their husbands as they should so I am going to put some practical advice in this letter on how we should treat each other.” I read as Paul wrote, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives submit yourselves unto you own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” I said to Paul, “That is very good for I do know that God created man first and then He created woman so it is good that the woman should be in subjection to the man.” Paul looked at me and said, “Tychicus, I am not done with this part yet. Read what I am about to write now. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it.” Paul stopped and said, “I think you missed the first thing I wrote Tychicus. The first thing I wrote was, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Tychicus, that means to yield to one another’s admonition and advice. If the submitting to God is in the right order Tychicus, then the rest will fall into place. Wives will listen to their husband’s advice for there will be that respect as she watches him submit himself to the Lord. I wrote this because I fear that things will continue as they are now. Our wives and ladies have very little respect given them because we give very little respect to our Master and Lord. Yes, Tychicus, the wives should be in subjection to their husband’s as the husband should be in subjection to Christ but if either one of them is not in subjection to Christ first and foremost then the submitting will not happen.” I am glad you stopped me Tychicus for it has given me even more time to reflect on this subject. I knew in my heart that I wanted to say more and now I think I know what it is. Paul then said to me again, “Read as I write, Tychicus. Husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That He might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word. That He might present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Paul then ask me a question. A question on a subject that had never come up before. I think Paul was just waiting for the right and that time was now. Paul said, “Tychicus, are you married?” I stood with my head hung low. I did not want to be here at this present moment for I was embarrassed and ashamed about the answer I was going to give. I did not answer out loud I just shook my head, Yes. Paul softly began to talk with me, “Tychicus my young brother in Christ, Jesus gave Himself for the church. He gave Himself for you and me. He did that because we could not and would not give ourselves for each other. He separated us, He cleansed us as one would cleanse a leper. He then bathed us with His word when He said, it is finished. Because He did that He can now present us to Himself a splendid church without one fault. He has done that Tychicus. I can tell that you are embarrassed and ashamed about your relationship with your wife but it is not too late. If and when you get out of here go back and tell her of what Jesus has done for you. How He has cleansed you and washed you by His sacrifice. Then ask her forgiveness and love her as Christ has loved you.” I said to Paul, “I do not know if that is possible for I have done so much wrong but I will go back and try. I will at least tell her of Jesus and His love even if she cannot forgive me for the things I have done.” I started to tell Paul about some of the things I had done but he stopped me and said, Tychicus, I do not need to know for that is between you, your wife and the Lord.”
Nest discussion, Paul said Tychicus it is getting late and I would like to finish this page so I will write a little more. I silently sat by him as he wrote, “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourishes it and cherishes it even as the Lord the church. For we are members of His body of His flesh and of His bones. Tychicus we owe our wives that kind of love. We should love them and take care of them just as we love ourselves. Tychicus, Jesus is nourishing His church and bringing it into maturity as He fosters it with tender care. We became part of Him when we got saved and as His Holy Spirit enter into us our bodies became His body, our flesh became His flesh even our bones became His bones so should it be with our wives. Let me write it in another way. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Tychicus, this fleshy union is like being glued together even though you are two, your purpose is one. It is the same with Jesus and us even though we are two our purpose is one for we are joined by Spirit. Where you go He goes and where He leads you go. The night was rapidly closing in on us and Paul said let me finished this page with this, “Nevertheless let everyone of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” Paul closed up the ink and starting wrapping up the parchment while he was doing this he said, “Tychicus, if each brother and sister in the Lord will give Him the respect, honor and praise that He deserves then I am sure that the man will love his wife as Christ loved the church and the wife will honor the husband as Jesus honored His Father. We said a prayer together for husbands and wives and then we both retired to our own corners where we went to the throne of grace. As I laid there praying I still felt shame for all the things I had done to my wife. The neglect, callousness, and hardness with which I had treated her. I now knew that God had forgiven me but whether she could I did not know. My prayer was for her to come to know the Savior because bitterness, anger and hurt can only last for a lifetime but darkness and separation from our heavenly Father could last for an eternity. I drifted off to sleep praying not only for her but for all those I had wronged. I prayed that my former life would in no way hinder them coming to know the Savior.
Day Eight
I was still sleeping soundly when I heard Mr. Gruff start banging on the cell bars and yelling, “Get over here.” I jumped about three feet high and ran over to the cell bars. When I got there he gave me our food for the day and then took a sack out of his pouch and handed it to me with these words, “I do not know who you two know but I was told to give this to you.” He then opened the pouch and pulled out three apples, two oranges and some dried fish. He roughly push them through the bars and again said, “I do not know who you two know but it is someone with some power.” He started to walk away when I heard Paul say from behind me, “We know El Shaddai.” When Paul said that the guard whirled around and said,” what did you say to me?” thinking that I had spoken. I just stood there with my mouth wide open. Paul stepped up and said, “We know El Shaddai.” Mr. Gruff with a sneer on his face said, “Just who is El Shaddai?” Paul calmly replied, “El Shaddai means Lord God Almighty and El Elyon means The Most High God.” Mr. Gruff stood there a moment glaring at Paul and then his face seemed to soften a little and he said, “Maybe you do” and then he turned and walked away. I was elated and overjoyed with this turn of events. I thought I was about to get beat and it turned out I was going to enjoy some apples, oranges and fish instead. I was just about to take a bite out of one the apples when Paul said, “Tychicus, have you had your morning fellowship yet?” I just hand
ed him the apple and went over to my corner and began to seek my Father. After I left the throne of grace Paul and I began to eat our breakfast. Angel of course showed up right on time. Paul asked me if I had any children and I told him that I did not but if my wife would take me back I would like to have some one day. Paul said he was he was going to write something to children today and that included all of us for we were all children and we all had parents. Paul then began to write, “Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise. That it may be well with thee and thou may live long on the earth.” I sighed very loudly and Paul stopped and said, “Tychicus what is the matter?” I said to Paul, “Not only did I get slapped in the face when we talked about husbands and wives yesterday but now I am getting it about my parents. I am afraid not only have I not been a good husband but I have been a terrible son.” Paul asked if both my parents were
