Titus 2 Tea Parties

Once a week I used to host a Titus 2 tea party where a small group of ladies used to meet to relax over tea (or coffee) and cake and talk obout their walk with God.

Saddly these meetings eventually came to an end, but I would love to host them again sometime and heartity encourage you to do the same!

If you want to take a peek at what happened at some of our meetings look below.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our First Meeting.....

was realy long (lol). It involved much tea and cakes!
We discussed our needs, how they could be best met and why we wanted to get together in the first place. Also we were getting to know each other as some of us were meeting for the first time.
We talked about our past experiences in "The Church" and out, our families and personal situations and how we want to grow in the Lord.
We discovered that in many ways we were quite different, but the "family resemblance" was unmistakable! We talked about our love of bibles and laughed when we all realized that at last we were "normal".
We prayed and laughed and prayed and cried and prayed and drank more tea!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tea Party Verse

In the morning of I spotted some cups and saucers that I would have liked to use at that evenings meeting, but there were no tea plates to go with them so I knew I would have to use something else. I prayed about the upcoming meeting and after lunch went shopping.

While I was out I spotted (in a charity shop) six tea plates and a milk and sugar jug in just the right colours to go with the cups. Closer inspection revealed a lovely peaceful scene - a little house nestled in the middle of green pastures. It put me in mind of Psalm 23 and I now had our passage for the evening, as well as the plates I had wanted (don't ever tell me God doesn't take care of the little things!)

When I got home I read the well known and much loved passage and started to laugh - just look at verse five!

1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Tea Parties are Biblical!!!

At the meeting I shared this with my sisters and although our cups may not have run over they were filled many times over :)
We were fed both physically and spiritually as we shared from the Word of God and a precious sister brought two verses for me in relation to a family situation - the Lord was indeed setting out a table for me in the presence of my enemy!

We prayed and laughed and prayed and cried and prayed and drank more tea!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Vessels
While preparing for our meeting the Lord led me to psalm 139. The main section we looked at was verses 13-16
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.

When deciding how to set the table I just could not make my mind up which china to use, so I prayed and God answered.

I set each place at the table with beautiful cups, saucers and tea plates, but every setting was different and then I added tiny knives and forks for the cake.

When the party got underway it was easy to spot the difference in what each of the ladies had in front of her, but there were some things which were constant.

Although we all had different china (our personalities) all had tea in our cups (just as we all had the Holy Spirit inside us). Each of us selected a different combination of goodies from the cake stand (like the gifts of the Spirit we all had some, but not everyone's where the same). We all took milk, but in various degrees and although some added sugar others did not (like the different experiences we have had during our lives and the people we share them with).

The conversation grew from a single thought and progressed all evening until it was time to go home (just as the fruit of the Spirit grows in us from a single thought at our salvation "Jesus is Lord" and progresses all through our lives until it is time to go to our heavenly home.

We learned more about each other that night and how to serve and pray for our sisters and as we hugged and said our goodbyes it was easier for us to understand why the Potter who shaped us had brought us together so that each could be polished by the others.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fruit Tea

When next we met our little group had undergone a change in membership - the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

I had decided to prompt a discussion on the Fruit of the Spirit and ever faithful when I went shopping the Lord had provided some fruity accessories for the table (it makes me sing for joy when He shows up in the details).

One of the reasons I had wanted to talk about the Fruit of the Spirit is because I wanted to have more fruit in my life - some fruit is more lacking than others.

Recently I had spent a weekend meditation on the Proverbs 31 woman and one line had really stood out to me:-
²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
Also since the beginning of 2006 I had been praying for the gentle and quiet spirit talked about in 1 Peter. So the fruit I am trying to develop at this time are kindness and gentleness (with quietness thrown in for good measure).

While preparing for the evening I kept thinking about the line of a song which talks about God singing over me and I knew it was in the bible somewhere, but had no clue where and because I was busy with many things (just call me Martha) I didn't have time to look it up (though later when the girls arrived I would get to the one thing needed (to sit at the feet of Jesus) and you can once again call me Mary!).

Our new member is a wonderful lady who shared much of what the Lord had done in her life (although I think it was probably the tip of the iceberg!).

When I asked if anyone knew where it talks in the bible about God singing over us She immediately knew and directed me to the verse. It was one which had great meaning for her which she graciously shared with us.

Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

He is so gracious to us - I had been praying for the gentle and quiet spirit that is precious to Him and here He was telling me that He would quiet me with His love......
Now the gentleness and kindness I still have to lean on Him for and press in to Him so He could grow it in me. I trust in Him for who He is and also because He has already produced lots of fruit in my life (I am not boasting about where I am - just admitting where I started, lol), but although I am producing fruit I am a bit like a bramble, in among all the juicy fruit are many prickly painful thorns.
This is where I have to let Him prune me and strip away the thorns. If I bend to His will and let Him have His way with me and shape me as He will, the fruit of kindness and gentleness will replace the thorns of pride, jealousy, self will and the need to control others and always be right!

God sings over us because He loves us and he sees the person we are becoming. When we come to salvation He plants the Fruit of the Spirit in us, but they are only in seed form. We need to feed and water the seeds with His Word and allow Him to prune us as He sees fit!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lord Preserve Us

I am really late in posting this entry, in fact I am so late that our next meeting is tonight. God has been so busy in my life that I haven't had a chance to write this before this morning.

The scripture that I brought to this meeting was:-

Nehemiah 13:7-9
And came to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah in preparing him [an adversary] a chamber in the courts of the house of God! And it grieved me exceedingly, and I threw all the house furnishings of Tobiah out of the chamber. Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers; and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the cereal offerings and the frankincense.
I have quoted from the amplified bible here because it calls Tobiah an adversary - have a look at the guy and his previous record:
He opposes the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:10,19;4:3,7,8)
Conspires to injure and intimidate Nehemiah
(Nehemiah 6:1-14,19)
Subverts nobles of Judah
(Nehemiah 6:17,18)
Allies himself with Eliashib, the priest
(Nehemiah 13:4-9)

This guy is a nasty, sneaky, ungodly manipulator, a truly evil man. We read this and are amazed that he could be living in the temple of the Lord, after all the Bible says
But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns,
which are not gathered with the hand. (2 sam 23:6)

Do we say to ourselves, "Well it was only one room that Eliashib gave to Tobiah to live in. It was such a big temple that I'm sure God wouldn't notice him lurking there, or even if He did notice He would probably turn a blind eye because it's just one room - no big deal."

No as we read this we are probably more likely to be on the sidelines cheering for Nehemiah and offering to hold his coat as he gives this guy the boot and cleanses the temple of his unholy stench just for good measure.

Then why don't we always act the same way.

In last weeks post I wrote "although I am producing fruit I am a bit like a bramble, in among all the juicy fruit are many prickly painful thorns.
This is where I have to let Him prune me and strip away the thorns."

We are God's temple and there is no place in any of the rooms for thorns. Father God wants to cast them aside just as Nehemiah cast Tobiah aside.

We need to search ourselves for thorns such as the pride, jealousy and self will that I mentioned in my last post, or even things that we do that we know we should not, whether it is TV programs we watch, the books we read or the unwholesome words we speak.

Beg the Lord to remove all your thorns and help you bear more fruit!

In fact let's go one step further - I want (and I am sure you do to) to be more and more like Christ - I want His sweetness added to my fruit - I want to have everything removed which is not of Him (God does this by turning up the heat - Malachi 3:2-4) and if He needs to squish me in the process then it will be worth it.

What do you get when you combine fruit, sweetness and heat - Jam! In my case bramble jam!

So this is my new prayer "Lord Preserve Me"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who Wears the Towel.....

We missed a meeting due to a combination of the work commitments of one husband (because apparently one cannot tie ones children up in a cupboard and leave them there while one goes to a meeting about being God's kind of woman lol) the not feeling to well of one member - namely myself.

I also thought that I would miss this last meeting as well as I had just returned home from a wonderful two night stay in the lake district with my even more wonderful husband (ahh...the joys of marital bliss). But God (don't you just love all the but God passages in the bible...) had other ideas.

The meeting was held in the lovely and peaceful home of our newest member and she donned the towel of servanthood with grace and gusto!

Since these meetings started I have been stating that tea parties are my one weakness....a comment meant to be light hearted and jovial - unfortunately it is proving to be far to true.

You see it has been so much fun getting to know one another and we have found that we have so much to share that our meetings have been getting later and later.

We need to be disciplined about our finishing time...... even my little grandson of 5 understands this principle - he sings a little song about the word of God .... It goes like this "I will not be a Looky Lou, but I will be a Doer Do".

In the same way what will it profit us if we stay up half the night talking about the word if we are then too tired to apply it to our lives!

This really hit home to me after the last meeting because it was 4am when I was finally able to turn off my bedside lamp and settle down to sleep!

One of our members has been able to rearrange her work so that she can work from home on Fridays and I presume start when she is well rested, but we are all in different seasons and for most of us this is just not possible.

Speaking for myself, my darling husband works nights and finishes at 6.30am after working a 12 hour shift. So it is my privilege and my joy to make him a nice cooked breakfast and spend a little time with him before he goes to bed.

Also I am very blessed to homeschool my 2 boys and although I love to do this it is a very big time commitment as every lesson they have is prayed over, researched, written, edited, printed and checked by me - then of course there are are our read alouds and our endless discussions.

A side issue of homeschooling is that it leads to more house keeping - as our house used far more than in the average household. Not to mention the extra things we need to store because of it.

Another commitment on my time is my dear mother, she lives alone and if I did not plan into our routine time to be with her, she might never see anyone from one month to the next.

All of the members of our little group have there own commitments and our group was formed to build us up and help us to fulfil them, but we have seen how easy it is for this goal to allude us.

Our meetings are like a cozy fire, a way of sharing warmth and light, but we need to remember that a fire is very useful in its place, but it can reek havoc if it gets out of control!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sharing Wisdom

For the last couple of meetings we have been down to two members, myself and my pastor’s wife and although we have missed the other members and are praying that they will be able to join us again soon we have been greatly blessed by these two meetings. We are also praying for more ladies to join us - in fact this is how the group started in the first place.
 
My pastor, his wife and myself all started out at the same Church of England church in Middleton, Manchester. When I look back it is really amazing because we were active members joining in many groups, but never seemed to be there at the same time. In fact the more I think about it the more bizarre it seems. 

Both the pastors wife and myself joined the Mothers Union - in fact I was secretary for some time and she was the branch leader - but we never attended a single meeting together. We both attended bible studies there - but not a single one together!

Over the course of several years we attended many things from ladies fellowship to children’s meetings, but never did our paths cross apart from to get a glimpse of each other in the church services and have a nodding acquaintance if we passed in the street. The plot thickens because despite living just round the corner from each other I don’t think we even passed on the street more than twice!!

God of course knew what he was doing......

You see she and I share a consuming passion for biblical womanhood. We are absolutely, positively desperate to be the women, wives and mothers that God created us to be, but there has been so little direct teaching from Titus 2 women available to us. (Thank God that there has been some to be had via books and the internet, but it is still not the same.)

God’s plan is for women to teach each other from their own experience, but here at least this is not happening. Don’t get me wrong I have met some very “godly” ladies, but none seemed to focus on issues such as biblical submission, headship and certainly no one seemed to want to share what they knew about loving husbands and children.. There were plenty of women's meetings, but they were meetings attended by women as apposed to meetings about women's issues.

In fact even in the church (and I don’t mean one particular “church”) there is a very feminist spirit among women. I have heard as much man knocking within the church as I have anywhere else - this is particularly shocking when I confess that I was a very rampant feminist in my younger days going to extremes and even attending "lesbian feminist" meetings which leaned towards the separation of the sexes!!!!

A sign of this feminist spirit is that no-one thought to tell me when I became a Christian and started to go to meetings at church every night (except Saturday night which I worked) and leave my unbelieving husband at home with the kids that this was not God's plan!!

These same people also neglected to mention to her that she and her other half should get married if they wanted to continue to live together.

I am sure that these people had "good intentions". They did not want us to be upset, or even to "scare us off". The trouble is she and I were both mortified when we found out we were not following His plan. Maybe we should have worn signs saying "feel free to upset" or "won't be scared off by the bible"!

Speaking for myself as a new Christian looking at the bible it seemed huge and without guidance I had no clue where to look for the bits that would address my everyday life. I started at Genesis and plowed my way through!! And I have to admit that the first time it took me quite some time to get though it.

I needed the guidance ............. and so I sought it where ever I could, unfortunately this never seemed to be within the church I was attending. When ever I talked to any of the ladies about biblical femininity I simply got blank looks.

During this time God was cultivating within me (and also it turns out within her) a burning hunger for God's women to reach out to each other as He intended.

God brought us back into contact with each other a couple of years ago and after much going round the houses (loooooong story) I eventually joined the house church where her husband is the pastor.

Then we started to meet and pray about forming this group. We would love to have some mature Christian ladies join us who we can learn from and some baby Christians too who can learn from us.

At the moment we are busy learning from each other for although we have both been Christians for only a few years we have had very different experiences which we are sharing and learning from while always keeping the focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified.......

Our next meeting is tomorrow and as yet only God knows who will come and what we will learn.................................

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Special Meeting
Our last meeting was very special to me............

It was my born again birthday - you may congratulate me I am nine. We were joined by a very special lady. She has been a source of great joy in my own life and we have shared a lot of good and bad times over the past nine years. I know that my pastor's wife loves her too and it was so wonderful to share an evening with both of my closest sisters in Christ. We laughed (a lot) we cried a few tears and we had the great priviledge of praying together.

I have found a poem to express the kind of sisters they are......

We are "SISTERS IN CHRIST"

Take my hand my sister,
I wish to help you along.
Just knowing there are two of us
can help to make you strong.

I know life seems unfair,
and sometimes gets you down,
But know that I am here for you,
I'll always be around.

So set a day aside,
and together we will walk,
Down all your troubled pathways,
for it helps sometimes to talk.

If you should need some time
to do this on your own,
Then I will be here waiting,
since you wish to be alone.

I guess I want to say,
that I hold your friendship dear.
And if you ever need me,
just reach out, cause I am here.

I thank the LORD for this evening
_______________________________________________________________________________________