Greatest Wife in History

Some Preachers preach a Proverbs 31 Woman does not exist. I found one.

Greatest Wife in History

It is Sunday morning. My dear wife of 44 years has flown north to visit her mother for the weekend. Two of our most beautiful daughters (all are) from Houston are meeting her at the airport in Syracuse. Now that's a gathering of women in Upstate New York's Adirondack fall foliage. Something like a dream.

Saturday and Sunday mornings are Mary's and my special prayer times. God wakes us usually very early mornings at 4:44, 3:33, and sometimes 2:22. Heaven's calls. The Holy Spirit indwells our living room and Jesus comes to sit on the divan. It's our garden place we meet him. We often start prayer times together with five Psalms. What does Jesus say? Read my articles. Like this one.

Mary and I birthed six children, girl and boy in Anchorage, girl in Waterville, girl in Bryn Mawr, girl in Brunswick, and boy in Ocala. As adults, God has sprinkled them like seasonings around the nation to serve him, Ocala, Jacksonville, Houston, and Seattle. We have ten grandchildren.

“Father, make all our children, great servants of the Lord,” is my prayer.

Mary is a passionate Irish-Italian. God brought us together through the Holy Spirit at Syracuse University. She is a delicate-touch concert pianist and singer, now always a worshiper glorifying the Lord. She is a high school salutatorian and a college full-scholarship cum laude. She works as a serious GED teacher to men in state prison. And she is always the most beautiful woman I have ever met in body, mind, heart, and spirit.

God anointed Mary with great gifts. She is an ardent seeker of truth, which led us to true life in Jesus with the Holy Spirit. She has an incredible gift of flaming service. She is a serious prophetess speaker for God. She is emotionally sensitive. She's always a concerned hostess about company coming; she feels she's got to do everything just right. She can cook anything, Italian lasagna, Baked Alaska, Chinese combined, or gourmet leftovers. And she's never ever dull, more like spontaneous and exciting.

Mary gets up early when I arise. And she always sleeps and won't move from her chair next to me until we go to bed. That's service. I've heard preachers wrongly preach that such a woman does not exist. Mary is the Proverbs 31 woman. She is.

I am blessed from glory to glory,

Bill Hunt

From Liturgy to Life

My Search for God, or Vice Versa....

Jesus with his Disciples

(ChristiansUnite.com)

God's calling of the human spirit can be a series of steps. That's why we call him “The Hound of Heaven” <www.houndsofheaven.com/thepoem.htm> as described in the famous poem by Francis Thompson, 1859-1907.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind....

It's to God's Glory that he relentlessly pursues us. At the age of eight, I was the littlest altar boy. I bowed and touched my forehead all the way to the first altar step as I clearly and piously recited the Latin my father taught me.

"Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam" (Ps 42:4). And I will go to the altar of God: to God who gives joy to my youth.

At the age of fourteen, I picked up an old Douay Rheims Bible and began reading from Genesis. By the time I made it to Joshua, I prayed and gave my life to the Lord. I found the Bible fascinating and spiritually powerful.

At the age of eighteen I enjoyed worshiping privately in my room near my window with no one else knowing. I discovered “God's Grandeur” <www.sparknotes.com/poetry/hopkins/section1.html> as described by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1877).

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Suddenly, deep in prayer, I broke into a strange language with strange sounds. I had no idea what this meant. I suppressed it, but many years later I discovered it was the Holy Spirit's gift of tongues.

In our early days of marriage and walking in the Lord, I remember my new wife, Mary, experienced the frustrations of rote religion. She strongly proclaimed to one Monsignor:

“There has to be something more!”

She was right, and God soon brought the Gift to us. As a young couple, Mary's friend, a former coed from Syracuse University, came to visit us on the first three days of the New Year, 1973. She excitedly told us all about the Holy Spirit and the miracle working power of Jesus in believers lives. We stayed up until 3:00 am each night listening amazed in our living room to the wonderful wonders of God.

This young lady discovered I related to Jesus only as my friend. She instructed me on the importance of Jesus' atoning sacrifice for my sins. As I raised my arms to Heaven, this beautiful girl led me in the prayer of salvation for repentance and trust in Jesus, not just as my friend, but as my Savior.

“Lord Jesus, I repent of all my sins and give myself to you, past, present, and future. 

I thank you for suffering on the Cross and shedding your blood for me that I can belong to You and the Father, forever.”

My dear wife, Mary, strongly insisted we visit a prayer meeting. She started both of us on a path to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit that year. I'm so grateful to my wife for walking with me together as a couple to seek the Glories of God.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NIV).

--Bill Hunt

“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make his face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift his countenance upon you, And give you peace” (Num 6:24-26).

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If you have a true story, a note, a prayer request, or a question to share, please write a comment below or email us.

Marriage Crisis: God Heals the Wife

“To the married, I give this command (not I but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife” (1 Cor. 7:10-11 NIV).

In Marriage Are Rocks to Overcome (PD).

Can God save a marriage? Emotions are very powerful. They prove to be either very supportive or very devastating. I think a young wife can come to a point when she feels she needs to prove her husband and her marriage. "Have I married the right husband?" she ponders.

SHE: There was a lack of security; I always wanted security. And yet we felt called to live our lives by faith. We had not really made the break from the religious church. I don't think we realized the kind of spiritual warfare that would confront us in ministry.

To do what we were doing, we should have had the mature backing of a Christian church. On our own, we spun off from our religious background. Our families thought we were crazy to sell and give away all our possessions to follow the Lord. I found it especially hard because I had these four kids under kindergarten age. I felt emotionally depleted. Our fourth baby was just age one.

SHE: More than that, my husband was involved as a graduate divinity student. I remained at home alone taking care of kids. I found it very difficult to handle this. I felt vulnerable, I guess, from all of it, and the enemy knew my weaknesses. Although we belonged to some prayer groups, they were still very new relationships.

At that time, nationally-known Christian leaders 
were in the process of divorcing. 

We've come to see that when something is going wrong inside a certain ministry or organization, that very spirit of devastation extends from the head and spreads throughout the body.

SHE: We heard and we knew of other married students getting divorces. I'll never forget this tall guy in our graduate class from Texas and how very sad and sullen his face appeared as he told us his wife was divorcing him. All of sudden I just lost my bearings. I felt I couldn't depend on my husband. I couldn't depend on anybody. I just needed to get out. I folded up emotionally.  

Often there was no food in the refrigerator. 

You've got to be prayed up to handle that. We saw many miracles. I felt a lack of connection with my husband. He worked a night job to earn income selling insurance. He was gone during the day to classes. We didn't have enough time together. We had stress and tension. I grew further and further disconnected from him. I just did not want to do it anymore. 
 

Anointed prayers for inner healing 

SHE: When I returned back to my family home, my aunt was helpful in getting me connected to the Christian counseling center. The counseling sessions showed me problems in communications and how to deal with my emotions. But I just knew what I longed for was something more, anointed prayers for inner healing.

SHE: My Mom's wise friend, a Spirit-filled Christian, set aside some time for me to pray with her for inner healing. I drove to the northern end of the county to her home. Something happened in that prayer! As she prayed with me, a burden lifted from me like a heavy load I carried. I now had peace in my soul that I had not known until then.  

“Okay, Lord, I'm willing.” I remember sitting out on the patio and praying. “Lord, place the love in me for my husband.” God tenderly comforted me. That night, I heard a flock of geese overhead honking and the Lord spoke to me. 

"As the geese know when to fly, 
you'll know when to return home."

(Follow this true story on Corner Retreat.)

– Bill Hunt

Q. Invariably, someone will ask me, what about the tragedy of the sorely abused wife or husband? All the scriptures of love apply. Or as Paul says, “God has called us to live in peace” (1 Cor 7:15 NIV). Christian love demands the church help this victim to a place of safety and peace.