The Bible says, every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. Christian Homemaker, for the next five minutes, let Bennett Peters-Jones share with you some spiritual helps for building rather than battering your home. Here now is Sunshine on the Soap Suds. Ever since I first started traveling as a speaker for Christian ladies groups, I've spent considerable time in preliminary prayer for the meetings. Perhaps the most frequently uttered phrase in those prayers is, Lord, hide me by the cross. Then the other day while in prayer for a retreat and using that phrase, I was brought up short by a visualization of just what the term really means. Hide me by the cross. Well, the intention of the prayer phrase is quite obvious. It indicates a desire for Christ's preeminence in the situation. That is, that His person, His precepts, and His claims be uppermost in that situation. And specifically, this prayer phrase has to do with the audience focus and the self's invisibility. the audience focus well of course we don't mean that we're trying to get that audience to see a literal vision of Jesus Christ but as a speaker we do want a heart vision and a spiritual vision of the audience to be that of Christ not of a speaker and then the self invisibility as a speaker the prayer is that I not be obvious to the audience that I not be obtrusive and certainly that I not be obstructive so that their attention, their focus stops with me rather than going on to Jesus Christ. Hide me by the cross. But the other day, my heart went beyond that intention on to the intimation of the phrase. You know, to be hidden by the cross, self must be smaller than the cross. Self must become shrunken both in height and in breadth. Doesn't that remind you of John the Baptist's declaration, He must increase, but I must decrease. Second, to be hidden by the cross, self must be behind the cross. Behind it. Deliberately put and kept in the background. And third, to be hidden by the cross, self must be crucified. crucified on the back side of that cross. In other words, conformed to the crucified form of Jesus Christ. May I be hidden by the cross is not a phrase to be lightly uttered by the Christian. Its meaning is profound and it demands that the one uttering it with her lips be consecrated in heart as was the Apostle Paul who declared, I am crucified with Christ. Dear lady, Do you have before you some opportunity for service for the Lord? Are you praying in your heart to be in that service, hidden by the cross? Well, consider these things, then. To be hidden by the cross, you must be smaller than the cross, you must be behind the cross, and you must be crucified upon the back of that cross. Thus, and only thus, can you and I ever be hidden by the cross, This has been Sunshine on the Soap Suds with Benneth Peters Jones, author of the book, Ridding Him Rightly. If you wish to write, Mrs. Jones would be glad to hear from you. Write to her at Sunshine, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, 29614.