Singleness and Marriage

                  I am currently in a book study right now with a friend and it is already blowing my mind. The book we are studying is called Voices of the True Woman Movement: A Call to Counter-Revolution by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. The title might scream feminist because it did for me, but I assure you it is not like that.
                The book has many different contributing writers but the one I am going to share with you is from John Piper.  It is his point of view of womanhood and more specifically womanhood in marriage and singleness through the view of the Bible. Since I have been single and am married now, both of his descriptions spoke to me. I am going to share a few passages of the book with you and hope that it speaks to you, whether you are single or married.

Chapter 1 (pages 20-22)

"A Word to the Married
First a word to the married. Paul says in Ephesians 5:22-24 "Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands"
The point here is that marriage is meant to display the covenant-keeping love between Christ and His church. And the way it does this is by men being men and women being women in marriage. These are no more interchangeable than Christ is interchangeable with the church. Men take their cues from Christ as the head, and women take their cues from what the church is called to be in her allegiance to Christ. This is described by Paul in terms of headship and submission. Here are my definitions of headship and submission based on this text:

Headship is the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christlike, servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home.

Submission is the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband's leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts.

The point is that these two, headship and submission, are different. And these difference are absolutely essential by God's design, so that marriage will display, as in the mirror dimly, something of the glory of the sacrificial love of Christ for His bride and the lavish reverence and admiration of the bride for her husband.

A Word to the Singles
One of the reasons he (Paul) was free to celebrate his singleness and call others to join him i it, is that, even though marriage is meant to display the glory of Christ, there are truths about Christ and His Kingdom that shine more clearly through singleness than through marriage. I'll give you three examples:
1.) A life of Christ-exalting singleness bears witness that the family of God grows not be propagation through sexual intercourse but by regeneration through faith in Christ.
2.) A life of Christ-exalting singleness bears witness that relationships in Christ are more permanent, and more precious, than relationships in families.
3.) A life of Christ-exalting bears witness that marriage is temporary, and finally gives way to the relationship to which it was pointing all along: Christ and the church. "

So ends the passage I wanted to share with you all today. I really encourage women to read this book for it is sure challenging me as a woman living in a sinful world.

In Him

Unveiled

There is a contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament but yet there is still a connection between them. In the reading of Exodus 34:29-35 and 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 we see that most clearly.

Contrast:

In Exodus 34 Moses was going to Mount Sinai to have God remake the Ten Commandments. The first ones were smashed because of Moses’ anger of the Israelites sin.  When Moses was on Mount Sinai God descended in the cloud and stood with him there.  (Exodus 34:5) Moses stayed up on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 34:28) When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments his skin on his face shone because he had been talking to God. (Exodus 34:29) This is just another affirmation that Moses would be the one that God used and with whom he would talk to. When he came down with his face glowing the people of Israelites were afraid to come near him. (verse 30) But Moses called them to him so he could tell him all that he had heard from God. Once he had finished telling them he put a veil over his face. He would only remove the veil over his face when he would go in the presence of God and talk to him. When he came out from talking to God he would put the veil back on. (verse 34-35) He did this every time.

Now lets look at the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18. Paul writes about the very thing we just talked about with Moses but in a different light. His interpretation of Exodus 34 is that Moses’s ministry was the ministry of death. (2 Corinthians 3:7-8) He says this because of the Israelites hard hearts or stubbornness to God Moses had to cover his face so they would not see God’s glory through Moses lest it hurt them. That was the old covenant of God. Paul talks about the difference between that old covenant with God and this new one he is experiencing. This new covenant he is experiencing of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Connection:

The dividing factor between the Old Testament or the New Testament (which is often referred to as the Old and New Covenants) is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died for our sins.

In Luke 24:44-49 “Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written that he Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and the repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.””

When Jesus Christ ascended to heaven he told the disciples he would send a promise of his father upon them, meaning the Holy Spirit. That is the “ministry of the Spirit” that Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 3:7. Paul talks about that the power and the glory that the Israelites experienced from seeing Moses’s skin glowing is nothing to the glory and the power of the Spirit of the Lord. (verse 9-11) We can experience that glory that Moses shown but ten times more because of Jesus Christ dying and breaking the barrier between God and us. This is what Paul is saying the difference is between the ministry of Moses and the new ministry of the Spirit.  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (verse 18) Once Jesus Christ died for us and ascended to heaven we no longer have to be veiled like Moses was. Because of Jesus we can show God’s glory with His Spirit to others around us. We no longer have to be afraid of his glory like the Israelites were…all because of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the difference and the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

I don’t know about you but I want to be unveiled and show God’s glory instead of veiling it.

In Him. 

Taste and See

I am reading a book by John Piper called Taste and See and this is one of the meditations from it. I thought it was so good. 

That Great Work of God: Rain

            A Thanksgiving Meditation on Job 5:8-10

“But as for me, I would seek God,

And I would place my cause before God;

Who does great and unsearchable things,

Wonders without number.

He gives rain on the earth,

And sends water on the fields.”

If you said to someone: “My God does great and unsearchable things; he doe wonders without number,” and they responded, “Really? Like what?” would you say “Like rain?” When I read these verses from Job recently, I felt, at first, the way I did on hearing some bad poetry that went something like this: “Let me suffer, let me die, just to win your hand; let me even climb a hill, or walk across the land.” Even? I would suffer and die to have your hand, and even walk across the land? As if walking across the land were more sacrificial than dying? This sounded to me like a joke.

But Job is not joking. “God does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth” In Job’s mind rain really is one of the great, unsearchable wonders that God does. So when I read this a few weeks ago, I resolved not to treat it as meaningless pop musical lyrics. I decided to have a conversation with myself (which is what I mean by meditation).

            Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder wrought by God? Picture yourself as a farmer in the Near East, far from any lake or stream. A few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water. But if the crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month, water has to come from another source on the fields. From where?

            Well, the sky. The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky? Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea over several hundred miles, and be poured out on the fields from the sky. Carried? How much does it weigh? Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 2,323,200 cubic feet of water, which is 17, 377, 536 gallons, which is 144,735,360 pounds of water.

            That’s heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it’s so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation. Really? That’s a nice word. What’s it mean? It means that the water stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. I see. Then how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. What’s that? The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide. That’s small.

            What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is saltwater. That would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh. So the sky picks up millions of pounds of water from the sea, takes out the salt, carries the water (or whatever it is, when it is not water) for three hundred miles, and then dumps it (now turned into water again) on the farm?

            Well, it doesn’t dump it. If it dumped millions of pounds of water on the farm the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the millions of pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks.

            How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh millions of pounds get heavy enough to fall (if that’s the way to ask the question)? Well, it’s called coalescence. What’s that? It means the specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger, and when they are big enough, they fall. Just like that? Well, not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up if there were no electric field present. What? Never mind. Take my word for it.

             I think, instead, I will just take Job’s word for it. I still don’t see why drops ever get to the ground, because if they start falling as soon as they are heavier than air, they would be too small not to evaporate on the way down. But if they wait to come down, what holds them up till they are big enough not to evaporate? Yes, I am sure there’s a name for that too. But I am satisfied for now that, by any name, this is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done. I think I should be thankful---lots more thankful than I am. 

Choices

Imagine a world full of people who believe in Jesus Christ.

Imagine a world where people show God’s love instead of their own love.

The world would be a happier place.

But we do not live in that kind of world. We live in a world of hardship and sin, where people tear each other apart. Where kindness is a rare dead. It is so rare that you can find more hate crimes on the social media websites than people loving each other. Was this the way it was meant to be? No it was not but it is the reality that we live in now.

I firmly believe that every one will experience God sometime in their life. I also firmly believe that every person in the world will get a choice in his or her lifetime. A choice to believe or not. To believe in the one true God and His love. A love so grand that God sent his only son to die to give us a choice to believe or not.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

God does not want his children to perish. He lets us decide if we perish or not. It is a choice to go in all different paths of life or choose the one that is laid out for us. The one path of an unconditional hope.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.” John 8:12

It is our choice to give our lives to him. He will not make that decision for us. God lets us have free will to choose. He will put doors in our way so that we can choose him. But in the end it is our choice to open the doors to Him.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10

The door (lifetime of hope) will be opened if we just ask it to. If we just choose the one path. That one path that I keep talking about is believing in the one true God and His son Jesus Christ. 

For the people who do believe it is our duty to share Jesus. Jesus is not meant to be hidden. He is the light of the world. Light is meant to be spread.  It is our duty and privilege to help others with that choice.  It seems so easy just to talk about Jesus but when it comes down to it our sinful selfish natures come out instead of Jesus. This happens to me all the time. I hate it but I know through my mistakes Jesus can shine. I am so glad that I was given the chance to choose. Even when I fell away from God before he opened another door so that I could choose again. I have never been happier.

There is always hope in darkness.

I heard this once and loved it “Jesus is bigger than history” meaning he is attainable today.

In Him 

Revelation 2:8-11

I heard a sermon last night and thought it was amazing and just wanted to share it with a few of you.

Revelation 2:8-11

“And to the angel for the church in Smyrna write: “The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He, who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”

Background: This is to the church of Smyrna, which is one of the only churches in Revelation that Jesus talks about where he praises them for what they are doing. Other churches he condemns but this one he praises them but for what? This church was suffering big time for Jesus because they would not praise Caesar like the other citizens were but instead they praised Jesus. These people were most likely slaves and for a slave to go against the Caesar was probably the most severe punishment and which most likely led to death. This was all for the name of Jesus. The Jews of that time hated anyone who praised Jesus and would tell Caesar to punish these people and destroy them…and Caesar did. That is the background of these people’s tribulation. But lets break it down. Break open your Bible and read it.

Verse 8: talks about these words are indeed from Jesus for he is the first and the last and died for us so you know they are true. Jesus also identifies himself as the Redeemer and Savior here.

Verse 9: is the most intense “I know your tribulation and your poverty…” To know in the Bible at times was to have a deep knowing and understanding almost that of mating with your husband or wife. This is such a personal knowing. That is what Jesus is saying is that he fully feels and understands their tribulation and trials they are in.

Verse 10: God allows the devil here to ambush and squash these people for TEN days because he knew that these people were faithful. Think about that God had the power to stop anything but he wanted these people to suffer for his glory. Sounds harsh but actually it is so beautiful. The Creator trusts them to praise him through these tribulations because he knew they could handle it. It doesn’t mean they weren’t complaining cause they probably were. But it was that they knew the end result was going to be Jesus. I mean these people were saying ya put me in prison because I will just talk about Jesus there and show his glory. Or okay you want to kill me then kill me for Jesus’s glory. Wow what a faith that is! These people got it that God would give them the ultimate award for their life for their trials and that this world was not their world.

Verse 11: I personally think this is said for people after this. For let us open our ears and hearts for what the Spirit is saying to these churches in the past and learn from them. Whatever we face or whatever they faced is nothing to what our Savior faced. But because of our tribulation the second coming of Jesus will not hurt us. We are able to rejoice in the second coming because we know it is our salvation from the tribulation.

Oh man I just thought this was such a good message of just a few verses. Whatever trial we are facing God trusts us with that tribulation. It wont be easy but he will understand and fully know what you are going through.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

I love you all.

In Him  

Leadership

My senior year has been an adventurous one so far. I have been bestowed a wonderful gift of being a leader of a small group. I have been given a gift of desire for my own future. I have been blessed with an amazing man who I get to marry. Never would I have imagined that God would remember me so many times. It wasn’t easy throughout and it still isn’t but there have been many thing and experiences I have learned so far especially with leadership.

                  A very wise woman once told me that being in leadership is one of THE most humbling positions in life and she couldn’t be more right. I have learned a lot over the past few months and I know I will continue to learn more. God has given me certain words and lessons to take me to the next level with him. Let me share them with you.

• ·       My role
• ·       Compassion
• ·       Equip

God has and continuously teaches me a lot because I fail so much. I constantly need to be reminded that I need him each day more and more. Let me start off my saying that being a leader to me is about allowing God to use me in whatever way that means. In the beginning of the year I was so scared of what my role needed to be and how I should be acting. Or if I hurt people’s feelings because of my bluntness or whether girls would even listen. From then to now I have to be continuously reminded of a few things. One would be that my role is to make God look cool, that is it. I am here to do what He tells me to do. Through that He has given me a lot of hard lessons to speak on to the girls like purity, friendship or just trusting God. It has been an amazing gift! I still get concerned with ‘well what if they don’t listen when they need to hear what God is trying to say in the Bible.’ I still get very frustrated with this sometimes but then I have to remember I am just here to do what God says and He will take care of the rest. In Mark 4:1-9 it talks about words falling on deaf hears or hears that will hear.

“Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.  And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:  “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.  Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.  And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.  Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”  And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Mark 4:1-9

So basically God will open the ears of the people who need to hear and who are ready to hear. This then leads me to my next word, which is compassion. For the ones that do not hear I as a leader need to have compassion on them like Jesus had compassion on people and how God has compassion on me.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” Colossians 3:12-13

                  As a leader I am learning to have compassion on those who do not understand God and His ways. Not that I always do either because I don’t at all. But as a leader in those moments of misunderstanding I need to be compassionate on them and not get frustrated because God does not get frustrated with me. This is one that I am still learning about and dealing with.

                 

                  Having compassion on people also leads me to being equipped. Whatever trials I have faced or going to face will equip me for whatever I face in the future.

“Equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”  Hebrews 13:21

This means that the purpose of this equipping is that God’s will might be done. That my experiences might be used for God’s glory and to help others.

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.” Genesis 50:20

Throughout this leadership experience I am still learning about how God uses me and the characteristics He wants to acquire. I am beginning to be ready and equipped for the new adventures God wants me to be on.

In Him. 

"One"

 What did you dream of when you were a child?

Did you dream about being a doctor or a nurse? Or how about a meteorologist?  I thought for sure I wanted to be a meteorologist until I found out I really don’t like science. My brain just doesn’t work that way. Even throughout all my childhood dreams, the one dream that stayed true to me was the dream of being paired with my “one”. It seems like the “one” is really a myth when you are in the single days of life, or the days where you are trying to fish for the perfect guy. I somewhat thought it was a myth but always hoped I was wrong. I even would go into all different situations and wonder, “is that guy who just smiled at me the ‘one’?” Oh he must be because he smiled at me. I know you girls did this too and probably still do it.

So how do you find the “one” in the crowd of maybes?

            Let God pick him out of a crowd for you. Let God do the fishing for you. God wants your whole heart not just a half of it. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Deuteronomy 4:24

He wants our whole heart before he gives us the “one”. A whole heart that is willing to completely surrender to Him and His will so that He can choose who is best for us, His princesses.  Imagine having God’s consuming fire FOR your relationship with your “one”! Who could stop the pair of you with that kind of consuming fire? He wants to find the perfect “one” for us because we are worthy of the perfect “one”. We are worthy because we are His princesses. He wants what is best for us.

I always looked up to my parents and their marriage. I never realized how beautiful their love for each other was until I found my “one”.  I came to realize my parents are equally yoked 100% for God first, then 100% for each other. They still act like they met yesterday; it is beautiful. My mom once said to my dad that, “Next to God you complete my soul”. She is saying that her “one” is the only thing besides God that completes her. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” Matthew 19:5. This is why she feels equal or one with him because they are “ONE” for God. Only God can find the “one” for you. Since God is love only He can find true love for us. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7. 

When I was dreaming as a little girl of my “one” I would have never imagined what His will would actually be for me but now I see a glimpse of it.

I Never would have imagined that My “one” would complete my soul.

I Never would have imagined that my “one” would fully understand me because he understands my need for God.

I Never would have imagined praying and crying out to God with my “one” on our knees.

I Never would have imagined my “one” wanting to be a Pastor with me.

I Never would have imagined my “one” would give me a rose every time I see him. 

I Never thought that the “one” would come along on God’s timing and not my timing.

I Never would have imagined my  “one” be the man that God picked out of a crowd for me.

God knew my needs for my “one” more than I did.

In Him.