Feminism - Equality vs Equity - Amy Lawrence

Feminism

Equality Versus Equity

In July of 1848, at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, NY, a convention of women signed a document titled “Declaration of Sentiments”. This document highlighted women’s rights to legal, social, and political equality that were currently being denied them. Very little ground was gained through this particular convention, but women still persevered. Time marched on. The 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified on February 3, 1870; however, women wouldn’t gain the right to vote until 50 years later - when the 19th amendment was ratified. History recorded how women fought for equal work opportunities, equal pay, and equal ability to be elected to government positions. The fight for women’s rights was going in a positive direction, until…

Margaret Sanger came into the picture. For those that are unfamiliar with this name, Margaret Sanger was the founder of the organization Planned Parenthood. She was a profound activist for women’s “reproductive rights” (e.g. birth control and abortion), but what many do not know is that she was very vocal about why. She felt it was necessary to “breed out” mental and physical handicaps in order to build a “stronger, healthier, more intelligent human race.” She went about doing this through eugenics. By influencing women to prevent or abort conception of a child instead of advocating abstinence, such a movement opened certain doors that should have remained closed. The allowance to murder innocent unborn children has become a megaphone for the feminist movement. Females of such a mind see pregnancy as an inconvenience that they should have the right to eliminate. A child in the womb slowly became nothing more than a “fetus” to society. This and more has brought to light a dangerous mindset many women hold today. And it doesn’t stop here.

Feminism has gradually become less a fight for rights and more a push for privilege. Women in the mid to late 20th century were certainly mistreated and abused by society at large. I’m not dismissing that fact. Many women today still suffer from gender prejudices. There will always be those that see women as inferior, but there are laws in place that make it easier for us to feel safe and fairly treated. The rights that were gained through efforts such as the Women’s Suffrage movement have brought about the establishment of those laws. Now, however, there are certain feminists whose sole aim is to utterly eradicate anything masculine. This brings me to my original study topic: equality versus equity. 

The two are not synonymous. It would be prudent to our study to first define exactly what is equality and equity. Cambridge Dictionary defines equality as, “the right of different groups of people to have a similar social position and receive the same treatment." Equity is defined as, “the situation in which everyone is treated fairly according to their needs and no group of people is given special treatment." I once saw a drawing that illustrated the difference between these two concepts. Equality was depicted as a tall fence blocking the view of three people with varying heights. Each was given the same sized box to stand on (equality), but the shortest person still couldn’t see over the fence. The next frame showed the same fence and same people, but each was given a different but appropriately-sized box that lifted everyone to the same height to see over the same fence (equity). To ask a woman to equally give and receive the same things as a man is to not understand why they are asking the impossible. Most women need a taller box to see over that fence. Being given the same sized box as a man will keep us on the blind side.

I feel I should also point out that feminism is inconsistent. Let me explain. Did you know that between 1968 and 2024, there has been little to no change in the percentage of men in construction work, installation/maintenance/repair, transportation and shipping, production, farming/fisheries/forestry, and computer science? Feminists argue that men unfairly dominate the workforce…so why aren’t more women after the jobs I just listed? Discussions concerning an imbalance in occupations rarely acknowledge where the men are largely absent - mental health, education, nursing, and social work. These women are not fighting for fairness. They are fighting for dominance in the workforce. Many (not all) are misandrists that allow their prejudice against men to cloud their judgement.

Men and women are not equal. We never will be. Why? Because these two genders are different in ways that cannot be changed, both physically and emotionally. More than this, though, we don’t HAVE to be. There are things men can do better than women and women can do better than men. There are things men cannot do that women can, and vice versa. Does that make either less useful or important than the other? No. Placing our value in an ability to do all the things men can do is preposterous. What makes our differences wonderful, however, is that, when we work together, our talents become complimentary to one another. 

Sadly, there are women that view men in such a manner that they carry their prejudice over into the religious arena. Many denominations allow women to hold an office of leadership over men. God’s word is very clear about a woman’s place in the church. “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” (1 Timothy 2:8-15 NKJV)

Does this diminish our value in the church? Absolutely not. We have such a powerful influence - that begins in our homes. The Christian home is of such importance that God has made it the beginning of an education in godliness, Eph. 6:1-4. We are to be managers of the home and the children, 1 Tim. 5:14, Prov. 31:10-31. We can also influence our husbands in good, godly ways, 1 Pet. 3:1-6. 

Feminists tend to feel they shouldn’t have to submit to anyone. Pride is a dangerous thing, Prov. 16:18, 1 Tim. 3:6. We should remember; the only Person that has ever had the right to rule over mankind instead became a servant to mankind, Mk. 10:45. We are encouraged to be like Christ, 1 Cor. 11:1, and I can’t think of a better example. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…” Phil. 2:1-11. We, as Christian women, have the profound ability and responsibility to influence Christ-like behavior. The best way to teach this is to BE this. Whether we like it or not, God has commanded that women submit to men in the church, 1 Cor. 14:34. Have you ever been asked to do something you really didn’t want to do, but you later discovered that it was the best thing you could have done? Were you glad in the end that you submitted to the request? We don’t always like or understand what God asks of us, but we can always rest assured that He knows what is best. He is God. He has already seen the outcome. History is replete with stories of lives that were changed by the influence of a good woman. The best leaders have been those that have stood in the shadows with no desire for the spotlight. We don’t have to be in the lead to be a leader.

Yes, women are often stereotyped and underestimated. So was Jesus. He still obeyed God, Phil. 2:8. We need to be careful how we respond to prejudices and not forget our place. We are the handiwork of God, and as our Creator, He knows where we do our best work, Prov. 3:5-6. Consider women in scripture that were where God needed them to be: Ruth - Ruth 1:16, Esther - Est. 4:13-14, Mary - Lk. 1:38, Elizabeth - Lk. 1:5-6, Dorcas - Acts 9:36, 39, Priscilla - 1 Cor. 16:19, and Mary Magdalene - John 20:11-18. He has put us all in a place to influence, guide, and cultivate for good those that are around us. A meek, hard-working, godly woman is a force to be reckoned with on any day. We must use our position, always, to give glory to God.

Lemons! - Amy Lawrence

Lemons

A Study on Compassion

I am a firm believer that life doesn’t hand out lemons. It fires them, rapidly, from a lemon cannon. Experience should teach us how to catch some and how to dodge some, but we won’t always succeed. We forget sometimes that everyone is getting through this life looking like they took a swim in a lemonade pond. As equal sufferers, we should all be compassionate toward one another as we survive this thing called life.

Compassion is a learned behavior, Mt. 18:21-35. The high priest would first offer sacrifices for himself so that he would be cleansed in order to offer the sacrifices for the people, but also so that “he can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness,” Heb. 5:1-3. Jesus is our High Priest and has suffered in all points as we have, Heb. 4:15. He knows - and He cares. We often forget that sin is “common to man”, 1 Cor. 10:13, and that we all need compassion. But do we all practice compassion? We are certainly commanded to do so, Zech. 7:9.

What is compassion? Google’s handy-dandy AI defines it as “a deep awareness of another’s suffering combined with a strong desire to alleviate it. It is an emotional response that includes recognizing suffering, empathizing, and taking action to help, often referred to as "suffering together". Compassion goes beyond sympathy or empathy by motivating proactive, kind, and supportive actions.” From this definition, it is obvious that selflessness is a prerequisite. One cannot emotionally engage with another when they have no love for anyone but themselves. The ultimate example of compassion is found in our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, Mk. 6:34, because He didn’t just give up something for us. He gave up EVERYTHING for us - and we are commanded to be like Him, Phil. 2:5-8. We can do it. He showed us how.

One of the many benefits of being members of the church of Christ is that we are all part of the same body. When one part of that body hurts, we all hurt. When one rejoices, we all rejoice, 1 Cor. 12:20-26. Sorrow is halved, joy is doubled. In order to accomplish this, we must have a relationship with one another. It is paramount that we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, recognize that the only way to know when another is suffering or rejoicing is by being emotionally invested in our relationships with fellow Christians. God knows this and has commanded that we fellowship with one another, but it is not just a command. It’s an investment in the only establishment that can promise 100% success rate - because Christ is its Head, and our fellowship is through Him, 1 John 1:3-7. That is a guarantee of benefits for those that are invested in Christ. Compassion is also a megaphone for the church. When we have love and compassion for one another, the world sees, John 13:34-35. Our relationship with fellow Christians should portray the characteristics of Christ - because we want the world looking at Him, Heb. 12:1-2, 1 Pet. 3:8-13. 

Christian compassion is not limited to those within the church. We can have compassion for all men, Mt. 5:7. As a matter of fact, this is what should compel us to share, especially the gospel. Every person is a soul that will spend eternity somewhere. There are so many feet still pointed toward Hell. Jesus came to save the lost, Lk. 19:10, and every one of us were once lost in the darkness. Fortunately, there’s plenty of Light to go around, John 8:12. Let’s share it. The best way to share the gospel is to live the gospel by sharing in physical needs as much as spiritual needs, 2 Cor. 9:12-15.

Tolerance is often confused as compassion. Satan gets his foot in the door by influencing people to allow sinful behavior, and sin is tolerated under the guise of compassion. Know that sin grows. It starts out as an innocent-looking cub, and by the time it is noticed that those claws have become sharp, we are in its grip. It is much more difficult to fight off a monster that is fully grown, James 1:14-15, and Satan knows this, 1 Pet. 5:8. Sin has a way of taking us where we don’t want to go, getting us there faster than we want to travel, and keeping us there longer than we want to stay. When one understands the difference between tolerance and compassion, one sees that boundaries are not uncompassionate. They are necessary to protect our hearts, Prov. 4:23. The Christian armor in Ephesians 6:10-18 shows us that healthy boundaries in the form of shield and helmet protect the vital areas that Satan is trying to pierce. Sometimes distance is the boundary, 1 Cor. 15:33. Not everyone helps or wants to be helped. Be careful that you don’t allow your compassion to enable sin, Mt. 7:6, 2 Thess. 3:10. and that you do recognize counterfeit kindness, Mt. 7:21-23. There is a vast difference between being a compassionate Christian and being a doormat. 

Let’s get into the practical. What are some ways we can be compassionate as individuals? As the church? Jesus said, “…you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you may do them good…”, Mk. 14:7. There will always be those in need. We should be as eager as Paul was to help the poor, Gal. 2:10, both in the needs of this life and those of the next. Poverty is not, however, a prerequisite. We can do good to all, Gal. 6:10. We can:

-aid and visit with the elderly

-donate to/participate in food drives

-do small jobs for the sick or otherwise disabled

-spend time getting to know a new member

-teach or aid in teaching a Bible class or study

-babysit kids for parents that need a break

-participate in fellowship efforts in your congregation

-engage in aid efforts in your community

-be kind to whomever you meet
There is always someone in need. Find a need - and fill it. 

Marcus Tullius Cicero once said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the others.” It takes gratitude to be compassionate. A thankful heart remembers what it is like to be in need and receive mercy. We are always in need of God’s mercy, Lk. 6:36, and if we all follow God’s commandments, everyone will be taken care of - just as God said, Mt. 6:33. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,” Mt. 5:7. Our gratitude should begin with the fact that nothing we have is our own…not even our soul, Is. 18:4. Everything belongs to God, Ps. 50:7-12, and it MATTERS what we do with it. God has made us stewards of what is His, 1 Pet. 4:10, 1 Cor. 4:1-2. If we do not use what is God’s for the purpose God has placed upon it and us, imagine what He will say when it’s time for the accounts to be called in, Mt. 25:14-30. Let us be faithful stewards.

Every Christian should want what God wants. That is the only way to be pleasing to Him. We must be holy as He is holy, 1 Pet. 1:13-16, and full of compassion, Ps. 86:15. In a world that expects everyone to be cruel, be the mirror that reflects Christ in the darkness, shining forth gratitude and compassion. 

Motherhood - Amy Lawrence

I am writing this article in response to several young ladies that have told me that

they plan to never have children. There are women that know themselves and

understand that motherhood is not for them, but for a teenager to say that they want

no children is heartbreaking - because they are not aware of how wonderful

motherhood can be. I won’t lie - it is a challenge. Bringing another human being into

this world and having them depend on you for safety and sustenance is not an easy

job. Some women may not be able to physically deliver a child, but, through adoption,

can still become as much a mother as any female. It is a serious undertaking.

Unfortunately, not all mothers take the role seriously.

The sad truth is that the majority of women in this world have no intention of

becoming mothers…but still engage in the method by which children are created.

God’s law prohibits sexual intercourse outside of marriage, 1 Cor. 7:1-2, and for good

reason. Marriage is a commitment. If one is unwilling to commit to marriage, then one

forfeits the rights of marriage. The annual 1.1 billion abortions in the U.S. alone tell a

gruesome tale; unmarried women want what they can’t have and then have what they

don’t want. (Yes, married women do have abortions, but statistically, abortions are

primarily performed on unmarried females.) There are a lot of single mothers out

1there that accepted the consequences of their mistakes and became what their child

needed them to be, but they are few and far between. Women that are unwilling to

marry before they become sexually active are women that have not counted the cost

of their choices, Gal. 6:7-8. They are not the only ones that suffer from their poor

choices, either.

It is statistically proven that the best environment in which to raise a child is

within a godly home of both a father and a mother that are committed to one another

in holy matrimony and to God Almighty, Eph. 6::1-4, Ps. 128. Intention to be a mother

should begin with intention to be a wife first. But let’s not be vague about that. The

Bible has a lot to say about both wisdom and prudence, stating that the two should

go hand in hand as a prerequisite to any decision-making, Prov. 8:12. I didn’t just

choose a husband. I also chose the father of my future child. Too many women have

discovered too late that the man they chose was not father material - another poor

choice that innocent children have to suffer. “Well, you can’t help who you fall in love

with, Amy.” Anyone that believes this is how to choose a husband doesn’t understand

love. Loving someone doesn’t obligate you to marry them, and it certainly doesn’t

mean they are loving you in return. The care they give you is the care they will also

give their children, so pay attention to that very important detail.

There is also a lot to be said about being congruent as a husband and wife.

Attempting to raise a child under two different moral standards is a recipe for

disaster. No one can serve two masters, Lk. 16:13, and yet many married couples try

and force their children to do so. The man a woman chooses should be a like-minded

half of the whole of parenthood.

2I hope I haven’t frightened anyone away from being a mother by detailing some

of the responsibilities first. It is indeed a heavy responsibility, but God did not design

it to be done alone. Yes, we as women are strong and capable of taking it on, but God

provided us with good men so we wouldn’t have to go it alone. I am proud of the

father my husband is, and he makes my job as a mother easier than it would ever have

been by myself. He is the protector, provider, and patriarch of our household, as God

has called him to be, Gen. 18:19. That’s not to say I don’t have anything to do on my

end of the parenthood, Prov. 31.

The benefits of being a mother have outweighed the hardships by tenfold, Ps.

127:3-5. I am so proud of my daughter. No relationship I have compares to the one

with my child. When I first became a mother, I had all these big ideas starting out that

never accounted for my daughter’s personality. I learned over the years what it took to

be “Mama”. I learned how to care for a person that couldn’t care for herself…yet. It was

my job to teach her how. I learned how she learns, how she processes, what sets her

off, what calms her down, what she likes and dislikes. I learned to let go of what

needed letting go and hold on to what was worthwhile. Don’t get me wrong; I made

plenty of mistakes on this road, some small and some big. I’m still making mistakes.

But after 17 years, my husband and I can proudly say that we have successfully

parented a loving, intelligent, creative Christian young lady. We could not have done

this without God and His word, Ps. 127:1.

My daughter has also taught me. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me,

and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.” (Mk. 10:14) I’ve improved

in love, patience, self-discipline, humility, selflessness, and joyfulness because of my

precious offspring. I want to be all those things for God, Gal. 5:22-23, but for her, too.

3There is nothing so sobering than to see my child doing something bad that she

learned from me. I had to change myself in order to help her grow into what God

wants her to be. The first step to doing that was to admit to her that I had done

something wrong. That made me better at both confessing my faults and praying,

James 5:16. Nothing made me a prayer like motherhood. She is the very air that I

breathe, and I would step in front of a speeding bus to save her…so I can most

definitely pray for her.

Being a mother has also given me a perspective I wouldn’t have otherwise; that

of the hurt caused me when seeing my child being hurt by others. God watched us kill

His Son. He let it happen because, without His blood, we would never be able to come

back to God, Mt. 26:28, Heb. 9:22, but each drop of blood that fell wasn’t just Jesus

giving His life. It was God giving His Son. What’s more, I don’t know that my Mama

heart could endure what Mary’s endured, John 19:25. Only God could create a love

like that, and we can experience it through motherhood.

I am blessed. Every mother is blessed, Lk. 1:28,42. We are entrusted with the

souls of our children. It is our job to educate them in the word of God, 2 Tim. 1:3-5;

3:14-15. The only way to do this properly is to LIVE it, Deut. 6:1-9. Don’t just be a good

mother. Be a godly mother.

The Soul's Health - Technology - Amy Lawrence

The Soul’s Health

How We Use Technology 

We all have access to a lot of what is going on in our world today due to technology. We may get a text at work: “Did you hear about Sharon’s son’s girlfriend’s brother’s wife’s mother?” We have access to a regular stream of news: “Our US hockey teams broke a 45-year losing streak by winning gold medal at the Olympics. The Artemis II mission has been postponed due to a helium issue. The Trump administration is making waves (as usual) by putting into effect sensible laws and regulations concerning voting registration. More people are offended by the assassination of a Mexican drug lord than they are by the murder of millions of unborn babies annually.”  We see on social media: “An AI-generated video of an emaciated polar bear is shared on social media and goes viral, even though the illustration is entirely fake.” This is the world in which we live, and every time we see something that sparks our interest, our emotions tend to take the driver’s seat before the rest of our brains have a chance to respond. I won’t get into addressing specific politics in this article. I’d rather stay away from opinionated rants and undiagnosed problems. We have enough of that on social media already. I want to get into the meat and potatoes of what we as Christian women can do to remain focused on God in a world that seems to do nothing but produce chaos - and now gives everyone such easy access to that chaos.

I am married to a very brilliant man. He works daily in the field of internet technology management. It is amazing what he can do with that technology, the amount of knowledge his brain can process on any given day. (Yes, I have told him this. I have also used this in arguments.) Although I don’t always understand the acronyms he uses in conversation, I can usually keep up with the complexities of networking when we talk about what he does for a living. I find it fascinating (perhaps not as fascinating as he does), but he loves to tell me about devices he has discovered that are fun, clever, and/or helpful. I love to learn how to use all those neat things so that I don’t have to annoy him every time I’ve pushed the wrong button. I say all of that to say this; I am not an expert in technology by any standard, but I am capable in understanding what it is and how it works. This is why I don’t put a lot of emotional investment into technology. 

You might say, “Why would you say something like that, Amy? We are not “emotionally invested” in technology.” I just spent an entire weekend with teenagers. Our society is, most definitely, emotionally invested in technology. We are so invested, we would be in dire straits if an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) were to cripple our power grid. In an article written for the Orbis International Literary Journal on June 28, 2023, Zhanna L. Malekos Smith recommended that “…the United States Government and private sector work together to harden the electric grid from both natural and man-made EMP incidents, and establish an EMP Manhattan Project to develop national contingency plans for such scenarios.” Such scenarios on a national level could put us not only at a standstill, but also in grave danger. Yes, our phones would stop working, but so would everything electronic; medical devices such as pacemakers, all modern transportation that runs on computer chips, anything controlled by a computer network (banks, utilities, mail and delivery, stores, emergency services), EVERYTHING electronic would quit. Let that sink in. Has technology helped mankind? In many ways, absolutely. Has technology hurt mankind? In many ways, absolutely. But let’s consider the common factor between the hurt and the help: humans. Electronics are just tools. Nothing more. What matters as to what makes it good or bad is the hand in which the tool is wielded. There has always been this human driving force that screams “progress”, even when it’s nothing of the sort. I would love to say that an EMP would cure a great many of our bad habits as a nation, but it would, in truth, create more problems than it solved. 

But I digress. We’re talking about the feelings that are generated by the use of the technology we have within such easy reach. I’m not talking about the medical gadgets that save lives every day. In my honest opinion, those are the God-sent technologies that are worthwhile. I’m talking about the gadgets that we use to stay connected to a world that is slowly trying to kill our souls. The emotional confusion that it causes would drown even the sanest of us - and does. Technology uses algorithms to learn our habits. What we see and hear is the product of what artificial intelligence has learned about us, and it shows only what feeds that habit. This makes it harder to break the addiction. What’s worse, this technology is targeting the largest consumer demographic: our children. Youths lack the adult mechanisms gained through maturity to battle such addictive activities and are less likely to succeed without our help as parents. We need to master ourselves before we can teach our children. Awareness is the first step.

Many struggles that we see today were just as much struggles thousands of years ago. No, I am not suggesting that Lot carried an iPhone in his sandal strap, but he did have voices much like the LGBTQ+ in his ear, Gen. 18:16-19:29. Did David allow his computer to show him pornographic pictures? No, but he did allow himself to watch a woman take a bath on a rooftop, 2 Sam. 11. Ananias and Sapphira wanted that main character status and did exactly what we do on social media today: they pretended to be something they were not, Acts 5:1-11. Scripture holds examples that serve as warnings, commands that serve as solutions to any struggle we may face. Don’t get caught up in the idea that scripture is too antiquated to understand our battles, too outdated to teach us how to win them. Remember, the word of God is still just as much alive, powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword as it was the moment it was written, Heb. 4:12. 

There are two very important things that keep me grounded in growing as a Christian and maintain my soul’s health. I’d like to share them with you and hope that these can help you to navigate through Satan’s minefield in regards to technology. 

1.) Fasting

I would encourage anyone to study this concept; not just in God’s word, but also as a study of the physical benefits to the human body. It will be a deeply rewarding endeavor. There is a reason this is considered a spiritual practice. It allows one to remove distractions and hone the mental awareness required to envelop oneself in a spiritual mindset. In Matthew 17:14-21, there was a man that brought his demon-possessed child to Jesus’ disciples and they could not cast out the demon. His disciples asked why they could not. Jesus answered, “Because of your unbelief.” But then He commented, “This kind will not go out but by fasting and prayer.” Was Jesus speaking of the demon, or was He speaking of their unbelief being expelled through prayer and fasting? I believe it was the latter. Ezra wrote, “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.” (Ezra 8:21) Fasting is an excellent practice for focusing on God…but most think that fasting only means abstaining from food. It is also beneficial to fast from technology.

2.) Purpose.

We have so few hours of personal time these days. I have been guilty of wasting precious personal time by doom scrolling. If you are familiar with this term, you know how shocking it can be to realize that hours have passed since watching that first video or sharing that first meme on social media. It’s a chain reaction; as soon as that one ends, another pops up, just as interesting. Before long, it’s dark outside and I didn’t even notice. What I do notice is that my emotional status is darker than when I first opened up my phone. The negativity seeped in and depression became the product of that negativity. Garbage in, garbage out. I have found that purposefully planning ahead what I will watch and when I will watch it has significantly improved my mental health. I limit my daily social media interaction, computer/phone use, and television time. I use what I save to spend quality, in-person time with people or toward doing things I enjoy (walking the dog, hiking, sewing/crocheting, etc.). I also schedule time with God, every day. No relationship can survive with so much time apart. Being with God is my favorite place to be, anyway. Jesus frequently purposed time with God, Mark 1:35. We can as well, and the benefits are innumerable, Ps. 34:15, 17.

I don’t know about every woman, but this woman has enough of her own pitfalls to keep her busy. My list is already too long. If I’m going to be addicted to something, I will let it be coffee. No one can watch the world’s negativity and sinful practices unfold and not be affected by it, Ps. 1:1.

Let God and His righteousness be our addiction, Mt. 6:33.

Threads - a study on Women's Role in the church - Amy Lawrence

Threads

Women In the Church

As in any organization, every person involved has their part to do in order for the machine to run properly. Every part matters. The church is made up of many individual threads in a tapestry - a picture that should show Christ to the world. No thread is above another in worth or merit. 

None of us are worthy of salvation, but salvation is still given without partiality, Rom. 3. Women are often seen as less in the church by those that do not understand the church because we are commanded to submit to men. We are to have no leading role in the services of assembly worship, 1 Tim. 2:8-15, and are expected to have a “gentle and quiet spirit”, 1 Pet. 3:1-6. To outsiders, this is seen as demeaning and unfair. I’d like to show anyone that is interested in truth why being a woman in the church is neither of those things. The women that make up their respective threads in the tapestry of the church are as important as any other thread.

I’d like to encourage anyone reading this to consider the background of the church. The general population misses what is found in the background of any image because they focus only on what stands out. Women are a vital part of the church, but our roles are primarily found beyond the obvious. We are the daughters, mothers, sisters, and wives that make up the female portion of each congregation, and we each have specific responsibilities that are attuned to our given talents. Many would label these responsibilities as unimportant, but they couldn’t be more incorrect. What makes our responsibilities within the church so important? I’m so glad you asked.

First and foremost, we can be a Christian influence. The most life-changing and significant decision any person can make in this life is becoming a child of God. Yes, that is more profound than ANY decision we will make as human beings. Such a choice allows one to be adopted into the family of God Almighty. That in itself is worthy of our gratitude, 2 Cor. 9:15. Being a part of the family of the Father of all Creation should not only be a priority, it should carry with it a desire to be pleasing to God with an attitude of service. The adoption is only the beginning of this abundant life, but I do not want anyone to be ignorant of what this physical life is, exactly; it is a life of service, Luke 9:23. If service is beneath you, then Heaven is beyond you. We’ve been given the example of service and humility to follow, John 13:1-17, but more than that…we’ve been given the recipe for happiness, vs. 17. Serving is always a fulfilling endeavor - not just for the one being served, but for the one serving also. I say this because every Christian, whether male or female, must understand that we are all here to glorify God, not ourselves, Is. 43:7. A part of serving God is serving one another in love, 1 Pet. 4:8-10.

One must also understand that organizations cannot function without structure and order. We have been given the details of the structure and order God requires of His people, the church. This is a concept that has always existed among God’s people. Rules and regulations are a necessity to maintain that ordered structure. If you do not like to be ruled and regulated and feel that you never will, then being a child of God is going to be difficult for you. Humility is a necessary element of being a servant, 1 Pet. 5:5.

Women are as much the living stones that make up the building of God as men are, 1 Pet. 2:4-10. All stones, however, are told what our place is in that building. Proud women tend to feel that they can tell God what their place should be instead of the other way around. They feel that they are too strong, capable, and intelligent to be submissive to rules of gender as found in scripture. What they don’t realize is that, without God, they are none of those things, 1 Chr. 29:12, John 19:10-11. Everything we are or hope to be we owe to God - the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Creator - and every human being that has ever existed was fashioned by Him for one reason and only one reason: to glorify HIM, Is. 43:7, 1 Cor. 10:31. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and HE will lift you up.” (James 4:10) 

We have several examples of women in scripture that were humble and obedient servants to God. Before I reference these, I want to point out one simple detail. These women are not lauded in secular history. Only in scripture are they even mentioned.

• Hannah

We meet Hannah in the first chapter of 1 Samuel. Society has changed drastically since then, but in Hannah’s time, barrenness was seen as a blemish for women. Hannah was taunted by Peninnah for being barren, but Hannah, instead of choosing to retaliate or find means outside of God’s will to have a child, chose to pray, 1 Sam. 1:10. God blessed Hannah with a son, 1 Sam. 1:20. She dedicated her son to God, both in name (Samuel = “name of God”) and in living sacrifice, 1 Sam. 1:20-22. 

• Tabitha (Dorcas)

In the latter portion of Acts 9, we meet a disciple of Christ named Tabitha. She had a significant reputation in her community - so much, that the widows of the city of Joppa were in tears when Tabitha had gotten sick and died, Acts 9:36-39. Tabitha had given these widows articles of clothing she had made with her own hands. 

• Priscilla

Along with Aquila, this couple worked with the apostle Paul in Corinth. They were of the same occupation as Paul (tentmakers), and so they had that in common, Acts 18:3. When Paul left Corinth, they travelled with Paul to Cenchrea, Acts 18:18-19 (where something happened for which both Aquila and Priscilla protected Paul at the risk of their own lives) and then to Ephesus. This couple also allowed the church to use their home for worship, Rom. 16:3-5, 1 Cor. 16:19, which was common in the first-century church.

• Mary and Martha

These were the sisters of Lazarus, and Jesus loved them all, John 11. They frequently had Jesus in their home, and we are shown that Jesus taught while He was there, Lk. 10:39. He was both fed and heard, Lk. 10:38-42. 

When we address the roles of women as found in scripture, we can see that they do not measure up to the world’s standard of greatness. God’s standard, however, is the one that matters, and God’s standard has never changed, James 4:4-10.

What are the roles of women in the church? What can (and can’t) we do? Every Christian in the church is to, first and foremost, submit to one another, 1 Pet. 5:5. We are all members of the same body, and we must all be able to work together in order to accomplish the purposes of that body, 1 Cor 12. Does this mean we can rule over the men? No. The structure of the church is shown plainly in 1 Cor. 11:3. We must know our place. Anyone that has ever cooperated in carrying an extremely heavy load knows what it feels like when someone abandons their place. It doesn’t just affect the apostate. It affects every person underneath that load. 

We must also understand that every little bit helps. Too many get offended because they don’t want the “little bit” jobs. They want the big jobs that put them on the tall pedestal. What they miss is the importance of the little jobs. I am reminded of the Japanese moral story of a horse losing its shoe simply because it was missing a nail. “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the message could not be carried. For want of a message, the battle was lost.” There is no role in the church that is unimportant. Even when we don’t feel seen, El Roi sees, Gen. 16:13. He sees when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit those in need. He sees when we teach our children and fellow women about Him, influence others through our conduct, and exhibit a modest, gentle, and quiet spirit through how we dress and carry ourselves. Every little bit helps. You never know who has been brought to God simply through your influence - because they were able to see God through you, Mt. 5:16.

Allow me to list some of the things we as women can do in the church and in our homes to promote care for the church and sharing of the gospel. We can:

• -visit/call/send cards to the sick/shut in, Mt. 25:36

• -feed anyone that wants to eat, Prov. 31:14-15

• -clean the meetingplaces of the church, Prov. 31:27, Acts 16:11-15, 40

• -organize fellowship events, prepare communion, Eph. 2:19, Gal. 6:10

• -teach children/other women or aid other teachers, Deut. 6:7, Titus 2:4

• -keep teaching material up to date and stocked, 1 Pet. 4:10

• -participate in ladies’ days, Titus 2:4

• -volunteer to help in any task for worship, gospel meetings, VBS, missionaries, etc., Col. 3:17

• -be a good influence in the community in both service and conduct, Mt. 5:16

• -maintain your home, making sure your husband and children are well cared for, Prov. 31

• -be a godly daughter, wife, mother, sister, 1 Tim. 2:9-10

  
  I could go on, but I believe the gist is understood. There are a plethora of selections when it comes to what women can do. Just because we cannot be ahead of men in worship does not mean that we cannot do our part in spreading the Word. We are still the salt of the earth and the light set upon a hill. 

Our goal as Christians should be to draw all attention toward Christ. We should want Him to be seen. The only way to accomplish that is to look like Him, 1 Cor. 11:1. When we’re spiritually minded and focused, Christ is able to shine through us, 2 Cor. 4:3-7, and God is glorified, 1 Cor. 10:31. I hope that this study helps us to see that we are all threads in the beautiful tapestry of Christ, and we, as daughters of the King, have been given a place and responsibility that is profound. Godly women. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.

"Matters of the Mind (Sins of the flesh #2)" - Amy Lawrence

Matters of the Mind

Sins of the Flesh #2

As we all survive this thing we call life, our experiences and the choices we make during our experiences mold our minds and thus our characters. I think we all can agree that the mind is a powerful thing. As the human race has advanced in technology, medicine, and science, all of the above has made such an impact on the length of this existence. Unfortunately, this existence has a terminus. Death is inevitable. James wrote, “What is your life? It is but a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14) In the end, what matters?

A war is being waged as we speak; a war for our minds. Some might picture this by the old cartoon maxim, with Mephistopheles sitting on one shoulder while an angel, bedecked with wings and a halo, perches on the other; both sides are whispering in our ear trying to convince us while we make a choice. That is, of course, just an illustration of an idea, one that is often misrepresented to the populous. Despite the fiction that is varying and prominent, we who are interested in truth seek out truth. I hope that is your motivation as we study these topics.

There are two forces fighting for our minds. Satan sits at the forefront of the side of evil. He is cunning, Gen. 3:1, deceptive, 2 Cor. 11:12-15, and he has an arsenal of weapons - all aimed at us, 2 Cor. 2:11, Eph. 6:11. HIs goal is to grieve God by hurting US, Job 1:6-12. He casts his three-fold net (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 Jn. 2:16) and sees who he can snare. Satan’s goal is to accrue as much company as he can, saving a seat for everyone in eternal punishment. Yes, Satan is fighting for our minds. But so is God. He fights for us, Ex. 14:14, He fights with us, Heb. 13:5, and He provides us with both defensive and offensive tools to defeat that old serpent, Eph. 6:10-17. The battlefield is the mind, and the helmet of salvation is given to shore up our ability to withstand Satan’s fiery darts. But…will a helmet do us any good if we don’t wear it? In the Christian armor, there is only one offensive tool: the sword, Eph. 6:17. A good sword is sharp, but the word of God is sharper, and two-edged, Heb. 4:12, so it cuts both coming and going. But will a sword help us if we don’t know how to use it? Paul told Timothy to “…be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” 2 Tim. 2:15. We as soldiers of Christ have a responsibility to learn to use the equipment He has provided in order to withstand Satan.

As I said before, the mind - the conscience - is the battlefield. Many incorrectly assume that this war against the Devil is a physical war - but it’s not. It is spiritual, Eph. 6:12. Our conscience is ever growing, ever changing. It takes time and training for a mind to become either carnal or spiritual, Rom. 8, but the great thing is that we get to decide which it becomes. Paul would state in chapter 7 of Romans that the war within himself was that of the flesh against the spirit. We all have these two wolves fighting within us. The wolf that wins is the one we feed. We’re studying sins of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21), and so we’ve been discussing first the junk food that the majority feed their wolves.

In my last article, we discussed the first four of the fleshly sins found in Galatians 5:19-21: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lewdness. In this article, I’d like to study the next two on the list: idolatry and sorcery.

What is idolatry? Colossians 3:5 tells us that idolatry is covetousness. What is covetousness? The best description scripture gives of covetousness is found in the book of Exodus. The children of Israel left Egypt following God. As one studies their journey, though, one learns that their hearts remained in Egypt, Ex. 14:11-12; 16:3; 17:3; 32:1. Covetousness is a deep-seated dedication to or longing for something that we shouldn’t desire, something that distracts our hearts from following God. Their distraction was idolatry, but idolatry can be anything from worshipping a false god to worshipping athletics, money, beauty, sexual preferences, etc. Satan will throw everything he can at us to get our minds to lose focus on God.

What is sorcery? To understand this, we have to do a bit of a history lesson of the nations that surrounded Israel…but before we get into that, let me ask some questions: did Harry Houdini really walk straight through a solid brick wall? Did David Copperfield really make the Statue of Liberty disappear? Could Derren Brown or David Berglas really control others’ minds or predict lottery numbers? We have people today that are talented with misdirection, illusion, elaborate engineering, psychology, and trickery. We call them “magicians”. They leave audiences stunned at what is seemingly unexplainable, all the while remaining within the limits of this physical existence.

I say all of this to help anyone reading to understand that illusionists are not exclusive to just the last few centuries. One can find illusionists in scripture. Words that scripture uses to illustrate this type of person are: magician, Gen. 41:8, diviner, Num. 22:7, medium, Lev. 20:27, astrologer, Is. 47:13, soothsayer, Is. 2:6, sorcerer, Acts 13:6,8, or wizard, Is. 8:19. I also mentioned before that a bit of a crash course in Israel’s history would be needed in order to understand. Before I lose your attention, what we need to know is summarized in 2 Chr. 33. Manasseh is recorded to be one of the worst kings of Judah. As you read this chapter, you learn of what Manasseh did to make him so terrible. He practiced “the abominations of the heathen”, worshipping the false gods of the surrounding nations. This worship included the use of divinations that God explicitly commanded against, Deut. 18:9-14. As we can see, sorcery has dangerous roots.

As sorcery (and any form of divination) is illusory, what could have made people in the 1st century believe what they were seeing and/or hearing, even though it was a trick? This answer can be found in the original Greek word for “sorcery” in Gal. 5:20: φαρμακεία (pharmakeia). We have an English word that is very similar to this word. Even in the culture of this day and age, we all know that a pharmacy is where we acquire drugs (legally, of course). One really must bear in mind, though, that drugs were not widely understood in the 1st century. Many that did understand them used them in harmful, selfish ways. Persons such as this were called “sorcerers”. Some of the drugs used were hallucinatory drugs from sources such as mandrake, opium, or certain mushrooms. Fermented drink would also be included. These would be used to alter the mind of a person before an audience, giving those watching a show. Drugs were also used as “cures” for varying illnesses, but the “cure” would only last so long and the ailing person would return for more. Addiction was as real then as it is now.

I feel I need to make something very clear before we move on. There are some that hold to this idea that reading fictional books such as Harry Potter, the Chronicles of Narnia, or the DaVinci Code is sinful. These written works are called fiction by their authors. They are not advertised as truth, but some try and make them so. I do not hold to the idea that it is wrong to read them nor do I entertain the notion that they are non-fiction. They are fantastical stories written to entertain. Nothing more. There are, however, minds that do believe that magic is real. They practice visiting fortune-tellers, check their horoscope daily, or allow other superstitions to guide their lives. Such beliefs are dangerous and warned against in scripture, and for good reason. Putting our faith in illusion, coincidence, and superstition takes faith away from God.

It matters what we put into our minds as much as it matters what comes out - because what we allow in determines what it will produce. A mind that receives garbage will produce garbage. A mind that receives intelligent health will produce intelligent health. One of the many things I love about the word of God is that it has an answer to every question I’ve ever asked or will ever ask God. How are we to know the ways to keep our mind healthy that are God-approved? The answer can be found in Phil. 4:4-9.

Our daily battle against the prince of this world is frequently exhausting…but Jesus promised that overcoming ends with rewards. Jesus will:

-give us fruit from the tree of life, which is in the middle of Paradise, Rev. 2:7.

-keep us from suffering the second death, Rev. 2:11.

-allow us to eat of the hidden manna and give us a name all our own, Rev. 2:17.

-give us the power over nations, just as He was given by God, Rev. 2:26-28

-clothe us in white, show us our name written in the Book of Life, and confess that He knows us before God the Father, Rev. 3:5.

-secure us a place we will never wish to leave - and never have to, Rev. 3:12.

-grant us the privilege of sitting on a throne next God the Father and His Son, Rev. 3:21.
We can also trust that it can be done, because we have the perfect Example to look to when we get discouraged: Jesus, Heb. 12:1-2.

Everything we are has to be rooted in God before we can grow in God, Mk. 12:30. I can confidently attest to the fact that dedication to this will direct one’s life in a way that shows what Christ meant when He called this life “abundant”, John 10:10. I have an abundant life; not because I have money, family, health, and more, but because putting God first has blessed me with all of the above. If I can do it, so can you. Put God first. Everything you need will follow, Mt. 6:33.

"Matters of the Mind (Sins of the flesh #1)" - Amy Lawrence

Walking in the Spirit

Matters of the Mind (Sins of the Flesh #1)

It matters what we think. Proverbs 23:7 states, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he…” Thought leads to action, action to character, character to behavior. Scripture often metaphorically describes the heart as the center of thought and intent, Heb. 4:12. There are so many things in this world battling for our attention, our heart, and our mind.  When Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, he contrasted two mindsets - the carnal (fleshly) mind, and the spiritual mind. He contrasted the same two mindsets in Romans chapter 8 and attested that only one, the spiritual mind, is acceptable to God. Paul listed in Galatians the kind of actions that are produced from each type of mind. This list can be found in Galatians 5:16-26. I’d like to dive into a study of this list, but there is so much material involved with each term. It would be valuable to our study to discuss each one individually and how we as women can benefit from such a study, and so I’d like to do this as a series. 

The first list of terms are those that are of a carnal-minded person. They are known as the lusts of the flesh. Whether a person has only one of these bad habits or all, each one is an action that is born of a mind that is contrary to the spiritual mind. We will begin with the first four (vs.19): “adultery”, “fornication”, “uncleanness”, and “lewdness”. These four can be categorized as sexual sins. This type of sin is listed first, and not only here, but also in 1 Cor. 6:9 and Eph. 5:5. 

“Adultery”
This sexual sin is prominent in our society. It permeates every form of media and is so commonplace it is considered ‘normal’. The original Greek word for adultery is μοιχεία (moicheia). It denotes one who is unfaithful in the physical sense…which is why the word is used interchangeably to either mean an unfaithful spouse in a sexual context, Mt. 19:9, or an unfaithful child of God in an idolatrous context, James 4:4. One of the Ten Commandments uses the Hebrew word נָאַף (naaph), Ex. 20:14. It was an offense punishable by death, Lev. 20:10, but one that was still commonly practiced by Israel as a part of their idolatry, Jer. 7:9-10. Ongoing adultery is still punishable by death, but a very different kind - a spiritual death, Rev. 21:8. Only discontinuation of the adultery and forgiveness from God will save one from such a death, 1 Cor. 6:11. 

As we are discussing the heart, and since this is where adultery begins (Mt. 5:28), let us avoid the things that we know are precursors for adultery. Mt. 5:28 tells us that lust is where the heart begins to go astray. Knowing where adultery starts gives us the ability to nip it in the bud before it grows to something much more sinister. Avoiding lust can only be done through gratitude. Being thankful for and content with what we have keeps us from focusing more on what we cannot have, Heb. 13:4-5.

“Fornication”
We have seen the gradual disintegration of our society toward sexual immorality over the decades, but fornication is not a new concept to us. It was as common then as it is now. Today, though, what used to be shameful and hidden is paraded as an innate human right. No matter the excuses or the relationship in which it is happening, fornication is a sin. Sexual intercourse is strictly limited to that between an non-adulterous, male+female, married couple, Heb. 13:4. What most refuse to acknowledge is that there is a very good reason for this. All things work together for the good that God has purposed, Rom. 8:28, OUR good. God knows His Creation, and He knows the damage that fornication can do to a person, emotionally and physically. To remedy this, God tells us to marry, 1 Cor. 7:1-2. But note verse 2: “…let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” We can’t have someone else’s husband or wife. Before we marry, we’d better make sure that person doesn’t already belong to another. 

“Uncleanness”
This isn’t a commonly used term in what we would consider a sexual sense. The original Greek word is ἀκαθαρσία (akatharsia), and is defined as one who is “impure, physically and/or morally.” This word is found 10 times in the New Testament, and each time it denotes an unholiness in a sexual sense. Its use in Romans 1:24 shows that this can mean any sexual sin, whether the act itself, or the impure mindset that leads to sexual sins. The root Greek term is καθαρός (katharos), meaning “clean, clear, pure.” We are commanded to be holy as God is holy, in everything that we think and do, 1 Pet. 1:14-16. This includes abstaining from anything that God has deemed sexual deviance; pornography, petting, sexting, etc.

“Lewdness”
The KJV uses the word “lasciviousness”, and the original Greek is ἀσέλγεια (aselgeia), meaning “incontinence, filthy wantonness.” The word is used in 2 Pet. 2:18 and speaks of one that draws others into sexual sins. We can get a picture of such a woman from Proverbs 5-7. The description of the harlot in Prov. 5 and the adulteress in Prov. 6 and 7 share a common warning: “…her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of Hell.” The advice Solomon gives? “Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.” (Prov. 5:15) To sin is bad; to entice others to sin is far worse, Rom. 1:28-32. Both lead to death.

By their fruits, you will know them, Mt. 7:17-20. Our study is of the spiritual mind, and the attitude behind any sexual sin is a subject that is frequently unaddressed. Paul speaks of a constant internal war in Romans 7:14-25, a war that we all experience - our fleshly desires versus the will of God. Every commandment God gives is for OUR good, to give US rest for OUR souls, Deut. 10:12-13, Jer. 6:16…but we have to WANT IT. No one, if they could see their future misery that came about because of their poor decisions today, would want that future. Obeying God’s commandments doesn’t just give us a worthwhile future, He promises that His obedient servants will receive a home in Heaven that makes even the best future in this life pale in comparison, Heb. 3-4. 

Our study on the matters of the mind will continue in my next article, but I ask that you diligently give yourself over to personal study and see for yourself what is that good, acceptable, perfect will of God, Rom. 12:1-2.

"Standard - A Study on the Value of Truth" - Amy Lawrence

Standard

A Study on the Value of Truth

I’m sure we’ve all seen some form of our justice system here in the US, whether on reality television or crime shows. We usually see it taking place in a courtroom with a judge, 12 jurors, a plantif, a defendant, and witnesses. The goal of most - if not all - of the people in that room is to either tell or discover truth by using a standard of rules and regulations. Our ability as a nation to recognize truth has diminished over the years, though. As time marches on, and as society is and has always been wont to slowly evolve toward chaos, truth becomes subject to manipulation in order to suit current ideas. In this study, I’d like to answer the question Pilate asked Jesus: What is truth?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines truth as, “the body of real things, events, and facts; the property of being in accord with fact or reality; fidelity to an original or a standard”. We can understand this concept better by using something everyone is familiar with as truth: mathematics.

2+2 equals 4. No one will ever be able to change that. It’s a fact. A mile is and will always be 5,280 feet. Different nations that speak different languages can shoot a rocket into space and connect with the International Space Station by using theuniversal truth known to us as “math”. (Yes, I understand that we all hate math…but this is only for illustration purposes. You can take a breath and calm down now.) A standard to which everyone on Planet Earth adheres becomes truth. No one can argue with gravity, because it will teach you how true it is every time.

Now that I’ve illustrated the daylights out of “truth”, let’s get into a different kind of truth. Jesus once prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth,” John 17:17. We know, based on the history of the world as well as our own experiences, that most people treat truth as if it were flexible. We only want it to be truth when it suits our need of it. A prime example of this is the desire of our society today to redefine the terms “male” and “female”. No matter the rallies, riots, fame, and fortune, no one on this round rock will be able to redefine “male” and “female”. Why? Because of Who defined them in the first place, Gen. 1:27. Paul wrote to the Romans that mankind is without excuse because, “…since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead…” When God says something is true, it becomes truth. To deny this is to deny the power of God Almighty.

As I mentioned before, Jesus tells us that God’s truth sanctifies us. How does truth purify us? Well, the first step is to let it. Anyone that has ever dealt with discussions of a religious nature know how people tend to have their own ideas of what is truth. Reading the word of God with a preconceived notion of what it already says is no way to learn. Even the Bereans didn’t take Paul’s word for it. They “searched the scriptures daily, to find out whether these things were so,” Acts 17:11. Is that a scriptural practice? Absolutely, 1 Pet. 4:1. But what if it is ourselves we must defeat?

What if we’ve had a belief all our lives and find out from scripture that the belief iswrong? My first recommendation would be to pray. There are many times when I have asked God for the strength to defeat myself and let His truth purify me, as did David, Ps. 51:10. Let it purify.

When the heart is where it should be, the understanding of God’s word takes on a whole new perspective. The psalmist wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” Ps. 111:10. In studying scripture, our minds should always have a deep respect for God and His will, Mt. 6:9-10. When that respect for God remains, then and only then can His word begin its job of purifying, Ps. 19:9, and our knowledge of His will can begin to build and grow.

Truth is also pure in that it is no respecter of persons. What is expected of me is expected of anyone desiring to be a child of God. We must also be impartial. Jesus tells us, “…with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you,” Mt. 7:2. We must be impartial in mercy and forgiveness, but also in discipline and justice. Purity requires keeping the good and dispelling the bad. The Corinthians were reprimanded by Paul for not being ashamed of some of the things that were happening under their very noses, 1 Cor. 5:1-5. They repented and disciplined where necessary, but then they went to the extreme of not forgiving a repentant brother, 2 Cor 2:5-8. There is peace in purity, but the requirement for this peace is discipline - whether it is self-discipline or discipline by the church, Mt. 18:15-17. We must be good to each other, Gal. 6:1-5, and this good can only be found in truth and love, 1 Pet. 1:22-2:3.

We have to be willing to accept God’s truth in order to be pleasing to Him. I must tell you, though; the world rarely proclaims God’s truth. John wrote, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father isnot in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever,” 1 John 2:15-17. We, therefore, have to make a choice: God, or the world? We cannot have both. God, in His manifold wisdom, presented a life lived in nothing but worldly pleasures through the writings (Ecclesiastes) of David’s son, Solomon. As the richest and wisest man ever to exist, Solomon came to a conclusion after he had invested himself in every worldly pleasure imaginable. His conclusion?

“And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing - whether good or evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:9-14.

Solomon lived a worldly life and yet wrote that a life that is pleasing in God’s sight is far better.

God’s truth creates a caliber of life you will not find anywhere else in this existence. Only in God’s truth is there true joy, no matter the circumstances, Phil. 4:4-7. This physical life is temporary. We as Christians have a hope that is beyond this life. Those of us that live in God’s truth know that, even in times of trouble, we have the assurance that the next life is the one God promised would be worth living for Him in this life. THAT is truth.

If you would like to be a part of this truth, come and join us in worship to God at any faithful church of Christ every Sunday/Wednesday night. We would love to have you among our number, and if there is any desire to know more, please don’t hesitate. Let us study with you as we all grow in grace and knowledge, 2 Pet. 3:18.

Holiness - A study on Dedication - Amy Lawrence

Holiness

A Study on Dedication

There exists in all of us a passion for something. For some, it’s sports. For others, it could be the science of technology, mechanics, or architecture. Many are dedicated to teaching and learning, medicine and healthcare, building and exploring. For grandparents, it’s their grandchildren. Anything as simple as food can be a passion. The emotion we know as “passion” is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.” In this article, I’d like to talk about the one subject to which we all should dedicate ourselves.

The Babylonian army destroyed and set fire to the city of Jerusalem and the temple in 586BC. Many of the captives taken out of Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar were transported to Babylon. They would remain in captivity for 70 years. The Babylonian captivity did exactly what God planned for it to do; it rededicated His people. Once Babylon fell to the Persians, the captives became the responsibility of the Persian king and eventually were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city.  One of the groups that returned was lead by Nehemiah. He took up the charge to rebuild the wall that would surround the city…but he understood that before he could rebuild the city that represented the Holy and Almighty God, he first had to rebuild himself, Neh. 1:1-11. Nehemiah sought the purity that would allow him to approach God again. This type of dedication is becoming less and less prominent in the church today. We serve a Holy God, and He requires that we be holy in order to be pleasing to Him, Lev. 11:45. From this study, we can learn what holiness is and how to practice it. 

The Hebrew word for “holy” is קַָדַשׁ (qadash) and is used in Ex. 3:5. Anyone that grew up in the church heard this story a great number of times. There are details that didn’t stand out as much to my child mind as they do now to my adult mind. It begins with Moses seeing and investigating a most peculiar bush. God disallowed Moses to approach this bush in which God was inhabiting until Moses was appropriately pure. When God announced to Moses who He was, Moses’ response was also appropriate to God’s awesome holiness; Moses hid his face for fear of looking upon God’s glory. God passed before Moses on Sinai, Ex. 33:19-23. The Lord hid Moses in the cleft of the rock so God’s glory would not kill him. Part of God’s glory would shine on Moses’ face after talking with God, Ex. 34: 29-35. Moses understood that holiness begins with a fearful respect of the position and power of God Almighty. Solomon wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Prov. 9:10) 

In order to understand God’s holiness, we must first understand some truths of His position: 

1.)            God is our Creator, and He alone holds the place above His creation, Is. 40:21-29. 

2.)            His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are above our thoughts, Is. 55:8-9. 

3.)            We are in the hands of the Potter, Is. 64:8. 

4.)            When one’s mind comes to grips with the knowledge of God, one cannot help but see the enormity of God and the fact that He is the source of everything we know and everything we are that is good,  Acts 17:22-31, 3 John 11. For this alone, He is more than deserving of our love and respect.

The word קַָדַשׁ (qadash) means “to be set apart, consecrated, sanctified” (NAS Hebrew dictionary). The first use of this word in scripture is found in Gen. 2:3, the “sanctified” Sabbath Day - a day the Israelites were commanded to “keep holy”, Ex. 20:8. They were to observe this by doing the same thing God did at the end of a week of work: stop working, Gen. 2:2. Can we be holy by obeying God? Absolutely! God is the perfect example of holiness and has given us everything we need to know in order to be His sanctified people. His word is “profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness”, that we may all be complete and fully equipped, 2 Tim. 3:14-17, and His commandments are good, Ps. 119. Because God is holy, His commandments are also holy, Rom. 7:12. By obeying the commandments of God, we can also be holy, 1 Pet. 1:13-16.

Because God is holy, so is His name. To speak the name of the Most High as a curse or in a way that is flippant or derogatory toward the Almighty God is so dangerous that scripture pointedly warns against it. One of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 specifies how we should speak the name of God, vs. 7. His name is to be used with reverence and given to no other, Mt. 23:1-10. It is to be magnified. David understood this, 1 Chr. 17:16-27. “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” (Ps. 29:2)

Our conduct as Christians, as the church, should mirror the holiness of God in everything we do - both in our assembled worship and in our everyday lives, 1 Tim. 3:15, Mt. 5:16. I cannot stress this enough; we as Christians are representatives of God and His kingdom. We are the only Bible some people will read. Our words, our dress, our actions should all speak the holiness of God to everyone. Dedication like that is a testament to the Creator that we serve. When those outside the fold cannot help but to see the love, trust, and loyalty we give to God (and to each other), their curiosity will be piqued and they will begin to ask about the Savior that we serve. They will be even more impressed by God when we tell them about Him. We were created to glorify God, Is. 43:7.

God told the Israelites, “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.…and ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine.” (Lev. 20:7-8, 26) Holiness sets us apart from the rest of the world. We are commanded to “be separate”, 2 Cor. 6:17, if we wish to follow God Almighty. 

It has its perks, too. Note what Isaiah said: “But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you…”” (Is. 43:1-4) When we follow God, we follow the only One Satan cannot defeat, 1 Cor. 15:57.

In order to be pleasing to God, we must separate ourselves from the world, 1

John 2:15-17, Rom. 8. Holiness is a requirement. God’s word teaches us how to be holy.

If there is ever a need, or you wish to study further on this subject, please visit the nearest church of Christ and let us help you as you seek holiness with the people of God.

Pearls - Amy Lawrence

Pearls

It’s funny the things I remember from my youth that are now perceived in a very different way with more years’ experience. I used to think pearls were for older women. (It’s because I only saw them on women older than myself, and it might also have had something to do with the fact that I thought 30 was old.) Because of this perception, I wouldn’t wear pearls. I felt I was too young, and pearls were a future accomplishment I hadn’t earned yet. I told myself that I had to be a woman to wear them. I had to be an independent adult with my very own set of pearls that screamed, “I am responsible enough to make my own decisions.” I bought a string of cream- colored, freshwater gems just a few months before my wedding. As a wedding gift, my parents bought me earrings to match. I still have those earrings and that string of pearls. Each gleaming orb on that string, to me, represents the journey of experiences I have had from the moment I began thinking of the person I would be.

Most people don’t start off as kids thinking, “Okay, here’s the itinerary I plan on following to become (insert dream here)”. I was a weird kid. Now I’m a weird adult. I’m not unusual because I had a plan and followed it, no. Lots of people do that. I’m unusual because I knew at a young age that this road we call life isn’t a road that we create. That timeless phrase, “I’m going to make my own way,” spoken by countless people, had a mocking note in it to me - like anyone saying it had no idea that the God of the Universe is the Waymaker. Jeremiah the prophet wrote, “Oh, Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jer. 10:23) The majority follows the dream, not God. Oh, yeah, they’ll say something like, “God got me here,” as if every decision they made was with God in their mind and not their own selfishness. I’m not saying it’s wrong to have a dream, and I’m not saying I never tried to put God in the backseat. At some point, we all have. What’s wrong is when we think God caters to our dreams. In my mind, my dream, God was the decision. Every choice I made was made with the knowledge that in the end, I would answer to God for my choices. I wanted to be a marine biologist. There are no churches in the middle of the ocean where I wanted to go. At one brief phase in my life, I wanted to go to Hollywood. I came to the conclusion quickly that was a no-go, because in order to make any money I would have to do things that were not Christian. I even wanted to be a racecar driver…but racing on a Sunday in the Daytona 500 would take me away from God and toward my selfishness. Sacrificing God was never an option. Pretending I’d get where I wanted to go and later make it up to Him would have been the first step away from Him. Regardless of any desires of what I wanted to be here, in this temporary life, I realized that anything here is just that: temporary. I want eternal.

Getting back to those pearls, I see now what I didn’t see then; not every pearl is perfect. I’ve made countless mistakes in my time here. A lot of those mistakes I learned from immediately. A number of them took a couple of times to sink in…and a few I am still repeating because I do not recognize them until it’s been done. I am getting better at recognizing them, though. It is in this that I see what holds my pearls in place. That string on which my pearls hang has to be strong. It has to be made of stuff that gets the job done of holding me together. No material the world offers will do; this world does a better job of tearing apart than keeping together. My string is the Holy Spirit, Rom. 8:1-11. He dwells in me, influencing every thought and action. Yes… sometimes I ignore Him. I sin. My conscience beats me up until I make it right. My memories of those mistakes are the dents in my pearls, reminders of what it costed.

There have been experiences in my life that I thought, while in the middle of experiencing them, were tragedies. Even though they were hard moments, they were moments that did the most building of the person I was to become. Joseph understood this. His life was one crisis after another. His mother was claimed by death when Joseph was young, his brothers hated him and subsequently sold him into slavery, his master’s wife abused him, his freed fellow prisoner forgot him. Many would see Joseph’s life as a disaster. Joseph did not. He called his life good; not because of the experiences themselves, but because of the result God intended his life to accomplish, Gen. 50:19-21. And if you look back through Joseph’s life in scripture, you will see God right beside him every step of the way, Heb. 13:5. The pearls that have dents in them are still beautiful.

Pearls are grown from a piece of grit getting into the mollusk. To protect its soft tissue, the mollusk begins covering the irritant with nacre. Layer by layer, a pearl is grown. The mollusk must have the proper mechanisms in place to defend against damage from the invader. If it doesn’t, the grit will eventually damage or allow infection into the mollusk. Christians must also have the proper mechanisms in place to protect themselves from the grits of life. It’s easy to get bogged down by temptations and trials. It starts with that grit. Choices made and habits built up as a reaction to that grit become the directions we take, the methods we use to solve problems. A lot of where we end up in this life depends on those habits, those choices. Some choose God.

Most choose Satan. The Devil has an arsenal of weapons, 2 Cor. 2:11, and they are all aimed at mankind…but the most powerful tool at his disposal to keep us wandering in the wrong direction is deception, Jn. 8:44, 1 Cor. 11:3,14, Rev. 12:9. He shows us what we think we want. Our selfishness is preyed upon by the one who is an expert in tempting us with what we desire when we are at our weakest. Most of the pitfalls we suffer are of our own choosing and begin and end with selfishness. We humans have a talent for destroying ourselves. The only thing that keeps us from doing so is wisdom. Some may say that the Christian life is not brilliant. It’s void of fame and glory, prominence and prestige, monetary ease, things the world tells us we should want.

Their eyes can’t see the abundance that is found in following God - the overflowing peace, joy, hope, fulfillment, love, gratitude. This list is one that everyone that has a heartbeat seeks in this carnal existence - but so few find - primarily because of where they are looking. I found these things in the one place the world rarely looks: scripture. God’s Word is the factory that has built my life, 2 Tim. 3:16-17. That’s not to say I didn’t make my fair share of mistakes along the way. I didn’t even know they were mistakes while I was making them. I had to learn. I had to learn to identify when I messed up, otherwise it would be repeated over and over until I either finally learned or just got stuck in this infinite loop of repeated mistakes. They can be personal mistakes or even mistakes passed down from father to son or mother to daughter; unless the circle is broken, they will continue. God’s message to Ezekiel dealt with the tribe of Judah blaming their parents for their exile into Babylon, Ezek. 18. Their exile was their own fault because they repeated the mistakes of their parents! Many of the Jews in the first century did as well, Acts 7:51. Bad habits can be broken and new, good habits learned - by both young and old. I wish I could tell you there was a list, a chart that I have compiled to make it easier for you to get rid of that grit. I do not. Even the shiny pearls I learned took work. All of those wonderful things I had in my sights were on the other side of a series of actions called responsibility. I was severely bummed. I couldn’t ask Dad for a quarter I could pop into a little machine and get my hopes and dreams to come rolling down a chute wrapped in a handy dandy plastic egg. Not only were my desires much harder to get to, but I even had to go out and get my own quarter. I knew I needed time to learn the lessons experience had to teach me, but experience is so SLOW. I had forgotten that growth happens in layers. It takes patience to grow those layers. As it turns out, it takes layers to grow patience. This is where it got interesting…and I didn’t see how interesting until the pearl was fully formed. I still don’t have a chart, but I do have an instruction book. There is no “easy access” to the information. You have to do the work. Read. Study. Fellowship with those who read and study. Dust off your Bible and find the enormous treasure within its pages.

Each soldier of Christ is at a different stage of their life as a Christian. Pearls grow. So can Christians. It just doesn’t happen all at once. Our defenses will be tested, whether on a personal level or even as a congregation of the Lord’s church. James wrote, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” (James 1:2-3) The Hebrew writer addresses how these layers are grown. Spiritual pearls are worn by those “who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.“ By reason of use, layers of wisdom and courage are grown, Heb. 5:12-14. Imagine having this kind of armor against Satan; armor built by God, layers crafted by the only hands that are capable of protecting us from the Devil’s darts, Eph. 6:10-13.

The trick to defeating Satan is in the layers. An article in Science Alert written by David Nield states that: “The secret to nacre's toughness is in the way the material's tiled surface locks together when stress is put on it, enabling it to spread out the strain. When the surface is no longer under pressure, it relaxes into individual tiles again.” An article written by John Donald Currey and published in the Royal Society Publishing of Biological Sciences has this to say about nacre: “An attempt is made to explain qualitatively the mechanical behaviour of nacre in terms of its submicroscopic structure. It is concluded that the precise geometric arrangement of the plates is most important, and that this constraint may make nacre less suitable for shells that must be built quickly.” Pearls that are built slowly and with the right arrangement are stronger than pearls built quickly. But why does the strength of the pearl matter? We’re using pearls as a metaphor for knowledge gained from life experiences, so let me rephrase that question. Why does the strength of knowledge, how it is built and arranged, matter? The answer to this question is found in 2 Cor. 10:4-5. There is a war being waged for our minds. The stronger our defenses, the less likely we are to lose the battle against the Deceiver. Remember that grit of sand? Protecting ourselves from the damage that tiny piece of grit can do depends on how well our pearl is built.

We can’t “go out of the world” (1 Cor. 5:10) to avoid sin no more than that mollusk can avoid getting sand into its shell, but we can keep sin from affecting our Christian health by building strong defenses. It takes patience. David was a young boy when he faced Goliath. When offered a physical suit of armor, he understood that armor had to be both learned and earned. David had never fought in a suit of armor and it encumbered him when he walked, 1 Sam. 17:38-39. He hadn’t “tested” it. He didn’t know how to fight using a soldier’s equipment - but that’s not to say he didn’t know how to fight. God was David’s armor, 1 Sam. 17:37. David had experienced battles before and had gained wisdom and courage through those experiences. This equipped him to take on Goliath.

Pearls are resilient things. Christians can be too, with the right motivation and tools. Even when we don’t all start at the same place, we can all end up at the same place. How? By following the same map. We know the process by which strong pearls are made. There is also a process by which strong Christians are made. Not every Christian is at the same point on the journey. Some are just starting while others have been on this road so long they can walk it blindfolded. As layers take time to build up, once they are built up…they need maintenance. Keeping pearls in a safe place and the occasional cleaning are required. Each Sunday, the Lord’s church assembles to worship God. We as Christians are commanded to edify one another. The word edify means “build up”. Help each other grow. Even a seasoned Christian should still be growing. The layers of our pearls should include: fellowship, Heb. 10:24-25, grace and knowledge, 1 Pet. 2:2, 2 Pet. 3:17-18, and good works, Titus 3:14. Our soil should be rich with these fertilizers. Then and only then can we produce fruit, 2 Pet. 1:5-8.

I want my daughter to have her own set of pearls; not just the physical kind, but the spiritual kind as well. But she has to grow them. I can’t do that for her. My job is to teach her how. This is why I try every day to be pleasing to God. My husband and I cannot give our child a more valuable gift than showing her God. The home should be the easiest place for a kid to learn about Him. I don’t always succeed and by the end of the day I am asking God for forgiveness, but if she sees me growing, trying, learning, she will be encouraged to do the same, 2 Tim. 1:3-5; 3:10-15. This also applies in the church. When the church is united, when everyone is working toward one another’s wellbeing, the church GROWS, Acts 4:32-35. If you are a part of the church, cherish it. You are a citizen of the greatest kingdom that has ever existed, Eph. 2:19. If you would like to become a part of the church, the directions in how to do this are found in God’s Holy Word. We here at the church of Christ welcome you to join us every Sunday and Wednesday evening to study with us.

"Daisies" - Amy Lawrence

Daisies

A Study on Comparison

There is no shortage of photographs of women (and sometimes even men) that have dedicated a great deal of time, money, and pain to make themselves appear young and “beautiful”. Plastic surgery has become a fad. The market for products that claim to restore youth - or at least the halting of aging - is a multi-billion dollar business. Whether it’s clothing, makeup, hairstyles, or overall body image, we as women put a lot of stock in how we look. This idea of beauty, as we see it with our limited vision, is not foreign to scripture, either. Sarah was beautiful, so much that Abraham was afraid he would be killed by men that saw her beauty and wanted her for themselves, Gen. 12:11-12. Ahasuerus, king of Medo-Persia, wished to show off his beautiful queen, Vashti, to the nobles, princes, and servants of his kingdom, Esther 1:1-11.

Women aspire to be beautiful because it garners an often desirable attention and placement within a social structure. We want to fit in. Because of this, we tend to base our worth on our personal image. It is a blow to a woman’s self-esteem to be considered “ugly”. We are all beautiful, though, because we are all made in the image of God, Gen. 1:26, by the hand of God, Ps. 139:14.

Let’s begin a study on beauty.

Let us first look at some facts. As of 2022, the average lifespan of a female citizen of the Unites States of America is 80.2 years. (They must not have included Betty White in that average.) Medical research over the centuries has discovered that collagen production in the human body begins to decrease by our mid-20s. Wrinkles naturally start to appear within 40 to 50 years of age, and our hormone production decreases. Other factors that also need to be taken into account are diet, exercise, exposure to sun and other radiation sources, and overall health. Now, let’s allow all this information to paint a picture. By the time we figure out what beauty even is, we’ve spent a decade of childhood not even caring about beauty. We spend the next 10 years figuring out that there’s a societal standard to which we must adhere in order to really be considered “beautiful” by our preferred social circle. Once we finally get it figured out, WHAM, old age hits us square in the ego. We get to enjoy being old nearly thrice as long as we get to be young. It is daunting, to say the least. Coming to terms with the brevity of this life makes us consider the quality of the things to which we dedicate ourselves. That begs the question: is beauty by worldly standards a quality thing?

It’s natural to want to be attractive. Our outward appearance is also a form of communication. It can speak of our state of mind, social status, even our standard of morality. We often forget that whether we like it or not, we are judged by our appearance. It’s human nature. When we see an individual, we make assumptions about that individual based first on what we see. Most pass judgement based solely on appearance. Jesus warns against this, Jn. 7:24. Don’t use this as an excuse to look however you wish to, though. Remember - we are ambassadors for Christ. It matters what we wear, Gen. 38:12-19, Prov. 7:6-10, 2 Sam. 13:18. We should want to look like Christ. Our garments must be appropriate, Mt. 22:11-14.

Our focus should also be appropriate. When we focus on God and His righteousness, everything else will fall into place as it should, Mt. 6:33, Rom. 8:28. Our beauty should not just be an outward one. Only God can make our inner woman gorgeous, Prov. 31:30. Consider what it is we are trying to accomplish. Our lifelong goal should be to give God glory. We were not put here to shine our own light. None of it is ours, Is. 42:8; 48:11. We are merely reflections of the true Light, Jn. 8:12. If this truth remains at the forefront of our minds, then our appearance and our actions will publish it to those around us, Rom. 12:1-2. Then and only then can we draw others toward God. We are His Creation, made in His likeness, to do His will.

I mentioned that this is a study on comparison. I say ‘compare’ because that is an innate behavior; we can’t help but observe ourselves/others and use that to fit into our preferred social setting. We are hardwired to build communal relationships using comparison…but sometimes it leads to competition instead of coalition. We as the church often forget that unity is a command, Eph. 4:1-3. When our focus as women within the body of Christ is a beauty contest, we weaken the unity. A daisy in a meadow doesn’t compete with the daisy next to it. They both just bloom. When we endeavor to bring out the beauty in each other, this allows every Christian woman to bloom.

"The No Drama Club" - Amy Lawrence

Peacemakers

The No Drama Club

There is a particular type of personality in certain individuals I have encountered over the years that I call the “drama junkie” personality. Drama is an addiction to them; if they don’t have it, they seek it. If they can’t find it, they make it. It is a way of life they have lived for so long that they know no other way to exist. Peace and quiet are foreign to them, even painful sometimes. They are, as a result of their personality, characteristically dramatic - both emotionally and practically. A relationship with such a person rarely involves peace. Given that God commands Christians to be

Peacemakers (Rom. 12:18), I felt it necessary to dive into a study, not just as an article subject, but for my own personal spiritual growth as well. Please allow me to share with you what I found.

It would be ridiculous for me to suggest that all drama can be avoided. We all know that such is not the case in this life. Struggles are a reality, and truth be told, there are enough of them occurring naturally that makes purposely adding more a senseless endeavor. Matthew wrote, “sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Mt. 6:34). We don’t need to add to an already heavy load of daily struggles…but there are those that cannot seem to help themselves. It’s a habit, really; one that some continue in ignorance and some continue on purpose. The ways by which drama is cultivated more popularly among us as women include gossiping and meddling in affairs that do not concern us. Scripture gives the usual reason for such actions: idleness, 2 Thess. 3:11, 1 Tim. 5:13. The old maxim “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop” rings all too true. We tell this to our children, but there are some adults that could benefit from the proverb as well. What is rarely acknowledged is the division that is caused by such actions. Gossip can divide the closest of friends. Meddling can separate like an axe laid to a block of wood. Paul pleaded with the Corinthians that there “be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement”, 1 Cor. 1:10. He later stated that there should be “no schism (division) in the body (church), but that the members should have the same care for one another”, 1 Cor. 12:25. So…how do we do this?

The first step to solving any problem is acknowledging that there is a problem. Women are stereotyped for being gossipers, and for good reason. It’s generally women doing the gossiping. This is not to say that men never gossip, but let’s be real here, ladies. Men are not famous for talking about feelings, and they rarely, if ever, have the inclination to meddle in others’ affairs. Women are normally the culprits. I myself despise gossip. I’ve seen what it can do. It is a viral evil that destroys trust and connection. There is no such thing as innocent gossip. It is done purely for entertainment purposes and has no value whatsoever. As a matter of fact, it costs more than it garners. Solomon wrote, “He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears.” (Prov. 26:17) I’d like to think we are all smart enough to stay well away from a dog’s teeth, but somehow we have all fallen into the trap of listening to/helping spread gossip and meddling in affairs of which we have no business meddling. I have been guilty, and as my past contains incidents of such, I have learned first hand the damage such actions produce. It’s like a drug; we know it’s wrong, but our carnal minds find ways to justify it. I hate it, try my best to avoid it, but it is still a temptation. The good thing is, we know Someone that can help us avoid temptation.

There are a number of tools necessary to avoid such temptations. A primary tool in our Christian toolbox should be courage. When we read of the Christian armor in Ephesians 6, this courage is found in the context. Notice verses 11, 13, and 14 use the word “stand”. There is courage in standing instead of cowering or running away. Gossiping is cowardly. First, the subject of the gossip is not there to defend themselves, and second, gossip is an attempt to recruit others to join in the behavior. If a person has committed a legitimate offense worth mentioning, there is protocol found in scripture for such situations, Mt. 18:15-17. Have courage, and be gentle, Gal. 6:1. If it’s not worth mentioning, don’t mention it. 

Another tool in our box should be wisdom. The Holy Spirit through Solomon said, “Wisdom is the principal thing…” (Prov. 4:7). How do we gain wisdom? Where does it begin? I recommend studying the phrase “fear of the Lord” in scripture. It is remarkable how many times and in what context you will find this phrase. The psalmist wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Psalm. 111:10). Wisdom in scripture is often coupled with knowledge and understanding. We like to call it “sense” or “reason”. A person that is in possession of these faculties has the ability through learning and experience to make wise decisions. Meddling is making an unwise decision to become a part of a situation that is none of our business. Peter tried to meddle, Jn. 21:21. Jesus, in so many words, told Peter it was none of his business and that he should keep his focus on what truly mattered, vs. 22. We are encouraged by scripture to do the same, 1 Pet. 4:14-16.

Christians are called to be peacemakers, Mt. 5:9. This false idea that peace means a complete absence of drama is not supported by scripture, because peace is not the absence of drama. It is the presence of justice. As long as there is justice, there is peace. When justice begins to disappear, history has proven time and again that peace shortly follows. We must also notice in scripture that peace is the direct antithesis of division. This concept is brought out in verses such as Lk. 12:51 and Eph. 2:14-15. As division separates, peace brings together. We must unite against sin instead of allowing ourselves to be divided because of sin. Part of this unity is allowing ourselves to be subject to one another, 1 Pet. 5:5. We must help one another. Part of this help is encouraging, and part is rebuking. We must be humble enough to receive both with alacrity, give both with love, courage, and gentleness. 

Let us be peacemakers, James 3:13-18.

"A Helper Comparable" - Amy Lawrence

A Helper Comparable

Seeking and Finding a Spouse

When browsing on Amazon, we as consumers can just type in a description of the item we seek, and hundreds if not thousands of possibilities present themselves at our fingertips. Pictures, videos, and customer reviews allow us to see the items in a more personal way. We can modify our search to limit it to a specific range - color, size, price, rating, even the name of a particular brand - and it will show us our heart’s desire. Seeking a spouse is not so simple. Many would suggest any number of dating websites that use this idea to find a compatible significant other, but there is a personal element missing from such tools. Given that this is an article that is geared toward a study for Christian women, one must ask: how does one find a godly husband in an ungodly world? As He is God, our Lord has answered any question that any Christian will ever have through the written documents we all know as scripture. Before we can glean from it, though, there is a certain foundation a Christian must have before God’s answer can be understood. God expects a student of scripture to have eyes and ears that are capable of seeing and hearing and a heart that is ready to receive, Mt. 13:13-17. If your eyes, ears, and heart are ready, let’s begin a study from God’s Word on the subject of finding a godly spouse.

We’ll first begin with the basics: 

1.)  A woman should be seeking a man and a man should be seeking a woman, Gen. 1:27, Mt. 19:4-5. Seeking the same gender is not an option, Lev. 18:22; 20:13, Rom.

1:18-32, Heb. 13:4. Enough said.

2.)  A divorced man/woman is not always allowed to remarry, Lk. 16:18, 1 Cor.

7:10-11. If you are a woman that has divorced for reasons that are not authorized by

God, then you are still married in the eyes of God Almighty and are ineligible to date. If dating a divorcee, make sure you know whether or not their divorce was scripturally authorized. One should always be in possession of the facts before considering marriage to a divorcee.  

3.)  Although marrying a Christian is recommended, it is not a requirement, 1 Cor. 7:12-13. There are some in the brotherhood that attempt to bind where God has not bound in this matter. Scripture does not support the notion that marrying a nonChristian is disallowed. Having said that, I will also say that a wise Christian that considers not just their own future but also the future of their children, will seek out another Christian to marry.

Now, to the meat of the matter. 

When seeking the person with whom you plan to spend the remainder of your life, do so more with intelligence than emotion. Anyone that allows emotion to steer the helm of their ship is one that is without the anchor of reason to keep them from crashing into the rocky shore. USE. YOUR. BRAIN. FIRST. When making decisions now, consider the impact today’s decisions will have on your future. There’s a word for this concept: prudence. Scripture has a lot to say about prudence, Prov. 8:12; 12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 15:5; 16:21; 18:15; 19:14; 22:3; 27:12, Hosea 14:9. It is always coupled with wisdom. One who lacks wisdom suffers, Prov. 10:13. A lot. A wise person uses patience and observation skills to learn the person they are considering marrying. No, I’m not suggesting fingerprinting, a background check, and an application process for every date. I am suggesting an attention to detail that is not clouded by emotional judgement. People will tell you everything you need to know about them if you just pay attention. 

Another element of prudence is being able to let them go if they are not the right person for you. Being “in love” with someone does not make marriage to that person mandatory nor does it mean the love is reciprocated. One of the biggest mistakes made by people that are dating is that of confusing lust for love. Sexual attraction alone is a terrible way to decide if that person will make a good spouse/parent. With marriage, you are creating a team of two people that become one entity, Eph. 5:31. These two people must work in tandem to build a successful household. The health of a household depends directly on the health of the marriage that is the first building block of that household. If the foundation is God and His will, every block that is laid on that foundation will hold up against any storm.

Make sure love is the tie that binds, and make sure you know how to define “love”. The definition of true love can be found in 1 Cor. 13:4-8. This is the only love that has the power to withstand anything this life can throw at you as a couple. Be prudent when seeking this love, recognizing this love, and being this love. I know you’re thinking, “Well, Amy, you told us earlier not to think with our emotions.” Read 1 Cor. 13 again. Every term that Paul uses to define “love”, ἀγάπη (agapé), is a verb. It’s an action. A person can say “I love you” all day long, but it’s nothing but hot air - until it is shown through their actions. (If actions do not match words, then that’s a red flag, ladies.) The actions listed in 1 Cor. 13 are those of a care for another’s wellbeing ahead of your own. Seek someone whose needs you can put ahead of your own, but also can do the same in return for you. 

Let’s be honest; what we seek most when considering marriage is attraction. As I will agree that beautiful people have a much easier time gaining attention, one must be careful that their beauty is not only skin-deep. Absalom was an incredibly handsome man, but his character was appalling, 2 Sam. 13:30; 14:25.. A Christian seeking true beauty will seek spiritual beauty, not just physical. David had such beauty, 1 Sam. 16:6-13; 17:42, Ps. 34:18. We should also consider, though, that outward attractiveness is not a necessity. Jesus Himself was recorded as being average in His outward appearance, Is. 53:2. He is still beautiful to the spiritually focused mind that knows Him and is eager to see Him, 2 Tim. 4:8. Don’t overestimate (or underestimate) what you see, Jn. 7:24. A person can look like a 10 on the outside, but if their character is a 3, then they’re a 3. The opposite is true, as well; a 3 on the outside that is a 10 on the inside is a 10. Kindness is beautiful. Joy is beautiful. Meekness, self-control, gentleness, patience, intelligence, selflessness are all beautiful. Outward beauty will fade. Only inward integrity can stand the test of time. Be more attracted to that beauty.

When it comes to finding someone that you will share space with indefinitely, there’s not really a checklist. That’s not how it works. Everyone is attracted to varying combinations of attributes. You can set your own standard, though. It is important to find a person with whom you can coexist well. Common likes and dislikes are essential to the success of any relationship. You will never find that success if you don’t know what you stand for - and won’t stand for - in the relationship. Set boundaries for yourself. Respect boundaries of anyone you date. Learn habits! Whether they are your own or those of anyone you date, LEARN HABITS! If it’s a bad habit, change! Part of setting boundaries is asking your significant other to change bad habits as well, and if they refuse to change, that’s another red flag! Never assume that a person cannot change. (It takes time, so be patient.) We are all a fluid concept. It’s the willingness to change what needs to be changed and keep what needs to be kept that is the determining factor of maturity. (Don’t sell yourself short by assuming they will change after marriage, either. I know many women that have made that mistake. If they won’t change while you’re dating, they won’t change while you’re married, Luke 16:10-11.) A couple that desires a successful marriage has to be two people that can communicate within a balance of being accountable to one another. They also, above all, must be forgiving. Mistakes will be made. A successful marriage is that of two good forgivers, Eph. 4:31-32.

When God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, He said, “It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Gen. 2:18) The word used for “comparable” here is the Hebrew word נָגַַד (nagad). This word is used elsewhere in scripture to describe proximity, the space and time shared in the relationships of people. There is more detail given to this relationship between husband and wife, though. Gen. 2:21-22 describes the very first Father that led His daughter to her waiting bridegroom. Adam describes Eve as being “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”, vs. 23. Husband and wife do not just share time and space. They share flesh, vs. 24-25. Before I go on, I need to make one thing inescapably clear; boyfriends do not get husband privileges. Period. There is no such thing as a “test drive” when it comes to physical relations between a man and a woman. Purity is a requirement in every aspect of God’s law, and marriage is no exception, Heb. 13:4. This is where it is most vital that we USE OUR BRAIN and not our emotions. If you are susceptible to losing your good sense in situations where there is the temptation to go too far with a date, then don’t put yourself into those situations. Paul dealt with a problem the Corinthians were suffering when it came to physical relations. The city itself was rife with sexual immorality. One of the questions the Corinthian Christians asked Paul was answered in 1 Cor. 7:1-2: “to avoid sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband.” This is the only relationship in which the sharing of flesh is allowed. If a date refuses to respect this boundary, that’s not just a red flag - that’s shark-infested waters. Find a man that is as obsessed with purity as you should be.

God set a pattern for all households. In order to enjoy the success God’s law provides, one must adhere to the organization God’s law commands, Gen. 18:19. As Christian women, we are commanded to submit to our husbands, Eph. 5:22. Once you are married, you don’t get to decide at that point that you cannot submit to the man you chose. Find a man to whom you can submit BEFORE you marry. This is the only time you get to decide. Understand also the wording of Eph. 5:22. It doesn’t say, “husbands, make your wives submit”. That is not his job, so don’t make it his job. He has a heavy enough responsibility already. Submission is our responsibility. I have found, however, that it is easy to submit when I love the one to whom I submit. My husband takes care of me, the care that is described in Eph. 5:25, sometimes even to the sacrifice of himself. THAT’S love, Phil. 2:3-5. It’s only fair that I reciprocate, Prov. 31:27-28. Does this mean I don’t have to reciprocate if my husband doesn’t take care of me? No. I’m not just submitting to my husband. I’m also submitting to God, 1 Pet. 2:18-25, and He has commanded that I submit to my husband - no matter how easy or difficult that becomes. Even if it does become difficult, don’t underestimate the influence of good character. If I do what I should do, even if my husband does not, my conduct could one day convince my husband to behave as God would have him, 1 Pet. 3:1-2. This works both ways. Good husbands can also influence wives to be more godly. 

Most women get this idea in their heads that “submission” is a bad word that carries undesirable connotations. This is usually because all they have ever known was a misrepresentation of submission. I clean my husband’s dirty socks and underwear, but I’m not his maid. I wash my husband’s used dishes, but I’m not his waitress. I know this because of the appreciation he shows for the things that I do for him. He earns the money that enables him to mow a lawn he barely gets to enjoy, maintain the structural integrity of a house and its utilities he spends less than a quarter of his time using, and ensure the wellbeing and happiness of the people that get to reap the benefits of these things more than he does - but that doesn’t make him my personal ATM. He knows this because I show appreciation for the things he does for me. Communication and selflessness are two very principal keys to a working relationship between husband and wife. He doesn’t treat me as chattel and lord over me, either. Husbands should love their wives as they do their own flesh, Eph. 5:28-29.

Submission is not a baser, degrading position to hold. It is simply that of a follower. Any good leader is aware of the needs of anyone under their leadership but also takes into account the desires and opinions of those in their care. Such respect makes submitting to such a leader an easy choice. This, of course, doesn’t mean that they do not have the final authority. My husband frequently asks my opinion on important decisions, but ultimately the decision is his and his alone. There have been (and I’m sure will be) times that I have not agreed with the decision my husband has made. This does not give me the right to overstep the boundaries God has set. Sometimes my husband was right and I didn’t see until after the fact. Sometimes, he was wrong. I would love to tell you that I have always handled the “I told you so” conversation with patience, understanding, and forgiveness…but that would be a lie. I will say this; any time the conversation WAS handled with patience, understanding, and forgiveness, that’s where growth happened. Such communication gave him the wherewithal to admit his mistake and also to more freely forgive my mistakes in the future. God’s way works best, every time, Ps. 1:1-3, Nahum 1:7.

I have been blessed with a wonderful husband. He wasn’t dropped into my lap nor I into his. He wasn’t miraculously instructed to find me and woo me, nor was I divinely struck upon the back of the head and told to locate and marry this man. We were blessed through the providence of God with sense, circumstance, and opportunity. God still left the decision up to us. I have now been happily married for almost 21 years. “Happy” doesn’t mean there wasn’t trouble. We’ve had more good days than bad, but the bad days have made the good all the more pleasant. We are a team as we raise our daughter, we are a force to be reckoned with when battling those problems that come along, and we owe all of this to God because it is Him we follow.

His word is our shield and buckler, Ps. 91:4.

If you are a woman in search of a good husband, God’s word describes how such a man can be recognized. It makes them so much easier to find when you know what you’re looking for and doing so in the right place - the church. Just don’t ignore the probability that those good men are seeking good women. If you want a good husband, you have to be a good wife. The woman in Proverbs 31 is the kind that doesn’t ignore chapters 1-30. I hope this study has given you a starting point to a bountiful harvest from the will of God in how to find a good husband and be a good wife. I pray that every wife finds herself as blessed as this one is.

"Church Lady" - Amy Lawrence

Church Lady

A Study on Our Influence as Women

I’m going to give you a scenario. This is entirely hypothetical, but the more you read the more you’ll see that it is also entirely possible. 

The auditorium of a local building where the church meets is filled with those of us that are there every Sunday morning for worship service. As we all settle down into our understood “assigned” seats,  we notice that someone we don’t know is sitting in Jane and John Doe’s seat. It’s not so much that we notice that someone different is sitting on that pew, but what is nearly impossible to ignore are the number of tattoos and piercings on the woman now occupying the space and the dark and ominous theme of her clothing. She has never been here before. There are a few minutes left before the service begins, but no one introduces themselves - and the looks on our faces tell her we aren’t going to do so. We instead stare. In our minds, we wonder how someone has the audacity to look like that, especially here. In this study, we are going to learn how we as the women of the family of God (and any Christian, really) should conduct ourselves in the house of God.

            Human brains have a terrible habit of assuming. It is one of many mechanisms that can be explained scientifically as having a purpose, but all in all, it is my opinion that it causes more trouble than it prevents. We think we know this woman. We judge according to appearance. Our minds quickly forget that Jesus warned us about this (Jn. 7:24). Instead of giving her the benefit of the doubt and try and find out more about her, we put her at arm’s length. What we don’t know is that this woman is at rock bottom and is sitting, waiting for someone to throw her a life-line. Not one single Christian in the building understands that the church is not a gathering of perfect people; we are not the sinless trying to correct the sinful. We are just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. She’s here, she’s hungry, and to treat her as if she doesn’t belong is to overlook that at one point, we were just as spiritually starving as she in our journey. No one noticed how long she sat in her dilapidated Honda and argued with herself whether to go inside or go home. Her terror is justified when she notices that there is a ten-foot halo of empty space surrounding where she is sitting. Service starts. She has no idea what to do because she has never set foot in an environment like this before. All she knows is that her parole officer advised her to seek God and start here. Everyone reaches for a song book. She mimics. They all seem to know exactly what page to turn to, but she thumbs through absently, not knowing…until a little girl, sitting on the same pew, sees. She scoots toward the stranger and helps her find the page. The woman leans and whispers, “Thank you, precious.” The beaming smile the little girl gives her calms her a bit. At this point, we should all be ashamed because a child just educated us. Let’s consider some personality traits we as Christians should have that allow us to see souls the way God sees them. A Christian should be:

#1.) Compassionate.

Let’s approach this from a standpoint to which everyone can relate. Let’s think of the fiercest, scariest wild animal we can. Imagine this animal is caught in a trap and we can see that it is injured, bleeding, struggling, and terrified. No matter the personality of the animal or the danger, we would have compassion and try to free the animal. Why can’t we see each other with the same loving attitude? Sin is a prison! If we can free another soul from that prison, why wouldn’t we at least try?! We are also commanded to imitate Christ, 1 Cor. 11:1. The compassion of Christ is unsurpassed. It is planted in love, Jn. 3:16. We can plant our compassion for one another in love as well, 1 Thess. 4:9, 1 John 4:7.

#2.) Courageous.

We all have the innate desire to remain in our cozy comfort zones. It takes bravery to step out, especially to do so for someone else. Can a person that looks and acts outside of what we consider normal make us uncomfortable? Absolutely. Does this allow us to treat them as if they do not matter? No. God is not partial. Neither should we be, James 2:1-9. Cowardice comes with consequences, Rev. 21:8. We as Christians are not given a spirit of fear, 2 Tim. 1:7.

#3.) Communicative.

Women are stereotyped as excessive talkers. However true this may be, the talking is more often than not the negative type. Gossip is predominantly a female activity. We (and yes, I have been guilty of the crime) tend to take the “easy” route and talk about someone instead of TO someone concerning things many see as sensitive subjects. We also seek accomplices. Mutual dislike for the person or situation encourages us to continue in the bad behavior. Compassion and courage should make us seek the edifying route instead. Talk to them. Don’t tear them down. Build them up. If there is an uncomfortable subject that has to be discussed, do so with grace and salt, Col. 4:6.

Make your words as palatable as possible…because you never know when you may have to swallow them. It is possible to say a hard thing in a kind way. 

#4.) Child-like.

In the above scenario, how did a child see what we did not? 

Jesus spoke the words, ““Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” (Lk. 18:16-17) Infants are naturally guileless. They have an innocence that comes from inexperience. The environment in which they eventually gain experience is paramount to the adult they will one day become. Our own adult maturity often blinds us to that valuable innocence. Paul wrote, “Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.” (1 Cor. 14:20) Experience should cultivate wisdom, but part of that wisdom is holding on to that child-like innocence in situations of conflict or discomfort.

We are entrusted by God with the task of caring for another soul when we are given the opportunity to share the wonderful blessings that are found only in Christ. We are ambassadors for Christ, and when we represent Him in a way that is unChristlike, we throw a stumbling block in the path of a potential Christian. Adding to this scenario, this woman later becomes a Christian and a teacher. Several young people, youth that are involved in the same lifestyle she used to be, hear her story and turn to God. Every moment counts. Every gesture, every word, every attitude matters. We have the ability to make becoming a Christian an easy decision by how we treat anyone that wants to know what we’re all about. We are all. About. Christ. Jn. 13:35.

Now let’s get a picture in mind of what a “Church Lady” should look like. 

She will:

-See God’s people as He sees them: sons and daughters

-Be a doer of the word and not a hearer only

-Refuse to judge according to appearance and do her best to love people

-Be a fountain of mercy and grace

-Be an epistle of love, humility, kindness, gentleness, and compassion

-Point others to HIM

-Reach to the back row and encourage the hearts of those that can’t get past the grief and sorrow of their mistakes

-Look for opportunities to be a blessing

She is fully aware of her own shortcomings and seeks forgiveness and guidance daily. She recognizes struggle in others and speaks hope. She does not gossip, brag, or boast. She utters blessing. Gratitude is her adornment. She is a woman of her word. She is a worshipper, in spirit and in truth. She prays. She is trustworthy. She is known for what she stands for, and what she won’t stand for. She understands that in order to be the woman of Proverbs 31, she has to know and practice chapters 1-30. She is a lifter. An encourager. A listener. She forgives, completely. She shares the same grace she is given every day. She invests in the greatest investment in the world; God’s people. 

Are you a church lady?

Christian Relativity - A study on Time - Amy Lawrence

Christian Relativity

A Study on Time in Scripture

Time. In reading the first three words of scripture, we learn that the first thing created was time. It is indeed a marvel. We can spend it, waste it, manage it, or measure it, but what we can never do is change its speed.

Time stands still for no one.

Time speeds up for no one.

Let’s discuss this unstoppable force and what we as Christians are expected to do with it. 

Albert Einstein possessed a mind that had a knack for thinking ahead of his time. HIs theory of general relativity is a description of how gravity works and how mass affects time and space. Einstein postulated that time and space are intertwined, and what affects one also affects the other. He theorized that if one could “fold” space, time would “fold” with it…and one could travel from point A to point B millions of miles away in a matter of seconds. He also theorized that anything that generates enough gravity will “bend” this space/time fabric. Using Einstein’s theory is how astronomers find stars, black holes, planetary bodies, galaxies millions of light years away. Most do not understand Einstein’s theory because most people see space and time as two separate entities. Your phone understands, though. The GPS on your phone relies on Einstein’s theories for accuracy. Satellites in outer space experience time slightly faster than we do here on Earth (by nanoseconds, nothing significant). This means that the technology inside your phone has to use the theories postulated by Einstein in order for your GPS to get you where you need to go. Einstein’s ideas were theorized decades before we even had the technology to confirm his theories, but many of them are now proven fact.

 It’s a lot to wrap one’s head around. And that’s the point.

When God responded to Job in Job 38, he challenged Job to explain the “ordinances of heaven”, 38:33. God was presenting Job with a picture of how awesome He is and how puny we are when we stand before God. As long as it has taken the human race to discover what God has known all along is a testament to our limited ability and  access to knowledge. God tells us, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:9) Just because we have learned how time and space work doesn’t mean we’ve suddenly been given the ability to manipulate either. Understanding the relationship between time and space does not change the fact that we are still human. God created Einstein. Even knowing what he knew, Albert Einstein could not bend space. He could not alter time. Only God can. That fact has never changed. In this, we see God. Paul wrote to the Romans, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead…” (Rom. 1:29) God is proven, time and time again, by His creation. Our limits are proven, time and time again, by HIs creation.

But why show us how limited we are?

I’ll get into that in a moment. First, let’s see what the Bible has to say about time.

Scripture talks A LOT about time and the relationship it has with Creation. Everyone can probably quote Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven…” We are the prisoners of time. Solomon also wrote, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all. For man also knows not his time: as the fish that are taken in a cruel net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in a cruel time, when it falls suddenly upon them.” (Ecc. 9:11-12) Time is a determinate of our existence, and we cannot escape it. There is nothing quite like watching the hands of a clock move and knowing that we are at the mercy of the time that clock represents. Imagine, if you will, going through an entire day without knowing what time it is! Would that day feel slower? Faster? Would the sun seem to stand still? (That really happened, once, Josh. 10:12-13.) No matter how we perceive or how much we know about the temporal, it still does not change the fact that our physical bodies have been created with a time-limit. Everything in Creation is temporary, 2 Pet. 3:10, which makes God separate from Creation, from time and space. God is spirit, John 4:24. God existed before time began, 1 Pet. 1:20. God inhabits eternity, Is. 57:15. There is no limit to the space God can take up at any given time, Is. 52:12, and there is no escaping God, Prov. 15:3. His eternal existence in both time and space is depicted in His name, Ex. 3:13-15, Jn. 8:58.

This is part of what makes God awesome. 

Scripture measures time in human terms by hours, Mt. 20:3-5, days, Gen. 1:5, weeks (Sabbaths), Ex. 26:26, months, Ex. 12:2, years, Ex. 12:5, feasts/holy days, Ex. 23:14, Is. 30:29, moons, Ps. 81:3; 104:19, Is. 66:23, and watches, Lk. 12:38. (The Hebrew Calendar is a lunisolar calendar, using both the sun and moon for times and dates. Not all scripture was recorded using the Hebrew references of time, though. Matthew, Mark, and Luke used Hebrew references - but John did not. John used Roman time, which is why it may seem that scripture contradicts itself when in fact it does not, Mt. 27:45, Mk. 15:33, Lk. 23:44, Jn. 19:14). No measure of time, however, is relevant to God, 2 Pet. 3:8, because God is eternal, Is. 43:11-13.

Okay. We’ve covered the physical. Let’s get into our spiritual view of time. I asked a question earlier; why does God show us how limited we are? Being finite, we often are forced to consider the brevity of this life. Eternity is so appealing to us as humans because we know how fleeting this life is, Is. 40:6-8. We’ve seen the truth of death. The other side of suffering shows us how fragile we are. In this, we have the tendency to seek things that make us feel safe and secure. Scripture gives us the answer. Only in scripture can we can find the promise God gives that we do not have to be afraid. God told Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9) When we understand our own weakness, we seek a safe haven. Anyone that has a deep knowledge of and appreciation for God’s power finds that safe haven in Him. Our limits should draw us closer to God, Ps. 57:1. He never leaves, Heb. 13:5.

Our weaknesses are also a billboard for God’s power, our imprisonment by time a flashing sign that points to the Almighty. Paul understood this, 2 Cor. 12:7-1. Isaiah 43:1-13 showcases how God’s might is necessary throughout all of Creation and our interaction with it. Mankind’s limitations broadcast the difference between God Almighty and man. This also brings to the forefront the love that God has for us. He has the ability to destroy us…but instead lifts us up, James 4:10.

We may not be able to manipulate time, but we can certainly use what we have been given wisely. The Ephesians were advised by Paul to “walk circumspectly… redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:15-16) All things are given to us by God, including our time, James 1:17. In this, we are made stewards for Christ…and a steward must be found faithful, 1 Cor. 4:1-2. We can be efficient with the time and talents given to us by God (Mt. 25:14-23)…or we can squander them (Mt. 25:24-30).

Either way, we will answer for it, 2 Cor. 5:9-11.

I’ll ask some questions in conclusion:

1.)How much of your day did you dedicate to God?

2.)How much of God’s day did He dedicate to you?

3.) How much of your time would  you invest into eternity?

Every moment we invest into God’s Kingdom is an investment into eternity, because it is the only Kingdom that will cross over into eternity, 1 Cor. 15:24. Give your time to God, and what He will give in return is timeless.

Parenthood - Amy Lawrence

Parenthood

A Study on Walking Through the Hood with God

I asked my teenage daughter about what I should write for this article. She said, “Write about raising teenagers in Christ.” So I did. 

My child is now 15 years old. She is a sophomore in the public school system, she owns an iPhone, and she has her driver’s permit. We are at a stage in her life when she is learning a great deal more about personal responsibility than usual. I cannot put sufficient words to how proud I am of the strong, intelligent, kind young Christian she has become. I’d like to think that my husband and I had our part in it, but in truth it was all brought about by God and His wisdom, James 1:17. God’s word tells us to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” Prov. 22:6. Let’s begin a study on how to do this.

The instructions on how to raise Godly children are found only in God’s word… so the first question that comes to mind is: do we want to raise Godly children? I hope emphatically that your answer is “yes”. If so, then one must study and come to a knowledge of God’s word. Heartbreaking, though, is the number of parents that have failed their children in neglecting to learn and teach them the Truth. There is no greater gift I can give my child than knowledge of God and His will for mankind, and there is no greater destination I could wish for my child than Heaven. The instructions God has given us are not given as a list of tenets, though. We have been given examples (of good choices AND bad choices), commands, and promises in scripture, all of which - when studied properly - can lead the student to a wisdom only God’s word can bestow, Job 12:13, Ps. 111:10, 2 Tim. 3:15-17. I’ve organized my study into 3 categories:

              1.)The Parents

              2.)The Peerage

              3.)The Pedigree

The Parents

The first step to raising Godly children is to be unselfish Godly parents. (The chances for that child are better with both parents being Godly, but I know, in this world, that is not always the case. One, however, is better than none.) We have to be foremost unselfish. ALL good parenting has to be unselfish. Their education starts with us, and so we must put them before ourselves. Even if your Godliness didn’t begin in your childhood or even into adulthood, we as adult human beings are a fluid concept. We can change our behavior. We can become what we want to teach our children to become. If you’re not an unselfish Godly parent, become one for both yourself and your children. 

You cannot teach them what you do not know or practice. Everyone knows that you can’t get something from nothing. Children do not happen without parents.  Knowledge does not happen without teaching. Habits are not learned without consistency. Don’t be a parent that underestimates the power of influence and expects Godly knowledge to just magically develop within your child. Be reasonable. If there is something you see in your child that you do not wish to see, chances are it got there because of you or because of an influence you allowed. To teach our children acceptable behavior, we must be the acceptable behavior they see on a daily basis. This is the responsibility of being a parent; our influence will either make or break our kids. I cannot stress enough how incredible it is to be a mother, because God has entrusted me with a SOUL that is not my own. He has given me the task of teaching her everything I know about Him and about Eternity. If I fail, I have robbed my daughter of an eternal life of rest. This is why I study DAILY; to build my supply of knowledge to give to my daughter and to teach her to study for herself as well, 2 Tim.

1:5; 3:14-17.

I know we can’t be perfect. Even as mature adults, we make mistakes. It is inevitable. That doesn’t mean we have to pretend we’re perfect, either. One of the most important things I feel I’ve done as a parent is admit to my child when I’ve made a mistake - and ask for forgiveness. It both taught my child how to handle failure and how to ask for and give forgiveness. This is important! It is a vital behavior that will aid in the relationship that my child has with God, with me, and with others, James 5:16. The Holy Spirit tells us that we must submit to God, James 4:7, and to one another, Eph. 5:21, 1 Pet. 5:5. Giving each other the power of accountability keeps us honest. It also builds a respect that cannot be shaken. By teaching her respect of me and my husband and us reciprocating by respecting her, she learns also how to respect God. We respect her by keeping our promises, by not being hypocritical, and by structuring our home in the only way that will help her grow in God. 

Communication is also vital. If two people never learn to sit down and talk (I mean talk, not shout, and be open and honest), whether it’s you and your husband or you and your child, those two people cannot grow and better their relationship. Above all, pray. Teach your children to pray. Having direct contact with God is better than any wi-fi, and we don’t even need a password. 

The value God has placed on the organization of the home is paramount to growing a child. The Holy Spirit placed the husband of the household as the authority of the wife and children, Christ as the authority of the husband, 1 Cor. 11:3. He has the responsibilities allotted to the husband, Eph. 5:25-31; 6:4, Col. 3:19, 2 Thess. 3:10, Titus 2:6-8, I have the responsibilities allotted to the wife, Eph. 5:22-24, Col. 3:15, Titus 2:3-5, and our daughter has the responsibilities allotted to children, Eph. 6:1-2. I will tell you that I am abundantly blessed in that my husband and I are both Christians and have primarily been on the same page (scripture) when it comes to establishing our household and raising our daughter. We have had minor disagreements as opinions go, but all in all we have been a team thus far in raising our child in Christ. Above all, I submit to my husband - even when I don’t agree with him. It is my prayer that Alyssa will one day have a Christian husband. She is learning how to submit while she is a child so that when she is an adult, it will not be a “new” experience. We must give her good foundational lessons as a child that will help her navigate adulthood and solve the problems that will definitely come her way as an adult. This is the best way to grow a child. A Godly home is a force to be reckoned with because it produces Godly adults. I would, however, be naive in thinking that all marriages are identical to mine. Many have only one Godly parent, many more have none. It is a sad truth - one that I’ve seen within my own relations. I’ve also seen the consequences of such marriages, the subsequent behavior produced in the children of these marriages. Rarely do children from these kinds of homes seek God on their own as adults; because God has never been at the forefront of their parents’ lives, they mimic the attitude. 

It goes without saying that parenting is not an easy job. From keeping them fed and clothed to teaching them problem-solving skills and responsibility, it takes a tough person to be a parent…which makes it so unfortunate that generally any male/ female couple has the capability to give birth to another human. If only every parent were a faithful Christian, this world would be a wonderful place. Being a good parent means you have to be the parent. Not the friend, not the enemy, but the one person that holds the position in their development to instill knowledge, respect, responsibility, and, in the end, wisdom. We can’t do this if we are unwilling to punish and reward properly. There are extremes both ways. I will never advocate misuse of either. There is an abusive way to punish/reward and a right way to punish/reward. Do I always get it right? No. Like I said, I make mistakes. The goal is getting it right as much as possible. The more I get it right, the better I get at getting it right. They never tell that to parents; a good parent is one that can grow and learn, too. It all has to start and end with teaching our children the appropriate consequences to their actions. If they do well, reward. If they do wrong, punishment. It’s also Important to see that society’s opinion about raising children isn’t always on the same page as God’s opinion. Let God set the standard for reward/punishment. God’s opinion should take precedence in any Christian parent’s decision-making. He is the perfect Father, so He knows how to teach us to be the parents we should be.

The Peerage

That time-old phrase, “You are known by the company you keep” stands true for any age. It matters who we let our kids hang out with, and it matters where our kids are and what they are doing. Our home cannot be the only place our daughter learns God. No, I cannot wrap my kid in bubble wrap everywhere she goes and follow her around with a stick, beating away anyone that doesn’t meet standards. I’m keeping my promise not to be a Helicopter Mom (No matter how much I’d like to sometimes.) I have to trust that we’ve taught her well and that she is capable of making good choices. It’s not fair to punish her before she’s done something punish-worthy. She can’t learn how to handle mistakes she’s never made. When she does make a mistake, it is vitally important that her parents have the wisdom to dole out the RIGHT punishment that teaches the RIGHT lesson. As I said before, we are not perfect. There have been times when I as a parent did not do the right thing. But as my track record goes as well as my husband’s, we seem to be doing a pretty decent job. Our daughter is marvelous. (Biased? ME? Slightly.) She’s smart, funny, beautiful, modest, kind, loving, and wise beyond her years. She has a personality that others might label “weird”, but in truth is simply unique. She is not afraid to be her own person. It takes a strong young person to embrace being different. That is the potatoes to the meat of being a Christian; stepping away from the world and telling it, “I don’t want to be like you, and I don’t need what you are selling”, 1 Jn. 2:15-17. How, then, is a kid supposed to survive this when that kid’s parents can’t? Some Christian parents put so much emphasis on being popular, on fitting in with the world, on building a reputation that is acceptable by society. They want it to look like God is driving, but in truth He’s in the back seat being ignored when subjects like the Prom come up. Some parents live vicariously through their children. I’ve heard, “I want them to have the things I never had” so much it makes me cringe and say, “You forget to give them the things you DID have: a Godly education.” I cannot stress this enough. Do not let the world raise your children. It will fail them. Every. Single. Time. God never fails, Lam. 3:22-25.

The Pedigree

We have long ago stepped away from the culture that puts emphasis on what was considered a “pure bloodline”. Part of the reason Samaritans were disdained by the Jews in Biblical times was because they were “mixed blood”; offspring of the Israelites that remained in the Northern Kingdom - after the Assyrian exile - that intermarried with the foreigners that were brought into the area. They were disdained because of the command in the Law of Moses that disallowed Israelites to intermarry with nonIsraelites, Deut. 7:1-4. God’s Israel today is made up of both Jew and Gentile (as the church, Gal. 3:28), therefore the law against intermarriage in the Old Law didn’t carry over into the New Law, 1 Cor. 7. (We are physically, in truth, of “mixed blood”.) I say this as an example of what it means to carry on a lineage. Even though we cannot carry on a physical lineage, we can a spiritual lineage. I lived to see my child become a Christian. I want to see my grandchildren and my great grandchildren, if the Lord allows me to live that long, become Christians. They have a much better chance of becoming such if I do my job as a parent, Deut. 6:4-9. Never underestimate how far a good influence can go, Heb. 11:4.

I pray every day for my child and for myself, that I may be the compass that always points her to Christ. I know what the world will do to a person. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, let alone my dearest child. I have to be the parent she needs in order to give her a fighting chance against Satan. He is always recruiting, and my child is no exception. I can show her that only the Holy Spirit can give her the knowledge and the tools she needs to fight him. I can pray that she will carry that knowledge and will one day teach it to her own children. If you are a parent, God has blessed you with a blessing that is beyond compare, Ps. 127. Cherish the little ones that are under your care. It is temporary. We have but a short time to mold them and send them into the gaping maw of society. Don’t deny them the lessons they need in order to survive the battles that will certainly come their way. I hope this study as well as further study will aid you in being or becoming a good parent in the eyes of God.

Knowing Your Enemy - Amy Lawrence

Knowing Your Enemy

A Study on Satan

In German legend, he is Mephistopheles.  The Quran calls him Iblis. Shakespear’s “King Lear” designated him the Prince of Darkness. The Pharisees referred to him as Beelzebub. Christians know him as the Adversary (Satan) and the Accuser (Devil), the enemy of all mankind. Not many like to discuss this being. Some even contend that he doesn’t exist. In this article, I would like to study about the one John calls the Dragon, Rev. 20:2, and his dealings with mankind.

Let’s start by asking some questions. Who and what is Satan?  The Bible has a great deal to say about this fellow. His gender is male, as per the pronouns used to describe him, 1 Pet. 5:8. From this passage, we are cautioned that he is dangerous. We also learn from scripture that he is prideful, 1 Tim. 3:6, selfish, 2 Tim. 2:26, arrogant, Mt. 4:8-9, a liar and murderer, Jn. 8:44, and a master of deception and disguises, 2 Cor. 2:11; 11:14. It is certain what Satan is not; he is not deity. Only God holds this title, Mt. 4:10.  Across the globe today he is also frequently misnomered as Lucifer. In Isaiah 14, Lucifer is the king of Babylon - not Satan - and the passage is the prophecy of Babylon’s doom. Satan is, however, a fallen angel. The Bible teaches that not only he, but other angels, rebelled against God, 2 Pet. 2:4, and stepped outside their proper place, Jude 6. This tells us angels have free will. They are created beings, Ps. 148:1-5, and so from this we can also infer that Satan - at one point - was good, Gen. 1:31. 

Why is Satan our enemy? Unfortunately, I can only speculate. We read in Job 1 how Satan tried to push God’s buttons using Job. It seems Satan sees us only as objects with which to wound God. He tried to use Jesus, Mt. 4:1-11, Peter, Mt. 16:23, and Paul, 2 Cor. 12:7-10, the same way. He tried to use Judas as well, Lk. 22:3, and succeeded - because Judas let him, just as Ananias and Sapphira did, Acts 5:1-11. The truth is, Satan cannot force us to do anything. He cannot snatch us from God. The only way Satan can take us is if we are willing to go, Jn. 10:27-29. A war is being waged by Satan, and he is always recruiting, 1 Pet. 5:8. We become soldiers for Satan when we use his weapons, Jn. 8:44. Why would anyone work for Satan knowing that they will receive the same fate as he in the end? Most do not know. Some know, but choose him anyway in a self-serving pursuit. These are Satan’s most powerful weapons; ignorance and selfishness. This brings me to my next question. 

What are our weapons against Satan? Before we can speak of warfare on the battlefield, we must find the battlefield. It is often incorrectly believed that the battlefield will be a place in Israel known as the Jezreel Valley. Alongside this valley is a strategically elevated point called Megiddo. Most know it by a different name, though: Armageddon. This word simply means “Mount of Megiddo”. There will be no literal battle between the armies of God and the armies of Satan here. What these also incorrectly believe is that it will be a physical battle. Paul wrote that it is not a physical battle but a spiritual battle that we fight, Eph. 6:12. If it is a spiritual battle, then where is the battlefield? This question is answered in that same chapter of Ephesians. Look at verse 17. It speaks of salvation and where it happens. There is only one place one would wear a helmet. This is not a physical helmet because this is not physical warfare. It is a spiritual helmet. The battlefield is the mind; our consciousness that allows us to choose God…or choose Satan. This chapter of Ephesians also lists the Christian armor, Eph. 6:10-18. Every item of this armor is defensive, save one: the sword, Eph. 6:17.  God doesn’t just expect us to defend against Satan. He expects us to fight back. We are to use the only weapon that has the ability to defeat the Devil: the Word of God. But what if you engage in a sword fight but don’t know how to use a sword? Study your Bible. It is your weapon. Don’t go anywhere without it. That old Serpent will not drop his sword simply because you don’t have one. To underestimate Satan is to fall on this battlefield. An unshakeable trust in God is necessary to defeat Satan, Prov. 3:5-6. This trust resides in wearing and using:

• -Truth, Jn. 17:17

• -Righteousness, 2 Cor. 5:21

• -Peace, Mt. 5:9

• -Faith, Rom. 1:16-17

• -Salvation, 2 Chr. 20:17

• -The Word of God, 2 Tim. 3:16-17

Another weapon that is successful against Satan is our strength in fellowship. We, with Christ as our cornerstone, are a brick wall, 1 Pet. 2:4-6. We must depend on one another, rejoice with each other, and pray without ceasing, 1 Cor. 12:20-26, James 5:16. 

Fight the GOOD fight, 2 Tim. 4:7.

The War on Gender - Amy Lawrence

The War on Gender

A Study of Biology

It’s a crazy world in which we live. I will tell you a secret though; it always has been. Solomon wrote, “The thing that has been is what will be, and that which is done is that which will be done; and there is no new thing sunder the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9) We would like to think that the advances or atrocities of our generation are new, but they are just recycled. There have always been men that want to be women and women that want to be men. God commanded the children of Israel that “a woman shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord your God.” (Deut. 22:5) One can see that such confusion has been plaguing our race for millennia. The struggle for the Christian, however, isn’t always simply the difference between right and wrong.

Dealing with emotions, desires, and temptations is a task in itself. That begs the question: how do we behave around and talk to those that struggle with such issues? This question doesn’t only need to be answered for those that struggle personally, but also for those that have a close relationship with someone that does wrestle with this issue.

Moses recorded in the book of Genesis that God created us male and female. These aren’t just labels or nametags. A person’s gender exists all the way down to DNA. No matter what one looks like on the outside, the inside tells all. (I am neither a scientist nor a doctor. I cannot give you the details of such genetic disturbances, but there is a condition in which one can be born male with female reproductive tissue or female with male reproductive tissue. It is known as XY intersex/XX intersex or pseudohermaphroditism. It is medically possible to determine if the predominant genome within a patient with this condition is male or female. It is usually determined at birth that a child has pseudohermaphroditism. He does not know what he is, she does not know what she is. The parents choose what gender the doctor will “remove”. This is a rare condition; male pseudohermaphroditism almost always requires a defective genome from both parents. The likelihood for males is 1 in 99,000. It is still uncommon but less so in females, 1 in every 16,000. This is usually because the mother undergoes hormone treatments during pregnancy that introduce or produce masculine hormones that are transferred to the female fetus. Again, this condition is rare. The higher percentage of adults that choose to try and be the opposite gender are males/females with healthy genomes .) There are laws in place that allow us as a species to continue thriving. One of those laws is that in order to reproduce another human, it requires the joining of a male gamete and a female gamete. Two males cannot produce a child. Two females cannot produce a child. God told Adam to “be fruitful and multiply”, Gen. 1:28, just as He did every other living creature, Gen. 1:22. This is not possible between two men or two women.

Some would also put God in a position of contradicting Himself when they say, “God made me this way.” Let me make this inescapably clear; God doesn’t make mistakes. If a person’s DNA says XY, God meant for that person to be male. Nothing any individual says or does will ever change that chromosomal XY. If a person’s DNA says XX, God made that person female. Nothing any individual says or does will ever change that chromosomal XX. This is basic microbiology. It is tested, established truth. Another truth is that God didn’t make us for the purpose of achieving our own happiness. He made us for the purpose of His glory, Is. 43:7. That puts us into the realm of feelings. Emotions are tricky, fickle things, holding on to anything of substance by a thread when not properly secured. More often than not, people use emotion to try and produce truth. Truth is never a product of emotion but rather emotion of truth. Feelings alone cannot be trusted, Jer. 17:9. They must be anchored in the truth that no personal feeling can trump God’s commands.

It is also important to understand that self-control includes managing one’s feelings instead of allowing feelings to control. Paul’s letter to the Galatians speaks of self-control as one of the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22-23. A healthy brain is able to be trained to do this, but it - as any worthwhile endeavor - requires practice.

God will not command something of us that we cannot give, Deut. 16:17. We have the free will to do whatever we choose, but one must realize that there are consequences to every choice made, Ecc. 12:13-14, 2 Cor. 5:9-11. Consequences are also never predictable. Sometimes they are immediate. Sometimes they take years to manifest. This is where prudence comes into play. Solomon had quite a lot to say about prudence (Prov. 12:16,23; 13:16; 14:8,15,18; 15:5; 16:21; 18:15; 19:14; 22:3; 27:12) and its connection to knowledge and/or wisdom. One that considers what consequences could or will come about from choices made before making them is a prudent person. An imprudent person in scripture is also called a fool, Prov. 13:16, and life is already hard…but it’s even harder when you’re a fool. It doesn’t have to be. Yes, we all make mistakes, and suffer the consequences of those mistakes. There is, however, value in suffering. In suffering, we learn, James 1:2-4. Those who don’t learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them until they do learn. Suffering also brings us closer to God, a closeness that is incomparable, James 1:5;4:7-10.

We must also discuss sacrifice. The Oxford Dictionary defines sacrifice as “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.” There are and will be things we want in this life that we think will make us happy. Whether or not we are right remains to be seen. We are built to survive first, thrive second. In thriving, we as a species tend to forget what surviving was like and how many things we were willing to do without for the sake of better things…because we got those better things. We forget gratitude and respect. This nation has fallen into the time-old trap of the many nations before it; we are deceived into thinking the ease we now enjoy as a product of suffering can never be taken away, as if we have the inalienable right to never suffer again. Suffering for which one is not prepared is a much harder suffering. One who is well versed in sacrificing something now for something better later is a person that is well practiced at handling suffering when it comes. Not “if”. WHEN. Abraham knew, Heb. 11:8-11. Moses knew, Heb. 11:24-26. They knew the value of sacrifice. There will be times in every Christian’s life where a sacrifice must be made to remain children of God, Rom. 12:1-2. It. Will. Be. Worth. It. Jn. 14:1-6.

Hosea wrote God’s words, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” (Hos. 4:6). The best place to start dealing with the issue of gender confusion is in gaining knowledge. One cannot do what one does not know. The roots of knowledge are truth. Gender is a truth, and truth does not change no matter how we feel about it.

Gravity is a truth. No sane person jumps from an airborne plane without a parachute. Only an insane person would think they are actually a bird and won’t need a parachute, and just as insane is a person that thinks they can alter their gender. To change the direction and consequence of ignorance, we must teach truth. We cannot teach what we ourselves do not know, and so the command to study is practical in such situations, 2 Tim. 2:15. Some Christians also have this idea that tolerance is the right thing to do. In the same verse in Hosea, the priests were rejected because they did not teach truth. We must teach truth - no matter how difficult this is.

Our words must be palatable when we teach truth, Col. 4:6. We must teach in love, Eph. 4:15. Our hearts must understand that this is a disease. It is a disease of the mind, one that is incurable unless it is dealt with God’s way. Hate the sin, not the sinner, Mt. 5:44-45. We can be loving Christian people without tolerating sin. We can be respectful when we speak to others, we can be kind in our dealings with anyone, and we can let Jesus’ light shine in us when we do the right thing (ESPECIALLY when they expect us to do the wrong thing), Gal. 6:9-10. We can also set boundaries. We can express what we will not tolerate with kindness and respect, both for them and for ourselves. We are not given a spirit of timidity but of power, love, and self-control, 2 Tim. 1:7.

Love as Jesus loved, Lk. 23:34. Teach as Paul and Barnabas taught, Acts 13:46.

Have the courage of Joshua, Josh. 1:1-11, the patience of Job, James 5:11, and the meekness of Moses, Num. 12:3. Rest in full assurance that the reward is worth far more than the sacrifices of this life, Heb. 10:32-37, 11:24-26.

Be Not Anxious - Amy Lawrence

Women’s Studies Amy Lawrence July 8, 2023

Be Not Anxious

A Study On Conquering Worry

If one were to look at the statistics, it is a truth that women are more prone to worry and anxiety than men. Psychological studies show that this can be attributed to several factors; each gender’s social differences, hormones, size and strength, even sense of morality. It is agreed throughout the medical community that women, due to their worry, are better at staying alive than men - however, we are also more commonly diagnosed with anxiety disorders than men. The Holy Spirit commanded through the apostle Paul that we “be anxious in nothing”, Phil. 4:6. If we as women are both physically and psychologically disposed to worry, how can we keep this command? Let’s find out what God’s word has to say about the matter. If anyone can answer this question, it is our Creator.

The first step to finding the cure for worry is to find the cause. There are as many answers of what worries us as there are branches of a tree, but the root cause is the same for all: fear. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There are two ends to the spectrum of fear. One is a respectful fear, the other disrespectful. Respectful fear can save one’s life. One of my favorite things to do is horseback riding. I love it, but I equally have a respect for the possibilities if I am not careful. In this, fear is bothnecessary and built upon good sense. Throughout the book of Proverbs, there is a foundation upon which such knowledge, understanding, and wisdom stand. Without this foundation, these three fail. What foundation is of such strength as to hold up the weight of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom? Fear of the Lord. (Pr. 1:7,29; 2:5; 8:13; 9:10; 10:27; 14:26-27; 15:16,33; 16:6; 19:23; 22:4; 23:7)

Our respect of God’s commandments and promises, both the pleasing ones and the difficult ones, are at the heart of a fear of the Lord. It requires an understanding of the might and wisdom of God and a trust in His power, Pr. 3:5-6, Rom. 1:20. Solomon wrote, “Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” (Pr. 31:30) Fear has its place. There are things for which we should always have a respectful fear, Heb. 10:31. “Concern” is also a synonym we use for this type of emotion. Paul had “concern” for the churches, 2 Cor. 11:28, a healthy care for the well- being of the fellow Christians Paul knew and loved. There are also, however, dangers in being on the wrong end of fear. The most chronic worry I face on a daily basis is that for my child. I’ve learned in my motherhood over the last 14 years that sometimes I allow this fear to be a disrespectful fear. Therein is the danger. This end of the ‘fear spectrum’ does not take into consideration all the things I cannot control. It is also a selfish fear. This fear believes that it can control everything and exhausts all energy into attempting to do so. This fear forgets to trust God. It forgets that if we do things God’s way, it all turns out the way it should in the end, Rom. 8:28. It provokes us to seek our own will over God’s and is the first of a long list of vices that will keep us out of Heaven, Rev. 21:8. The original Greek word for fearful (NKJV - cowardly) in this verse is δειλός (deilos). It means “faithless”. We seek our own will because we lack faith in God’s will, in doing things God’s way.

Now for the cure. As a person who has struggled with anxiety for the better part of 23 years, I have tried several different methods to battling it. I am not a medical professional and will therefore not advise on what method anyone should use. I can, however, share the recipe that works for me. My anxiety is controlled with prayer, Bible study, chiropractic care, exercise, nutrition, meditation, and medication. When used properly, these are blessings from God, James 1:17. Scripture is by far my favorite and the best method of meditation, Ps. 1:1-2. It allows me to rest my mind by reminding me Who to trust, Ps. 146, because He is in control, Acts 17:27-28, Rom. 11:36.

I suffered a brain injury when I was 19, and one of the results of that injury was chronic anxiety. At the heart of that issue was sensory overload, especially in social situations. My brain tries to pay attention to everything, all the time. Sorting through what is relevant and what is not is even more of a nightmare, one that takes time and effort and is often confused as me withdrawing into my own mind. I am frequently accused of not paying attention when in fact I am paying attention, my brain is just busy making sure whether or not all the input coming into it is relevant. It is overwhelming and stressful. It has taken many years and many trials and errors to learn how to maintain peace in my own mind. I have good days and bad days just like anyone. When I study scripture, I still have an abundant amount of information coming into my head, but instead of being a torrential thunderstorm, it flows as a calm river - because it is all connected. It is all relevant. It teaches that in God is peace, the cure for anxiety, Phil. 4:6-7, if I keep my mind on God, vss. 8-9, Rom. 8:6. Spiritual peace can also become physical peace. I study my Bible daily because that is the most peaceful place in the world. It teaches us how and where to find comfort and help when needed, Heb. 4:16.

I pray daily because there is no therapist in the world like God. He listens, 1 Jn. 5:14, and He cares, 1 Pet. 5:7. But how can we do these things on such a busy schedule, Amy? One of the most precious sacrifices one can make for God is time, because it is something that we will never get back. It is something that cannot be accumulated. I am a firm believer that if you are too busy for God, you are too busy. There is a portion of every day that I set aside for God and only God. This is how I keep my sanity. I look forward every day to conversing with God through prayer and scripture. If you want this peace of which I speak, if you find anxiety to be your struggle, let’s have a Bible study together. I will be more than happy to share with you the peace I’ve found.

Miracles - A Study of the Supernatural - Amy Lawrence - Women's Studies

Women’s studies

Amy Lawrence

July 3, 2023

Miracles

A Study of The Supernatural

I stood on my front porch one evening during a thunderstorm and watched bolts of lightning, one after the other, strike at random. Just as I decided to go back inside, a bolt struck so close to my house that it nearly knocked me back, blinding me with light. I immediately thought to myself, “It’s a miracle that didn’t hit something!!!” I didn’t think anything of it until I saw a video on Facebook of a bolt of lightning striking a tree and causing it to explode. The tree stood by itself in an open field. I thought, “It’s a miracle that bolt of lightning hit the only tree in that field!” That’s when I decided to put Google to the test and see if I could learn something about lightning. As it turned out, everything I saw was absolutely natural and explainable by natural laws. That led to my investigation into miracles.

The first step to understanding the miraculous is to understand its source. When one does not have a healthy knowledge of God from the standard He has provided (scripture), then one cannot properly see the supernatural and how it is used in God’s dealings with mankind. Some dedicate themselves to learning and come to a knowledge of the truth through patience and understanding. This is a hurdle that the majority of people refuse to jump. They want to skip ahead and get to the part where the Almighty, Supernatural Being they know little about will grant them whatever they ask - whether it be proof by a sign (Mt. 12:38), deliverance (Mt. 27:42), or fulfillment of selfish desires (James 4:3). If the first step hasn’t been taken, your study into the miraculous needs to begin in a study of the Godhead. Once one understands the Godhead - three Beings completely united, each with their own responsibilities concerning mankind - one has the foundation upon which an understanding of the miraculous can stand. If one does not

understand this fundamental necessity, one cannot come to an accurate knowledge of the miraculous and therefore cannot know what a miracle is - and what it isn’t.

We all suffer the human condition; we limit our view within a box of what we can understand with our own senses and our own perception. Sometimes this is curable. Most times it is of epidemic proportions. It all depends upon the mind and how well-trained it is to see truth, Heb. 5:14.

The definition of miraculous, as described in scripture, is “an event in the external world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition of God, operating without the use of means capable of being discerned by the senses, and designed to authenticate the divine commission of a religious teacher and the truth of his message. It is an occurrence at once above nature and above man. It shows the intervention of a power that is not limited by the laws either of matter or of mind, a power interrupting the fixed laws which govern their movements, a supernatural power.” (Easton’s Bible Dictionary) Many use the term “miracle” in the English language in a much broader sense than it is depicted in scripture. English speakers use this word to express amazement, awe, or to explain happenings we struggle to explain only by what we see on the surface. We often call the birth of a child or the spring season miraculous, but it doesn’t meet the criteria given by scripture of what constitutes a miracle. (Even the birth of Jesus of Nazareth was a natural birth, Lk. 2:6. It was His conception that was miraculous, Is. 7:14.) So this begs the question: we call so many things “miracles”…but are they? The only way to answer this question is to compare what we call miraculous today with what the Holy Spirit called miraculous in scripture.

The word “miracle” was Anglicized from the Latin words “mirus”, “mirari”, and “miraculum”, (“wonderful”, “to wonder”, “object of wonder”). The miraculous in scripture is not described in this singular sense. It is a multi-faceted concept. The original context of scripture uses “sign”, “work”, “mighty work”, and “wonder” as descriptive words of the varying aspects of the miraculous, each with it’s own properties. Let’s look at each one.

“Sign”

Old Testament: תוֹא - ‘ot

New Testement: σημεῖον - semeion

“Sign” is used both as an object or daily activity that has been acted upon by supernatural means to direct the audience toward God. The ten plagues of Egypt were signs, Ex. 10:1, Neh. 9:10. God gave Moses two signs to prove he was the messenger of God, Ex. 4:1-9, and one to Isaiah to prove that his message to Hezekiah was from God, 2 Kings 20:8-11. Jesus Himself was a sign, Lk. 2:12.

“Wonder”

Old Testament: תֵפוֹמ - mopheth

New Testament: τέρας - teras (from which we get our English word “terror”)

This word is often coupled with “sign”, Ex. 7:3, Deut. 13:1-2, Jn. 4:48, Heb. 2:4. It is defined as a special manifestation of God’s power as a supernatural activity and as something unusual that causes the beholder to marvel. As “sign” relates to the understanding, “wonder” relates to the imagination. “Signs and wonders” are used both in reference to God’s activity (Acts 7:36) as well as the work of Satan through human instruments (Mt. 24:24).

“Work”

Old Testament: הֶשֲׂעַמ - ma’aseh New Testament: ἔργον - ergon

This means exactly what it appears - any deed, action, duty, office, or charge of business. When used in reference to God’s works, it is something done outside of physical laws as proof of God and therefore miraculous, Josh. 24:31, Jn. 10:22-42.

“Mighty work”

Old Testament: הרָוּבְגּ - gbuwrah New Testament: δύναμις - dynamis

“Might” and “power” are the common translated words used through the Old and New Testaments for this aspect of the miraculous. The strength of God is unmistakeable. One cannot take something natural and confuse it with the might God puts into the miraculous, into the evidence that supersedes the natural, Deut. 3:24, Mark 6:2. If it is natural, it is therefore by default not miraculous.

Now that we’ve covered “what” a miracle is, it’s time to talk about “why”. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty right away. No human being living today has ever seen a bonafide miracle. Yes,

that’s a bold statement and one that is printed in full confidence of its truth. Let me point out three very important pillars of this truth.

#1: Miracles were not vague. In Acts 4, there is a debate among the rulers of the Jews concerning what they should do about Peter and John teaching Christ. The Jews’ attempts at stopping the teachings of Christ were being thwarted by what scripture called a “notable miracle” (γνωστὸν σημεῖον - gnoston semeion, “known sign”) that was seen by all who lived in Jerusalem, vs. 16. You will also see in that same verse that the miracle was undeniable, even by the men that “could say nothing against it”, vss. 13-14. No matter how badly they wanted to deny that it was indeed a miracle done by Peter and John in the name of Jesus, they couldn’t!

#2: Miracles had a purpose. John 11 records the death of Jesus’ close friend, Lazarus. Jesus did something in this chapter that his apostles found odd; he purposely let Lazarus die. Jesus loved this family dearly, vss. 3,5. So why, having the power to heal Lazarus of his sickness, would the Lord let his friend die? The answer is found in verses 4, 14-15, and 40. The purpose of miracles was to confirm the message of Christ, Heb. 2:1-4, Jn. 20:30-31.

#3: Miracles had a time limit. There is a lot to be said concerning this pillar, so please bear with me. I will be as succinct as possible.

Miracles were like postage stamps. They were necessary to deliver a message. Once that message was delivered, the delivery system was no longer necessary. The envelope and stamp could be discarded. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians draws this out in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 13:

-The delivery system-

1 Corinthians 12 gives the list of nine miraculous categories and how unity is required in order to use them properly. Each miraculous category was a part of the whole. No category on its own accomplished complete delivery of the message. In order for the message to be both delivered and understood, the cooperation of all nine categories was required. Having this nugget of knowledge will make understanding 1 Cor. 13:9-10 a little easier. “In part” refers to each individual category. “Perfect” (this word means “whole” or “complete”) can refer to both the cooperation of all nine miraculous categories and complete delivery of the entire message.

-The delivered message-

1 Corinthians 13 is commonly known as the chapter of love (the glue required for successful unity), but what many do not know is that this chapter also gives the expiration date of miracles.

Verse 8 tells us that miraculous prophecies will fail, miraculous speaking in tongues will cease, and miraculous knowledge will vanish away. When? “When that which is perfect has come”, vs.

10. The message will be completely delivered, Jude 3, and the miracles that confirmed the message will no longer be necessary. One must also understand that miraculous gifts could only be imparted to another through the laying on of an apostle’s hands, Acts 8:14-18, 2 Tim. 1:6. Once death claimed all of the apostles, there was no more imparting of spiritual gifts. Once death claimed all upon whom these spiritual gifts had already been imparted, there were no more spiritual gifts…which is why, through the grace and providence of God, they recorded these truths in the written word, Jn. 20:30-31, Rom. 15:4, 2 Tim. 3:16-17.

So…if God is capable of miraculously forcing everyone on the planet to know who He is and what He can do (Rom. 14:11-12), then why use something that seems prosaic to our human eyes to persuade us of the Truth? Why does He need to persuade us of anything He can simply force us to know? The answer is LOVE. Anyone who understands love knows that it is something that cannot be forced. God does not want what we are unwilling to give, Ex. 25:1-2. What He wants from us is our complete and undivided attention, Mt. 22:37, the kind of attention that can see Him without needing miracles, Jn. 20:29.

There will always be those that refuse to be convinced no matter how much evidence is presented. Judas was such a person. He was one of the Twelve, Mt. 26:47. He not only saw miracles, but performed miracles in the name of Christ, Mk. 6:7-13. Neither the message nor the Messenger could convince him. When the rich man begged Father Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers, Abraham’s answer rang all too true to this fact, Lk. 16:27-31.

The miracles in scripture were simply the bell that brought attention to the message Christ spoke and the signature of God that was attached. The Message has plenty of attention now.

According to Guinness World Records, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time. In the 21st century, Bibles are printed at a rate of about 80 million per year. If you want to know the message that was formerly confirmed by signs, wonders, and mighty works, then pick up a copy of the Holy Scriptures and read. All the evidence you will need to see God is there in black and white and red, 1 Jn. 1:1-4.