From the Pastor
A CHALLENGE TO WOMEN
1 Peter 3: 1 - 4
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
There is so much to be studied and understood regarding the Godly roles of men and women. I am grateful to see people in the church seeking God, and desiring to please God, in the fulfillment of their God given role. I see God placing a burden upon the hearts of His people to do that which is right in the sight of God.
I encourage you to seek God in the area of your role as a woman, a wife, and a mother. Many times our Spiritual progress is hindered, the blessings of God's grace withheld. We are frustrated over our inability to break through this brickwall of God's silence. We should understand that our frustration is meant to heal us spiritually, so that we may recognize why the river of living water seems to be at a trickle.
One reason people in general, but specifically woman, find this frustration in life is because they have not understood the great necessity in fulfilling their God ordained role. I believe God in His grace is teaching us all concerning our roles within the family and church. There are women bible studies directed toward this topic, and there is an upcoming women's conference that will address in detail what God's Word tells women. Plainly speaking, we need to know what God expects from us, and He has given us of His grace to learn.
I encourage you to read and study concerning the role of a women in her family and church. Please allow me to briefly summarize what I believe scripture tells women:
Your role is not one of inequality but distinction, in other words, women are no less important, their roles are simply designed differently by God.
You have a great influence on your husband, and on the decisions that are made within your family, however, your influence is more indirect influence rather than direct authority. God has given you great ability to be influential within your family and church, just as influential as men, only the manner in which you influence is different. The verse quoted above is a great example of a wife's influence.
Women may participate and speak during a church service, there is however a stipulation; Their manner of speech and behavior must be with an attitude and demeanor of submission to their authority. As a woman, you are no less important to the church, and you are no less influential in the church, infact, a Godly woman performing her role with great grace is indescribably powerful and can move great mountains within her family and church.
There is great glory in obedience to God. May we all seek Him for wisdom and grace, that we may know the truth and the truth will indeed set us free!
In God's Grace,
Pastor Jack
O God, who has thought us worthy of Thy blessing,
that Thy Word daily sounds in our ears,
let it not find stony hearts and iron minds,
but so let us submit ourselves to Thee
with the humility that becomes us,
that we may truly feel Thee to be our Father;
and being confirmed in the hope of our adoption,
so long as Thou continuest to speak to us,
may at length enjoy not Thy voice alone,
but even the sight of Thy glory in that heavenly kingdom,
which Thine only Son has purchased for us by His blood.
Amen.
-- John Calvin
Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number,
and been guilty of pride and unbelief,
of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word,
of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life.
My transgressions and short-comings
present me with a list of accusations,
but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me,
for all have been laid on Christ.
Go on to subdue my corruptions,
and grant me grace to live above them.
Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind
bring my spirit into subjection,
but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.
I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused.
I have asked amiss and do not have,
I have prayed from lusts and been rejected,
I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness.
Go on with Thy patient work,
answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers,
and fitting me to accept it.
Purge me from every false desire,
every base aspiration,
everything contrary to Thy rule.
I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love,
for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject,
for sometimes putting me into the furnace
to refine my gold and remove my dross.
No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin.
If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure
and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial,
give me sanctified affliction.
Deliver me from every evil habit,
every accretion of former sins,
everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me,
everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee.
Then I shall bless Thee, God of Jeshurun,
for helping me to be upright.
Puritan Prayers
The heavens praise your wonders,
O LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings
In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
He is more awesome than all who surround Him.
O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?
You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you.
Psalm 89:5-8 NIV
"One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy."
~ Elisabeth Elliott ~
The calling of a Christian woman, whether married or single, is perhaps the most difficult in the kingdom of God.
It is difficult to be a Christian wife today. There are forces which entice a woman to live apart from her husband. And there is the resentment and hatred against the Bible, which calls a wife to obey and to submit to her husband in the fear of God. That word "obey" that is used in Titus 2 is looked upon as tyranny by the world, which does not understand the order and the love of Christ in His kingdom.
It is also true that it is difficult to be a God-fearing mother. That calling of motherhood is also a calling which is attacked and slurred today. It is not true that a Christian mother sits in her home safe and unaffected, living an easy, Christian life. No! Christian mothers also suffer the attacks of evil, attempting to destroy her especially in her crucial place in the home. The work of a mother and a wife in the home-loving her children and husband, keeping the home (according to Titus 2:4) -is looked upon as degrading and demeaning. Many women, as a result of such a view, no longer want to be at home, but would rather be "on the go," socializing, or outside of the home constantly. All of these things make the life of a Christian woman, whether single or married, tremendously difficult.
That is why a woman who fears the Lord is a rare and a precious thing. A woman who fears the Lord is a gift of God's grace. She is the most attractive woman to God and to believers that could possibly be known.
In Proverbs 31 we read of this God-fearing woman. We read that the heart of her husband safely trusts in her, that she labors diligently from morning to night for her household, that she provides for herself and for their needs, that she is a woman of wisdom and honor and strength, that her children call her blessed. This is all summed by this word: She is a woman that feareth the Lord and is to be praised, that is, held in deepest respect and loving esteem, by the church. She is beautiful because God loves her. She knows God and God knows her. By His grace, God loves believing girls, wives, and mothers in His church because they are His and because of the wonderful, powerful, amazing work that He performs in and through them.
We must understand that Proverbs speaks emphatically here of a God-fearing woman. Of herself, this God-fearing woman would not always see herself in this way. The Word of God certainly points out a very beautiful picture of a God-fearing woman. And perhaps God-fearing women would blush when they try to put themselves into the picture of Proverbs 31 and see only how far they fall short. The text, that is the Word of God, is not ignorant of the fact of our own failures and sinfulness. Nevertheless, by God's grace, this is how God looks upon a believing woman, upon a God-fearing woman. This is what God is pleased to perform in and through her. The Word of God here brings out the wonderful, beautiful, and amazing calling of a God-fearing woman.
Who is this woman?
The Word of God brings out that this is the identity of a beautiful woman in God's sight. We read, "But a woman that feareth the Lord." There the proverb is contrasting this woman with what man would commonly identify a woman with. We read: "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman…." So the contrast here is with external beauty and external charm.
Now, obviously, if the fear of God is in your soul it will have the greatest effect upon your life, so that at bottom your every thought, your motives, words, and deeds are influenced by the fear of God. As a woman, now, whether cleaning, making meals, shopping; or as a girl-whether in school, with your friends, wherever you are among other girls; it is the reverence, it is the loving awe of the God who is God, the God who has become your Father, that will characterize you. That is a God-fearing woman.
The motivation for all of her work is that she sees herself as a servant of God. She looks at her place in the home as the appointment of God. She looks at her husband as the husband given of God. Then she looks upon her children as the children that God has given. Looking at it from that point of view: that God has appointed her home and her husband and her children in His wisdom and in His power, eagerly she seeks to be faithful in her own place, to the glory of God.
Then she will be vigilant over her household. We read, "she looketh well to the ways of her household." She carries authority in her home which she exercises as her husband's helpmeet, so that she may rear her children in the fear of God. She sees to it, she is vigilant, that the direction of her home is not toward the world, not toward materialism, uncleanness, ungodliness, disrespect. But she sees to it that the direction of her home is toward the Lord, and she has the support in her calling of her husband, whose obligation is to see to it that this woman, mother, wife is honored in the home and obeyed by her children.
If we read this passage in Proverbs, we discover that the calling of a Christian wife who fears the Lord leaves little time for herself. Yes, very often she may think there is no time left for her. That is right. That is true of a place of special service to the Lord. The more important the service to the Lord, the less time there is for me. But the Lord has said that it is in giving that we shall receive. That is imminently true of a God-fearing mother. She shall be praised.
A God-fearing woman? No price can be placed upon her. And this will be your reward. When you meet your Lord, He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. In as much as ye have done it unto these the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
Taken from the Reformed Christian Family
THE ORIGINAL PROVERBS 31 WOMAN
Genesis 3:16
Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee.
In this instance God is dealing with Adam and Eve after their rebellion. One question that must be raised is whether or not these statements made concerning Adam and Eve are relative to us today, or were they specific to just Adam and Eve.
Because of other teachings throughout scripture it is evident that at least a portion of these statements made to Adam and Eve were passed on to us. We will briefly examine the passage in which God speaks directly concerning the woman (Genesis 3:16).
It would seem that these statements were the beginning of the plan in which sovereign grace would be needed and offered through Christ.
The shaping of a woman to be an instrument of glorification for her God, and also a vessel of dependency on her God seems to begin in this statement to Eve. The woman, it would seem, has been given her directives by God. And with this responsibility will come much affliction. Now, we must be careful not to always relate affliction with being miserable. Many times Godly affliction causes us the greatest Joy. There is Spiritual passion that pushes us past our flesh. It is the life of a Christian. A heavy burden, a tough assignment. You may say, “I cannot do this thing as I should”. if you pray that prayer of inability you will see why this statement made to Eve is the beginning process of shaping the woman into a dependant, broken vessel unto God. A woman craving grace
This is no small burden that you must carry. You will be afflicted for your children. And if you continue under God, you will produce God glorifying children, but not without affliction. You will be afflicted for your husband (And sometimes afflicted by your husband). But in any case, if you continue under God, you will know that you are an important instrument in the Spiritual success of your husband. And when your husband is Spiritually successful, God is glorified, your family is content, and you are doing well.
You are being shaped and emptied of self - wholly sanctified. A woman who is married and called by God must realize her primary role according to scripture:
The glorification of God through her life, her husband, and her children.
If you read Genesis 3:16 carefully, you will see the PROVERBS 31 WOMAN. Our creator did not glamorize it the way He allowed Solomon to do. Maybe the original version is a little harder to digest, but it’s there, and it’s truth.
Pastor Jack
