Dont mess with Betsy....

This chick is awesome...

Mom Jeans...

Daughters of Kings....

Sunday I preached a non Saccharine Sunday message on Luke 10:38-42. In that passage we explored the radical act of both Mary and Jesus. Mary broke with the cultural defined and allowed norms for women by taking a seat among the men, at the feet of Jesus, to listen. He allowed her to do so, taught her and even reprimanded Martha for trying to draw Mary back into the role Martha felt was more appropriate to the situation....ie. back in the kitchen.

Jesus was radical in a culture where some Rabbis prayed:

Praised be Thou O Lord, who did not make me a gentile
Praised be Thou O Lord who did not make me a boor
Praised be Thou of Lord who did not make me a woman

And some taught, like Rabbi Eliezer wrote in the 1st century CE: "Rather should the words of the Torah be burned than entrusted to a woman...Whoever teaches his daughter the Torah is like one who teaches her obscenity."

Or Greek men would express gratitude by gushing: “I was born a human being and not a beast, next, a man and not a woman, thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian.”

Where leading Jewish historian's like Josephus, a contemporary of Jesus, and the apostle Paul said:“The Woman, says the law, is in all things inferior to the man.”

Where church fathers like Augustine taught that a woman can become the image of God by marriage and fulfilling their designed to be procreative partners.

In light of that, you can see just how revolutionary Jesus was in His ministry and methods. How liberating His words and actions were in Jewish culture. From talking to foreign women, to allowing bleeding unclean women or prostitutes to touch Him (kiss his feet, wipe their hair on his feet). His calling a healed woman a "daughter of Abraham" which was a unique title, including women in His band of disciples(Luke 8:1-3), being funded by single, business women with a history of demonic possession(Mark 16:9 )as well as others who funded his itinerant ministry. Choosing a woman to be the first preacher of His resurrection(John 20:17-18) which in that culture where women's testimonies were not legal in court...that was a major dignifying act!

I also used a passage in the book "The Two Towers" that retells the same issues in a different setting and way. The book expounds upon the feelings of Young Eowyn of Rohan and her struggle to become the warrior within her that was hidden by the princess she was outwardly. Her deep inner turmoil of duties and roles in the face of the times in which she lived and the needs of the hour. The book explores the fiery and sharp insight she had about the limiting roles our cultures place upon us and how often those most dear to us are most blind to who we really are in the heart. The book "The Return of the King" digs into the wound she bore in her soul in the chapter "The Houses of Healing" and the words of Gandalf and Aragorn are illuminating as any to the power of any man who can see a woman for who she truly longs to be seen. There is healing in those passages for those who have ears to hear.

I know some were upset and misunderstood the use of the film clip I used here and granted it was a bit intense for a typical Sunday morning church experience, in the future I will be more sensitive to children that sometimes are present. But I showed it because I truly felt led to include it in the discussion. The film captures the ethos of some of Eowyn's drama that is better for some people to captured visually. The look in her eyes when Aragorn, a man who also was wrestling with being a warrior on the outside and a king on the inside...saw her for who she truly was... " A Daughter of Kings"; was powerful. The high drama of her battle with the witch king and her fulfillment of the ancient prophesy that "No Man" could kill him...was potent and biblical from a certain angle (genesis 3).

I was able to use the book and the film in the evening service and I think a better weaving took place because of it. I hope the message was liberating and will burn through the surrounding controversy it may have evoked...because in the end...it was for freedom that Christ set us free and don't let anyone or anything subject you to the yoke of slavery again...(Galatians 5:1)

Daughters of Kings....

Aragorn: You have some skill with a blade.
Eowyn: The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain.
Aragorn: What do you fear, my lady?
Eowyn: A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.
Aragorn: You are a daughter of kings, a shield maiden of Rohan. I do not think that will be your fate.

"He has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" -Revelation 1:6

Here are some peeks at the content that is in the mix for our upcoming Daughter's Of Kings: Mother's Day Experience...it's not going to be a typical Saccharine Sunday.
Most women face the challenge of not being seen for who they truly are...they are warriors inside a princess or princesses inside a warrior and those around them fail to see the hidden person of the heart (1 Peter 3:4)
Our culture has fed women lies, filled them with inflated visions of a false reality that becomes a tortuous master that grinds their spirits into submission to the elementary principles of this world. To many daughters have lived for too long in servitude to someone elses vision of who they should be.
"We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light." -Hildegard von Bingen
(Germany 1100 AD)

"Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD." -Zechariah 2:10

St. Photini Sunday....It's tough being a Woman

This coming Sunday we are hosting a woman led Sunday in honor of the woman at the well St. Photini. We will have a group of ladies speaking, representing the different generations at Jacob's Well. The goal of this sunday will be to show that every woman at every season of life; can develop a relationship with the Lord and be on mission. The trick is getting new eyes to see that mission isnt something outside your day to day life, but its living your life with purpose and creativity. Seeing each activity as a natural path toward glorifying God and sharing Him by either word or deed. Looking for ways to rest in Him at each season. Understanding that serving the Lord as single student, career employee, nursing mom, toddle chaser, struggling wife of preschoolers, or as an empty nester or elder with lots of time but little energy is the art of learning to live from a center of grace and attentiveness.We want to help women see that Spiritual formation and mission are integrated into all our daily lives. We are in Jesus and everything we do is in Him and becomes kingdom filled. Our work is seeing that, hearing that and participating with the Spirit in the everydayness of mission. Dishes, conversations, school, birthday parties, coffee times, work parties, lunch breaks, the gym, the grocery store, mommies groups, doctor's offices, business trips, training days, college dorms, professors and coworkers, meals, recreation, hospitality....everything is included in the mix.

God is in it all and can be found through it all....every season has its opportunities and challenges.

"...For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." -Galatians 3:27-29

Are men better...?

Well here we go, another chapter in our 1 Corinthians series that should be a firecracker! We will tackle all kinds of challenging issues surrounding the place, role, position, function of women and men in home, church and culture. If you are unaware of the debates that take place between Complementarians and Egalitarians than you might be surprised as we delve into this little nugget of church splitting drama.
Issues like:
1. Do men and women have different ways for being saved?
2. Are men and women designed to come before God in prayer in a different way?
3. Are there lists of spiritual gifts that are listed for only men or only women?
4. Do men and women inherit spiritual “sonship” in a different way?
5. Is the command to make disciples given only to one gender?

I think that if our positions on these subjects affect 50% of our community...it's an important issue to unpack. Trust me there is a load of baggage surrounding these issues and people get pretty weird, uptight, confrontational and quick to tie people to the stakes when these subject are discussed. So stay tuned it might get interesting around here.

....causes one to forget everything

"Woman...Thus the gods fashioned her, delicate and ethereal as the mists of a summer’s night and yet plump like a ripened fruit, light as a bird in spite of the fact that she carried a world of craving, light because the play of forces is unified at the invisible center of a negative relationship in which she is related to herself, slim of stature, designed with definite proportions and yet to the eye seeming to swell with the wavelines of beauty, complete and yet as if only now she were finished, cooling, delicious, refreshing as new-fallen snow, blushing with serene transparency, happy as a jest which causes one to forget everything, tranquilizing as the goal whereunto desire tends, satisfying by being herself the incitement of desire."
-Soren Kierkegaard

This has got to be one of my most favorite pieces written on the mystery and beauty of a woman.

A bloodstained coat...

Here is another thing you do. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings, and he doesn't accept them with pleasure. You cry out, "Why has the LORD abandoned us?" I'll tell you why! Because the LORD witnessed the vows you and your wife made to each other on your wedding day when you were young. But you have been disloyal to her, though she remained your faithful companion, the wife of your marriage vows. Didn't the LORD make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard yourself; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. "For I hate divorce!" says the LORD, the God of Israel. "It is as cruel as putting on a victim's bloodstained coat," says the LORD Almighty. "So guard yourself; always remain loyal to your wife." -Malachi 2:13-16

The issue is this...if you choose to engage in a sexual relationship with someone its an act of good faith. You are saying to that person that you will commit to becoming a family. God designed sex to produce life. God designed man and woman to love each other for life, raise a family and keep the human race from going extinct. So if you get a woman pregnant or get yourself pregnant...welcome to married life. Oneness of spirit and flesh has taken place and from that intimacy...new life is created. Not only the life of the child but a new life for you...you move from single life to married life. Engaging in sex is a consummation to a new life...one of commitment, faithfulness and family.

To end the life of that child who is the result of your choice to enter into a God ordained holy union...is murder.
An act that is the same as putting on a bloodstained coat in God's eyes. So if you want closure in a relationship...start by closing your legs....for the sake of a child at least. If you have had an abortion...repent, turn to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, get married or stop having sex outside of marriage. If you do get married have some godly children and maybe...adopt a child as an act of moral restitution.

Give another child a chance at having a family.

The Butt, Gut & Hut Syndrome

Time: 9AM
Day: Saturday
Place: Starbucks
Crowd: Middle age women
Question: What do a group of middle age women talk about?
Answer:
-Dieting & Weight
-House cleaning
-Health problems
-Children

Thought: Do today's women care about anything other than stuff that primarily revolves around their personal domain: ie. Butt, Gut & Hut? I read a quote the other day that said: "Well behaved women never make history".

Agree or disagree...?