Empowered Daughter? No Thanks!

No, I don’t want an empowered daughter

My daughter has always held a very special place in my heart.  Within the walls of our house she is known by a variety of endearing nicknames. Today, she stands on the precipice between girlhood and womanhood. The transformation is both extremely exciting but also terrifying—for I am the guy who feels like age 55 would be too soon for her to start courting. As I told her recently in a letter, she will always be my baby girl—my little princess.

However, there is a crusade sweeping across our country that I believe threatens my little girl’s relationship with God.  And what’s even more troubling is many Christian young ladies are jumping onboard with it, not even really thinking about what it means in context of what Scripture teaches. Even some conservative women speakers in the church are helping to promote this concept. This movement is all about women being “empowered.”

Does God want an empowered person proud of their own strength and accomplishments? Daniel 4

Does God want an empowered person proud of their own strength and accomplishments? Daniel 4

Don’t believe me? Consider for just a moment the way Disney/Pixar films have changed. We’ve gone from Prince Charming leaning over and kissing Snow White to movies like Frozen and Brave—movies where the girl turns away from the kiss and is portrayed as strong and empowered.

Move over men, the women will take charge and make things better. There are songs, movements, protests, television shows, and even hashtags about being “empowered.” All the way back in 1971 Helen Reddy wrote a song titled, “I am Woman, Hear Me Roar.” Today, celebrities and those in high profile positions have cranked up the volume on this message to the point that it is almost deafening. (This may be part of why husbands are often painted in a negative light in sitcoms today.)

For instance, singer Beyoncé declared, “We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.” Another pop artist, Rhianna observed, “There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer” (in the March 2017 issue of Harper’s BAZAAR). Even Margaret Thatcher got in on it commenting, “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”

I suspect some of you reading this have already mentally crossed your arms and chalked me up as a male chauvinist. Please understand that my angst against this empowered title goes for men as well. I don’t think “empowered” is a word the Bible uses to describe humble servants to Jesus Christ. This is not the attitude we should strive for. See, when I read Scripture I hear God telling mankind to be humble and kind. I read His inspired Word about having a quiet and gentle spirit (1 Peter 3:4). I don’t think Christians—male or female—are called to be “empowered.” I believe this is a lie from straight from the mouth of Satan. Instead, the Bible commands us to be humble servants. We are to look for ways to glorify God. We are to love.

The “empowered” movement is teaching our young girls that they should be bold and fight for whatever they want. It promotes the idea that this is their “right” and duty. It teaches my daughter to question the authority of her husband. It teaches my daughter to shun traits like being chaste, meek, humble, quiet, gentle, subjection, and godly. It paints a false picture in her mind of what is truly beautiful.

God’s Word leaves no question that men and women are equal in the sight of God when it comes to things like salvation (Galatians 3:28). But the Bible also gives specific roles for men and women. It is the man who will give an account how his family was trained, not the woman. God’s Word commands, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22-24).

No, my vision for my daughter is not about being empowered or having a strong voice. My hope is that my daughter will laugh at this secular notion of beauty, and instead embrace the beauty of holiness (Psalm 29:2). It’s my prayer that she will love men rather than seeing them as the opposition. It’s is also my prayer that she will discover she can do amazing things by being a godly woman and living her life by the Word of God.

Many will shake their heads and see me as a chauvinistic male trying to restrict my daughter’s own advancement. That’s not my intent at all. Instead I want to raise a daughter who seeks to please God rather than herself. I want a daughter who longs to do things God’s way and takes joy in that. God’s way still works today—and I want my daughter to experience the beauty of a Christian marriage and the joy of motherhood. Rather than fighting to be equal to man I want a daughter who will humble herself and be empowered by Almighty God.

Posted in Brad Harrub | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Empowered Daughter? No Thanks!

Special Saints

SPECIAL SAINTS

Call them what you will: ‘Committed,’ ‘Convicted,’ ‘Faithful,’ ‘Devoted,’ ‘Christ-like,’ ‘Self-sacrificing,’ ‘ Special ’ or something similar.

Do you know someone special?

Do you know someone special?

Jesus Christ Himself called them “the greatest in the kingdom” (Matt. 18:4). They are those who give when others take; forgive, when others give them grief; show up to serve others, when others serve only themselves; and who don’t need to see their name in the bulletin for their service, because they know their name is in the Lord’s “book of life” (Phil. 4:3). They work behind the scenes, instead of out front to be seen; are willing to make the quietest of efforts while others are making the loudest of excuses; and expect nothing in return, but a commendation from their Lord and Savior (Matt. 25:14-40; Rom. 2:5-11). They are indeed: the faithful, the special, and the greatest of all in the kingdom of heaven or church of our Lord. Let us love, honor, and recognize, as well as to appreciate and to emulate, both them and their humble Christian examples (1 Thess. 5:12-13; 1 Cor. 11:1-2)!

Posted in Doug Dingley | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Special Saints

The Ability to Perform Miracles

Why Did God Give People the Ability to Perform Miracles?

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Miracles confirmed the Word of God, which we have in our hands today.

Miracles confirmed the Word of God, which we have in our hands today.

John 3:1-2

Why did God allow man to perform miracles?  Have you ever wondered that?

Nicodemus tells us why.  Why would a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, one of the religious elite of the day, pay any attention to a carpenter from backwater Nazareth who was claiming to be the Messiah?  It was because of the miracles done by this Man.

That’s why people paid attention to his apostles and the other early Christians.  Picture this.  You came into Jerusalem for the Passover and just happened to witness the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.  You decide to come back to Jerusalem fifty days later to observe the holiday of Pentecost, and suddenly you see this Galilean roughneck fisherman talking to thousands of people about how “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36) and how God had raised him from the dead (Acts 2:32).

“Wait a second,” you think.  “That’s the same guy I saw dying on a cross fifty days ago!  This guy can’t be telling the truth!”

An obvious and understandable conclusion, one that obviously would keep you from buying what this guy is selling and becoming a follower of a dead guy who is supposedly resurrected.  Why would anyone believe this man or anyone else who’s preaching the same message?

What if you were standing there listening to him and the other uneducated hicks from Galilee, when you suddenly realized that all the other Jews surrounding you from places all over the world could understand them because they were effortlessly speaking to them in their own languages (Acts 2:4)?  True, it could be possible, however unlikely, for uneducated fisherfolk from Galilee to…maybe…learn one or two different languages over time?  But twenty?  Thirty?  And to be completely fluent in them, switching back and forth from one to the other effortlessly depending on the person to whom they were speaking and the place from where he had come?

Say in the days following you keep running into these guys who keep preaching about a resurrected, crucified carpenter from Nazareth who is the Son of God…and you notice more unexplainable oddities…

How that fisherman was talking to that lame guy on Solomon’s Portico whom you’ve seen begging for food at that same spot for years, and suddenly reaches down and pulls him to his feet…and now the lame guy can walk, and not only walk but leap around, praising God!  (Acts 3:1ff)

How people were carrying obviously sick people out into the streets, as well as those afflicted with unclean spirits, and how this fisherman would just simply walk past them at noon with his shadow passing over them, and suddenly they would be completely better!  (Acts 5:12-16)

Now, if you were a complete cynic whose heart was completely hardened and your mind was already made up that these guys were frauds, then you would write these supposed “miracles” off as frauds.  You might even attribute their ability to perform these signs as evidence that they were followers of Satan (Matt. 12:22-30)!  If you were so far gone that you were attributing the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit to Satan, there would be no hope for you whatsoever that you would believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and so you would never be forgiven (Matt. 12:31-32).

However, these signs and wonders performed by Jesus and his followers would make a big impression on you as to the validity of their message if you had an open and honest heart (Luke 8:15).  That’s a big reason why God allowed Jesus and his followers to perform miracles.  It was, as Nicodemus said, to convince observers that God was with them.

For more scriptural information, read also Mark 16:17-20 and Hebrews 2:1-4.

Posted in Jon Mitchell | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Ability to Perform Miracles

The Greatest Command

How Great is Your Love?

We hear a lot about the greatest command (Matthew 22:37–38). We sing about it, pray about it, and preach about it. Yet it seems that few Christians really practice it. Selfishness, envy, pride, arrogance, vengeance, laziness, and indifference abound even among those who claim to be children of God.

Are we walking a life of love?

Are we walking a life of love?

Paul warns those who have been grafted into the vine to not be high minded and think that they can-not also be removed (Romans 11). We need to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:3). Paul wanted all men to be saved and if that meant he would be lost so they all would be saved, then so be it (Romans 9:3).

Thanks be to God that Christ paid that price for us so that we could be saved. “Behold therefore the good-ness and severity of God” (Romans 11:22) Love good, hate evil, be kind, be busy, be joyful, be pa-tient, pray, give, be hospitable, bless, and overcome evil with good. Being a Christian and going to heaven is not a passive pursuit. Be obedient, be active, love, and be faithful!

Posted in Tim Dooley | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Greatest Command

Bathrooms, Marriage, Geese, and Ganders

Bathrooms, Marriage, Geese, and Ganders

In June of 2016, Maya Dillard Smith, interim director of the Georgia chapter of the ACLU, resigned over that group’s stance on who could use the women’s bathroom. She was the mother of young daughters who had experienced firsthand the trauma of men barging into the girl’s bathrooms. Mrs. Smith thought the position to be a bridge too far. She was fine promoting the ACLU’s many progressive battles; until they finally picked a battle that stepped on her toes.

Are the rules good for everyone else... just not you?

Are the rules good for everyone else… just not you?

One recalls stories of a Gospel preacher who preached for many years on the biblical stance on marriage and divorce, upholding the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:it is a sin to divorce and remarry, except in cases of adultery. But then his own child divorced and remarried. Suddenly, his views on the subject became more “modern.” Not being willing to condemn his own child, he changed his doctrinal stance. He was fine supporting the position until it stepped on his familial toes. And then he wasn’t.

There’s an old saying, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. That is, what’s good for one person is good for another. The way you want others treated is a fair way for them to treat you and you should not seek to apply a standard to others that you don’t want to live up to yourself.

Jesus said something very similar. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-3; NKJV)

This is not, as some presuppose, a blanket condemnation against all judgment at all times. Elsewhere Jesus also said, “judge with a righteous judgment,” (John 7:24) and in the same context as Matthew 7:1, Jesus tells His followers not to cast their pearls before swine, a definite command requiring a judgment of character (cf. Matthew 7:6)

What Jesus was teaching was that one should not seek to apply standards to other people that one is unable, or unwilling, to live up to. If you’re going to make it a habit of stepping on other people’s toes, make sure you are willing to step on your own. If you are going to encourage others to have high standards, be willing to have them yourself.

Jesus would, in a similar vein, criticize the scribes and the Pharisees for not being willing to live according to the standards they expected of others. He would say, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” (Matthew 23:2-4; NKJV) It was because of such behavior that Jesus judged and denounced them for being hypocrites

We might notice, that Jesus did not expect His followers to live down to their lowest expectations of others. Quite the contrary.

For instance, Jesus did not tell His disciples to learn to be content with their planks and specks. They were not to accept such things as normal. Rather, He expected them to progress to a place of spiritual maturity, where, absent planks and beams, they would be able to remove specks from the eyes of their brothers.

Likewise, He did not criticize the Pharisees and the Scribes for what they were teaching. He told the people to make sure and obey Moses’ Law when it was taught. Rather, Jesus wanted people to be willing to apply the same correct standards to themselves as they were applying to others.

God does not have double standards. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. He applies the same standards of high moral conduct to all men, and expects men to do the same. (cf. Acts 10:34-35, 17:30) There is not one standard for preachers and another for non-preachers. There is not one standard for believers and another for non-believers. There is not one standard for people related to us, and another standard for those who aren’t. God judges all men equally.

Our duty as the Creation is to learn the standards of God and then apply them to ourselves, and to others, regardless of how they step on our toes. Or,as the case may be, especially when they step on our own toes.

 

Posted in Jonathan McAnulty | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Bathrooms, Marriage, Geese, and Ganders