The Heart of a Christian Warrior- Effort

Do you remember the days in high school gym class when you had to climb the rope, run the mile, or do pull-ups?  Pull-ups (or chin-ups) were especially challenging to me.  The first 3-5 pull-ups go quickly and seemingly without effort.  However, pulling your weight against gravity and getting your chin above the bar becomes more of an effort.  Muscles start to burn in protest and the pace slows.  Between 5-10 my arms seem to loose all of their power and I am straining my back and stomach muscles to help me get back up to the bar.  At 11 my feet are pedaling in the air in an effort to help me reach the bar.  I have never been able to do more than 15 chin-ups. 

Think about the highest number of pull-ups you can do.  What would it take to do 2 or 3 more?  It would take effort, discipline, practice, work, strain, pain, and growth.  Too often we hear sermons about God making the path straight, easy, and full of blessing.  I agree with this in part.  However, the reality is that we are called to a life of challenge, sacrifice, and discipline.  There is reward, but it does not come without challenge.

Paul compares the Christian walk to an athletic effort.  In I Corinthians 9:24-27 he discusses the way that we should live the Christian life comparing it to an athlete in training.  He says that we should work to win the prize.  What does it take to be the winner?  effort, discipline, practice, work, strain, pain, and growth.  If it did not take these things would the win be impressive- probably not.  The heart of a Christian warrior does not shy away from challenge, rather accepts challenges as opportunities to grow.  Certainly enjoy the comforts and blessings of being on the right path in the Christian walk, but also be prepared so that the challenges do not get you off course.  When you feel like you can't do anymore- dig deep for 2-3 more and grow out of the effort.

Heart of a Christian Warrior week 2

Go back a few years and GPS type technology was only available to the military as a cutting edge way of guiding troops on the battlefield.  Now, the family minivan comes with GPS technology as standard equipment.  We no longer marvel at the idea of satellites orbiting the earth triangulating our location and guiding us to our destination.  Consider for a moment the advantage of something high above us (having an all-encompassing, big picture view) guiding our movements in the right direction.  Armies that are able to effectively use GPS technology to guide troop movements and track enemies have a tremendous advantage.  Likewise, if we want an advantage in life we should connect to a higher being (with an all-encompassing, big picture view) in order to give us direction through life.

Throughout the wisdom literature of the Bible there is a repeated theme that goes something like this- Those who choose their own path in life end up lost.  Proverbs 12:15 says "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel."  Proverbs 14:12 (and 16:25) are a little more direct saying, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."  How can we get better direction in life?  We can plug into God and fellow followers as a means of finding direction.  The life of King Saul (I Samuel 9-11, 13-15, 19, 22, 28, 31) is an example of someone who repeatedly followed his own path resulting in ruin. 

The Christian warrior knows his/her path and that path is not determined by self, but is directed by a higher authority. 

Heart of a Christian Warrior- Week 1

Scripture is wrought with passages relating faith to battle.  From the warrior-king David to Paul's description of the armor of God in Galatians there are many references to battle and warfare in scripture.  So, that is one reason I have decided to teach this series on Developing the Heart of a Christian Warrior.  I see value in developing Christian warriors to fight the many spiritual battles we face in the world.

Throughout history and across many nations there have arisen warrior groups that have set themselves apart due to their skill, courage, capability, or accomplishments.  Examples would include the Spartans, Maasai, Roman Centurions, Samurai, Aztecs, and the modern day Navy SEALS.  These groups share several characteristics including unity, a clearly defined mission, team work, intelligence, training, skills, a defined enemy, dedication, discipline, strength, courage, and leadership to name a few.  Overall, I would consider myself a pacifist, yet I see value in the aforementioned characteristics.  These are characteristics that could greatly benefit the Church.  Moreover, these are characteristics that we all have in some measure.  It is when we come together that all the characteristics are fully present.  Therefore, we will begin by exploring the concept of unity. 

Gender and the Chuch- The Submission of Wives

 OK folks, let’s start to get into some real issues here.  The first issue I want to tackle is that of authority.  This will be the first time we wrestle with some major contradictions.  I want to start in Ephesians 5:21-33.  First, you will notice that many Bibles divide verses 21 and 22 into different sections (which I believe to be a mistake).   Verse 21 says, “…and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”  Every other mention of subjection that follows stems from this verse.  The call is for the members of the church to submit to one another, to yield to one another, to not insist on getting your own way.  This is serve and not be served kind of language.  However, the part of this passage that gets the most play time is verses 22-24 which says that “wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”  The reason is given in verse 23, “for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church…”  Repeated again in verse 24, “but as the Church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.” 

If we stop reading here we are left with a sense that husbands hold authority over their wives and wives are called to submit to that authority… right?  For now let’s just skip the issue of what unmarried women should do and just jump right to the issue of mutual submission.  We started with submit to one another and landed on wives submit to husbands just as the Church submits to Christ.  So, how does the Church submit to Christ?
 
Do you recall those parts of the gospel where Jesus came, established himself as supreme ruler, defined levels of hierarchy, and demanded that the Church be subservient to him?  Me neither.   As I recall Jesus emptied himself, became nothing, took the form of a human infant born to a woman, served all, put himself last, established the Church, elevated and enabled the Church to his equal, and put everything into the hands of the Church.  Through this amazing act of love and selflessness Christ won the hearts of humanity to himself.  Or, as Ephesians 5:29 says, “…for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church.”
 
Review the gospels and you will see that Christ is touched by the woman with issues of blood (Luke 8:43-47) an act that would technically make him ceremonially unclean.  How does he respond?  Does he put her in her place for this bold, controversial, and unorthodox event?  No, he praises her for her faith and sends her on her way.  Read the gospels and consider how Christ interacts with women.  Men, begin to understand how Christ loved the church and you will never, NEVER have to ask for submission or respect.  How did Christ lead the church?  How did Christ assert his authority?  Is this how we lead today?  Do the policies of our churches reflect this type of leadership (especially regarding women)?

Gender and the Church- The Big 5

Please note- the following is a simplification!  Most of our policies regarding women in the church are based on five New Testament verses, written by one author, found within four books all of which are Epistles.

·         1 Corinthians 11:3-16

·         1 Corinthians 14:33-40

·         Colossians 3:18-25

·         Ephesians 5:21-33

·         1 Timothy 2:8-15

Contextually this is limited ground to work from.  What I mean is, this is not a widely written about topic that is not found throughout scripture and limited to the first century time period.  A more sound contextual foundation would be formed if these statements were made by multiple authors, in both Testaments (over thousands of years of culture), and in many books.  Moreover, we do not see Christ making similar statements in the Gospels.  However, I recognize that Paul is an apostle, the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and I cannot simply throw out passages I am uncomfortable with.  Instead, I have to do the work of studying each passage, uncovering contextual clues, comparing my conclusions with the overall message of scripture, and then making some kind of application.  This process will be difficult, will challenge our beliefs, will tweak our preconceived notions, and will put us face to face with many contradictions.   Sound like fun?  Yeah, I agree. 

Gender and the Church- The Culture Issue

There is a lot more research going into this series than any other series I have done on my blog, so please forgive the delay between posts.  One of the first challenges we are going to face in studying the role of women is dealing with culture.  Not only do we have to deal with interpreting scripture through our own culture, but we also have to deal with interpreting the culture in which the passage was written.  There are passages about polygamy, slavery, and temple sacrifices that are so foreign to our culture that we struggle to understand these scriptures from our modern perspective.  Likewise, there are times when our culture has become so removed from the truth of scripture that we struggle to make proper application of Biblical truth.   

Let’s take marriage as an example.  In my culture marriage is a covenant based on the love of one man for one woman.   However, in the Old Testament marriage was more like a binding legal agreement dictating the financial obligations a man had to fulfill to honor a woman.  If you read passages like Exodus21:7-11 you will see that women were referred to as like property, and yet there are sanctions that protect women’s rights.   In this context passages like Deuteronomy22:28-29 would seem appalling to us; however a closer look will show that men were obligated to meet financial needs of women in a culture that could easily neglect them.  In fact, in verse 18 of Deuteronomy 22 a man could be flogged for making false accusations about a woman’s reputation!  These ideas and laws are so foreign to our culture of love-based, monogamous marriage. 

YET, there are some women in scripture that transcend cultural limitations.  Eve is the first woman.  She is created in God’s image and is referred to as Adam’s helpmate (partner).  Later in scripture God is referred to as our helpmate, suggesting this position does not equal inferiority.

In the book of Joshua Rahab is instrumental in helping Israel take the Promised Land.  She is mentioned several times in the New Testament and included in the lineage of Christ despite being a foreigner and prostitute.

Abigail (1 Samuel 25) negotiates with king David in order to save her foolish husband Nabal.  She is so impressive in her role that David marries her after the death of her husband. 

Judges 4 and 5 reveal Deborah as prophetess, military leader, and judge over Israel.  Few would argue that this position of authority was not ordained by God.

 Proverbs personifies wisdom as a woman.

So, we can see a culture in which women were given an inferior legal status BUT those women who obeyed God and demonstrated noble character transcended the cultural norm holding positions of respect, receiving praise and accolades, and even holding positions of leadership. 

Webb, M.P. (2004).  The Image of Woman in Scripture. Accessed http://www.loveofchrist.info/church/woman.html#C 1/29/13

The Ways God Speaks

God spoke to me through a former student and sister in Christ.  Getting back to blogging has been on my mind the last few weeks but I was not set on a topic.  Nothing was coming to me and I was praying that God would give some kind of inspiration to enable me to return to this passion.  Well, tonight I read an email asking me questions about the role of women in the Church. 

In regards to blogging, I have been out of the saddle way too long and I am eager to get back into blogging.  I am especially excited to be starting a new Bible series. Yet, I realize this topic has been covered many, many times.  So many times in fact that you have probably already decided not to read any blog posts about it.  However, let me ask you a few questions:

·         Have any of the teachings you have heard on the woman’s role included the Old Testament?

·         Have any of the classes you have heard on the woman’s role discussed prophetesses or deaconesses?

·         Have most of the teachings on this topic been from a few verses in Paul’s letters?

·         Have the classes you have been in on the woman’s role focused mostly on teaching and leadership roles (to the exclusion of the many other roles in the church)?

If you have answered yes to any of the above then please consider getting involved in discussion that will be taking place in the next few weeks/months.  My goal is to offer a unique viewpoint to some of the questions listed above and provide an alternative to the more traditional approaches to this topic.  In order to accomplish this task the first few posts will be about proper biblical interpretation.  Too many times this topic has been taught with more tradition than sound biblical research.  I thank God for answering my prayers and I now pray that he will guide me in speaking truth to the best of my ability.  Amen.