I subscribe to a blog that I have mentioned before. The author of that blog says that the blog is really a conversation with herself and we subscribers are welcome to join in. That's kind of how I feel about this class. The topics which I want to cover are things that I need to hear and learn. We will cover Scripture with which I need to become familiar. This is a conversation with myself in which I need you to participate. That being said, I, like Ms. Jenny, do not want this to become the Margaret Sherbert hour. I am banking on your participation and contribution. If this is to be a conversation about things I need to learn, then how better to learn than from those who have been down the road before?
Yet again, Nancy McCool’s name was drawn from those who turned in their memory work. She declined this week’s gift. We drew again and Bette Hagan won a copy of Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook.
Our memory verse for the week comes from Luke 11:9 – “So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will opened to you.”
The things I want us to study are questions that I have about God and the Bible. Sometimes I think that God's word is so deep and mysterious that I cannot find the answers to the questions I have. Referring to this week's memory work will remind us that if we ask, it will be given, if we seek, we will find, if we knock, the door will be opened. That's pretty simple. But you'll notice that it requires an act on our part. It doesn't say think it and he'll provide an answer. It doesn't say he'll have it waiting in our inbox when we check our e-mail. We have to ask, we have to seek, we have to knock. We go to God, he doesn't come to us.
Question to class: how do we go to God?
Answer: Prayer is the proper avenue for going to God. There are tools and supplemental things that we can do to enhance our prayers. They include Bible study, Bible class, singing, meditation, etc.
Looking at our memory verse for this week: if you break down the verse, you will see:
Ask implies a simple petition, a wish, a request, a prayer and nothing more. You ask directions when you are lost. Asking gets you started in the right direction.
Seek indicates a search, a step above simply asking. You are adding a heightened level of diligence. Seek as if you have lost something of value. This requires getting up off the couch and actually hunting around for the answer, being proactive.
Knock shows perseverance in spite of hindrances. Knocking shows that even though a door is closed, you won’t give up. You will request admittance. Sin has shut the door and barred it against us. We must continue to knock so that the door will be opened.
Question to class: what closes the door to God for you?
Answer: Fear, embarrassment, laziness, over scheduled, selfishness, pride, low self esteem, anxiety, etc. SIN.
Ask, Knock, Seek. The three actions together represent earnest prayer. We ask for what we wish; we seek for what we miss; we knock for that from which we feel ourselves shut out.
So now that we know we are required to do something to receive the blessings from God, let’s do that! I ask that you think on the things we discuss. Read on your own. Let me know if there is something that I have said that you don’t think is a proper representation of the Scripture. I am learning as I go and may not always have it right. Most importantly, ask, seek, and knock in prayer for your heart and my heart to hear the words, know the truth, and act on it, whether we like it or not.
Speaking of the “or not portion” of that statement… The topic of this class for the next few weeks will be submission. I asked you to write down on these cards your feelings or definitions of submission.
I'll tell you my thoughts too. I was baptized when I was 12 years old. Even at 12 years old I had strong opinions. (Shocking – I know!) So as I grew up and into my marriage, I chose to politely ignore the verses relating to submission. I knew in my heart that if I started really looking at the topic and evaluating my obedience to it, I would come up short. I am a perfectionist. I want to be justified in my behavior. That's why I went to law school. I like being right.
So I went on ignoring it and I thought, my husband never reads the Bible and hardly ever comes to church. He probably didn't even know it was in there and if he did, he had so many things wrong with his life that I knew he wouldn't dare bring up submission. Then he was baptized and started coming to church fairly regularly a year or so ago. We were talking one day and disagreed about something. He jokingly said something like, "Well, you have to listen to me. It says so in the Bible." It was as if the world stopped spinning. I thought of Chris Rock. He said, "If you've ever been in love, you've contemplated murder."
Then I started looking into submission in the Bible and what it means. But, not so I could be a better wife. I hoped that it was one of those times when the first translators didn't know a better word to use and they just arbitrarily chose one. Then I could say to him, "Ha! I knew it!" But, no. So then I got bitter. Why would God do this to me and my daughter just because we were unlucky enough to have an X chromosome? Furthermore, why would God give me a brain with the ability to discern and analyze and reach decisions, if he didn't intend me to use it? What did he want from me? To walk ten paces behind my husband? To bat my eyes at my husband and see no wrong in his decisions?
Maybe you've felt the way I did about the topic, never even considering what it means to submit and then when finally forced to confront the idea - react with anger and indignation. Or maybe you're like the author of a book I've been reading on the topic. She gave in to every opinion her husband had never voicing an opinion of her own. One day her young daughter told her she was never going to get married because she didn't want to be mad all the time like her mom. The author realized that even though she was going through the motions, she didn't believe in it. She had a quiet resentment that was affecting her daughter's future.
Generally, our definitions and feelings about submission don't come from God. They come from media, culture, human perversion of the Scripture, etc. aka Satan. Satan degrades and devalues God's word, including submission and what that means.
Over the last 60 years there has been an ongoing masculinization of women. Rosy the Riveter got us started. The men were at war. The women had to go to work. Satan began working on us. Telling the same lie he told Eve, “You don’t need man. You can do just fine without him.” Compare that with the emasculation of man which you see every day when you turn on the television. There is a Cheerios commercial where the guy is reading the box and it says something about how Cheerios helps you lose weight. He says to his wife, “The box says Cheerios helps you lose weight.” She gives him a “What are you trying to say” look. She says, “What else does the box say, Steve.” He replies, “Shut up, Steve?” There is a Glade commercial where the husband is trying to figure out how to use the new air freshener thing. The wife walks through the room and casually pushes the button and gives the husband a look that basically says, “You’re stupid.” This characterization of men didn't bother me as much until I had a son and I thought about his potential mates seeing this and how that would affect what they thought of my son, my smart, funny boy.
So as we go through this study, we are going to look for God’s plan of submission and how that applies to us in our various lives, whether married, single, widowed, etc. Please try to keep an open heart and mind. We are going to try to overcome the rebellion that generally comes with the thought of submission, we are going to find out what it really means, who is actually called to submit, and what our responsibility is as Christian ladies at Joelton. As we go through this study keep in mind that you can only be responsible for yourself. You cannot make your husband, your boss, your elders, etc be responsible. Most importantly, you CANNOT predicate your obedience to God's word on someone else's action or inaction. In the Garden, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent. What did that get either of them? Banished. The same is true for us. At judgment each of us will stand there ALONE. We will not be able to blame shift. The buck stops here.
Here's our memory verse for next week,
Revelation 22:12 – “Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”
This is your class, this is your life. Ask, seek, knock. Because you alone will be called to stand and answer for your actions.
*** Next week we are going to talk about who is called to submit.
Yet again, Nancy McCool’s name was drawn from those who turned in their memory work. She declined this week’s gift. We drew again and Bette Hagan won a copy of Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook.
Our memory verse for the week comes from Luke 11:9 – “So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will opened to you.”
The things I want us to study are questions that I have about God and the Bible. Sometimes I think that God's word is so deep and mysterious that I cannot find the answers to the questions I have. Referring to this week's memory work will remind us that if we ask, it will be given, if we seek, we will find, if we knock, the door will be opened. That's pretty simple. But you'll notice that it requires an act on our part. It doesn't say think it and he'll provide an answer. It doesn't say he'll have it waiting in our inbox when we check our e-mail. We have to ask, we have to seek, we have to knock. We go to God, he doesn't come to us.
Question to class: how do we go to God?
Answer: Prayer is the proper avenue for going to God. There are tools and supplemental things that we can do to enhance our prayers. They include Bible study, Bible class, singing, meditation, etc.
Looking at our memory verse for this week: if you break down the verse, you will see:
Ask implies a simple petition, a wish, a request, a prayer and nothing more. You ask directions when you are lost. Asking gets you started in the right direction.
Seek indicates a search, a step above simply asking. You are adding a heightened level of diligence. Seek as if you have lost something of value. This requires getting up off the couch and actually hunting around for the answer, being proactive.
Knock shows perseverance in spite of hindrances. Knocking shows that even though a door is closed, you won’t give up. You will request admittance. Sin has shut the door and barred it against us. We must continue to knock so that the door will be opened.
Question to class: what closes the door to God for you?
Answer: Fear, embarrassment, laziness, over scheduled, selfishness, pride, low self esteem, anxiety, etc. SIN.
Ask, Knock, Seek. The three actions together represent earnest prayer. We ask for what we wish; we seek for what we miss; we knock for that from which we feel ourselves shut out.
So now that we know we are required to do something to receive the blessings from God, let’s do that! I ask that you think on the things we discuss. Read on your own. Let me know if there is something that I have said that you don’t think is a proper representation of the Scripture. I am learning as I go and may not always have it right. Most importantly, ask, seek, and knock in prayer for your heart and my heart to hear the words, know the truth, and act on it, whether we like it or not.
Speaking of the “or not portion” of that statement… The topic of this class for the next few weeks will be submission. I asked you to write down on these cards your feelings or definitions of submission.
I'll tell you my thoughts too. I was baptized when I was 12 years old. Even at 12 years old I had strong opinions. (Shocking – I know!) So as I grew up and into my marriage, I chose to politely ignore the verses relating to submission. I knew in my heart that if I started really looking at the topic and evaluating my obedience to it, I would come up short. I am a perfectionist. I want to be justified in my behavior. That's why I went to law school. I like being right.
So I went on ignoring it and I thought, my husband never reads the Bible and hardly ever comes to church. He probably didn't even know it was in there and if he did, he had so many things wrong with his life that I knew he wouldn't dare bring up submission. Then he was baptized and started coming to church fairly regularly a year or so ago. We were talking one day and disagreed about something. He jokingly said something like, "Well, you have to listen to me. It says so in the Bible." It was as if the world stopped spinning. I thought of Chris Rock. He said, "If you've ever been in love, you've contemplated murder."
Then I started looking into submission in the Bible and what it means. But, not so I could be a better wife. I hoped that it was one of those times when the first translators didn't know a better word to use and they just arbitrarily chose one. Then I could say to him, "Ha! I knew it!" But, no. So then I got bitter. Why would God do this to me and my daughter just because we were unlucky enough to have an X chromosome? Furthermore, why would God give me a brain with the ability to discern and analyze and reach decisions, if he didn't intend me to use it? What did he want from me? To walk ten paces behind my husband? To bat my eyes at my husband and see no wrong in his decisions?
Maybe you've felt the way I did about the topic, never even considering what it means to submit and then when finally forced to confront the idea - react with anger and indignation. Or maybe you're like the author of a book I've been reading on the topic. She gave in to every opinion her husband had never voicing an opinion of her own. One day her young daughter told her she was never going to get married because she didn't want to be mad all the time like her mom. The author realized that even though she was going through the motions, she didn't believe in it. She had a quiet resentment that was affecting her daughter's future.
Generally, our definitions and feelings about submission don't come from God. They come from media, culture, human perversion of the Scripture, etc. aka Satan. Satan degrades and devalues God's word, including submission and what that means.
Over the last 60 years there has been an ongoing masculinization of women. Rosy the Riveter got us started. The men were at war. The women had to go to work. Satan began working on us. Telling the same lie he told Eve, “You don’t need man. You can do just fine without him.” Compare that with the emasculation of man which you see every day when you turn on the television. There is a Cheerios commercial where the guy is reading the box and it says something about how Cheerios helps you lose weight. He says to his wife, “The box says Cheerios helps you lose weight.” She gives him a “What are you trying to say” look. She says, “What else does the box say, Steve.” He replies, “Shut up, Steve?” There is a Glade commercial where the husband is trying to figure out how to use the new air freshener thing. The wife walks through the room and casually pushes the button and gives the husband a look that basically says, “You’re stupid.” This characterization of men didn't bother me as much until I had a son and I thought about his potential mates seeing this and how that would affect what they thought of my son, my smart, funny boy.
So as we go through this study, we are going to look for God’s plan of submission and how that applies to us in our various lives, whether married, single, widowed, etc. Please try to keep an open heart and mind. We are going to try to overcome the rebellion that generally comes with the thought of submission, we are going to find out what it really means, who is actually called to submit, and what our responsibility is as Christian ladies at Joelton. As we go through this study keep in mind that you can only be responsible for yourself. You cannot make your husband, your boss, your elders, etc be responsible. Most importantly, you CANNOT predicate your obedience to God's word on someone else's action or inaction. In the Garden, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent. What did that get either of them? Banished. The same is true for us. At judgment each of us will stand there ALONE. We will not be able to blame shift. The buck stops here.
Here's our memory verse for next week,
Revelation 22:12 – “Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”
This is your class, this is your life. Ask, seek, knock. Because you alone will be called to stand and answer for your actions.
*** Next week we are going to talk about who is called to submit.
2 comments:
I really, really miss the Ladies class at Joelton and this makes me miss it even so much more. Margaret I know you will do a wonderful job in this class. Hopefully I can pop in from time to time. If not I can always visit your blog for the little kick in the rumpus that I am always in need of!!
Hey, Rona - I am here for you (with my rumpus kicking boots on)! And do stop in...
We saw Chloe at the ball field the other day, but we were in the middle of our opening game and didn't make it over to visit. Now that we are playing in Joelton, I am sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other!
Post a Comment