It has once been said to me that unless we are being persecuted for being Christians we are not doing something correct. Jesus promises troubles and persecutions, “you will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Luke 21:17), but should the area of persecution be something we strive for, especially in light of Scripture when so much is spoken of by Jesus on those which the hand of offense will be laid? I think it does not bearn within us to seek to be persecuted, for rather this would place but another form of idolatry before our deceiving hearts, but instead continue striving and thirsting after what our Savior says the first and greatest commandment is: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). I am convinced by Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and sheer logic that if they crucified my Christ for following this commandment perfectly, a redeemed sinner who, by God’s grace, attempts to follow it and falls imperfectly, shall also be persecuted as my Lord. Therefore, do not seek persecution or disruption amongst others to attempt to go through all of what hardships Christ spoke of, but rather love the Lord your God, walk diligently in His ways according to your calling as an heir to the throne, and there you shall find all of what Christ has prepared you for all along and has promised to remain faithful during. Do not worry about when but instead what you are doing to apart yourself from the world and the very flesh that drives you.

Praise God when persecutions arise on behalf of Christ’s name, but woe be to you O man, if you do anything less than love all, in order to seek your persecutions.

Mahatma Gandhi expressed and displayed meekness in fasting and exhibiting humility through nonviolence in the movement for an independent and civil India, which had more impact than any argumentativeness or mutiny. He is now even referred to as the “Father of India.” Why did Gandhi use such a tactic, and how did it work? In the city of India where the Gandhi Memorial is, there is a museum. Right at the entrance to the museum, there is in an inscription by Berton Russell. It says, “It is doubtful whether the methodology Gandhi chose to use would have succeeded except in the context of a nation where the predominant ethic was still Christian.” Not only did the atmosphere of a moral standard help the outcome, it might have also helped light the candle to show the way there. Gandhi was greatly influenced by this Jesus of Nazareth. Gandhi said,”I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” (Brainey 1)

Another martyr of meekness was Martin Luther King, Jr. He used the power of meekness in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s in the United States of America. Dr. King is undoubtedly compared with Mahamta Gandhi in his humanitarian efforts and the ways he conducted himself. He was the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The conference was a collaboration of Christian leaders in the Southeast who encouraged one another and influenced the fight against racism in the Southeast and the United States of America. The leadership conference was born out of the Birmingham Bus Boycotts that Dr. King and another black minister organized (Wikipedia 1). Gandhi and Dr. King shared a common influence. They both lived this meekness out by their love of truth and the influence of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus of Nazareth, who was the example for both Gandhi and Dr. King, was not passive, but saw meekness as an active double-edged sword in the heart.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (ESV Bible John 12:24-25 ).

The central concept in meekness is the denying of one’s self, of selfish ambition, and not being frozen by the fear of man to shout a message that is bigger than just one man, whether it be Dr. King or Mahatma Gandhi.

Meekness is not to be confused with weakness. It is the wisest attribute that one can hope to attain. Who has walked this road? The Catholic tradition has penned the path of meekness in the Latin, “via dolorosa,” or the way of suffering. It is choosing the narrow path and resisting pride and anger in the heart. It is the greatest weapon and requires force and violence in one’s own heart against his or her very nature. How is one to learn and follow in this path of suffering, of going the path less taken and resisting pride? One must follow those who have walked the path before him.

Who has walked this path? Who has gone before him and shown what meekness looks like? There is so much confusion on the subject, and little or no emphasis in hoping to attain this attribute today. In one’s attempt to attain meekness, one runs to the next leadership workshop and self-help gurus. One should instead learn from those who have wielded the sword of meekness to make social and moral change in the culture in which they lived.

People like Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus of Nazareth all made a difference. The kind of impact and influence they achieved is almost unparalleled even today. When one evaluates the long run, is it going to be worthwhile to be meek? The answer still lingers in the impact that has been permanently etched by those who embraced meekness before us. One must take a deeper look at the blessed meek, the very people who embraced meekness and their own experience following the narrow path.

For many “intellectuals” now-a-days, the idea of believing in a god is simply irrational. In the academic circles atheism is the prevalent belief system. “Any other belief is simply foolishness,” they would argue.

Well I would like to propose…the same kind of thinking when considering the worldview of atheism. When broken down, a-theism simply means negative god or no god. This claim of atheism is not stating that “there might not be a god” or “you think there is no god”, this belief is not even stating that you believe there is no god, it is stating, by definition, that there absolutely is no god.

However, negative universals are very hard to prove philosophically.

Saying there is absolutely no god is like me saying, “there is absolutely no white rocks with black stripes anywhere in the many galaxies of this universe”. The only way for me to make this claim with absolute certainty is if I had unlimited knowledge of this universe. So in essence what a atheist is claiming is they have infinite knowledge that there is no being with infinite knowledge.

Do atheist really believe that they are being the logical ones?

Also if atheism is true then there is no such thing as an ultimate moral law. Morals are just simply based off of subjective observations. In an atheist view of morality perception is what is true. Basically, in order to be a consistent atheist you must believe whatever the culture or society says is moral is what is moral. 

But consider this, during the Nuremberg trials, where Nazi officer’s were being persecuted for war crimes, one Nazi officer’s defense is that he was simply following the rule of their land. When this claim was made many people remained silent, until one man in the back who was not a prosecutor stood up and said, “Yes, we understand you were following orders but isn’t there a higher moral law all men are bound to?” Everybody agreed and under this pretense the Nazi’s actions were condemned. 

However, if there is no moral law above the simply rules of the land, like atheist claim, then weren’t the German soldiers justified in following the law of their own land during Holocaust, because who is to say it is wrong? And if you do say it is wrong under what authority do you know it is wrong?

When examined closely, in essence, all Hitler was trying to do was take the writings of Frederick Nietzsche, which he is said to have delivered personally to Benito Mussilini, (For more information of the effect of Frederick Nietzsche writings on Adolf Hitler please look to my earlier article “Was Hitler Crazy?”) and take the ideas from those writings and act them out politically. If Hitler were to have just merely written about the things he was thinking instead of actually doing them, he would of been hailed as a genius, much like Nietzsche is today. 

In addition to Nietzsche’s affect on social Darwinism he also provides early account of the future of atheism, which comes from his famous story  called “The story of a madman”. In this story a madman runs into a small town hysterically asking “Where is God?” The people in the town scorned and mocked him for his seemingly stupid question. The madmen then stood up in front of the town and said, “I’ll tell you were God is, he is dead and we are his murderers”. 

This is the common school of thought in today’s society. God is dead and if not yet dead he is slowly dying. But I vehemently  disagree with this idea. Because based upon the testimony of the Holy Spirit that has transformed my life and is constantly working around me my conscience will not allow. I cannot with a pure heart and a pure mind believe in something as unsubstantiated as atheism.

So I would argue that Nietzsche’s madman is alive and well today but instead of claiming the death of God I believe he is proclaiming the death of his own worldview, atheism. Who is the murderer you might ask? The homicide is attributed to the inescapable dagger of logic wielded by the sovereign hand of God.

(Most of article can be attributed to Ravi Zacharias’ latest podcast episode entitled, “Why I am Not an Atheist (Part 1)”)

And as I dozed off in class, I dreamed a dream…

I saw myself as a slave and my master was a cruel, ill-tempted man. But as it were, he has me in a trance in which whatever he beckoned me to do I did. I loved my master though he treated me foully. The more he beat and abused me the more I loved him, for this was a mighty trance which had been laid upon my eyes, and I could not perceive or understand my fettered state. Nor did I want to, for I seemed content. But one day as I sat in my cell alone, I grieved for my pain was great and I perceived no one was mighty enough to break my chains. So my master returned and assaulted me again and my heart was still devoted to him, for the trance kept me deceived. 

But behold, as I lay in my cell a great Light filled the room and I was blinded by its intesity. 

I heard a voice call me and it was not terrifying voice. As I walked I bumped into walls as this beautiful voice grew lounder and louder. It lead me to outside the cell in which I was kept and outside to a grove, for I felt the cool grass under my feet. And the voice lead me a little farther and beckoned me to stop and open my eyes and behold, I could see. And I looked and saw a reflection of myself in the still water of a pond and it terrifyed me, for it was the first time I had ever seen a reflection of myself, for my old master’s house had no mirrors. I was in great distress for I saw I was hideous and I sat in the grass and wept. 

The voice called me again and said, “Arise, O man.” 

And I arose and I saw a great man who shown like the Sun and whose countenance I could not directly look upon and He handed me a white robe which illuminate as He did and beckoned me to put it on, and I did. I then glanced at the pond again and I was greatly astonished, for I was beautiful and my heart rejoiced. And then the great Man told me,” I have ransomed you from your old master and bought you for myself and you are mine. Now you are free to serve me.”

And I was confounded, for how could service be free? And then my new Lord made a command of me and I followed and not only did I not feel bondage but I felt more joy to my heart than I thought possible and I was amazed at this and anxious to serve again that I might acquire this feeling once more. 

He freed me from bondage and I am His slave forevermore.

Matthew 8:23-27
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.  And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him”

One may first look at this in light of salvation and say ‘of course! the disciples freely and willingly chose to follow Jesus!’ Let us not miss the true sense to this. FIRST: “he got into the boat” Jesus got into the boat. The disciples would not have known where to go or what direction to even turn an inch right from a left had Jesus not have directed them first. I think it is also necessary and essential to keep in mind that the disciples were already chosen by God, not according to anything they had done nor any works. SECONDLY: “His disciples followed him” The text does not say “his disciples thought about following him,” or “his disciples attempted to follow him,” or “after some time, consideration, pondering, mulling over, or waiting, his disciples follow him” but rather IMMEDIATELY after His showing them the way, without hesitation the disciples followed Jesus. They were not able to come or follow Jesus without being led first “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). More importantly HIS disciples followed Him… by saying they were HIS implies that Jesus took ownership over them. “I am the good shepherd ; and I know my own and my own know me, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (John 10:14) This is intimate. Just as the Father knows Jesus, He knows His own. Does this mean the Father saw down the annals of time that he would have to sacrifice His son to atone for our sins? NO. The sacrificing and the bloodshed of His precious Son was in plan long before earth or any human was created. Just as Jesus has eternally existed as Son in the Trinity, so also has the plan for when the atonement would take place. In the same intimate and authoritative way the Father knows His Son, so also does Jesus know His own. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10) If God prepared even the good works that we, the saved, would do, would He not also know beforehand those whom would DO the works and actively and intimately, as in the relationship to the Son, draw us to do them? I believe our Sovereign God would and DOES.

“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.  And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’”

Take notice that It was not until the great storm in the sea was realized by the disciples, the water engulfing the boat, until they realized how close to death they were, did they acknowledge their need for help. The relation of this is that until we see how neck-deep in sin and how fierce the storm of our carnal, selfish, godless desires are, we will not think we need a Savior. Our radical depravity shows us that we are on the verge of eternal death and need to be saved, to be reconciled to God, to have eternal life which is Jesus Christ.

“But he was asleep.”

When we are wandering and living in our sin to please ourselves and place God as a pretty ornament that we can hang up when a nice occasion or holiday rolls by, we soon come to find that it will eventually lead to true retrospect and wondering whether or not this God does exist because we do not feel or see Him in our lives. We are blind and dead. This is because the sin we wish to continue in pushes us farther and farther from God. It may appear as though He is asleep because He, as The Most Holy God, cannot be near sin. The Cross, the death of Christ, was necessary to cover the sins of those the Lord will save by His grace, once and for all. He may seem asleep, dead, non-existent, because sin has blinded us and until we repent and run away from them, until we stop spitting and sinning in the face of a Holy God, we will continue to be blind, blind and dead, headed towards eternal flames. 

“Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”

They cry out for help because they understand their lost state.

“Save us, Lord”

They cried out to Christ as LORD, not meaning that He was simply some figure that may save them. They did not say “if you can, try and save us.” They said SAVE US because they understood He was LORD, LORD of all and everything LORD of life, salvation, weather and all else in existence, and that He could save them ENTIRELY. They could not save themselves, they needed Him to do the saving but were only able to cry out for help when they realized their perishing state.

“We are perishing.”

This is our state while we live for us and never to please our Maker or to glorify the infinitely beautiful, pleasing, and eternally satisfying God. Apart from Him, apart from Christ, WE ARE PERISHING. Not slowly, but rapidly. Not each year, month, week, day, hour, or even second.. but every MOMENT we are apart from Christ, WE ARE PERISHING towards the infinite torture, horror, and torment of hell; eternity apart from the One who sustains your life and gives you grace to BE ALIVE. The disciples acknowledged their state and in response cried out to Christ to save them. So also must we do lest we believe we are above them and in need of no Savior… where then the issue becomes our self-esteem, our belief of invincibility as humans who WITHER AWAY and die tragically ANNUALLY.

FACT: we all die.

TRUTH: Jesus is life. 

What you do with that truth is in your hands. Repent & believe.

“And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’”

The question is rhetorical, and Jesus as the omniscient God knew the response. They were afraid because of their little faith. Faith is not reached by our own doing. We, just as the disciples were, are given faith as a gift of God so we may believe. “as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3) Jesus knew they were afraid because of their little faith, and until the Lord by His mercy and grace allots to each of us faith to be able to believe in Him and the miracles, the amazing acts he does, more specifically the miracle of our salvation, the awakening of our dead souls by regeneration, by removing our cold hearts of stone and replacing them with hearts of flesh (“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” Ezekiel 36:26-27), until this occurs we are unable to see Him, obey Him, walk accordingly to His statutes, love Him, and worship Him in spirit and truth. 

***If you are unsure of whether or not the Lord has done this for you, CRY OUT FOR HIM TO SAVE YOU UNTIL HE DOES. Repent and stay on your knees until they are bloody and bruised from the hours you have spent crying out for The Almighty God to shed his grace upon you and save you!***

Here Jesus is not saying the disciples are horrible people with non-existent faith, but rather Jesus is calling the disciples to a clearer understanding of who He is, to acknowledge how desperately in need of Him they are, have always been, and will continue to be. Their faith is in fact not functioning properly just as we may have a small measure of faith(Matt. 17:20), but once that measure of faith has been allotted to us, it is there and we have it, and whether small or large, weak or strong it is a fundamental part to our salvation.

“Then he rose”

After they cried out in need, Jesus arose to action. We must see how important it was for the disciples to admit their lost state. Until this occurs we believe we are in no need of a Savior. But at once after the acknowledgement that we do, the admitting of this, the putting our pride down and realizing we are an utterly filthy and vile specimen who hates God, that is when He arises in our lives. “The sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17) It is only when we are broken and contrite that God can show us His grace, His mercy.

“Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea”

This demonstrates the complete Sovereignty of God in that Jesus is able to command even the forces of nature. “Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils” (Psalm 18:15) More than this, in light of salvation, Jesus here – after the disciples realization and admittance of their perishing state – stepped in for them. Jesus Christ hung on a cross, hung by his blood-dripping, tortured skin for us, the worthless and undeserving. In doing so, He stepped in for us. Beyond the horrific physical torture that Jesus received, he took upon himself something far worse, something we will never understand how horrible it is: THE WRATH OF GOD. The wrath of God that was to be poured on us, the unimaginable. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We are sinners from birth (Psalm 51:5) and are destined for hell – a real place of torment, not just an absence of pleasure or annihilation. AND IT IS EVERLASTING. Why? Because of the sin committed against an everlasting Holy God. We were created for His glory (Isaiah 43:6-7) and are called to do EVERYTHING to glorify Him (1 Corinthians 10:31). We deserved this endless torment, and instead, through the penal substitutionary atonement, Jesus Christ hanging on a tree until death, we are declared righteous before a Holy God – we are justified, cleansed, our sins are forgiven. That is how horrible of people we are, and how HORRIFIC the wrath of God is, that nO ONE but the infinitely perfect God could satisfy His own wrath upon us. JESUS CHRIST STEPPED IN FOR US to save us from the wrath of God. PRAISE HIM!

The hard thrashing waves and the intense wind that can make a human feel as helpless as a feather floating around – HE REBUKED THEM. Jesus Christ calmed the storm. He is able to end the chaos before you. He rebukes the winds and the sea and the storm comes to an end. He is the only peace able to calm a storm, regardless of its size. Jesus Christ will strengthen you and get you through any situation no matter how difficult it is, because with Christ set as your treasure and portion, nothing can or will EVER get in between you and the love of Christ. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38)

“And there was a great calm”

The unbelief of the disciples prior to Jesus helping them is displeasing to Him, this is why he reproved them.
 However, in the midst of the dishonor they brought upon the Lord, He still rescued them as he does us.
 Although we live in unbelief, in order to fulfill His own purposes prepared beforehand to bring himself the
 ultimate glory (Romans 9:11, Ephesians 1:4, 2 Timothy 1:9), although we hate God, He STILL saves us according
 to His grace and mercy HIS LOVE! (“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” Titus 3:4-5)
 PRAISE GOD for allowing such worthless sinners to be redeemed and brought back to Him not on the basis of
 anything we have done or do, but based on HIS MERCY. What an INCREDIBLE GOD WE SERVE!


Here, we are also shown how ridiculously easy it was for Christ to bring everything to His glory.
 Not only was it easy, it was done EFFECTUALLY – instantly, there was a great calm.
 There is no extensive process to reach the point of being saved, nor is there the questioning of
whether we will eventually be saved at death. Once saved by Christ, you are ENTIRELY SAVED.
Then forward you are being sanctified to be presented blameless before God.
THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO FOR OUR SALVATION – TO LOOSE OR TO GAIN IT!
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your 
whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
Our salvation is entirely of God “Salvation belongs to the Lord (Jonah 2:9) 
THANK THE LORD, because if it was up to us, none would be saved.

“And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’”

The disciples finally give Jesus the due credit, honor, and authority he deserves, as we after being saved are finally able to do. They had been in the storm for so long and were so well acquainted with it that 
when Jesus calmed it they could do nothing less than marvel at his miracle. The same occurs with those who are truly saved. We have been in the storm of our selfish desires, we have been in chains and enslaved
to our sin that when Jesus Christ calms the storm, when he breaks the chains that keep us bound we will marvel at the irresistible grace He has shed upon our dead souls to bring us to life and save us!
It is a miracle and it is entirely the Lord’s doing and we, like the disciples, WILL marvel.

“what kind of a man is this?”

They now know he is not a mere man, He is God. In the same manner once we realize what the Lord has rescued us from we can never picture Jesus as a simple insignificant figure. Doing so must bring
some serious conviction into ones life. After raising us from the dead and giving us the free gift of Himself, of eternal life, when we do not nor will EVER deserve it, we CANNOT view Jesus as just another man
in a fictional story tale. HE IS GOD and He is real. HE VICTORIOUSLY CONQUERED DEATH AND SIN. Raised on the 3rd day He ascended into heaven and is seated at the RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER.
”It is finished.” No more sacrifices. No more appeasing God to try and be saved. The death of Christ fully effectually and eternally satisfied the wrath of God. His own sheep from His flock WILL be brought
back to Him before His return. We are His and He is ours from now until ETERNITY.

Amen. 

What is sacrifice?

Giving something I desire,

So that I’ll avoid the fire,

but then one day I’ll just tire,

 of fighting off these desires?

What is sacrifice? 

Or is it taking something I don’t think is better,

 because it says to do so in the Letter,

since Romans tells me I’m a debtor, 

but my hearts still be bound by chain and fetter?

What is sacrifice? 

Giving something that defines me, 

so that He might realign me,

but can’t this really just disguise me,

and in the end He’ll just despise me?

What is sacrifice? 

Giving something that I once loved but now hate,

So that I may see and taste the Savior who is great,

and for His coming I will wait,

and during this great wait my soul will elate?

For I have found the only treasure,  

whose worth no man can measure, 

for He is my one and only pleasure!  

Are you hearing this loving lecture?

What is sacrifice?

God taking a heart that was depraved,

and though I misbehaved,

I was predestined to be saved,

He said my past was waved,

Because Christ took my debt and paid,

and my sin on Him was laid, 

and now I have it made,

and He is all I crave!

What is sacrifice?

Trading my dirt for gold,

Believing, He who took me, a dead sinner who was cold and sold,

into slavery and mold,

him into new creation that is bold and will not fold,

Because of what Christ has told.

About the stone that was rolled,

and a tomb that could not hold,

A Savior who took our salvation on His should-ers.

So what is sacrifice? 

It’s praising a God who was slain, 

but defeated death and reigns. 

His love like a hurricane, 

washes away ALL my stain,

and on ME His mercy rains? 

To not take this would be insane, 

So the answer to this question is…

this sacrifice is GAIN.

TRUE WOMANHOOD -John Piper @ 2008 True Woman Conference notes.

The opposite of a wimpy woman is not a brash, loud, pushy, sassy, arrogant, controlling, amazon woman. The opposite of a wimpy woman is 14 year old Marie Derront getting arrested for being a protestant and saying she refuses to recant Christ and thus spends 38 years in jail and until her death for it. It is Gladys Staines serving in India with husband Graham, finding out that her husband and children have been set on fire alive in their car, and after finding this out saying that she forgave the killers and had no bitterness towards them. It is Gladys’ daughter, Esther, praising the Lord for finding her father worthy of dying for Him. It is Joni Erickson Tada at 41 years old in a wheel chair praying, “Oh thank you thank you thank you for this wheel chair! By tasting hell in this life I have been driven to think seriously about what faces me in the next. This paralysis is my greatest mercy.” It is Suzy who 4 years ago whose husband at 59 was taken, a month later found out she had breast cancer, her mom died, and then a miracle happened: She wrote to Piper and said: “Now I see I have been crying for the wrong kind of help. I now see that my worse suffering is my sin, my sin of self-centeredness and self-pity. I know that with His grace, His loving kindness, and His merciful help, my thoughts can be reformed and my life conformed to be more like His Son.”

WIMPY THEOLOGY MAKES WIMPY WOMEN

1. Wimpy theology does not give a woman a God big enough, strong enough, wise enough, good enough, to handle the realities of life in a way that enables her to magnify Him and His Son all the time.
2. Wimpy theology is plagued by woman-centeredness, or what we often call “man-centeredness”
3. Wimpy theology does not have a granite foundation of God’s sovereignty underneath. It doesn’t have the steel structure of a great God centered purpose for all of human existence, including the worse of it.

THE ULTIMATE MEANING OF TRUE WOMANHOOD
The ultimate purpose in the universe and all of history and for YOUR LIFE: Display the glory of Christ in its highest expression in his dying to make a rebellious people his bride. That’s the reason the universe exists; to display the glory of God’s grace in it’s highest expression as the Son of God dies to make US his bride. Everything exists so that that can happen and to highlight it and make much of that.

Revelation 13:8 “…everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain”
God planned the death and slaughter of His son before the universe was made. THIS IS AMAZING NOT WIMPY. THIS DOES NOT PRODUCE WIMPY WOMEN.

Ephesians 1:5,6 “He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
STOP. because when you have arrived there you are HOME. That is what the universe was made for, this climax and apex. The supreme expression of the glorious grace spoken of in this verse is the Sons purchase at the cost of his life for his WIFE… you and me.

Epshesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word”
THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF ALL THINGS: to praise the glory of the grace of God supremely manifest on Calvary when the Son of God laid His life down to purchase and purify His wife out of an absolutely hell-bent rebellious people.

WHY DID GOD CREATE THE WORLD AND YOU? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR TRUE WOMANHOOD?
Manhood & Womanhood belong at the center of calvary. They are not an after though of creation or an idea God thought up of after the Cross. LADIES, LET US BE DONE WITH SMALL THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD’S DESIGN FOR WOMANHOOD!! Triviality in our culture is a problem, it is a curse. I am sick of the obsession with TV shows, shopping, money, positions, and VANITY. The things that are UNSEEN are what matter. You can transform every small moment into massive significance if you realize that your womanhood is here being brought to the very center of the purposes of God in this universe, which come to a climax when Christ, the husband, bought his bride.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
God did not simply stop and decide one day ‘I will apply marriage to the meaning of what my Son has achieved, this is an awesome analogy’… NO! THIS IS NOT THE WAY IT HAPPENED. When God thought to create male and female the way we are, he already had the cross in mind. That is why he made us this way. He didn’t make us this way and later think “OH! THAT WILL WORK! I’LL APPLY THAT TO THE CROSS!”

In Ephesians 5:31 Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
First marriage is being quoted. However, in verse 32 Paul goes on to say “this mystery is profound.” Why? Because it refers to Christ and the church. God said “manhood and womanhood are about the most important event in history, that is why I made them this why. I mean for this manhood and womanhood choreography in marriage mainly, and in singleness, to be a display of the most important thing in the universe: MY SON DISPLAYING MY GRACE IN THE SACRIFICE OF HIS LIFE AS A HUSBAND FOR HIS WIFE.”

Alright so here is the question & answer for you beautiful women. The question and the response to where you fit into the Gospel, to how your distinctiveness as a woman brings glory to God. If nothing else, grasp this:

Q: What is the ultimate meaning of true womanhood?
A: True womanhood is a distinctive calling of God to display the glory of His Son in ways that would not be displayed if there were no womanhood. 

When God described the glorious work of His Son as a sacrifice of a husband for His bride, he was telling us why he made us male and female: so that our maleness and femaleness would display more fully the glory of His Son in relationship to his blood bought bride. If you try to reduce your womanhood to physical features or biological functions and THEN determine your role in life purely on the basis of competencies, you not only MISS the point of womanhood, YOU DIMINISH THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN YOUR OWN LIFE.

But what does this look like for marriage or singles?
Let’s take the marriage view first: 

Ephesians 5:22 “Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”
This idea of marriage, headship, and submission were meant to display the covenant keeping love and grace that exists between Christ and His church, which means husband and wife and headship and submission are no more interchangeable than Christ and His church are… THEY ARE NOT.

Men – as Christ, are called to headship.
Women – as the church, are called to admire and stand in allegiance to Christ.

To further understand this, let’s define what the two actual roles mean, what headship and submission are:

Headship = the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christ-like servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home.
Submission = the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husbands leadership and help carry it through, according to her gifts. 

In womanhood and manhood the differences are absolutely essential by God’s design so that marriage will display more fully the glory of the sacrificial love of Christ for His bride and the beauty of the lavish reverence and admiration of the bride for her husband. 

How about the women who resist leadership? What about the women who think everything is to be 50/50? What about unbelieving husbands or believing husbands who don’t take leadership? IF YOU AS A MARRIED WOMAN COULD EMBRACE THIS MAGNIFICENT TRUTH THAT YOUR TRUE WOMANHOOD ULTIMATELY MEANS THAT YOUR DISTINCTIVE ROLE IN MARRIAGE IS MEANT TO MAGNIFY THE GLORY OF GOD’S GRACE SUPREMELY EXPRESSED IN THE COVENANT KEEPING LOVE BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH, YOU WOULD HAVE A COMPASS TO DIRECT ALL QUESTIONS AND A LIFETIME LEFT TO ANSWER THEM.

Now onto the singles:
-Paul  celebrated it and called many of you in it even though marriage was meant to display the covenant relationship between Christ and His bride. Why? Why would he do this? Why would he lure anyone away from marriage, from something that seems so absolute? This is because since the fall, natural order is not absolute. Because, now sin has entered into the world and there are other things to take into consideration besides the natural order God set up before there was sin and collapse. 
-In this world there are truths about Christ and His kingdom which can be more clearly displayed by womanhood in singleness and manhood in singleness than these in marriage.

3 THINGS WOMANLY SINGLENESS CAN SAY BETTER TO THE WORLD THAN WOMANHOOD IN MARRIAGE: 

1. A family of God grows by regeneration through faith, and not propagation through sexual intercourse.
2.  Relationships in Christ are more permanent and precious than relationships in families.
3. Marriage is temporary and finally gives way in the end to the relationship in which it was pointing to all along, Christ and the church.

MARRIAGE IS NOT THE MAIN THING — IT IS MOMENTARY. This says something very powerfully about any woman’s Savior.

My prayer is that as women we would be able to understand our One true God and our role in His purpose, to fully enjoy Him while entirely glorifying Him. May we acknowledge that we are precious in our Savior’s eyes, we are his beautiful bride, and that our marriage, singleness, WOMANHOOD should display nothing less but the Cross and the love of Christ that flows eternally from it.

“I PRAISE YOU LORD, FOR I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE, YOUR WORKS ARE WONDERFUL AND I KNOW THEM RIGHT WELL.”

amen.

They wanted comfort,

But  Jesus offered them a cross.

They wanted comfort,

But Jesus gave them cannibalism.

They wanted comfort,

But Jesus promised persecutions.

They wanted comfort,

But Jesus promised them death.

They wanted comfort,

But Jesus gave them nothing.

But WE want Jesus,

And He has promised HIMSELF!

But WE want Jesus,

And we find our comfort in Him.

But WE want Jesus,

And HE has given us ALL!

BUT DEAR LORD MAY WE ALWAYS REMEMBER,

THAT APART FROM YOUR GRACE,

WE ARE THEY.

You saved us. Not by us, but according to Your own mercy (Titus 3:5)
Having forgiven us and nailing our sins to the Cross, we are alive by You (Col. 2:13)
With the new heart You have given us we believe and are justified (Rom. 10:10)
Height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from                  Your love (Rom. 8:38)