Easter Women and the Honour of Knowledge

photo credit - Sunday School Zone

As I write, the International Women's Day with this year's theme of 'Embrace Equity', has just passed, and Easter is just a couple of weeks away.

I have various messages from the first still lingering in my mind, and various contexts of the second beckoning me to think on them once again.

But this year for some reason those two issues have seemed to intersect for me in a fresh way.

The World's Confusion about Women

International Women's Day is often an opportunity for championing women's rights of various kinds. It might be highlighting the difficulties women in some countries have just to be able to drive a car or be seen in the streets. Or it might be giving awards to women, or highlighting high achieving women in sports or community. 

But of course we live in a crazy 21st century mostly God-less world. So this year it was reported that the USA First Lady awarded a women's 'courage award' to a biological man. And then in other quarters recently it seemed some leaders in the world struggled to even define a 'woman'. So, as the world on one hand wants to promote the 'rights' of women, it is at the same time undermining the meaning and value of who a woman even is.

When a world sadly ignores or rejects God this should come as no surprise.

On the other hand, Easter is a great time to be reminded that God knows and cares about women. He created the gender distinction with clear biological sexual markers and is deeply concerned about the women in this world, just as much as He is concerned about the men in this world. He doesn't need a 'Women's Day' in order to properly value women.

The Concern of Christ for Women

A reading of the gospels brings clear reminders of how Jesus' showed honour to women who were not culturally honoured, giving them equal value alongside men, on many levels. 

One of these ways was in regard to knowledge and learning. Like Paul explains (Acts 22:3) that he sat 'at the feet' of Gamaliel, it was common for a man to be a 'disciple' of a great teacher and learn in this way. 

So when we read in Luke 10 about Mary sitting and learning at the feet of Jesus as her 'rabbi' (teacher), this has counter-cultural significance. The average Jewish man would have found this unacceptable. Jesus not only allowed the situation of a woman being in the position of one of his devoted 'disciples' but endorsed it as being of even greater value (thus honour) than doing the normal culturally expected household tasks associated with the cultural honour of a woman. So while he may have chosen men as His core disciples and be the ones to later lead the post-pentecost church, He also promoted the idea of women having the opportunity to learn and grow in their understanding of Biblical truth and even be in a position of what we might call today a 'theology student'. 

One of the ways in which honour is culturally assigned in any culture is related to who has knowledge (or access to knowledge) and who does not.

Here in Africa, traditionally an oral society, knowledge (particularly cultural knowledge but not limited to that) is something still seen very much as a sign of honour status. It gains a person a level of superiority above others, not only through power of how to use that knowledge more than someone else, but simply having others realise that some people have a certain exclusivity to access certain knowledge.

But the issue is not limited to the culture of Jesus' day or of Africa. I couldn't tell you how many times in my school days (too many to count) when someone would proudly chant: 'I know something you don't know'! It was a statement of superiority and higher importance and greater status than others.

Even today, there is a sense where the degree to which women are given access to certain fields of study, is taken as the signal of whether women are considered equally mentally competent to learn something that may have been previously considered only for men to learn.

While Jesus (as Creator) knows perfectly why He chooses to have men in certain leadership roles, it is in no way a reason to say he thought of women as having 'less' value as people or as disciples. 

*we must be careful to differentiate between a woman's identity value as a human being and member of the body of Christ, and her activity roles which very much depend on how God created us to be  having differing skills, strengths, weaknesses, physical capabilities and calling, and thus hold differing positions from men in some instances, both in human society as a whole and within the church (see a previous blog post on understanding this often mis-understood vital distinction).

Jesus made it clear that women could and should learn and have equal value in that regard. They didn't need to gain their sense of identity and honour from what was culturally expected of them, nor did they need to feel angry or threatened by those who moved away from having culture as defining and directing them and had rather chosen Christ to be their standard and Lord.

All of Scripture shows God's counter-cultural view of women, from including women in the earthly genealogy/lineage of Jesus (Rahab, Ruth, Tamar, Bathsheba and of course Mary) to using someone like Esther to be the means of saving the Jews from extinction and annihilation, we are shown in Scripture that Jesus not only valued women but chose women for critical service to Him and His people. 

The Gospel, and Women at the Cross

I find it very interesting how all of Jesus' disciples forsook him (except for John  - John 19:25-29), being unwilling to risk being associated with the shame of the cross. And yet we have recorded that it was the women who were willing (along with John) to be seen supporting and being identified with the shame of the cross. They stood watching when others had abandoned Jesus.

Then along with Nicodemus, it was women who were concerned about showing honour to Christ, and who visited the tomb despite the difficulty, discouragement and shaming they may have faced. But their love for their Lord outweighed such obstacles. And thus it was the women who were the first to learn of the good news of the resurrection - while the men were hiding away in fear. It was Mary Magdalene who was the first to see and talk with the risen Christ, and it was her and a couple of other women, to whom Jesus gave the first 'go, tell' gospel (good news) 'commission' (Matthew 28:7; Mark 16:9).

It is easy in a Western setting to miss the significance of this occasion. In the West we are generally used to women being supposed to have some level of equality to men. In the West we are also not as cognitively attuned to the realities of how honour and shame play out in many other cultural social contexts. We may not notice or be impressed by the fact that the culturally less-thought-of women are the 'first' to see the risen Christ, speak with and be spoken to by the risen Christ, and be entrusted first with the message of the risen Christ.

Women were culturally more in the category of 'last' than 'first', but here Jesus' puts life to his previous but profoundly honour-oriented words, about the 'last shall be first'.  

Here, the women were elevated to 'first'. They became the first ones to have the most important knowledge ever gained - 'He is not here, He is Risen'!

The Gospel, and Women on Commission

Matthew 28:19-20 gives us the most well known 'Great Commission' verse…

...But it is also the chapter (28:7) that gives us the description of the instance of the first post-resurrection gospel message 'sending' out. This wasn't the 'go into all the world' message, but before that could be given to the disciples, the disciples had to hear, comprehend and believe the resurrection message themselves. 

It was women who were sent by Jesus to 'go quickly and tell' the message to the disciples who for all kinds of reasons had closed their minds to even the possibility of such a reality. 

The men were still locked away and focused on themselves and their own fears and shame risks, and although they had had the privilege for 3 years of being the most deeply exposed to the Truth, at that point they were missing the most significant truth of all. Thomas was so filled with doubts about this new 'unbelievable' and maybe heretical message, he took quite a bit of extra convincing. They had got locked into only part of the story, part of the truth and were missing the most important factor.

Instead, it was the women who were the first to hear and know what must have been the most profound relief and joy of their lives - their Saviour was alive, there was no reason for shame, for hiding, for fear. Though the world might shame them for association with the cross, they knew this good news turned all that upside-down…or right-side-up. They now knew that the cross was not the end, the shame was not the end, the resurrection victory had been won and Christ's honour had been not only restored but magnified. This was not a message to hide from, but to share.

The gospel is a message which not only overcomes the shame of sin, but it also is a message which overcomes ungodly social shame boundaries and brings new value to a person. To understand we are all equal in value as God's created human beings in His image (which sadly our modern world has rejected), is a gift of inherent fundamental honour, but in Christ we are given the further ascribed honour of being 'in Christ' where there is no male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile. No gender, social position or ethnicity matters or determines such foundational value. We don't have to switch genders, or change social position, or achieve great feats, or share 'sameness' in appearance or capacity, or try to redefine or rely on our ethnicity for significance. This is wonderful good news.

The gospel is something which we all equally have the opportunity to rejoice in, and the responsibility to share.

This Easter, be reminded of what good news about 'honour' the gospel message truly brings…and then 'go quickly and tell' it to others.

The Honour of Motherhood

In many parts of the world today is Mother's Day.

It's the specially designated day of the year to honour mothers and motherhood.

But our world is in interesting times…..particularly in the Western World.

We want to honour motherhood but at the same time we are subtly undermining, confusing and destroying motherhood.

• Many women have believed the lie from society that true honour only comes through achieving status and accomplishing goals outside of the home.  Women want a career, and children get squeezed in around it.

• Some women have believed the lie in their own heads and not negated by society that they actually are not a woman and want their bodies to have major external intervention and change via male hormones or gender-reassignment surgery.

• Some men have believed the lie that they can have relations with each other, get a child via surrogacy and donor eggs or adoption, and deprive the child of ever having a mother at all in their lives.

• Millions of women have believed the widespread lie that its ok to kill the baby growing in their body and want to avoid motherhood altogether

• Here in our corner of the world, so many girls get pregnant out of marriage.  Many find a way to get an illegal abortion. Others take the baby back to their village to a grandma and leave the child there, depriving the child of the presence of a mother.

One of the ways I am convinced Satan destoys our world is to not only destroy the family unit structure He designed of mother, father and children together, but to destroy the identity concept of those who make up a family.  He is bent on destroying God's intended honor bestowed on the role and status of 'father' and of 'man' as well as of 'mother' and of 'woman'. Along with the creation of Adam, Eve as woman and mother of all living was part of God's foundational creation blueprint.

In our modern sin-sick Western world we are seeing Satan stealing the true honour of being a woman and of being a mother.

God gave a woman the immense privilege of the possibility of motherhood.  It is an honour that is so often taken for granted and abused, but it is an honour of immense proportions.  (In some ways this has become even more important to me in my context of us being an infertile couple and watching so many others treating the gift of motherhood with carelessness). A mother carries a child within her body for 9 months, then it is her body that births that child and then her body that sustains that child with food for many months after that and she is the primary care-giver for the child until the child leaves home. This is no small role.

A recent article at The Gospel Coalition about Ectogenesis highlighted the further possibilities, with current science, of a woman's loss of even being needed to conceive or carry a child in pregnancy or give birth at all.   This will only further undermine the honor of motherhood as the author of that articles reminds us.

Satan as the eternally shamed one, is 'hell-bent' on destoying the honour of the One who shamed him.  We know the end of the story that there is no escape from eternal punishment and shame for Satan, but he won't go quietly….he will go kicking and screaming, blaming and shaming, stealing and destroying.  He wants to shame God by destroying the honour of what God created and how he created it.  He renames his distortions with the names meant for God's original plan, and calls them 'dignity' or 'equality' or 'tolerance' or 'freedom'. But it is all designed to erode our identity and personhood and true created honour, so that we become a 'nothing'.  Satan fools the world into thinking it is gaining something greater when in fact it is losing everything it was created to be.  

The current eroding of the concept of true male and female gender as defined by how God forms us in the womb, is an attack at the very core nature of who we are and how God created us 'male and female'.   And sadly this is not only a matter impacting the Western world.  An African university student I mentor asked me last time we met 'what's the deal with this whole transgender stuff?'

On this day, lets make the most of it, and celebrate the wonderful uniqueness of womanhood, of being female, of motherhood. Let's make sure we intentionally teach it in our churches, our Sunday School classes, our homes and in every opportunity we have in our neighbourhoods and community as we chat 'over the fence' or 'over the counter'.

We honour mothers today because God first gave honour to being female and being a mother.  Let us not waver or wane in our honour of what God honours. Let us give thanks for the role and blessing of motherhood as God created it to be.

ps………..last but not least let me honour my own mother and mother-in-law today with a link to this article tribute to mothers of missionaries

"Privileged" - Dr Helen Roseveare - goes to be with her Lord

This week Dr Helen Roseveare went to be with her Lord aged 91

Famous for her books and speaking at conferences around the world, she served the Lord as a missionary medical Doctor in the Congo (which became Zaire and is now the DRC-Democratic Republic of Congo just a couple of countries to our north.)

Her unwavering faith and commitment to serve her Lord and His faithfulness to her in the midst of some of the most horrifying of circumstances including rape by rebel soldiers, has been a great example to me from long before I ever became a fellow missionary in Africa.

I remember hearing/seeing her speak at a Keswick Convention I attended with my parents when I was young. She shared our lunch table on one of the days too, and her name and stories were firmly etched into my memory. They played a part in the picture I formed of a 'missionary' as a child.  I read some of her books that my mum had on her bookshelf and have some on my own bookshelf now too. Probably the two main things that impacted me from her life was that there is a cost to serving the Lord but that at the same time God is totally faithful and able to do above and beyond what we ask or think.

In more recent days one of the stories from her life went viral on the internet - the story of the prayed for hot water bottle and little doll.

As she would speak in various places she would emphasise that God's grace is sufficient.  She would also repeatedly emphasise that she felt her walk with Christ including suffering for His sake, was just an amazing privilege....another word for privilege is 'honour'....she is such a wonderful example of the great peace, joy, contentment and thankfulness that comes into a person's life when they feel the great undeserved favour and honour of God in being His child.

A tribute on The Gospel Coalition website posted this quote of Dr Roseveare's

God never uses a person greatly until He has wounded him deeply.
The privilege He offers you is greater than the price you have to pay.
The privilege is greater than the price.”
—Helen Roseveare

Here is an interview she had on 100 Huntley Street (its in four parts so you have to click on each part to watch it) - and if you click across to watch them on YouTube directly many other videos will come up of her sharing in one-on-one interviews or with hundreds in large audiences.

The Confusion Over the Honour and Equality of Women

Equality of Women.

This is a topic to cause any conversation to get heated…..just like the blog I wrote a few weeks back about honour and headship and leadership.

But here I want to touch on the honour of a woman in the midst of the equality debate.

I have just come across a superb blog article (via a link from Challies.com), about women and their value alongside men….no not just value, but how much a man needs a woman to accomplish and be, all that he was created to be.  The article is profound, not just because it states the truth, but because of the ways it states it, and the referencess it quotes from the literature.

Please take the time to read the full article here, but meanwhile here is the final paragraph (emphasis mine):

Woman is the most powerful living force on the globe. She creates, shapes, and sustains human civilization. The first step in weakening her power is to convince her that she must overcome her femininity. This, ironically, is precisely what the most vocal strains of feminism have advocated. Yes, woman should have equality in the workplace, in politics, and in the public square. But to render her more like man in order to accomplish this, and to judge her womanliness a hindrance to her ascendancy, is to get things exactly backwards. It is to treat her as much less than she truly is.

I think this article hits the nail on the head.

We are confusing the 'are' and the 'do' of life.

As I have mentioned before, the Western world who have promoted feminism, are coming from an 'achieved honour' focus culture.  They see honour as being derived from what a person 'does'.  This is not the time to go into a theological treatise on ascribed and achieved honour in Scripture, but biblically our primary identity is not achieved but ascribed. We did nothing to be born and nothing to be re-born.  Once we are born, we then start 'do'-ing, and when we are re-born, we then 'do'.  But both only occur because we first 'are'. The 'doing' is the logical and natural outworking of the 'being'.

In trying to escape a mis-placed earthly and cultural honour which ascribed women a lower status, the world's answer seemed to be in the 'new' opportunities of the industrialised world, where women could begin to 'do' what men 'do'.  

Femininism was women seeking through achievement, what they believed they were failing to receive through culturally ascribed honour.  It is no different here in Africa.  Feminism and Feminist theology is strong in our corner of Africa.

But both feminism, and the culture it is rebelling against, are seeking mis-placed honour.  It is seeking honour according to the honour codes of fallen creation, of human wisdom and of finite knowledge, instead of finding honour from the Creator and knowing the joy of living according to His plan and purpose.

The world only knew one way to 'overcome' what was thought were the boundaries preventing a woman's honour (spoken about as dignity, equality, respect etc), and that was to overcome the femininity that held her back from 'doing' what men do.

Hoped for honour-gain has become honour-loss

But in seeking such honour by becoming more like a man, we didn't gain honour, we lost it.  

We lost the honour of our femininity.  

We lost the joy and pleasure of being who the Creator intended us to be.  

And as the blog article pointed out, the more society looses feminine women, the more society loses out. We end up with men who can't fully be the men they were meant to be and women who are refusing to be the women they were meant to be.

In fact we as women show how small-minded we are when we say we need to become like men.  

For a lock on a door to be functional according to its purpose there has to be both the lock mechanism and a key.  Neither one without the other is useful, but neither are anything like each other (except maybe they are both made of metal).  For one to say to the other that it must become in shape and activity the same as the other is pure nonsense.  They 'achieve' their purpose because they are different and work together acknowledging how the differences are meant to interact.  Neither is better than the other, and neither's activity is less important than the other.  Each is equal in value, worth, importance, significance and honour.

Identity needs to be rooted in the Creator's truth not the creation's ideas.

We need to develop a strong identity in who we 'are'.  And that identity needs to be rooted in who the Creator says we are.  

It must not be in what the world says we should look like, or what function we do or don't have, or what earthly heritage we come from.  Our identity needs to come from the ascribed honour we have firstly as beings uniquely created in God's image, and then most of all as who we are in Christ.

We must also be careful not to fall for the temptation to try to 're-create' the Creator's design, and re-define issues according to our own wisdom, in order to fit society trends or cultural mores….we can easily run the danger of seeking to be 'approved' by cultural opinion while rejecting God's opinion. On the other hand we should seek God's approval and smile even at the risk of rejection by cultural opinion. 

And as women, we need to learn to be content in who God says we are, and who God created us to be.  

What we 'do' is not the measure of who we are.  

What we 'do' may come from who we 'are', but the honour of identity starts with who we 'are' according to the Creator.  It is then and only then, that what we 'do' according to God's plan for us, will also be honourable.

Women will never be equal to men….in what we do.  

But guess what?….said another way…..

Men will never be equal to women either, in what they do. 

Different doesn't mean despicable

Men and Women are different: our roles are different, our function is different, our strengths are different, our weaknesses are different, our brains are different, our biology is different.  We are wonderfully different!  

When differences are in accordance with the creativity of the Creator, and not our own notions, 'different' is not something to be avoided, but to be embraced. 

We have just had the 2016 Olympics and every race was divided so that men and women do not run in the same race…..this is not because the Olympics treats women as inferior, but because it treats them with consideration and honour. 

We don't force 13 year old swimmers to enter the same world championships as 20 year old swimmers.  

The Paralympics are not held separately because we despise the disabled, but because we honour them.  To force them to run against others without disabilitites is dishonouring them.  For a disabled person to refuse to participate in the Paralympics because they see it as discrimiation is to refuse honour and set themselves up for failure and disgrace. 

We say things in the West like 'dare to be different' or 'embrace your unique gifts and qualities' or 'don't let anyone else tell you what you should be', and yet women are believing the lie that feminity is an unacceptable 'difference' that we should discard. We have believed the evolution lie that whatever is 'current' is of a higher evolved state and thus better than what went before so whatever 'new' idea comes along must be better for us.  

But the lies of the Serpant that started in the Garden are still capturing our minds today. 

When our idea of 'better' doesn't match the Creator's perfect design and we deem that the male and female differences are a hindrance to 'advancement' and 'happiness' and 'success', we are on the road of disappointment, delusion and destruction.

Delight in femininity

It's only when we acknowledge and embrace the differences that form the Creator's design, that they can become the very means to our true 'success' as how we were created to be.

It is only as we recognise our Creator (who made us as equal in His sight), and our Redeemer (who in Him we stand equal in His sight), that we will enjoy the fulness of who we are.

Even as Christians we can be tempted to first gain our identity from what we 'do' as seen by others and approved by others around us.  But if we take that road, we will set ourselves up for false comparisons….both with other women as well as with men.  

False comparisons will steal your contentment and flood you with condemnation.  

They will tempt you to want to 'be' who you are not.  

They will lure you to live outside the Creator's design. In this age of 'gender confusion' there is lots of temptation to live outside the Creator's design.

But that just sets you up for further heartache and disappointment.  

Let's not destroy our true created identity and honour in an effort to run after mis-placed identity and honour. 

Women, let's delight and rejoice in our femininity, and rejoice in our God who gave it to us to bring glory to Him and good to the world in which we live!

Don't be a Wimpy Weak Woman!

I just viewed the video of a message by Mary Kassian at the True Woman conference in 2014 and thought it was well worth passing on.