" Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long." ~ Psalm 25:4-5

Friday, January 14, 2011

Fighting the feminist's lie with the truth of the gospel

I love this picture- Not just because it was one of the most joyful moments of my life( it was certainly that), but because of what happened in this moment. On June 20, 2009 I became Ryan Cole's wife. My role changed in a magnificent way. I was now a helper to my husband; designed to complement, graciously submit, and affirm his leadership- A model of Christ's Church.

Somewhere along the way, we've lost sight of not only the responsibility we have to model the Church, but the responsibility we have as women to uphold what it means to be a women. We buy into the lie that being a man is somehow of greater value than being a woman, so we emasculate our husbands by taking over his God-given role, exercise authority in the church, pick up the feminist torch, and hold our heads high - all the while missing the beauty in being a woman.

My intention is not to start a blog war over egalitarian and complementarian views, nor is it to indict women pastors/women elders (that may come later). My intention is to plead with the women who claim Christ to repent from narcissistic ambition and turn to a loving God who created you to be daughters not sons, submissive to your husbands not disrespectful & rude, feminine not masculine.

Titus 2 paints a picture of the older women teaching the younger women to love their husbands and children; to be homeward focused and graciously submissive. This is how disciple-making looks among women who claim Christ. This is one of the means by which the Lord chooses to teach women about womanhood. I need women like this in my life. I want to speak with as much candor as I possibly can. I need godly women willing to come along side me and teach me how to love my husband and children. We all need women like that in our lives. We're all called to make disciples- this is just one way we, as women can do this effectively. Let's fight the feminist's lie with the truth of the gospel.


Sunday, January 2, 2011

Titus Tips

Over the last six months God has given me a deeper love for my husband than ever before. Through the Scriptures, He has shown me love is more than a word and my role as a wife is not to be taken lightly. Daily i'm faced with the reality that marriage was designed to depict the relationship between Christ and His church, and daily i'm faced with the reality that I do such a poor job modeling this in my own marriage, but by God's grace He continues to be patient with me; correcting me and leading me to repentance. What a loving God we serve.
To understand how to be the wives we are called to be, we must first understand that we cannot do this on our own. No Barnes & Noble self help book will be able to remove the sin that stands between us and God. We must look to the cross; to Jesus. Ephesians 2: 12 states, " Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." We were once alienated but now reconciled.
We must understand that we have nothing to bring to the table; there is no good in us. No matter what we do we cannot please an infinitely holy God. But Jesus did. Jesus lived the perfect life we were suppose live, but didn't. By dying on the cross, he took the punishment for our sin, at the same time crediting his perfect life to our account; by putting our faith in Jesus, we will have eternal life and will no longer be enslaved to sin.
The gospel must be our foundation; not only in being a Christ- honoring wife, but in every aspect of our life. Over the next several weeks (and hopefully months) I will be posting what I call, "Titus Tips" to encourage women toward godliness in their daily lives. I have by no means perfected this nor will I in this lifetime. My hope is that this will be edifying for all of us and above all, glorify our Father.