When you wish upon a star Makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires Will come to you.
If your heart is in your dream No request is too extreme When you wish upon a star As dreamers do.
Fate is kind She brings to those who love The sweet fulfillment of Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue Fate steps in and sees you through When you wish upon a star Your dream comes true1
If you used to be a Disney fan, you’ll recognize those words as the lyrics to the song When You Wish Upon a Star from the movie Pinocchio. It’s a sweet little song that tugs at our hearts. After all, we all want a fairy to wave her wand and make the wishes of our hearts come true, right? “God wants to help you realize all your hopes and dreams,” is the mantra of pop Christianity. But is it biblical?
Moses dreamed of leading Israel into the Promised Land.
David dreamed of building the temple.
Hosea dreamed of marrying the girl next door and having children with normal names.
Amos dreamed of being a fig farmer and a flock follower.
Paul dreamed of snuffing out Christianity.
Stephen dreamed of living to preach the gospel.
Jude dreamed of writing about the gospel.
Nope, not one of those dreams – some of them much more godly than your dreams or mine – came true. Why? Because our dreams don’t always fit with what God wants to do. Because God isn’t someone whose sole function is to help us get what we want out of life.
God is for God. God is about His glory. And what brings Him the most glory is redeeming wretched sinners from the gaping maw of hell and making them look like Jesus. And, as His children, we have the unbelievable privilege of participating in that mission.
So, church, let’s leave the Blue Fairy and Genie to Pinocchio and Aladdin. More money, fame, impact, and power is but a petty vision. We were created for the earth-shattering honor of dying to ourselves, clothing ourselves with humility, and serving the King by serving our families, our neighbors, everyone we know, His way, in the hope that we might win them to Christ for His glory.
To dream of anything else is, for the slave of Christ, to aim too low. So dream high, and dream on.
1 “When You Wish Upon a Star,” copyright 1940 by Bourne, Co., NY.
Note from Michelle: Ladies, if you’ve been around the blog for a while, you might remember Testimony Tuesday which featured testimonies from my readers. I never wanted Testimony Tuesday to go away, I just stopped receiving testimonies from y’all. Let’s reignite Testimony Tuesday under its new name, By the Word of Their Testimony. See my end note for how to share your story.
Holli Solenberger’s Story: Priscilla Shirer and Letting Go
Aside from leaving my last church, this ranks a close second to the hardest I’ve had to submit to the Lord’s pruning out of my life.
I first saw Priscilla Shirer in the movie War Room. I was at a former church a few years ago – when War Room was in theatres. The ladies’ small group at that church was going together, and with everything going on, I felt I needed that community, so I went.
What resonated in my heart during that movie – I was not prepared for. You know how a movie changes your perspective, or speaks to a part of your life that is needed? This was my reaction. It was so strong, that it served almost like a catalyst – very similar to when you hear a new song and you love it so much, you want to find more by that same singer? I had to find out more about Priscilla.
I was really surprised to find out she was the daughter of Tony Evans – who (at the time) I thought was Biblical, so that association made me think, “surely she is solid too – she was in a Christian movie – I have to find her teachings!” So, I searched on YouTube, and found more – and that was it for me. She spoke to my heart, she’s a momma of boys like me, she was relatable, funny, and seemed genuine. On so many points, I was an instant fan.
I dove down into finding many of her teachings and watched them back to back. If it spoke to my heart, it got a green light – period. She talked about Jesus, and God, and Christianity, so I thought she was okay.
I NEVER EVER bothered to check out what she was teaching with what the Bible says. Ever.
As I have pled with others to be discerning, I speak from true repentance – because I have never been discerning as God says to be. I chose to accept what people said as truth – without seeing what the Bible says. I loosely and wrongly allowed things people said into my beliefs (the fancy word is theology) without reading what God thought about their beliefs. And I have no excuse. It’s all there in the Bible. But if what somebody said sounded good, I didn’t look in God’s Word.
And to be blunt… looking back… I really believe I didn’t look because I didn’t want to. I felt good and knew – I believe at least subconsciously – if I looked, and was convicted if God says differently, I’d have to let go what made me feel that way. I know I am not the only one to do this. I’ve met thousands of people that – like me – chose to be misled into what the Bible says are myths and fables (which is what it mentions any truth apart from God’s truth).
I really believe I didn’t look because I didn’t want to. I felt good and knew – I believe at least subconsciously – if I looked, and was convicted if God says differently, I’d have to let go what made me feel that way.
I talk a lot about letting go of things and people that were precious to me. I still love many of them. But I know they aren’t good for me, so because God requires in His Word to choose – you can’t have both, you can’t have one foot in things He says are wrong, and the other in things He says are ok – that is SO painful. SO painful to let go of. To submit to Him. This is what I mean when I talk about living with open palms. It means being willing to let go of anything God says is not okay – even if your heart doesn’t want to.
Well…one day, in the middle of my youngest son’s hardest time (so far) in his little life, I heard Priscilla was going to be speaking at her father’s church – about 30 minutes away from me. I cleared my calendar, got dressed, and went to see her. There was a worship/singing part, followed by her speaking. I was so enthused to see the woman I felt God used in my life in person, I don’t even remember what she talked about.
When she was done, I waited for nearly an hour to speak with her one on one for just a few minutes. She saw me waiting and kept telling me to hold on and hold on, so I did. And when she got to me, I just lost it. I cried and cried – I knew whatever I said had to be to the point, because many others were waiting still. As the tears fell, she started crying too, as I told her, “I want to thank you for God using you in my life! I’ve been through so much and I saw you in War Room and ever since I have watched your teachings and I’m so grateful for you being used by Him in so many ways!” We hugged then, a tight but quick hug, then took a selfie.
Priscilla and Holli
Fast forward to the past few months…God didn’t just lead me to leave my last church! He led me to give up so, so much more – including Priscilla. This has been just as painful. When things speak into our pain, in deep ways – oh my, my, my. That is just heartbreaking to open our clenched fists and submit…to….God. I only speak about my own convictions, and I share openly – knowing many will be hateful to me, hurtful, talk about me, treat me harshly, because they would rather live with their fists tightly closed. They aren’t ready.
And there is nothing I can do to change that. I am only a vessel. It is God’s sovereignty that chooses if – or when – others are convicted, like I was. I share – knowing the repercussions – for the very few that the Lord will, as He has me in His kindness and mercy, give ears to hear – and a soft heart towards Him and His Word. And hopefully open their palms too.
This is one of many things that God has brought about, that’s about Priscilla – but I submit to you that though there are many God calls us to let go of, for the false things are everywhere, there is but one Standard that we hold everything and everyone up to – God’s Word.
I pray this helps you not only with Priscilla but to see through this example written about, why being a Berean is so important.
Ladies, God is still at work in the hearts and lives of His people, including yours! Would you like to share (anonymously, if you like) a testimony of how God saved you, how He has blessed you, convicted you, taught you something from His Word, brought you out from under false doctrine, placed you in a good church or done something otherwise awesome in your life? Drop me an email, and I’ll send you the particulars for sharing your story. Let’s encourage one another with God’s work in our lives!
Or maybe I answered your question already? Check out my article The Mailbag: Top 10 FAQs to see if your question has been answered and to get some helpful resources.
I have a question on a Carol Mader. Our church is a Baptist church and we are using a book called ‘kids travel guide to the fruit of the spirit”. When I check Carol out I find she’s Catholic? What are your thoughts?
I’m not familiar with Carol, but no Christian should be attending a church of any denomination where the pastor is OK with using Bible study, discipleship, etc. materials written by Catholics. Catholicism is not Christianity any more than Mormonism is.
The first thing I would encourage you to do is to make absolutely certain that Carol is, indeed, Catholic. I Googled her name, and several different Carol Maders popped up, including at least one who’s Catholic (also one who’s a retired Episcopal priest). The results also included the Amazon page selling books similar to the one you mentioned, by someone named Carol Mader. However, I was unable to verify that the Carol Mader who wrote those books is the same person as one of the Catholic Carol Maders.
But perhaps you have a more reliable source that unequivocally states that the Carol Mader who wrote the book is Catholic. In that case, I would encourage you to go to your pastor and kindly and gently ask him if he knows that this woman is Catholic. If he knows and doesn’t care, or tries to make you feel like you’re the bad guy for bringing this up, it’s time to find a new church. If he seems surprised and apologetic, immediately stops the use of the book, this was a one time goof on his part, and everything else about your church is doctrinally sound, forgive him and move on. Here are some resources that may help:
I am greatly appreciative of everything you have written [on your blog] and I wish I could read it all at once. There is so much good information. I desperately want to share this with my husband and church, but how can I do that as you are a woman, and then you would be teaching men? Thank you so much.
You’re very welcome. Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad my materials have been helpful, and it is my pleasure to serve you -and all of my readers- in Christ.
Let’s clear up a few things it sounds like you might be confused about or conflating, and I’ll share with you some resources that will give you fully-orbed answers to the several different questions implicit in your comment:
◇ Scripture’s prohibition against women instructing men in the Scriptures has a very specific context: in the gathering of the church body. There are many differences between the home and the church. They are two separate entities God has established in different ways for different purposes, and we need to keep them separate in our minds, especially when we study Scripture.
It might help to think about some of the obvious differences. Do you take up an offering or observe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in your home? Do you submit to your pastor in the same way you submit to your husband? Do you make sure everyone in your church is fed three meals a day and do all their laundry for them? These things may sound silly, but they help to illustrate that the church and the home run differently and have different purposes. Having a private conversation with your husband at home about something biblical you’ve learned (which is fine, biblically) is not the same thing as preaching it to your church from the pulpit (which is not).
◇ Whether you verbally explain what you’ve learned to your husband, hand him one of my articles to read, or a random man stumbles across my blog and reads it, I am not violating Scripture’s prohibition against teaching men (and neither are you).
◇ As far as sharing with your church or others, there’s certainly no problem with sharing my articles on social media, emailing them to a friend, etc. There’s also no reason you can’t share them with other women at church. However, if you’re going to be sharing them with more than a few other women, or reading one of my articles in a women’s class you teach, etc., run it by your pastor first, as a courtesy. He not only deserves to know what’s going on in his flock, he’s also responsible to God for what’s being taught in His church.
I answered this same basic question (with a few slight differences) to another reader a few years ago here (second question) in case it’s of interest.
A related question…
I have been posting Scripture on my Facebook page every morning for the last six months. My friends are both male and female. Sometimes to make a verse more understandable I will explain who is speaking or who is being addressed. I’m starting to feel uncomfortable when I do this because I’m afraid I’m preaching. I check my study Bible before including clarifications to make sure I’m not misleading anyone. My gut is telling me I need to just state the verse. I pray about it and am wondering if it’s the Spirit convicting me. Thank you for your help.
It’s very important that Christians listen to our consciences so we don’t sin against them. If your conscience bothers you about posting the explanations, by all means, don’t do it. For you to do so would mean that you believe posting the explanations is sin, but you’re going to do it anyway. Don’t do that.
But while it’s important that we not sin against our consciences, it’s equally important that our consciences are informed by rightly handled, in context Scripture. And, in a nutshell, your conscience is a bit misinformed.
Though I wouldn’t suggest going to the extreme of habitually posting lengthy diatribes aimed specifically at men, railing at them about how they can be more godly men, pastors, husbands, or fathers, there’s nothing unbiblical about posting a verse with a few clarifying remarks to a general audience. Biblically, that is not preaching.
I would encourage you to prayerfully consider the materials I’ve provided the previous reader as well as this one Sisters Are Part of the Family of God, Too!. If, after reading, praying, and studying the pertinent Scriptures you still think it’s better not to post the explanations, that’s OK. Don’t. If your conscience is clear, and you decide it’s OK to post them, then you can do that. A few other options you might consider that your conscience may find acceptable:
Post enough of the surrounding verses to make the context clear so you don’t have to explain.
Use brackets. This is a perfectly acceptable grammatical device, especially in an informal setting like social media. For example: if the verse begins, “And he said to them…” and it’s clear from the surrounding context that it’s Jesus speaking to the disciples, then bracket that part of the verse with the antecedents replacing the pronouns for clarity: “And [Jesus] said to [the disciples]…”.
Use a direct quote from your study Bible or a reliable commentary instead of using your own words. Remember to use quotation marks, and cite your source.
When you post the verse, include a link to a (doctrinally sound) sermon, article, Bible study video / podcast, etc. that explains the verse and its context.
I have found myself in the situation of looking for another church because of women being allowing to preach occasionally in our current church, but my husband wants to remain. Should I come under his authority and remain also or do you think it’s ok to follow my own convictions? I feel somewhat conflicted.
I’m so sorry. I know that must be really difficult. Sadly, this is an issue wives face more often than you’d think. I hope these articles, though they may not match your situation exactly, will be of help to you.
If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.
I recently had the great pleasure of participating in the inaugural G3 Women’s Expository Teaching Workshop. I had a wonderful time and learned so much! Here are six reasons I would encourage you to make sure you’re signed up for the next one!
1. G3 has a biblical perspective on women teaching.
There are two unbiblical extremes when it comes to women teaching. On the left: egalitarianism. Women can pastor, preach, exercise authority over men – anything goes. On the right: hyper-patriarchy. Women can teach other women practical homemaking and childrearing skills, but that’s it. Any biblical teaching or learning has to come from your father, husband, or pastor.
G3’s perspective is right in the biblical middle of those two unbiblical extremes: No, women can’t preach, pastor, instruct men in the Scriptures, or exercise authority over men in the gathering of the church body, but we can and should pour the gospel, and Scripture as a whole, into our children, and the women and children of our churches. And it’s important that we be properly equipped to do that. If you’re gifted to teach and want to hone your skills, or even if you just want to learn to study the Bible more accurately, G3 will equip you from a biblical perspective.
2. You’ll learn to handle Scripture in a serious, scholarly way.
Look out across the vast wasteland of the women’s “Bible” study industry, and what do you see? “Bible” studies that encourage you to focus on your feelings. Narcissistic navel-gazing. A plethora of personal anecdotes from the author. And what little Scripture is included is mishandled, misunderstood, and misapplied.
But a G3 expository teaching workshop for women will help you to become “a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). You’ll learn about immediate, historical, and biblical context, the structure of the passage and how to outline it, how to find the central proposition of the passage, and so much more. It will equip you to bless your children and the women and children of your church with rich Bible teaching instead of fluff and false doctrine.
photo courtesy of G3 Ministries
3. You’ll learn from the outstanding men of G3
They’re all pastors with years of experience in rightly preaching and teaching God’s Word, so you’ll get to learn from the best. Our main teachers were Josh Buice and Tom Buck. They taught us thoroughly without expecting us to be seminary-trained or talking down to us as though we knew nothing of the Bible. We gained a great deal from their instruction about studying and teaching.
Virgil Walker
Tom Buck
Josh Buice
Scott Aniol photo courtesy of G3 Ministries
Laramie Minga
Thank you so much to G3 and Three Sixteen Publishing for providing each participant with a new Legacy Standard Bible!
4. Small groups
Before arriving at the workshop, each participant studies and prepares teaching notes on a passage(s) of Scripture. In your small group of about 6-8 women, you’ll work together to correct and fine tune your outline and notes. The women leading the small groups have been trained by the men leading the workshop, so they’re “well versed,” so to speak, in the passages at hand, and the small groups work uniformly with the lecture sessions. The small groups are a wonderful time of encouragement.
5. Fellowship
What could be a greater joy than to make new friends from all over the country, and to be reunited with old friends you don’t get to see often enough? The fellowship at the workshop was practically non-stop. From communing over the Word together in our small groups, to relationship-building over meals, to after hours fun and frolic, it was a foretaste of the “together forever-ness” we’ll have around the Throne for all eternity.
AWFS comes to G3. Total fangirl moment!
This is only the second time my A Word Fitly Spoken podcast partner and dear friend, Amy Spreeman, and I have been able to meet in person. It was such a treat to spend the weekend with her! Many thanks to my former pastor, Laramie Minga, now Director of Media and Managing Editor for G3, for giving us a tour of G3, including the podcast recording studio!
6. I guess you had to be there.
Probably the most common question asked about the G3 expository teaching workshop for women is, “Will it be recorded?”. No. And that’s a good thing! There are some things you just can’t experience through a screen – you have to get out there and do them! You could listen to the lectures on a recording, but that was only a small part of the weekend. You couldn’t participate in the Q&A after the lectures on a recording. You couldn’t work collaboratively with your small group on a recording. And you certainly couldn’t enjoy and be encouraged by the fellowship with the other ladies on a recording. This is one of those things – like riding a bike or visiting the Grand Canyon – where you just have to be there.
photo courtesy of G3 Ministries
The G3 expository teaching workshop for women was incredibly helpful. Encouraging. Edifying. Sharpening. A warm time of fellowship around God’s Word with other women just like you and me who want to get better at teaching the Bible. I cannot recommend it highly enough to you. If you can make the sacrifice to be at the next one, make it.
A word to the wise – when you see registration open up for the next workshop, register immediately. The first workshop sold out in 48 hours.
I hope to see you at a G3 event in the future!
2024 Update
Last year, I attended the workshop as a participant. This year, I had the privilege of attending as an apprentice – training to lead a small group in the future. I felt like I was better prepared and learned so much more this year. (So, maybe if you’re planning to attend a workshop, plan to attend twice! :0)
Photo courtesy of G3 Josh Buice training small group leaders and apprentices
Tom Buck instructing the attendees
Josh Buice instructing the attendees
Photo courtesy of G3 Class of 2024
Last year, I explained why you should attend a workshop. This year, I’d like to share some advice, personal observations as an attendee (from me, personally, not from G3), and thoughts that have occurred to me about what to expect and how to prepare yourself if you’re considering attending a workshop.
◇ Understand that this is a workshop, not a conference. You don’t duck in on whichever plenary or breakout sessions sound interesting and cruise the exhibit hall and bookstore when nothing else suits your fancy. This is a lot more like a seminary level hermeneutics course crammed into two days. You’re there to work. You arrive with your homework completed, and you attend all of the teaching and small group sessions so you can learn what you need to learn, take it home, and implement it.
◇ You should thoroughly familiarize yourself with G3’s theology if you haven’t already, and don’t attend if you’re not willing to put any disagreement you may have with it aside in order to learn agreeably and cooperatively.
◇ Due to the lackadaisical way many pastors preach and the abysmal teaching (if it can be called that) model the women’s Bible study industry generally uses, the mindset and methodology G3 employs for analyzing and exegeting Scripture is likely to be completely foreign to you and go against the grain of everything you thought you knew about studying and teaching Scripture. In other words, prepare yourself for a whole new way of thinking about and approaching Scripture – a change of mind, for the better. In fact, let me give you a little illustration…
If you’ve ever taken piano lessons, you know that you don’t arrive at your first lesson, sit down, and play one of Brahms’ concertos. You start with the building blocks: notes, timing, key signatures, chord structure, scales, and all the other lovely aspects of music theory. If you’re like me the two times I tried piano lessons, you’ll probably go home thinking, “What in the world did I get myself into? I just wanted to learn how to play the piano!” – especially if you already know how to play by ear. It can be kind of frustrating until you realize you are learning how to play the piano – properly.
That’s kind of what this workshop is like. We’re out here playing by ear, not realizing our timing is off and our chords aren’t structured properly, and the workshop scraps all of that and starts us from scratch to teach us proper “Bible theory”: this is a quarter note, here’s how you count in 4/4, forte means “loud”.
And if you come in thinking you already know everything about Bible study and teaching instead of humbly being ready to learn something new, you’re going to get discouraged and frustrated.
◇ Because the women’s workshop is just getting off the ground, attendance is very limited and there’s a long waiting list for the few slots available. If you manage to secure a slot, prepare yourself as I’ve mentioned above, and put forth your best effort. It’s not fair to the dozens of women who really wanted to attend and would have put forth their best effort for you to arrive ill prepared, miss sessions for non-urgent reasons, quit midway through the workshop, etc.
◇ Since the teaching sessions and small group sessions are so intensive and everything builds on everything else, I think you’ll get so much more out of a workshop if you’ll attend during a distraction-free season of your life. If you have a family situation or a business to run that requires you to constantly step out of the room to take phone calls, if you have an infant who’s too young to be separated from you for a few days, or if you have some other situation requiring a lot of your attention, my best advice is to wait until you can attend the workshop undistracted. It’s not that any of those things bother the other attendees, it’s that you will miss so much and will not get your full money’s worth if you’re not able to stay in the room and stay focused on the teaching. And you may even miss presenting your assigned passages of Scripture to your small group, which is a major component of the workshop.
Arrive prepared and do your best, and you’ll find a G3 Women’s Expository Teaching Workshop to be one of the most valuable experiences of your life. I hope to see you at a workshop in the future!
No one asked me to write this article, and I didn’t get any sort of discounts or perks for writing it. You know me – when I find a fantastic, doctrinally sound resource, I recommend it to you, and the G3 expository teaching workshop for women is one of those resources!
Againthe next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. John 1:35-39
When we speak of “following Jesus” today, we mean that we follow in His footsteps figuratively. We keep His teachings. We obey Him. We submit to His leadership.
But when Jesus was physically present on earth, people were literally able to follow Him. Around. As in, walking right behind Him. Maybe even stepping on the backs of His sandals like my children do to me sometimes.
Which got me to thinking. Why do people follow other people around? And who are these people who follow other people around? And why are my children and my dog always following me around? And why does it annoy me when my children and my dog follow me around? (Ok, I haven’t figured that one out yet, but there’s some kind of a sin issue in there somewhere, I’m sure.)
Who? First of all, you don’t usually see an adult following another adult around unless one of them is a stalker. But there are a some occasions in which it might be appropriate and legal, for example, if the person being followed is a tour guide, or if the person being followed is a seasoned employee training a new hire. Much of the time, literal followers are children. And at my house, the dog.
Why? Why do people follow people around? Think about it– have you ever followed somebody around? Why did you do it? Do people follow you around? Why do they do it?
People generally follow another person around because:
a.) they are interested in what that person is doing, or b.) they want to learn from that person, or c.) they have no idea where they’re going and the person they’re following does.
That’s why people followed Jesus around. They had heard that he spoke and taught as no one ever had before. They had heard about the miracles and healings. They were curious. Were the rumors true? What might they see? Would Jesus do something for them?
For some, that initial interest blossomed into a desire to sit under the tutelage of Jesus. They couldn’t get enough of His teaching, so these first century groupies followed him from speaking engagement to speaking engagement.
Certainly, none of the people who followed Jesus around had a clue as to where they were going, spiritually speaking. Jesus did. He not only knew the way to the kingdom of God, He was the Way. Who better to follow?
So why do my children and my dog follow me around?
Well, my dog follows me around because hope springs eternal in her that I will drop food on the floor, or that one miraculous day, the meal I’m cooking in the kitchen will actually be for her. She’s not interested in learning anything from me and she knows her way around the house just fine.
My children follow me around for the same basic reasons people followed Jesus around. They’re curious. They want to know what I’m doing, and they hope it will be something fun that will involve them. When they’re young, even cooking, sweeping, and folding the laundry seem interesting to them (yeah, my kids don’t get out much) and they want to learn how to do it just like Mom. When we’re in an unfamiliar place, they follow me because they don’t know how to get where we’re going, and I do.
Which makes me think.
How am I walking? Am I walking the way Jesus walked? Do I walk uprightly? Do I walk in integrity? Do I walk blamelessly?
Do I follow Jesus so closely that by following me around, my children can learn to follow Him too?
