Well, the conference is back again this summer, July 12-16, and all of us at OHCW hope you’ll join us! The conference sessions will air each day on the AGTV app, YouTube, IGTV(Instagram), Facebook, and this year, here on the blog.
The conference is totally free and you don’t have to register or sign up. Just tune in each day at your convenience and watch the teaching sessions. You could even gather up some friends and watch together!
The theme of this year’s conference is Reverence in Radical Times, and our focal passage will be Titus 2:3-5:
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
All teaching sessions for the conference will be pre-recorded, so if you live in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area (or if you can get here!) we’ve got a special “sneak preview” treat for you!
You are cordially invited to be part of the LIVE AUDIENCE for the taping of my teaching session:
Teach What Is Good: Discipling Younger Women in the 21st Century
Tuesday, April 27, 2021 7:00-8:00 p.m. Woodlawn Baptist Church 5805 Jones Creek Rd. Baton Rouge, Louisiana FREE admission ~ Women only No childcare will be provided Please comment below or contact me if you’re coming so we can get a head count.
As a special treat just for our Baton Rouge audience, local hymnist, Jillian McNeely will be providing our pre-session worship music.
The teaching session is relevant to both the “older women” and the “younger women” of Titus 2, so gather up a group of friends and make it a girls’ night out! You might even want to plan to go out to eat afterwards at New York Pizza and Pasta, Outback, City Cafe, or another nearby restaurant. And if your husband wants to drop you off and take the kids for a bite, McDonald’s, Burger King, Cane’s, and Taco Bell are all just down the street.
Masks are not required, though you’re welcome to bring one from home and wear it if you like. We anticipate that there will be plenty of space for those who would like to social distance (also not required).
If you have any specific questions about Woodlawn’s facilities or location, you may contact the church directly.
Come on out and let’s look at what it means to be Titus 2 women!
I’m out of pocket this week, so you get a catch up week!
Catch up on any lessons you might be behind on, go back and do any of the homework you may not have had time for, review your memory verses, or if you’re already caught up, you could even read ahead in the Sermon on the Mount a little. It’s your week to use as you see fit. Happy studying!
I have sat under lukewarm teaching as well as seriously warped false teaching from both men and women over the years. Both my husband and I were just going through the motions of church, feeling like we needed to go because that’s what you do, getting involved, putting on a good front but honestly always feeling like something was missing.
My husband and I were just going through the motions of church…
I believe we were both saved, we knew we were sinners, knew only Christ could save us, sincerely repented, but then did the whole “ask Jesus into your heart” thing over and over again because of the need to “make sure”. But we were dying on the vine, as a friend of mine described it.
The final straw was a women’s group where the leader taught a study that she had written herself. The church thought so much of it they even helped her get it published. The book was full of Bible verses, all out of context and used for the purpose of getting her points across. I seriously began to dread going to that group, but dragged myself there weekly, thinking, “This is what I am supposed to be doing,” and at the same time wondering what was wrong with me because I hated it. I was so ignorant of God’s Word that I even sat there in silence when, as a group, we would pray and women in the room, one being the leader/writer of the study, were praying “in tongues”, no interpretation of course.
I was so ignorant of God’s Word…
During one of those gatherings, the woman who wrote the study told us about how she had been given the opportunity to preach on an upcoming Sunday at the church, saying, “Who says women can’t preach?”. BOOM, my heart was instantly in my throat, I felt flushed and agitated, but as I looked around the room I saw nodding heads agreeing with her. Somehow, even though I only read it in bits and pieces, I was quite sure the Bible did NOT agree with her bold statement. I wish I could have jumped up and challenged her and all the ladies in that room but because I did not know the Bible well, I simply shrank in my seat. However, I did know I had to leave so I mustered the courage and politely dismissed myself, never to return. I could not get out of that parking lot fast enough!
Do you know what I began doing then? Simply reading my Bible, in context. God was so gracious to me, giving me a hunger for TRUTH. I was able to find Michelle’s website, John MacArthur’s sermons and Chris Rosebrough’s teaching videos.
I then reached out to two friends who had attended that same study. One totally heard all that I was telling her about the importance of reading Scripture in context, the other, who was a member at that church, dug her heels in when I took her to passages about women preaching. She didn’t want to hear it because the teacher/author of the study “is gifted, anointed and loves preaching”. It has become apparent that she wants nothing more to do with me. God has allowed me though to share with other women who were in the same position I was a few years ago.
God has allowed me to share with other women…
One of those women happens to be my next door neighbor! That family has been there for years. Our children grew up together. They church hopped just like we did, moving aimlessly about for years. And then one day, after my family had been through all our disobedient wanderings, she and I began to talk – long discussions about God, the Bible, our sinfulness, the endless women’s studies of taking verses out of context, twisting them to mean something God didn’t intend, ignoring the Gospel, but always glorifying ME instead of the ONE who made me. Soon, we began praying together. Isn’t God amazing?!
Isn’t God amazing?!
It is a MUCH longer story but the end result is our families are now in a Reformed church that adheres to the 1689 London Baptist Confession, where we get the Word exposited on a weekly basis and each service includes the Gospel!! We are joyfully involved and now a part of a true church family. I am brought to tears continually at God’s grace, mercy, patience, and goodness for this undeserving wretch that I am.
Ladies, God is still at work in the hearts and lives of His people, including yours! Would you like to share 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? Contact me, or comment below. Your testimony can be as brief as a few sentences or as long as 1500 words. 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.
Just found out that Sarah Young is a false teacher. My kids were doing a Jesus Calling one year long devotional book, so now I’m scrambling to find a new one that is Biblically sound! Any recommendations on writers/teachers that have written devotions for children? They are 4, 9, and 11.
Good for you for finding out about Sarah Young and protecting your kids from her false teaching! That’s awesome!
I don’t recommend what I call “canned” (books, workbooks, DVDs, etc.) Bible studies and devotionals. I recommend that women study, and teach their kids (or other women or children), straight from the text of Scripture itself. And you’ve just experienced in real life the number one reason why I have adopted this policy. The majority of “Bible” study/devotional materials out there – especially the ones aimed at women and children – are written by false teachers.
Here’s how I handled this situation with my kids. Maybe it would be something you’d want to try:
I homeschooled my kids, and every morning before we started school, I would lead them in a brief time of Bible reading. We would pick a book of the Bible, and I would read them about a chapter out of it, asking age appropriate questions along the way. Proverbs or one of the gospels might be easiest to start with.
Here are some examples of questions you might want to ask as you read together:
Who is this passage about?
What is the main idea of this passage?
Why did God – the author of the Bible Who says all Scripture is useful – put this passage in the Bible?
What can I learn about God from this passage?
Is this passage telling me to do/not to do something? How can I obey it?
Is there something in this passage I need to pray about?
If you’re still a little nervous to “fly solo” just yet, you could also look through the Bible studies I’ve written and work through one or two of them with your kids, simplifying the questions for them. You’ll get the hang of it in no time, and soon you won’t need them any more.
When you use this approach of teaching directly from the Bible, you’re not only avoiding false teachers, you’re also training your kids to study straight from Scripture themselves, and how to do so, so they’ll learn how to have their own private Bible study time.
I know it might feel a little daunting at first if you’ve never done it this way before, but think of it this way: you can’t possibly do any worse than Sarah Young. :0)
I noticed that season 2 of The Chosen recently premiered. What do you think of it? Should I watch?
This section contains a minor spoiler.
Last year, when season 1 of The Chosen – an online “TV” series on the ministry of Jesus – premiered, I wrote a detailed review of each of the eight episodes, which you can read in my article The Mailbag: Overview/Review of “The Chosen” (An Online TV Series on the Ministry of Jesus). This article also includes background on creator/director Dallas Jenkins and some theological issues with him.
I’ve watched the first three episodes of season 2 (the only episodes which have been released as of today) and, so far, it seems like the same basic issues (good and bad) from season 1 are at play, so, at the moment, I’m not planning to write a review of season 2.
I didn’t watch episodes 1-3 of season 2 quite as carefully as I watched all of season 1, but again, nothing grossly heretical jumped out at me. I’m disappointed to see that they’ve doubled down on elevating Jesus’ women followers to the same level as the Twelve by adding an additional female “disciple”.
My thoughts? Read my review of season 1 and take all the same information and caveats to heart when deciding whether or not to watch season 2.
Is the Methodist church now considered a false church because they allow women as pastors?
Methodists, like Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc., come in a variety of “flavors”. There’s the United Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Free Methodists, and a bunch of others. The United Methodist Church (UMC) is the largest Methodist denomination in the U.S., and I think that’s the one you’re probably talking about.
The UMC started ordaining women to the pastorate in 1956, so that’s nothing new. So, yes, as a denomination, it was and is sinful for them to initiate and maintain that policy. And that’s one of the reasons I don’t add UMC churches to my list of reader recommended churches.
But there are other, higher order theological issues with the UMC that would cause me to warn people away from it way before women pastors. They are Arminian. They believe genuinely saved Christians can lose their salvation. They believe in prevenient grace, sinless perfection, evolution, and they are pro-abortion (per UMC policy). They are also very involved in social issues and take the liberal (unbiblical) side on most of those. Currently, the UMC is on the verge of a split over homosexual “marriage” and clergy.
All of this to say, the UMC is apostate over a ton of theological issues. Women preaching is only one of them, and not necessarily even the most important one.
If you’d like to do more research on Methodists and what they believe (including further details on their beliefs mentioned above) check out the resources here and here.
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.
If your theology pretty much matches up with mine (as outlined in my “Welcome” and “Statement of Faith” tabs in the blue menu bar at the top of this page) and you’d like to contribute a guest post, drop me an e-mail, and let’s chat about it.
Dependence- It’s What’s for Dinner by Jennifer Buck
It’s not hard to find in Scripture the responsibilities of a wife and mother. We know what it is that we are and are not to be doing. The struggle comes when that which we are to be doing… for example, being the keeper of the home, doesn’t come naturally and we don’t easily find fulfillment in it. Often, those things that we are not to be doing… giving all our energy and attention to things outside of the home at the expense of caring for our home, does come more naturally and seems more fulfilling. What’s a woman to do?
We understand that the Lord created us with our specific talents, abilities, and natural inclinations. We also understand that the Lord created us for a specific task: being our husband’s help-meet and caring for the home are our first priorities. I am not saying a woman cannot work outside of the home, but even in that, she still has a God given sphere of responsibility first and foremost to, and in, the home.
So, why do we not all, as believing women, have natural talent and interest in cooking, child-rearing and helping our husbands? Sin obviously clouds our senses and that must be dealt with, but even beyond that, many women who desire to want those things… just don’t.
God did not create me with a flair for cooking, nor with a desire for all things kitchen related. Even as a kid, I would do the task my mother told me and after finishing the job I would immediately back out of the kitchen with an “OK, job’s done, you don’t need me anymore, right? OK, I’m gone now…” attitude. I hated the kitchen. When I looked forward to marriage, I knew that I would have to prepare meals, but I was content to wait until I had to. And I did. Early on I learned to cook and did what was necessary. My family was not showered with Martha Stewart meals and exotic desserts. We ate, and we ate well, but it didn’t go far beyond that.
Soon, however, that ol’ “I-hate-the-kitchen-and-kinda-resent-that-I-have-to-do-this” attitude crept in. I was a bit jealous of my friends who loved cooking, and kept the house well, and kept their kids doing all kinds of fun stuff, while I’m over here just wanting time to enjoy opportunities to do what I felt was more natural to my talents and desires.
Then one day, it finally hit this thick skull of mine. God has called me to a task. God did not give me the natural talent or desire to do that task to which he has called me. Do you know why? Because He determined for me that this task was to be my area of dependence upon Him. It certainly is only one of many, but this was not an area I would pick for lesson time. But, He picked it for me. It has become my opportunity to depend on God to find joy performing the tasks I dislike. This means as soon as the thought of “What’s for dinner?” hits my brain, right on its heels must be the prayer, “Lord, equip me for what You’ve called me to do, and give me joy in serving my family.” Every. Time. “What’s for dinner?” has become a trigger to prayer for me.
For those of you who approach the kitchen the same way I do, God did not deal us a bad hand. He has not withheld from us a necessary element for finding joy in our role. He did, however, fashion us in such a way that that joy will only be realized by depending on Him. This is actually a very good thing. Not only do we have the opportunity to find a deep appreciation in serving our families, we also learn how to depend on God. That’s the best 2-for-1 sale I can imagine!
So, my dear look-a-likes, don’t begrudge the Lord’s lesson of dependence. For those of you who delight being in the kitchen, you have your own areas of struggle. You have an area to which you are called and it competes with that to which you are drawn. That is your area of dependence. Learn it, and learn it well. You will not regret it, and your family will reap its rewards.
Jennifer and her husband, Tom have been married for 33 years and have 3 children. For the last 15 years they have been serving in Lindale TX, where Tom is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church. Jennifer loves to teach and encourage women in the truths of Scripture.
