Tag: Christian Women

Church, Southern Baptist/SBC

10 Things I Wish Southern Baptists Knew About Southern Baptists

Michelle Lesley

Originally published June 26, 2015

Some things have changed in the SBC, at LifeWay, the ERLC, etc., since this article was originally written in 2015 (see footnotes), however the bulk of what is mentioned here is still relevant. It also helps us see just how longstanding and pernicious many of these problems are.

Earlier this week, Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission3 published a nifty little article called “10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Southern Baptists“. Although I disagree with Dr. Moore on a number of things, I thought the article was pretty good, overall.

But it got me thinking. Yes, there is a lot of ignorance about Southern Baptists out there among those who aren’t part of our denomination. However, there’s also a lot of ignorance inside the SBC about what’s really going on in our denomination, our doctrine, practices, leadership, and so on. These are ten SBC realities I wish the average Southern Baptist church member were more aware of.

1. LifeWay sells lies and heresy, and they don’t want you to know.
Now I’m not saying everything they sell is lies and heresy. I’ve bought lots of good doctrinally sound materials from them over the years. However, the fact remains that they continue to sell books and materials from false teachers like T.D. Jakes, Sarah Young, and Andy Stanley on their shelves. They will order books by false teachers like Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen for you if you just ask at the counter.¹ They continued to sell The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven (a book recounting Alex Malarkey’s supposed trip to Heaven after a car accident) for nearly a year even after Alex, his mother, Beth, and respected SBC pastor, speaker, and author Justin Peters repeatedly told LifeWay leadership that the story was a lie. Emails and phone calls about heretical materials at LifeWay are either ignored or the caller placated (I know this from first hand experience). Questions from the floor at the Southern Baptist Convention about LifeWay carrying false doctrine are quashed.

This entity of your denomination which purports to love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ is selling lies about Him to make a fast buck, and they need to stop.

2. There are plenty of apostate Southern Baptist churches, and we have no mechanism in place for kicking them out of the SBC.
This is a verbatim quote from the FAQ section (5th question from the top) of the SBC’s web site:²

“According to our constitution, if a church no longer makes a bona fide contribution to the Convention’s work, or if it acts to ‘affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior,’ it no longer complies with the Constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention and is not permitted to send messengers to the annual meeting. These, however, are the only explicitly stated instances in which the SBC has the prerogative to take action.”

What does that mean? As long as your church doesn’t affirm homosexuality and gives to the Cooperative Program, you’re in. Never mind if your pastor twists God’s word until it’s unrecognizable. Or lets women and false teachers get behind the pulpit like Steven Furtick does. Or plays AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” on Easter Sunday and says he probably wouldn’t have strippers on stage like Perry Noble does. Or any of the other ridiculous and blasphemous shenanigans so many of the seeker sensitive types in our denomination pull. Nope, as long as you give your money and stand on the right side of homosexuality, you’re good to go.

3. Beth Moore is a false teacher.
That’s right, the queen of SBC3 women’s Bible study, divangelista Beth Moore, does not rightly handle God’s word, partners with false teachers, and violates Scripture by preaching to men, among other things. And Priscilla Shirer is right there with her.

4. Having a small church isn’t a sin and it doesn’t necessarily mean your pastor (or your church) isn’t trying hard enough.
The average church size in America is 186 members, and 94% of church goers attend a church of 500 or fewer people, yet the constant drumbeat of SBC leadership is “bigger is better.” Countless articles harangue exhausted pastors about breaking the 200 or 250 or 300 member attendance “barrier.”

Listen, if your pastor is faithfully preaching and rightly handling God’s word and your church members are serving one another and carrying out the Great Commission in their daily lives, that’s what counts in God’s eyes, not how many butts are in a pew.

5. The Bible doesn’t require you to tithe, and neither should your church.
The tithe is part of the Old Testament law that Christians today are no longer bound by because we are under the covenant of grace, not the Mosaic covenant. Christians are to gladly give the amount we determine in our own hearts to give out of love for our Savior and a desire to serve Him- not under compulsion from someone else.

6. The “sinner’s prayer” won’t save you.
If you think you’re saved because you parroted a prayer someone led you in when you were five but your life shows no love of Christ and no evidence that you belong to Him, then your faith is in the prayer you prayed, not in Christ, and you are not saved. The evidence that you’re a Christian is that you love the Lord, and are growing in holiness, not that you once repeated a prayer (or that you were baptized, attend church regularly, are a “good person,” etc.) Examine yourself to see if you’re really in the faith.

7. Your church probably has a significant number of lost people in it.
Jesus Himself said, there are few who find eternal life and that there are many who call Him “Lord” whom He does not know and will turn away on the Day of Judgment. This is why it is absolutely imperative that pastors, Sunday School teachers, and all other church leaders know the gospel inside out and teach it incessantly, even to people who claim to know Christ.

8. Lots of Southern Baptist churches violate 1 Timothy 2:12ff.
We do fairly well at not permitting women to serve as pastors, but beyond that there are plenty of churches and pastors who sin by allowing women to serve in positions in the church that are restricted to men. Do women in your church preach the Sunday sermon or teach co-ed Sunday School classes? Do they head up committees or ministries that put them in authority over men? Do they, as worship leaders or in some other capacity, stand before the congregation and instruct or exhort them? Then your church is in sin.

9. Politics won’t save America.
This country is imploding. You don’t have to be a prophet to see that. Voting according to biblical principles, running for office, working through the system to right wrongs, signing petitions, and other political activity is fine, but don’t put your eggs in those baskets. The Titanic has hit the ice berg, and Christians in this country will soon be facing real persecution like we see overseas. We need to rescue the perishing with the gospel. It can’t be done with the White House or the state house. When is the last time you shared the gospel with someone?

10. Jesus wins.
Things are bad and getting worse. In our world, in our country, in our denomination, in our churches. But the good news of Scripture for all people is that, in the end, Jesus is coming back for His bride. He will conquer evil and those of us who truly belong to Him will spend eternity with Him. This world is not all there is. Jesus wins.

¹It is possible LifeWay has changed this policy. I called my local LifeWay last week (Jan. 2017) and asked them to order a Joyce Meyer book and a Joel Osteen book. I was told the store could not order books by either of these authors. I applaud LifeWay for this step in the right direction.

²As of 2019, this verbiage has been removed from the FAQ section of the SBC website. Conceptually similar language can be found here (see Article III: Composition).

3Russell Moore and Beth Moore (no, they’re not related) both left the SBC in 2021.

Psalm 119 Bible Study

Psalm 119: The Glory of God’s Word ~ Lesson 13 – Wrap Up

Michelle Lesley

Previous Lessons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Wrap Up

Questions to Consider

1. Was there anything new God taught you in this study that particularly impacted you? What was it, and why was it so significant?

2. How is your walk with the Lord different after this study than it was before?

3. What did you learn from this study about what your relationship with, and response to God’s Word should be like?

4. What did this study teach you about obeying God’s Word?

5. What did this study teach you about the nature and character of God?

6. Have there been any passages or concepts in this study that God used to convict you of disobedience and lead you to repentance? How will you walk differently in this area from now on?

7. What did this study teach you about prayer?

8. Describe one specific, practical way you will apply to your life something you learned in this study.

Homework

Spend some time in prayer this week asking God to show you how to put into practice one thing you learned from this study.

Recite all of your memory verses from this study. Which one is most meaningful to you right now?

Psalm 119 Bible Study

Psalm 119: The Glory of God’s Word ~ Lesson 12

Michelle Lesley

TOMORROW will be our wrap up lesson for Psalm 119. Don’t miss it!

Previous Lessons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Read Psalm 119:161-176

Recall the things from the introductory lesson that you wanted to keep in mind as you study the text of Psalm 119.

Don’t forget to read in complete sentences instead of stopping at the end of each verse.

Recall the themes you’ve been noticing in Psalm 119. Watch for those themes to be repeated in today’s and future passages. You may wish to make a list of those themes to refer to throughout this study.

Questions to Consider

1. Review your notes from last week’s lesson. Does that passage relate to this week’s passage? How? Do you notice any repeated words, thoughts, or themes?

2. Write down each phrase in 161-164, 167 that follows the general pattern: “I / my [heart attitude] at Your Word, law, etc.”. Compare the posture of your heart toward God’s Word with that of the psalmist’s. Take a moment to ask God to help you stand in awe, rejoice at, etc., His Word.

Second Corinthians 13:5 tells us to test ourselves to see if we are, indeed, in the faith. The book of 1 John emphasizes the tests of obedience to the Word and love for the brethren. John 10 shows us the test of rejecting false teachers. Could the phrases you wrote down from 161-164, 167, help you test yourself regarding your love for God’s Word? Since even the finest Christian will never love God’s Word perfectly 100% of the time, what would passing the test of loving God’s Word look like? What role does God play in your ability to love His Word?

Once you’re done with this question, you might enjoy reading my article The Mailbag: I love the Bible, but I have to force myself to read it (Don’t think the psalmist didn’t feel that way sometimes, too.)

3. What kinds of things would the psalmist have considered to be “great spoil”? (162). When you get right down to it, aren’t money, jewels, gold, and silver essentially just paper, rocks, and metal? Why do they have value? Who assigns them their value? Is it ultimately our place to assign value to things? Why or why not? Do we incorrectly over or under value certain things?

Consider this statement: “It’s not our place to assign value to things. It’s God’s place. It’s our place to agree with Him and value the things to which He has assigned value.” Agree of disagree? Why? Does Scripture have intrinsic, ontological value, or assigned value, or both? Explain your answer.

4. Verse 165 is the only verse in Psalm 119 in which the psalmist uses the word “peace”. How does loving God’s Word give Believers peace? Can an unbeliever truly love God’s Word or derive real peace from it? Why not?

5. What does the psalmist mean by “all my ways are before you” (168), and why does this fact lead him to keep God’s precepts and testimonies? Ponder for a moment that all your ways are before God. In what ways does this realization make you want to better keep God’s precepts and testimonies in your own life?

6. Revisit lesson 11 (link above), question 4, and compare 169-170 to the “Give me _____ according to your_____,” verses there. What similarities do you see? Differences?

7. In question 2, the verses we looked at all dealt with the internal response of the heart toward God’s Word. How would you characterize the response to God’s word in 171-172? For a Believer, why is it; a) natural, and b) important that God’s word evokes both an internal and external response in us? How, and why, should pondering God’s Word move us to worship Him?

8. Compare the sheep motif of 176 to these passages. What is the perspective from which each of these passages is written? Is the focus of each of these passages on the individual sheep, the flock, the shepherd, etc.? Are any of these passages (or any other “sheep” or “shepherd” motif passages you can think of) written from the perspective of an individual “sheep” saying “I have gone astray” as 176 is? What does the psalmist mean when he says he has gone astray like a lost sheep, and then asks the “Good Shepherd” to seek him? How does he know he has gone astray? If he knows he has gone astray, why doesn’t he just go back? Why does he need the shepherd to seek him? What does “I do not forget Your commandments” mean in relationship to all of this? How does the Lord restore us to Himself after we sin?

Praying Psalm 119

Have you ever tried praying the psalms? I want to encourage you to try praying part of Psalm 119 back to God each week of this study. (If you’re familiar with my other studies, this will take the place of the weekly “Homework” section.)

The psalms are uniquely suited for praying back to God, both verbatim and conceptually, because they are often written as prayers – as though the psalmist is talking to God. Did you notice that about today’s passage? In which verses?

What is a concept or thought for your own life that the Holy Spirit impressed on your heart or convicted you about from today’s passage? Is there a particular verse(s), or maybe the whole passage, that you would like to pray back to God verbatim? Whatever your “prayer point” from today’s lesson, pray it at least daily until we get to the next lesson.

Suggested Memory Verse

Psalm 119 Bible Study

Psalm 119: The Glory of God’s Word ~ Lesson 11

Michelle Lesley

Previous Lessons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Read Psalm 119:145-160

Recall the things from the introductory lesson that you wanted to keep in mind as you study the text of Psalm 119.

Don’t forget to read in complete sentences instead of stopping at the end of each verse.

Recall the themes you’ve been noticing in Psalm 119. Watch for those themes to be repeated in today’s and future passages. You may wish to make a list of those themes to refer to throughout this study.

Questions to Consider

1. Review your notes from last week’s lesson. Does that passage relate to this week’s passage? How? Do you notice any repeated words, thoughts, or themes?

2. Let’s look at a few themes in today’s passage.

The first is the theme of the psalmist’s imploring. Make a list of all the phrases in this section which indicate imploring (e.g. “Answer me, O Lord”). Who is he imploring, for what, and why? When we implore someone about something, what does our imploring indicate that we believe about that someone? What does the psalmist’s imploring God indicate he believes about God? Is his belief correct? How do we know this? Think of a time when you implored God about something. What did your imploring indicate you believed about God? Regardless of how He answered, was your belief correct? How do you know?

Our next theme is the theme of night. Which two verses in this passage contain this theme? What is “the watches of the night” (148), and what does the psalmist mean in this verse? (It may help to compare a few different translations.) What sort of picture do darkness and night paint in this passage? What is the antidote to darkness and night in this passage?

The third theme is the theme of far and near. Which verses explore this theme? In each instance, list what is far from or near to what. In what ways are far and near contrasted? In each instance of far or near, note whether the psalmist is indicating that far or near is a good thing or a bad thing. Have you experienced any of these instances in your own life? What does this teach us about salvation and the nature and character of God?

The final theme is the theme of hope. Which verse explicitly declares the psalmist’s hope? What does he hope in, and why? Make a list of other phrases in today’s passage which implicitly indicate the psalmist’s hope. Who or what does he hope in? How does this hope ease the tension of, and comfort him in his affliction? Do you have that same hope in Christ? Write out a few statements of your own hope in Christ and His Word modeled after the structure of verse 147 (e.g. “I [negative circumstance], but I hope in [characteristic of God / the Word].)

How do the themes of imploring, night, far and near, and hope relate to and inform one another in this passage?

Did you notice any other themes in today’s passage? Explore them using your cross references. How do they connect to the aforementioned themes?

3. Note the word “promise” in 148. In this context, does “promise” mean Scripture in general, a specific verse or promise, the nature and character of a God who keeps His promises, all of the above? Explain why. (Again, it may help to compare a few different translations.)

4. How many times, and in which verses, does the psalmist use the phrase “give me life according to Your…”? How does the first line of each verse inform or relate to the “give me life” part of the verse? What are the three “according to’s” in these verses?

Whenever God acts in any way, in any circumstance, explain how and why He always acts:

  • according to His promise:
  • according to His rules:
  • according to His steadfast love:

Can you think of some examples from Scripture in which we see God acting according to His promise, according to His rules, and according to His steadfast love? What about some examples from your own life?

5. Make a list of each phrase in today’s passage in which the psalmist is basically saying, “I obey Your Word.”. Do you get the sense that the psalmist is saying to God, “I obey You, therefore, You owe me X,Y, and Z.”? That God should react to his obedience as a quid pro quo? Why or why not?

Remember that, unlike Christians today, the psalmist was living under the Mosaic covenant. Under this covenant, God promised to bless Israel’s families, fields, flocks, finances, and fighting men if they obeyed Him, and to curse them in all of these areas if they disobeyed him. This was the air the psalmist breathed that informed his view of God, his relationship to God, and how he expected or anticipated that God would act in his life. Knowing this background, why do we see this repeated refrain of “I keep Your commandments,” especially when the psalmist is suffering, in today’s passage and throughout Psalm 119? What is the psalmist reminding himself of – about himself and about God – by repeating this again and again? How does “holding God to His Word” demonstrate the psalmist’s trust in God to keep His promises? Explain how the psalmist’s constant cry of “I obey Your Word” calls upon God to be God – to act in accord with His nature and character, to keep the promises He made in the Covenant, and to act within the parameters of the Covenant.

How is the psalmist’s brand of “stake my life on it, total obedience, so much so that I don’t get why God hasn’t acted yet” faith and belief different from the easy, shallow, mental assent, untested “I love Jesus” brand of belief that requires nothing of, and demonstrates nothing about the “believer,” that we see in so many professing Christians today? Which type of belief is Jesus calling us to when He says “Repent and believe the gospel,” and Paul and Silas, when they said to the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”? How is this type of “stake my life on it” belief different from both the works righteousness, “quid pro quo” type of “belief” in God and the easy / shallow type of “belief” in Jesus? How is the posture of the psalmist’s heart, and the genuinely regenerated Believer’s heart different from the posture of heart of those who subscribe to these other two forms of “belief”?

Praying Psalm 119

Have you ever tried praying the psalms? I want to encourage you to try praying part of Psalm 119 back to God each week of this study. (If you’re familiar with my other studies, this will take the place of the weekly “Homework” section.)

The psalms are uniquely suited for praying back to God, both verbatim and conceptually, because they are often written as prayers – as though the psalmist is talking to God. Did you notice that about today’s passage? In which verses?

What is a concept or thought for your own life that the Holy Spirit impressed on your heart or convicted you about from today’s passage? Is there a particular verse(s), or maybe the whole passage, that you would like to pray back to God verbatim? Whatever your “prayer point” from today’s lesson, pray it at least daily until we get to the next lesson.

Suggested Memory Verse

Complementarianism

Throwback Thursday ~ Toxic (Evangelical) Femininity

Michelle Lesley

Originally published August 24, 2018

Toxic masculinity. It’s a buzzword that’s gaining momentum as it’s bandied about in pop culture like a shuttlecock over a badminton net. There’s a clinical definition of the term (which, in the ivory towers of the scholarly world is, properly, “hegemonic masculinity“):

Hegemonic masculinity is defined as a practice that legitimizes men’s dominant position in society and justifies the subordination of women, and other marginalized ways of being a man. Conceptually, hegemonic masculinity proposes to explain how and why men maintain dominant social roles over women, and other gender identities, which are perceived as “feminine” in a given society.

And then there’s the sort of similar working definition of the huddled masses: Anything a man does that others – especially women – don’t like that can, by any stretch of the imagination, be blamed on the fact that he’s a man.

If a man cuts you off in traffic, it’s not that he’s a jerk or didn’t see you, it’s toxic masculinity. If a man holds a door open for a woman, it’s not that he’s polite and helpful, it’s toxic masculinity. If a man leaves his socks on the bathroom floor, it’s not that he’s sloppy and has no home training, it’s toxic masculinity. In other words, he’s not doing these things because he’s a polite or rude or aggressive or helpful human being, it’s because he’s a man who just wants to keep women down and exercise dominance over them.

Pardon my French, but what a bunch of malarkey.

Yes, I’m sure there’s a fringe element of men out there who consciously think they’re better than women, that women shouldn’t have any rights or hold any positions of responsibility, blah, blah, blah. And you know what? They’re considered fringe kooks, and rightly so. But I’m not buying this business of these elitist gnostics telling us that every little move a man makes is a subconscious act of belittling women or exercising domination over them, and neither should you. It’s like the race-baiters who say that every single white person is racist, deep down, and this latent racism manifests itself in everything we do, from the way we tie our shoes to the breakfast cereal we buy at the store. We’re just not aware of it, supposedly.

Poppycock.

Want to know where this notion of toxic masculinity came from? It sprang from the loins of toxic feminism. Zoom out and look at the big picture. This is a manufactured concept, baptized in the (assumed) credibility of academia, designed to help women leverage power and control over men. How? By denigrating them at every turn, thereby convincing the world that men are intrinsically bad and women are good and must be elevated to prominence. Call me crazy if you want to, but it doesn’t take a prophet or the son of a prophet to look down the road and see that the feminist end game here is a matriarchal world where women rule and men drool. And there are plenty of brazen females out there who would openly and unashamedly admit this.

That, however, is not my concern. Sinners gonna sin, and God’s going to deal with them in His own way and in His own good time.

My concern is the way this attitude is fleshing (pun intended) itself out in Christian families and the visible church, and creeping into evangelical women’s (and men’s) hearts. Because, whether or not we’d like to admit it, this worldliness is advancing upon us, and we need to be aware of – and biblically approach – the facets of this issue that are already at our doorstep:

On the Top of the World Looking Down on Creation

I actually laughed out loud when reading some of the academic definitions of so-called toxic masculinity. There seemed to be an air of, “We just don’t understand it! This pattern of male dominance seems to transcend all cultures and time periods!”

Well here’s a really academic response to that: Duh.

I mean, you have to wonder if these researchers and scholars have ever said to  themselves, “I wonder if there’s a reason for that. I wonder if this tendency in men that defies time and culture can be traced back to a pinpointed source.”

There is, and it can. It’s called Creation, and God is the one responsible. God created man first and then woman. God created husbands to lead and wives to be helpers. God set up the Old Testament patriarchal society that became the nation of Israel, which was led by male tribal heads and, later, male kings. God established male leadership in the temple, and subsequently, in the church. The major and minor prophets were male, Jesus was male, the apostles were male, the writers of Scripture were male. And all of this traces back to that one moment in Genesis 2 in which God decided to create man first and hard-wire him to lead, protect, and git ‘er done. Broadly¹ speaking, the reason we see a general¹ pattern of male leadership across time and culture is because God set those wheels in motion.

As Christians, we recognize that sinful men sometimes abuse the positions of leadership God has given them, but that doesn’t negate the entire pattern and call for us to turn it on its head. We study our Bibles and embrace and submit to the way God has instructed men and women to behave in the roles He has bestowed upon us.

Come on, Baby, (Don’t) Do the Woke-Emotion

One of the components of God’s creative work that adds inexplicable beauty to this world is the tender-heartedness, passion, and empathy He built into women in a uniquely feminine way. Emotions. Feelings. God created them, and they are good. What a dreary and heartless world this would be if women didn’t bring nurturing, caring, sympathy, and love to the table. God uses us to soften the hard edges of life and make the planet pleasantly inhabitable.

But along with that good gift comes the challenge to steward it wisely and in obedience to God so that we may use it to glorify Him rather than dishonoring Him.

I see Christian women wisely stewarding their emotions to the glory of God every day as they care for their husbands and families, friends and co-workers, and serve in their churches. It is a beautiful picture of the mature fruit of biblical womanhood.

Unfortunately, I also see the exact opposite. I see (ostensibly) Christian women who scream like banshees any time their pastor preaches on the passages of Scripture dealing with women’s roles in marriage or the church. I’ve seen women who claim to believe and follow the Bible throw an everloving fit when someone points out – from Scripture – that their favorite women’s “Bible” study author is a false teacher. I see women formulating their beliefs and practices about God, worship, the Bible, their own behavior, their families, and their churches based on their own personal opinions, experiences, and feelings rather than on rightly handled Scripture.

And, just like secular feminists demand domination over men because they feel oppressed, have experienced sexism, or resent the world’s history of male dominion, I see Christian women letting their emotions rule the day as they demand unbiblical solutions to their real or perceived personal experiences with men and male leadership.

The anger, the outrage, the hurt feelings, and being offended are nearly as evident in evangelicalism as they are in society at large.

Godly women are not ruled by their feelings. We are ruled by the Bible. We make our feelings submit to and obey God’s Word. We don’t make decisions based on what we like or don’t like, or what makes us feel good about ourselves. We base our decisions on what the Bible says. When our feathers get ruffled, we take a step back and evaluate the situation with rightly handled Scripture. Maybe we’re upset because someone actually sinned against us, but maybe we’re upset because our pride or vanity was wounded, or our unbiblical notions were biblically challenged, or because God used someone to expose an idol we’re worshiping. Maybe it’s not that the other person sinned, but that we’re in sin. Those hurt feelings could be a wake up call from God to humble ourselves and repent.

Ladies, we must learn to put our feelings aside and act on the objective truth of God’s Word instead of our fickle and deceptive emotions. If we display the same sorts of fleshly emotionalism as unsaved women, how are we being salt and light in the world, pointing the way to Christ? We’re supposed to be set apart and different from the world.

Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?

Because – speaking of salt and light – embracing and submitting to our biblical roles in the family and in the church sets us apart from the world. Now, more than ever, we have a unique opportunity to be counter-cultural – simply by obeying God’s Word.

Women being hired as pastors and teaching and exercising authority over men in the church and leading denominations and becoming popular evangelical conference speakers with co-ed audiences – that’s what the world expects because that’s the way they do things. But a Christian woman who happily puts her foot down and refuses to teach men in the church setting or joyfully insists on submitting to her husband? That’s different. It’s against the grain, not the norm.

Remember that out of the ordinary burning bush that caught Moses’ attention and he turned aside out of curiosity to investigate? And remember how, when Moses was watching it burn, wondering what in the world was going on, that God called to him out of that fiery shrub – “Follow Me.”? God can do the same thing with our obedience to Scripture.

Lost people see this anomaly of our “weird” behavior, and they want to know what in the world is going on. Why do we act differently than they do? And that’s when we get to explain it to them. We get to share the gospel. God can call to them out of our passionate burning for Christ and His Word, “Follow Me.”.

People in darkness gravitate toward light. Salt makes people thirsty. Do we care more about giving them the Light of the World and the Living Water or our own selfish and fleshly desires for power and position? Our embrace of and obedience to the biblical roles God has laid out for us as Christian women is one gateway to sharing the gospel with the lost.

Toxic femininity is worldly and fleshly. It has no place in Christian homes and churches. How do we combat it? We take up the sword. We submit to the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. We recognize that God is the authority in our lives, not self, and that we are to obey Him at any cost – even at the cost of our convenience and pleasure. We trade our desires for His.

¹I’m well aware that there are plenty of exceptions to this generalization. I’m referring to a broad pattern across time and culture, here. There are many biblical ways women can contribute and lead in the family, society, and the church.