Christian Women – Page 38 – Michelle Lesley

There’s been quite the hustle and bustle of ministry activity around here lately, so I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with a few updates:

First and foremost, let me apologize again to any of you who registered for last Thursday’s webinar and were unable to get in due to the 100 attendee limit or other technological difficulties. We were not aware of the limit nor that anyone who registered would be unable to get in.

The good news is, Amy is finished editing the recording, and today, I will begin e-mailing the link to everyone who registered via PayPal. So be sure you check the e-mail address you used to register, and also be sure you check your spam folder since there will be a link in the e-mail, which will be coming from our AWFS G-mail account. (There were over 200 registrants, and I am sending these e-mails out manually and individually, so it may take a few days to receive yours.) If you registered via Patreon, simply go to our A Word Fitly Spoken Patreon page, and click on the post at the top entitled Discerning Women Webinar Recording Link to obtain the link.

The webinar recording is not being posted publicly, but if you would like to watch it, we will send you the private link as a thank you gift for your one-time or monthly PayPal or Patreon donation of $10 or more.

My publicity pictures were about 10 years old – practically false advertising! – so a few weeks ago, I had my daughter, Michaela, take a new set for me. (You can see all of them at the Photos tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page, if you’re interested.) Michaela is a wonderfully talented photographer, and we spent a lovely afternoon on the campus of LSU getting these shots.

If you haven’t checked out the 2020-21 calendar on my Speaking Engagements page (in the blue menu bar at the top of this page), I’ve added several events recently. I hope you’ll find one you can attend! I’ll be posting more about each of these as the dates get nearer.

2020 Calendar:

July 13-17- Open Hearts in a Closed World women’s conference, online. All ladies are welcome to join me, Susan Heck, and more great speakers for this free conference on servanthood. Worship with CityAlight begins each day at 9:30 a.m. (Central), with the main teaching session at 10:00 a.m. (mine is on the 17th) followed by a fun breakout session. Conference sessions will be posted on IGTV (Instagram) and other video venues, and will remain posted after the 17th. I’ll share more details as I get them.

August 29- Women Thinking Wisely conference, Countryside Bible Church, Meade, Kansas. (This conference is open to women in the surrounding areas, but you must contact the church directly for details.)

October 23-24– Breakout sessions for women, plus a live episode recording of A Word Fitly Spoken- Cruciform Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana

November 8-9- Women’s Conference, Ekalaka Bible Church in Ekalaka, Montana (This conference is open to women in the surrounding areas, but you must contact the church directly for details.)

2021 Calendar:

January 29-30- Women’s Advance Conference, Agape Bible Church, Willits, California. (This conference is open to women in the surrounding areas, but you must contact the church directly for details.)

If you weren’t able to find an event to attend, host your own! I’d love to come speak to the ladies of your church or Christian organization. Check out the rest of the information on my Speaking Engagements page, including tips for hosting your own event even when you don’t have much money or experience.

A new feature I’ve added to make hosting a speaking engagement easier and less expensive is speaking engagement packages. Choose from my most popular biblical topics and the most common conference formats, and we’ll send you the set speaking fee for that conference. (Of course, if you have another topic you’d like me to speak on or a format that’s unique to your event, that option is still available.)

I hope to see you soon at an event near you!

Apologetics, Bible

Without Apology: 7 Reasons Not to Be Ashamed of the Hard Parts of the Gospel

May 15, 2020May 11, 2020 Michelle Lesley

Originally published November 4, 2016

7-not-ashamed

I am not ashamed of the gospel…

Romans 1:16 is such a great verse, isn’t it? And one of the things that’s great about it is that we can all agree on it. I mean, no self-respecting Christian would dream of saying she’s ashamed of the gospel, would she? It’s a rallying cry for evangelism and for standing against persecution. Of course we’re not ashamed.

In theory. But in practice?

You see, the gospel is the good news of salvation. And, while we don’t tend to share the entire Bible when we share the gospel with someone, the good news starts in Genesis with a holy God who created a perfect world, and moves on to the first people who messed everything up with their sin, a whole bunch of subsequent people who couldn’t be faithful to God and keep His Law, Christ and His redemption of sinners, and the Revelation of the hope of His return at the end of time. So, “the gospel” really stretches from the front cover of your Bible to the back cover.

Are there any parts of it you shy away from in evangelism, discipleship, or teaching?

What about the atheist you’re witnessing to who denigrates your God for committing genocide in the Old Testament?

Were you afraid to speak up the last time you were the only Creationist in a room full of evolutionists?

Have you ever seen some poor pastor or male teacher tiptoe his way through the minefield of a passage on marital submission or the biblical role of women in ministry lest the wrath of church ladies befall him?

Are you reluctant to be known as someone who believes and will unequivocally say that homosexuality and other deviant sexual behavior is a sin?

Hey, we’ve all been there and failed. These are tough passages for sinners to hear, after all! When they come up, we should certainly approach them wisely and lovingly with people, but we should take care never to wish these things (and others) weren’t in Scripture, feel embarrassed about them, apologize for them, or act as though we have to make excuses for God about them. We need to be just as willing, bold, kind, and comfortable saying, “The world did not evolve, God created it,” and “You must repent of homosexuality along with all your other sin,” as we are saying, “God is love.” Why?

1. The Bible is God’s word.

Scripture is the very words of the God of the universe. It’s not a storybook or a policy and procedure manual dreamed up by men. Scripture is God speaking to us. To be ashamed of any part of His word is to be ashamed of Him, what He has done, and who He is. We dare not.

2. The Bible glorifies God.

The mere existence of Scripture brings honor and glory to God. No other god has spoken personally, so magnificently, and in a living and active book, to his people. The Bible brings glory to God when His people believe and obey it. We exemplify His goodness and holiness to a watching world. And even when the Bible isn’t believed and obeyed, God is glorified by showing us in His word that His way is right and perfect and man’s way is not.

3. The Bible is perfect.

God didn’t leave anything out of the Bible or put anything extra in that shouldn’t be there. The Bible is perfect just the way it is. God doesn’t need us to help Him out by editing it. If He wanted it to say something different, it already would.

4. The Bible is right.

When God’s word says something is a sin, it is right. When God’s word tells us He, in His holiness, did something we think is unfair or distasteful, it is right. When God’s word requires us to do something, it is right. When someone balks at what the Bible says, it’s not the Bible that’s wrong. It’s that person’s sinful flesh that thinks it knows better than God what is good, appropriate, loving and fair. If a person comes up against the Bible, the Bible does not bend. That person bends. The knee. To God. If you are standing on the rightly divided word of God, you can be confident that you are in the right because the Bible is right. There’s no need for reticence.

5. The Bible is a blessing.

If you’ve ever studied the history of how you got the Bible sitting on your coffee table, you know just how amazing it is that you own one. Thousands of years, scores of writers, so many people who were martyred for penning it, protecting it, and translating it. How could we be ashamed of such a precious gift from God Himself?

6. The Bible is good for us.

God put those tough passages in the Bible because they’re good for you. And they’re good for the person who’s foaming at the mouth over the one you’re trying to explain to her, right now, too, she just doesn’t know it yet. God is a kind and loving Father who always does what is best for us. Those difficult passages would not be in the Bible if God didn’t want them there to benefit us in some way.

7. The Bible is useful.

I can’t say it better than Scripture itself does:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

God uses every verse of Scripture – even the hard ones – to save us, grow us, conform us to His will, equip us, and reveal Himself to us. Why would we deny those saving, growing words to people who desperately need to hear them by shying away from them just because they’re difficult to say or unpleasant to hear?

Steve Lawson once said, “The Bible is not hard to understand. It is just hard to swallow.” And he’s so right. It’s not difficult to understand the concept that wives should submit to their husbands or that the God who sovereignly gave people life has every right to take it away. What’s difficult for us is to humble ourselves and cede control to Someone else. We think we know best. We want to run things and make the rules. We don’t want to submit to God’s authority.

In the end, there really aren’t any tough passages. There are only passages that come up against tough hearts. Tough hearts that need to be broken by the gospel, that they might repent of their sin and be forgiven by a great and merciful God.

And that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

ps-19-7-9

Speaking Engagements, Special Events

You’re Invited to a Webinar!

May 14, 2020May 11, 2020 Michelle Lesley

Tonight’s the night! Be sure you’re registered!

Are you a discerning woman? Whether you’re just starting to learn to discern or you’ve had your “powers of discernment trained by constant practice,” we think you’ll find this Zoom webinar edifying and informative. Join Amy Spreeman and Michelle Lesley as we examine the Scriptures that pertain to discernment, contemporary false teachings to watch out for, addressing false teaching with loved ones and leaders, and more!

Date: Thursday, May 14

Time: 8:00 – 9:30 p.m. Central

To register, click here.

And be sure to share this around with the ladies of your church
and your friends and loved ones!

Christian women

You’re Not Awesome…and You Know It

May 8, 2020May 6, 2020 Michelle Lesley

Originally published September 19, 2017

I am absolutely weary of some of the memes aimed at Christian women these days. You know the ones I mean, ladies- the ones with lovely pictures of flowers or an ocean or a meadow with a superimposed flowing script practically BEGGING us to believe how much worth we have to God, how awesome we are, how we need to discover the greatness within, how God gives us limitless potential and a superfantastic divine purpose, blah, blah, blah.

You know why they have to take that begging tone to try to get us to believe those things? Because they’re not true. You know it, and I know it.

You’re not awesome or great or imbued with some radical purpose or potential that will magically make your life phenomenal and give you oodles of self esteem once you discover it.

You’re a dirty, stinking, rotten, rebellious sinner. You yell at your kids. You don’t submit to your husband. You act out of selfishness. You lie. You gossip. You covet. You bow down to your idols instead of to Christ. You sin against a holy and righteous God in a thousand ways every day in thought, word, and deed. Just like I do. Let’s put on our big girl panties and just admit it. (1 John 1:8,10)

That’s why these memes and false teachers have to try so hard to convince us of how terrific we are- deep down we know we’re not. It’s a lie. And putting all our eggs in the basket of that lie of greatness sets us up for disappointment and self-loathing every time we sin.

Ladies, stop listening to this hearts and flowers, cotton candy, pump up your ego so you’ll feel better about yourself dreck, and put your faith and hope in the One who will never let you down. The One who looked at all your nasty thoughts and evil deeds and said, “I’m going to the cross for her anyway.” The One who sees all your daily faults and failures and is still willing to forgive when you repent. The One who’s faithful to you even when you’re not faithful to Him.

Stop focusing on how great you are – because you’re not – and put your focus on Christ and how great, and awesome, and superfantastic, and terrific He is. Because if you’re feeling bad about yourself, it’s not because you don’t have a high enough self esteem. It’s because you don’t have a high enough Christ esteem.

We’re not worthy. He is. Let’s get over ourselves and give Him the glory, and honor, and attention, and focus, and praise He so richly deserves.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24