Tag: Titus 2

Mailbag, Worship

The Mailbag: Potpourri (Boundaries… Submit vs. address sin?… Discernment- Who do you think you are?)

Michelle Lesley

Welcome to another “potpourri” edition of The Mailbag, where I give short(er) answers to several questions rather than a long answer to one question.

I like to take the opportunity in these potpourri editions to let new readers know about my comments/e-mail/messages policy. I’m not able to respond individually to most e-mails and messages, so here are some helpful hints for getting your questions answered more quickly. Remember, the search bar (at the very bottom of each page) can be a helpful tool!

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.

This comment was left on my article, Taking Offense:

Thank you for this biblical truth: “Jesus taught us to…love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for people who abuse us, turn the other cheek, give to those who want to take from us, treat others the way we want to be treated”. Are boundaries biblical then? Do we stick around when someone is pouring out non-stop criticism and verbally abusing us or talking behind our back? Family members can be the worst. People who are not following Jesus and who are consumed with darkness, hate people who are walking in the Light. I understand not taking offense, but in my experience, when I turn the other cheek to abusers, they keep abusing and hate you more. It is not good to allow them to sin against us because when their sin flows freely, it not only harms me but it harms them too. Thoughts?

Great question! It’s one Amy Spreeman and I have received numerous times over the past few years, so we’ve recorded a podcast mini-series on it!

Beautiful Biblical Boundaries- part 1 deals with the Scriptures and biblical precepts addressing boundaries. We discuss how and when to erect boundaries (and how and when not to). This episode is currently scheduled to drop next Wednesday, November 12.

In Beautiful Biblical Boundaries- part 2, we’ll answer listeners’ questions about boundaries in their own lives and relationships. This episode is currently scheduled to drop in about two weeks, on Wednesday, November 19.

Please note that the links above will not work until the dates specified.

This comment was left on my article, Marriage: It’s My Pity Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To ~ 7 Ways to Take Your Focus Off Yourself and Put it Back on Christ (By the way, yes, I realize that the length of the titles of some of my articles rivals those of many of the Puritans’ books and pamphlets. I’m OK with that.😀)

I have a question about number 7…

This article pertains to normal, relatively healthy, Christian marriages. In other words, not abusive marriages. If you are being abused, get yourself and your children to a safe place, and call the police, your pastor, or a loved one for help.

Of course, I agree that we should be subject to our husbands. However, are we not to call them out gently on their sin when they are acting like “an ungodly jerk” according to various verses such as Proverbs 27:5, Luke 17:3, Matthew 18:15, and Galatians 6:1? I guess I’m just confused because both commands seem to contradict each other.

This is another super question! The short answer is, “Yes,” but as Ecclesiastes 3:1,7 tells us, “there is a time for every matter under heaven…a time to be silent and a time to speak,” and in the moment when your husband is acting like “an ungodly jerk,” he’s apt to respond poorly to his sin being exposed and corrected, which just compounds his sin. (And frankly, we wives usually respond just as poorly in that moment when the shoe is on the other foot.)

In that moment, generally speaking, it’s usually a time to be silent, and, assuming he’s not asking you to sin, do whatever it is he’s gruffly or impatiently asking you to do with a gracious, kind, willing, and loving attitude and demeanor, as opposed to pouting and feeling sorry for yourself – which is the theme of the article (and also why #7 focuses on the “a time to keep silent” aspect of submission rather than the “a time to speak” aspect of addressing your husband’s sin).

Have you ever heard the phrase “killing someone with kindness”? God has an amazing way of taking our example of godly obedience, kindness, and refusing to retaliate, and using that to convict the other person of his sin. He does that Himself with us:

Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

Romans 2:4

So, yes, there’s a time to speak and – approaching your husband the way you would want to be approached – kindly and humbly address his sin. That time is usually… later. Not in the moment.

What makes you confident in your ability to determine who is a true or false teacher of the Bible? Are you a theologian or do you have background in studying theology and the Bible? Just curious.

(I’ve distilled this question down from a much longer laundry list of complaints from a follower about a Facebook post in which I warned against false teacher Priscilla Shirer. It’s hard to tell from the wording in the brief excerpt above, but this was not a genuine, good faith question from someone desiring to grow in her discernment skills. It was tossed out in a snarky, accusatory, “Who do you think you are?” tone. My tone below, per Proverbs 26:5, is a biblically appropriate response to hers.)

The Bible makes me confident in my ability to determine who is a true or false teacher of the Bible. And if you’re a genuinely regenerated Christian, it should make you confident too.

Our authority as Christians comes from God’s Word, not from a seminary. You don’t have to go to seminary to be a discerning Christian (in fact, many seminaries are so rife with false doctrine that you’d better be discerning before you get there). If you think about it, none of the people who wrote the Bible’s teachings on false teachers and false prophets ever went to seminary, including the Bereans, whom God praised for their discernment.

Scripture tells us:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 4:1


Examining teachers and comparing their teaching and behavior with Scripture is a command from God for Christians, not an option, and certainly not something for Christians to criticize and scorn other Christians for doing (as long as they’re doing it biblically, which I am).

So the question here is not why am I obeying God’s Word, testing this spirit against Scripture, and when she’s found to be a false teacher, warning other Christians about her. The question is, if you’re a Christian, why aren’t you? Why aren’t you studying your Bible so that you understand it, and can see how Shirer’s words and actions conflict with it? Why aren’t you warning others against her? I would be very concerned about that for my own spiritual life if I were you.

I hope this resource will answer any other objections to the Bible’s command for discernment that you may have.

I later added these remarks (slightly edited here) to the remainder of the commenters on that post:

I would encourage you younger ladies (especially those who have been commenting in the “Where do you get off?!?!” vein to me) to consider this:

“When one becomes so familiar with His Word you can spot a false teacher a mile away – I told my girls that when you walk close to God and His WORD you become sensitive to the clanging gong of false teachers.”

This quote is from a 70+ year old “Titus 2:3-5 woman” who has been walking with the Lord and a passionate student of God’s Word for over 50 years. And she’s right. And as a younger woman (I’m 56), I’m very thankful for the wisdom she just spoke into my life.

As I said, I’m 56. I have been a faithful member of decent churches since 9 months before I was born. I’ve been saved since I was 12. That means I’ve been walking with the Lord and studying His Word at church, a Christian high school and college, in other Christian organizations, and on my own for 44 years. Longer than many of you have been alive. Furthermore, I’ve been blogging and “doing discernment ministry” for over 17 years.

If you had a doctor with 44 years of training and 17 years of diagnostic experience and he gave you a diagnosis you didn’t like, would you immediately throw it back in his face with a sassy, disrespectful, “What qualifies YOU to say so?” or “What makes you so sure you’re right? MY opinion is…”. I doubt it. You might respectfully ask him some questions or request some resources to help you understand. You might even politely seek a second or third opinion, but you would not be so brash and arrogant to immediately assume he has no idea what he’s talking about and is just being mean to you, and you know better than he does.

I’m not saying this to toot my own horn or “look down on anyone’s youth” (that would be out of context, anyway), and I’m certainly not saying I’m without sin or never make mistakes. I’m saying there’s a reason Titus 2:3-5 specifies that older women are to train younger women. (Which implies that younger women should listen to older women instead of immediately dismissing us out of hand when we say something you don’t like – especially when it’s backed up with rightly handled Scripture and other mature, doctrinally sound Christians corroborate it.) Younger women do not have the same spiritual maturity, life experience, wisdom, and biblical training that older women have who have been walking with the Lord for decades. (I definitely didn’t have it when I was a younger woman!)

By all means, get a second opinion from rightly handled, in context Scripture. Politely ask questions. Do the research on your own. But stop being so reactionary and lashing out every time you hear something biblical that you don’t like. All you’re doing is showcasing your spiritual immaturity and ignorance of Scripture and your lack of self control. Or, worst case scenario, you’re bearing the fruit of someone who isn’t saved.

I’m far from perfect, but I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck and start slinging the label of “false teacher” around willy nilly. By God’s incredible grace, mercy, wisdom, and sanctification, I’ve been doing this a long time, and I know what I’m talking about – all glory to Him.

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.

Special Events

6 Reasons You Should Attend the Next G3 Women’s Expository Teaching Workshop

Michelle Lesley

Originally published June 15, 2023

photo courtesy of G3 ministries

See my 2024 update at the end of this article.

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.

To be alerted to the details for the next workshop, be sure to sign up for the G3 email list, get the G3 app, and follow G3 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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!

Special Events, Uncategorized

6 Reasons You Should Attend the Next G3 Women’s Expository Teaching Workshop

Michelle Lesley
photo courtesy of G3 ministries

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.

To be alerted to the details for the next workshop, be sure to sign up for the G3 email list, get the G3 app, and follow G3 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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!

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!

Discernment, Mailbag

The Mailbag: Should I attend the “Bible” study to correct false doctrine?

Michelle Lesley

Originally published August 21, 2017

I’ve been invited to join a ladies’ Bible study class that’s using a book by a well-known author and speaker. The woman who wrote the book is a false teacher. Should I accept the invitation and join the class in hopes of correcting the false doctrine that will be taught?

To join or not to join. I’ve been in the same situation myself, and I know many of my readers have as well. It can be a difficult decision to make. The Bible does say to avoid false teachers, but it also says they should be rebuked, and that older women are to “teach what is good, and so train the young women…that the word of God may not be reviled.”

My counsel to those who have expressed concern to me over studies by Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, Lysa TerKeurst, etc. taking place in their churches is to pray that God would give them wisdom as to whether they should attend the study and biblically refute all the false doctrine that comes up (the rebuking/training perspective) or whether they should decline to attend the study (the avoiding perspective), giving anyone who asks a biblical explanation as to why you won’t be participating (also, kind of rebuking/training). There are a lot of things to take into consideration as you begin working through Scripture and prayer to reach a decision.

First, where is your pastor in all of this? Why is he allowing a study to take place that uses materials authored by a false teacher? Maybe he is familiar with the author’s materials and approves of them (in which case you have a bigger issue than whether or not to attend this particular class). But maybe he’s a discerning-leaning guy who’s just not aware that this author teaches false doctrine.

Most pastors are extremely busy. They either don’t have the time or don’t know they need to make the time to vet the authors of the studies their church is using (I’m not excusing this state of affairs, I’m just saying- this is the reality we’re dealing with). And many of them simply assume that if the book comes from LifeWay (or another trusted Christian retailer), it must be OK. So, before making a decision about whether or not to attend the class, go to where the buck stops and humbly, patiently, and kindly find out where your pastor is about the issue. He might just pleasantly surprise you and cancel the class or insist that a doctrinally sound study be used instead, and your problem will be solved.

Next, if you’re married, what does your husband have to say about it? There may be a logistical conflict – he prefers you not to be out that late at night alone for safety reasons, your child has to be picked up from soccer at the time the class meets, etc. – that will immediately solve your dilemma, or there may be some other reason he doesn’t want you to attend the class. Since it’s not sinful to decline attending the class, if your husband says no, you need to respect his decision and decline to join. (You also need to discuss with your husband the issue of approaching the pastor about the study. He might prefer to be the one to talk to him, or he might prefer the two of you talk to the pastor together, rather than you approaching the pastor on your own.)

But even if your husband leaves the decision up to you, ask for his counsel and perspective. Simply by virtue of being a man, a person with his own unique thought processes, and someone who knows you well, he can add invaluable insight that can help you reach a wise decision. This was certainly the case for me when I was faced with this situation. I was leaning toward declining to attend the study, but my husband gave me a whole new perspective and encouraged me to get involved in order to be a corrective influence and godly example to the other ladies. And he was right!

If you’ve talked to your pastor and your husband and the dilemma is still before you, there are several things you need to think, pray, and study through as you’re working toward a decision:

☙Are you biblically knowledgeable enough to recognize and properly refute false doctrine? (It might help to get the perspective of your pastor, your husband, or a mature believer who knows you well and who will be honest with you.)

☙Do you have the extra time to study and make notes ahead of time so you’ll be prepared to refute, with Scripture, during class?

☙Is the study so replete with false doctrine that you’ll have to constantly be speaking up and people will just be annoyed and tune you out?

☙Does your conscience prevent you from financially supporting the false teacher by buying her book for the study?

☙Would it make a bigger impact on this particular group of ladies for you to attend and refute or to decline to attend with explanation? (Consider your influence on them, your reputation for sound doctrine among them, the dynamics of the group, etc.)

☙What will be the repercussions of your actions (whether you decide to attend or decline) on the church at large? How might your family and/or your pastor be affected?

☙Are you spiritually and emotionally prepared for the harsh backlash you will probably receive for refuting? Can you stand firm in the face of that, or will you cave?

☙Are you in the “cage stage” of discernment with a “mow ‘em down!” disposition to match, or do you have the self-control required to follow the instruction of 2 Timothy 2:24-26: to be patient, kind, and not quarrelsome? Do you understand that the goal of discernment is to humbly rescue captives, not to prove how right and knowledgeable you are?

☙Think outside the box. Is there another way to handle this situation besides attending/refuting and declining to attend? What about you (or a spiritually mature woman in your church- someone who is able to teach) offering to teach an alternative class that studies a book of the Bible?

There’s no one size fits all answer to this question. Either of these options (or another) could be biblically wise depending on the people and situations involved. Talk to your husband and your pastor. Examine what God’s Word says about false teachers. Pray for wisdom. Follow your biblically-informed conscience.

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.

Mailbag

The Mailbag: Potpourri (Prophetic “word” at church… Study apps… Pastoral counsel… Can treason be forgiven?… Fiction vs. lies)

Michelle Lesley

Welcome to another “potpourri” edition of The Mailbag, where I give short(er) answers to several questions rather than a long answer to one question.

I like to take the opportunity in these potpourri editions to let new readers know about my comments/e-mail/messages policy. I’m not able to respond individually to most e-mails and messages, so here are some helpful hints for getting your questions answered more quickly. Remember, the search bar (at the very bottom of each page) can be a helpful tool!

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 am writing to you today because the church we attend has started to allow a woman to speak a “word” over the congregation*.

After the third time, I approached the woman and asked if she thought she was a prophet. She did not deny it, but said that the Lord speaks to her directly through different ways. We went to our pastor who did not see a problem with what she was saying, but only that it was causing chaos during the service.

Last Sunday, our pastor allowed her to speak through the microphone stating that we need to let the Holy Spirit move in our midst.

My husband and I are very concerned and alarmed about this practice and we are unsure if we should leave the church over this and if we should approach our pastor with our concerns again. We have been attending this church for years and have never seen this happen until recently.

Honey, I know this is difficult and there are probably a lot of people you’re close to there, but this church has wandered off the reservation into New Apostolic Reformation land, and, yes, it’s time for you – and every other doctrinally sound Christian in it – to leave and find a real church. (Just to be clear, I would say the same thing if it were a man speaking these “words” over the congregation.)

Go to the Searching for a new church? tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page, and begin studying the materials under “What to look for in a church” as you’re utilizing the church search engines.

You’ll also want to examine the materials under “Leaving Your Current Church,” including The Mailbag: How to Leave a Church. Be sure you don’t leave without going to your pastor and explaining to him that you’re leaving because he’s allowing false doctrine into the church. (You can consider this “approaching our pastor with our concerns again”. If you want to approach him one additional time – like you did before – prior to this explanation of why you’re leaving, you can, but it’s unlikely to do any good.)

*If you’re unfamiliar with what this reader means by “speaking a ‘word'” over the congregation, it looks something like this (start around the 14:27 mark), only, typically, it’s not quite this nutty and with a little thicker biblical veneer. The “church” in the link is not the reader’s church, it’s just the first example that popped into my head today.

As I read my Bible sometimes I would like to know what a certain word means in the original text. Can you recommend a resource that would be helpful for that? Thank you so much for all you do to keep us grounded in His Truth!

You’re welcome! It is my pleasure to serve you in Christ, and it is always encouraging to hear from women who are good students of Scripture.

I use both Blue Letter Bible’s and Bible Hub’s interlinear features, and find both to be helpful. You can read more about them in my article My Favorite Bible & Study Apps (they both have a web version as well as an app).

What does one do if they have a serious spiritual question and well known and trusted Biblical pastors give the exact opposite answers from one another? I cannot find the specific answer in Scripture and I desperately need to know what to do. I have read where one advises one course of action and the other advises the opposite. I am praying and continuing to search. But I need help. Any advice you have would be very welcome.

It’s hard to know exactly how to answer this question since I don’t know the details (and I’m not asking for them – this seems private), but, generally speaking, my advice is always to go to your own pastor first for counsel, assuming you’re in a doctrinally sound church. If it’s the type of issue best addressed by another woman rather than your pastor, reach out to a godly, doctrinally sound, “Titus 2” sort of woman in your church so that she can disciple you through this.

If, for some reason, you absolutely can’t go to your pastor or a godly older woman in your church, as a last resort, you can locate a biblical counselor (not the same thing as a “Christian counselor/therapist/etc.” – see the Biblical Counseling Resources tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page) and set up an appointment.

If the reason you can’t go to your pastor or a godly older woman in your church is that you’re not currently in church, you need to remedy that immediately, and this situation is one of the main reasons why. (Go to the Searching for a new church? tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page and start using the church search engines.)

When we go through crises and trials in life, God’s plan for us is to turn to our pastors and our church family, not to seek the generalized, one size fits all advice of celebrity pastors – even if they’re doctrinally sound.

Your own pastor and your brothers and sisters at your local church know you. They’re there for you, boots on the ground, to disciple you and help you walk through this situation over the long haul. A stranger on the internet or between the covers of a book can’t do that for you.

I urge you, turn to your church family.

Can God save someone convicted of treason by the government? Can they be forgiven and go to heaven?

Of course. God can and will save anyone who turns to Him in repentance over her sin and places her faith in the death burial and resurrection of Christ as payment and forgiveness for her sin. God doesn’t have a list of certain sins that He refuses to forgive*. I would encourage you to prayerfully study and consider the Scriptures and materials at the What must I do to be saved? tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page.

*Readers, I know many of your minds immediately went here. Hope this resource is helpful.

Why should a woman or male read Fiction? Shouldn’t we read only and study only truth not fantasy? Jesus said “I am the truth”, Satan in the garden used fiction to challenge God’s authority and present a false truth to Eve, who was then deceived by her own desires gave Adam the forbidden fruit.

I think the struggle you’re having here is that you’re conflating fiction books, novels, and stories with lies and deception. They’re two different things, and they need to be kept in separate categories.

There’s nothing wrong with Goldilocks and the Three Bears or the John Grisham novel that’s sitting on my night stand. These are fiction – a creation of the author’s imagination. The authors aren’t trying to convince anyone that these stories are true. In fact, many novels carry a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction and that any resemblance the story or characters bear to real people or situations is purely coincidental. And no person of normal intelligence and wherewithal picks up a story or novel thinking it’s truth.

What Satan used in the Garden with Eve was not fiction. It was lies and deception. She thought he was telling her the truth. He was trying to make her believe he was telling the truth. See the difference? (Also, there’s no such thing as a “false truth”. A statement is either true or false. The words you’re looking for are “lies” and “deception”.)

And the Jesus who said, “I am the truth” in John 14:6? He told fictional stories throughout His ministry in order to teach and illustrate truth. We call them parables. And we know Jesus never lied or deceived anyone. That’s the best way we can tell the difference between lies and fiction. Lying is a sin. Fiction is not.

Now go and feel free to read that novel on your night stand.

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.