For Such A Time As This

Wow!! I am am continually amazed at the ways God speaks to me. I find it awesome. I have been asking God to allow this to sink deeper into my heart. I want God's will to shine in my life and not just my own wills and wants.

This is the 4th Chapter in the book 'Voices of the True Women Movement' By Nancy Leigh DeMoss. If you miss the first 3 Chapters and would like to read them can find the links here.

'For Such A Time As This' was written by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. And she bases the story on Queen Esther. (I have always loved the story of Esther, and love the new lessons I have learned from it.)

In the Book of Esther, there are 2 stories going on at the same time, 2 perspectives, 2 world views, 2 ways of looking at life. There's the drama you see and then there's the drama behind the drama. There's the obvious plot as well as the plot behind the plot.

The first plot is the visible-human one. The 2nd is the heavenly drama. The human one is built on a foundation of self while the heavenly one is God using man to fulfill His eternal purposes through event on earth.

So 'We, as True Women, playing out our individual roles in the story of our times, must keep our eyes on what is unseen, knowing what our God is doing in the background is higher, broader, and more eternal then anything we can see with our natural sight.'

As the story of Esther unfolds, we see her become Queen, to a selfish arrogant King. And not really a place that she wanted to be.

But, 'We need to view the turn of events through different lens. And see that this story is really about God and His agenda, God and His aims, God and His purposes.'

'Esther is not the star but simply a player in the heavenly drama being acted out on an earthly stage.'

I am placed here for God's kingdom purposes. And not my own. (How I want that thought stamped deep in my heart!!) Even though I may not like my present circumstances. God understands but He has a much bigger plan, a heavenly drama, much bigger then you or I could ever see or understand.

No matter where God has placed me or what God has given me to bear, I don't want to be asking, 'How will this circumstance affect me?' or 'How will it fulfill my wants and needs?' The right question to ask is, 'How does God want to use my position, my season in life, my place at this moment in time to fulfill His Kingdom purposes in the world?'

At times, life may seem so 'unfair'. There maybe moments when details seem 'trivial' & 'insignificant'. But God sees the eternal span when all we see is the here and now.I just need to remember to 'Wait on the Lord, be patient and He will act in His way and in His time!'

Then there are the crisis moments, such as Esther's, when her Uncle asked her to petition the King. God was willing to use Esther, if she was willing to be used. Mordicai asked 'Who knows whether you have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?'

Whether it was Esther then or you/me today, only God knows-and only time will tell-why He has sovereignly placed you where you are right now, at this moment in history. You have been given a role to play, and no one else can fill it.

God can use each one of us, no matter what our gifts and abilities are or where we are in this season of life.

Esther didn't act alone. She called every one to fast and pray with her. 'Praying and fasting were preparing her heart and preparing the way for her to move forward with God's intervening blessing on her behalf and on behalf of her people.'

We all know how Esther's story turns out, her life was spared, as were the lives of her people.

While we may not feel like we have such an important role in life, we need to remember 'We are each a tool in the hand of God, being applied to situations that may just feel like 'everyday life' to you but are actually backlit stages where the purposes of God  are being put on display from your street address. And He knows the audience He's playing to, whether it be members of your family, church friends, random acquaintances-whoever needs to see His power at work in a surrendered heart-like mine and yours.'

As we are in the Battles of Life, our weapons are different, we use heavenly weapons & tactics. God's play will not fail and through faith and obedience, we can be part of God's plan. There is no situation so desperate that God can not redeem it. We must not judge the outcome of the battle by the way things look right now.

'In every situation and circumstance of your life, God is always doing a thousand different things that you cannot see and you do not know.' -John Piper-

Oh, that I would be willing to be used by God, in whatever way He sees best, in whatever way He needs me to move, in whatever way I can best be used to further His Kingdom!!!

You've Come Along Way, Baby

This is the 3rd Chapter of the book, Voices of the True Woman Movement by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. You can read Chapter 1 here and Chapter 2 here.

'You've come along way, Baby' is by Mary A. Kassian. She does a very good job at giving a history lesson in this chapter. I love History, so found it very interesting. But not sure I'll cover much of that aspect of it.

It depicts the Woman's Movement of the late 60's and 70's. All of the promises and hopes that many are realizing are not bringing the satisfaction and fulfillment that is was said to bring.

50 years ago life was almost totally different. Here's a partial-abbreviated list of 'Real Life Observations from the 50's'.

• Getting married was the norm.
• Once married the couple would have children, the husband would work to support the wife so she could stay at home with the children.
• The divorce rate was low. Couples were expected to remain married and make their marriage work. Divorce was considered a tragedy.
• If divorce did occur & there were kids involved, the ex-husband was expected to support the wife in a homemaking role, because society considered it vitally important that the children have a mom at home.
• Chasity, virginity, and fidelity were virtues. And sex outside of marriage was shameful.
• Having a child out of wedlock was considered shameful. Now 1 child is born outside of wedlock every 25 seconds.
• Only 30% of women were employed outside of the home. And then it was only a part time job.
• Children were a highly desired, a highly valued, and a highly welcomed addition to both family and community.
• No birth control pill.
• Abortion was illegal.
• Men saw it as their responsibility to protect and provide for the women and children under their care.
• Woman saw it as their responsibility to support their husbands and focus on raising their children in a stable, nurturing, loving environment. Their professional careers took secondary status to their primary and more important career of raising and nurturing the next generation.

Our world has changed a lot since then, has it not?!?!?!? And it's all because women are seeking 'liberation'. They thought they were no longer finding fulfillment in God's Original Plan for Order.

'So in a few short decades the idea of a happy fulfilled woman has gone from one who values and serves her children, her husband and her community, to one who serves and exalts herself, sees men as dispensable, and considers children to be optional add-ons to her quest for fulfillment.'

And here she begins her 'history lesson'. How women were made to think they needed to become equal with men, they didn't want to be serving them anymore. They were made to feel their God-given role of wife and homemaker no longer was satisfying.

Women were made to think they needed to define their own existence.

Women were 'made to think that as a whole they needed enlightenment. They needed to discover how really oppressed they were'.

As women's 'eye's were opened', they began to rename the world. They 'needed to challenge and change that which men had constructed for their own benefits'. They 'needed to look at the world through the lenses of female experience and come up with new values and definitions'. Even school curricula was rewritten to reflect a feminist world view.

They even renamed God to a 'She'. They didn't like to think of the male role as being the dominate one.

'The underlying premise of feminism is that 'women need and can trust no other authority then our own personal truth.' Feminism teaches that women ought not to bow down and submit to any external power.'

It's is so sad that our world has come to just accept this as the norm, when the Bible states things so clearly in the opposite light.

1 Corinthians 11 states that, 'Man did not come from woman, but the woman from man; neither was man created for the woman but the woman for man'. How much clearer can it get?? The two sexes are different and were created for different roles.

However!! We will not find the true, deep satisfaction of the heart just by being a wife/homemaker. Our deepest longings and satisfactions will come only when we have yielded our lives completely and totally to Christ!! He is the only one who will be able to fill the void in our lives.

'A woman is a true woman when her heart says yes to God!!'

Today's women are searching for answers, they want to know how to make life work. We need a Biblical understanding of manhood, womanhood and gender relationships.

Blessed is the Woman

Photo Credit

~who has~

A Sparkle in her eyes

A Song on her lips

A Spring in her step

A Warmeth in her touch

A Depth to her Beauty

A Purpose to her life

A Joy in her faith

A Hope in her breast

And a Love in her heart!

Author Unknown

This poem has been hanging on the inside of my kitchen cupboard for a while now. It has blessed me many times over, so thought I'd share with you while my baby goes to sleep in my arms.

From Him, Through Him, To Him

This is 2nd in a series of posts on the book by Nancy Leigh De Moss. You can find the first post here, on the first chapter.

Wow, how can I even do this chapter justice without doing a long post?? That is one reason it has taken me so long to do the second chapter. It was long and deep, its so full of truths. I feel blessed, God has been working on different areas of my life, and reading this has just confirmed that for me. He is leading and guiding.

This chapter is written by Nancy Leigh De Moss and is based on Romans 11:33-36. It is the climax of the book of Romans, describing how Paul felt when, after writing the first 10 chapters he looked back and seen the whole Pan of Salvation, God's sovereignty, His Plan for the ages, he felt an awe, and wrote, "Oh, the depth...how unsearchable...how inscrutable...to Him be glory forever".

Do we want to feel the depth? Do we want to know 'the depth of God's riches and wisdom and knowledge'? When life takes a curve we are not prepared for, and feels like it's about to go to pieces, am I willing to just let go and let God lead? God's ways are unfathomable. We will never reach a pit so low that God is not already there. God has a 'bedrock of riches, wisdom and knowledge, His unseen yet sovereign, eternal purposes are underneath it all, holding it all together.'

God's riches are inexhaustible! We will never reach the bottom of His mine. He knows all and His wisdom is more then enough to walk us through each difficult situation. 

We will never understand what God's plan is, what work He is doing or where He is taking me. I just need to trust Him, even in all I don't know or understand. It is in His kindness that He withholds from us what would be grand or painful for us to absorb in our mortal minds.

'In every situation & circumstance of your life, God is always doing a thousand different things that you can not see & you do not know.' -John Piper

How many times have we went through something & then later were able to look back and see that, 'Oh, now that makes sense'.

God is everything that we need. From Him, through Him, to Him!! "This is why true womanhood results in a God centered life and perspective". "If we are not there, believing 'from Him, to Him, through Him', we are missing the whole point of existence.

Everything is from Him-He is the source.
Everything is through Him-He is the sustainer.
Everything is to Him-He is our supreme purpose.

So now how do we respond?

1) A true woman lives a God centered life.
I want to be enthralled with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Pearl the Great price, the Supreme Treasure of Life.

2). A true woman trusts God.

We as 'true woman have a hope-a real genuine hope-in the midst of a world filled with pain, loss and uncertainty.' 'The true woman of God doesn't have to strive', we can completely trust God.

Nothing is beyond God, no matter how crooked the stick, God can draw a straight line. -Martin Luther

3). A true woman says, 'Yes, Lord.'

Am I only worried about me?? The good things I want or need?? Or am I seeking to know, 'What will please You, Lord?'. 'What will further Your Kingdom? What will display Your glory?'

I want to just accept God's will and plan -to follow where He leads and one day be able to look back from the top of a mountain and see where and why God lead how He did. I want to get a taste of His unsearchable riches, wisdom and knowledge.

Wimpy Woman or a True Woman??

::This is the first in a series of posts on the book "Voices of the True Woman Movement" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. She had put a notice on her FB site that I could order her book, if I blogged about each chapter in the book. I have always appreciated Nancy's radio talks and her books, so I jumped on the chance for a 'free' book. I just have to post them before Sept, so I'll be posting a couple times a month.::

Have you noticed a changing trend in our culture? Have you ever thought of the change in women?? As in the past few generations. While most women would not think of it in the terms of 'Wimpy', that pretty much sums it up. We are believing lies and following the crowds of unbelievers. And going against God's ordained plan for Womanhood.

As John Piper wrote in his chapter 'The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood' 'Wimpy Theology does not give a woman a God that is big enough, strong enough, wise enough and good enough to handle the realities of life in a way that magnifies the infinite worth of Jesus Christ.'

So often the Woman of today's generation are not allowing God to work in their hearts, to be put in the place He desires to them to be, whether single or married, etc. etc. We are 'standing up for our own rights'. We want to be leaders and do a Man's job and live in a man kind of world. Many are no longer wanting to stay home and be the Keeper of the Home. They are missing the role God has called them to fulfill. And obviously, if you are not married, your role will be different, but you can still be in the place God calls you and be a 'True Woman'.

God has made two distinct roles- Manhood and Womanhood. Gen. 1:27 'God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them.' God wants to display His glory in us. Another quote from John Piper, 'The meaning for true womanhood is this: It's a distinctive calling of God to display the glory of His son in ways that would not be displayed if there were no womanhood.' We have a distinctive calling!!

So many woman today are trying to be men. They feel they are being put down and are 'lesser' then them. But that is just where God has placed us and how He planned it. We are called to be 'Keeper's at Home'. There are so many lies out there that Satan has us believing to be truth. The ladies at our Church have been studying the book 'Lies Woman Believe' by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. (I highly recommend the book.) I am amazed at just how many lies I have been believing. And that is just what Satan wants. He has fudged and smeared the truth that it's hard to tell the right from wrong. He has us on a slippery slope and we are not even aware of how really bad it is.

But how wonderful it is to know Jesus forgives and He gives us strength to be the True Women He has called us to be. I am so glad I have the power through Him to become the True Woman He wants me to be.