The Day Between

Woman to Woman

My dream doctor’s office will have comfortable chairs, soft music, compelling reading material, calming and tasteful decorations, restful colored walls, and no television.  Wouldn’t that make waiting more pleasant?  What is the attraction of bigger screens and higher volume?  Why, oh why, does a culture that embraces feminism have programming filled with gossipy women of low intelligence?  Does this irony elude entertainment executives?

 I really don’t care to hear about which starlet is bedding what rapper while waiting to find out if my lab tests are abnormal.  Does it not occur to a physician’s office staff that loud, obnoxious television might make those subjected to it cranky?  If they must overbook couldn’t they at least give their victims access to the remote?

Waiting in doctors’ offices can be comparable to waiting on hold for tech support from Timbuktu and dealing with a mortgage company, yet it is only slightly better than associating with a government agency of any kind.  There seem to be quite a few things in this life that we must do that bear a remarkable resemblance to having a root canal. 

Ever since President Trump was elected it has been difficult figuring out what is going on in the world.  There is a dearth of news outlets that actually practice journalism or can be considered reliable in any way.  In fact, it seems necessary to cross the pond and look up the BBC to read anything that is not remotely hysterical.

 

Take the pro-woman, feminist resurrection panic going on at the moment.  The election of Donald Trump in some circles is tantamount to throwing the women’s movement back into the dark ages of raising children and making dinner – God forbid!

I do not understand how marching in female genitalia costumes and spewing obscenities promotes female causes or elevates the ‘gentler’ sex.  My moral compass does not reside within my reproductive organs.  I do not feel represented by vulgar, angry women exulting in their “right” to murder the unborn.  Call me old fashioned.

What is true?  What does it mean to be a woman, or a man for that matter?

First of all, if we go back to Genesis 1:27 we read this:

God created man in His own image, in the image God He created him; male and female He created them.

We are created in the image of God – different from animals and other living things, created to be like God – and with a gender.  Male is not better than female, nor female better than male.  Both were created in the image of God.  We have been purposely designed to complement each other, not compete and destroy each other.

As Matthew Henry wrote, God forbid that by indulging the body, and the desires of it, we should make ourselves like the beasts that perish!  Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made.  Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth, must be put together in him.  God said, Let us make man.  Man, when he was made, was to glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Into that great name we are baptized, for to that great name we owe our being.  It is the soul of man that especially bears God's image.

What we are and what we are not is not determined by our feelings, our lusts, our sinful bents, or our foolish wishes – we are more than that.  We were meant to be more than that.  The histrionics demonstrated by so many in our day demonstrates an ignorance of not only what we are meant to be, but a frank rebellion toward the One who made us.

…God made man upright, but they sought out many devices (Ecclesiastes 7:29).

A fine mess we’ve made of things it seems.

Secondly, God loves women.  He didn’t call women to bondage or second rate citizenship.  The fact that there have been and are abuses to women does not justify hatred of men.  Jesus routinely elevated women and destroyed cultural norms.  Perversion against women and children is proof of original sin and the depravity of man.  Women are just as guilty of committing vile acts as men.  Selfish sinfulness is an equal opportunity employer.

 

Below is an article by Sue Bohlin, a Bible teacher and frequent speaker for MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers).  It summarizes nicely why Christianity is the best thing that ever happened to women.

https://bible.org/article/christianity-best-thing-ever-happened-women

I love this quote she uses from Dorothy Sayers:

Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross.  They had never known a man like this Man – there had never been such another.  A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, who never flattered or coaxed or patronized; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as ‘The women, God help us!’ or ‘The ladies, God bless them!’; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously, who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no ax to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unselfconscious.

It grieves me that so many women in general, and young women in particular embrace the feminist rhetoric.  If we call ourselves Christian, our attitudes and behaviors should be shaped by Scripture not the sound-bites of the misguided and the culturally acceptable.

Paul gives us sound instruction in Galatians 5:13-6:25:

For you were called to freedom brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

            But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

            Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

            But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

            If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

            Is it not time for the people of God, men and women, made in His image, to live according to the Word of God?  If we want to make a difference in the culture, we need to stop compromising with it.