As hard as I try to not like it and resist what is popular, I can’t help but like Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story.” It’s just too catchy! I do have one beef with the lyrics of this song, however. It works nicely with the song, but the lines about “I’ve been feelin’ so alone” and “You never have to alone” send the wrong message to women.

Loneliness is one of my biggest fears. It’s what fuels my self-diagnosed hypochondria and my fear of flying. The idea of being alone when something bad happens terrifies me. I think this fear is shared by many people, especially among women. It is what often fuels our desire for relationships, especially those of the romantic variety. Fear of loneliness also fuels many a marriage proposal. It’s natural. We want a family. We want someone to care whether we come or go. We want someone to come home to, fall asleep with and wake up to. There is nothing wrong with those desires, but where these desires go wrong is when we expect those relationships to annhilate any loneliness. Just because you are married or in a relationship doesn’t mean loneliness will not come. No other person can truly understand you, your life, your problems all the time. No person can be there for you all the time. This puts too much pressure on the significant other and the relationship.

While no person can always be there for us, God can. God can fill that loneliness that haunts all of us. This puts no pressure on Him because He can handle it. He is God after all. He is the only one who is always there, always understands, and fulfills our every need. Instead of turning to the person next to you, we (I included, I really suck at this) need to turn to and lean on God to fill our voids because He’s the only one who can fill it completely and not leave us wanting more.

*and i’m not talking about barack obama

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it….The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

–John 1:1-3, 9, 14

“Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth “

–Silent Night, 3rd Verse

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger…So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

–Luke 2:8-12, 16-18

“Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
‘Glory to the newborn King’”

–Hark the Herald Angels Sing, 3rd Verse

“I will celebrate the day that you were born to die that I might one day pray for you to save my life.”

–I Will Celebrate the Day by Relient K

And to quote Santa Claus: “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

I want to back track in the book of Esther.  Last week, I wrote about Esther herself and how she was able to be used by God despite her insecurities.  But there’s another important woman in this story, the woman who started the story of Esther, Queen Vashti.

Queen Vashti doesn’t last very long in the book of Esther, but she paves the way for Esther’s triumph.  In studies of Esther, Vashti’s actions are ignored, seen as disrespectful, or praiseworthy.  If Esther is a young girl struggling with insecurity, Vashti is a strong woman who respects herself.  This isn’t to say that Vashti is better than Esther.  God is able to use Esther to save her people from genocide even though she struggles with insecurities and fear.  Vashti is just a different kind of woman, maybe the kind of woman Esther could become as she grows up.

Vashti’s story starts at the very beginning of Esther when her husband King Xerxes throws a feast for all his officials and servants.  Xerxes shows of all his riches for 180 days (that’s a lot of riches) to all the governors and nobles of Persia.  At the end of that ridiculous tour, Xerxes throws a feast that last seven days and seven nights.  While he entertains the men of his empire, his wife Vashti entertains the women.   After seven days of heavy eating, drinking and partying, Xerxes decides to finish off the party by showing off his wife to all the men.  While this could be seen as a very flattering compliment to Vashti’s beauty, it also could be seen as Xerxes objectifying her.  We only have to look at the tour Xerxes gave prior to the feast to see he is all about showing off his riches and prized possessions, the greatest of which is his beautiful wife Vashti’s.  He wants to show her off just like all the other riches he paraded before the nobles of Persia.  Vashti knew this, was not flattered, and reacted the way any woman with any respect for herself would…she refused to appear before her husband and his guests.

In an empire where appearing before the king without being summoned specifically could be punished with death, Vashti’s act was a radical statement of her self-respect.  She refused to let herself be objectified by her husband and his cronies.  Unfortunately, living in the time that she did, her bold act was not praised but punished.  In an effort to keep her disobedience from influencing all the wives of Persia, Xerxes was convinced by his advisors to punish Vashti.  He stripped her of her title and sought out a new queen, who eventually became the irreplaceable Esther.

I want to stress that even though Vashti was punished for standing up for herself, she showed courage in doing the right thing.  I don’t believe it was God’s will that Vashti would have submitted to her husband in this case.  God doesn’t want women to not respect themselves.  God doesn’t want women to be objectified, and in Vashti’s case, Xerxes was attempting to objectify her.  She was a tropy wife, and God doesn’t appreciate trophy wives.  While we may not reap earthly rewards for following in Vashti’s footsteps, I believe that everytime we stand up for ourselves when no one else will, we take another step in gaining the respect of others not only for ourselves as individuals but all women.

Much love–Char

Esther is one of my favorite women of the Bible, not because she saved her people from genocide but more because she was scared and insecure.  She’s like the girl Moses.  Throughout her story it’s evident she doesn’t trust herself.  She is faithfully obedient to whoever is in charge, first Mordecai, her cousin, and then the eunuch in the palace who is in charge of the women competing for the king’s heart.  When it does come time for her to step up, Esther pulls a Moses and shrinks in fear and self-doubt.  She is afraid of death and doubts her relationship with the king.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I deal with insecurity all the time.  It has definitely gotten easier as I’ve grown older and in Christ, but it is still a struggle, and I’m not sure if it will ever completely go away.  I think that is what makes Esther so great.  She is a real woman who made a difference for God.  She had insecurity and fear just like the rest of us, but God still was able to use her to save a nation because she was willing to put her trust in Him.

I encourage you to read the book of Esther, multiple times.  I’m going to be writing more about her, because there is more to her story.  She makes me feel more comfortable in my own skin and reassures me that God is in control, not my fear.

much love–char

At the end of my last post, I mentioned Deborah, so in an effort to hopefully, better understand this topic, I decided to look into Deborah’s role as a female leader of Israel.  All I seem to come up with though is more questions.

In the Old Testament, before Israel was ruled by kings, God appointed judges to watch over His chosen people.  Judges 2:16-18 explains how God appointed a judge to deliver His people from bondage and lead them.  The Bible also says that the Lord was with the judge, and during a judge’s lifetime, the people were safe from their enemies.

In Judges 4, we meet the only female leader of Israel, the judge Deborah.  We know from the Bible that she was married, a mom, and a prophetess, delivering the word of God to His people.  She’s got it all, a career and a family.  It seems that the Israelites’ willingness to come to her as a judge shows that they did respect her authority even though she was a woman.  But then the questions start.  Deborah summons Barak (a general of Israel’s army) and tells him that the Lord wants him to lead an army to defeat Jabin’s army and free the Israelites from Jabin’s oppression.  Barak says he will only obey this command if Deborah comes along, and Deborah agrees but says that the victory will now be given to a woman and not Barak.

What is Barak’s doubt?  Does he not trust God, or does he not trust Deborah’s delivery of God’s instruction because she’s a woman?  Or is it a little of both?  Is he using her presence as insurance against her lying and sending him to his death?  I feel like I’m reading a lot into it, but I have to at least ask and consider the question.  Our attitudes today towards female candidates for president and female pastor’s and deacons proves that women leaders tend to make many people, especially men, uncomfortable.  Why should a general of Israel’s army be any different?

But is Deborah’s role in Israel’s history any indication of God’s attitude towards female pastors? All I can clearly gather from Deborah’s story is that God is fine with women delivering His words to the people.  He also seems fine with a woman leading people politically, and while passages about deacons and elders in the church specifically reserve those roles for men, I have yet to find a passage outlining the qualifications one must have for a pastoral position.  If you know where one is, please leave a comment.  But if one does not exists, then do the qualifications for deacon and elder extend to pastor, or is that a line we’ve drawn on our own?  Was Deborah just a special case, called specifically by God and therefore only women specifically called should serve as pastors?  But how do church bureaucracies regulate people’s callings?  Should they?  That seems kind of bold and controlling of a man-made establishment.

I do think God blesses female political leaders and ministry leaders, and as we see with Deborah, He definitely speaks truth through them.  I don’t think a ministry, whether in a small church or a big organization, should die because a man can’t be found to be in charge of the women.  I don’t think women should be limited to only serving in ministries serving children.  But as far as women leading a whole church, I’m still unsure.

much love–char

I think the Crucifixion and Resurrection and the role women play in it is fascinating.  Its why I started writing about women in the Gospel to begin with.  I wanted to get to this point in the story but wanted to see how women played out in Christ’s life before looking at how they related in his death.

Throughout the Crucifixion all four of the Gospels record that the women who have been with Christ throughout his ministry stay by his side even in death.  In fact, John is the only Gospel that records any disciple being present at the Crucifixion.  We can’t blame the disciples too much, however, because they were at a greater risk to be arrested because they were men who were close to Christ.  Women who were close to Christ were less of a threat because of their perceived lower status in society.

What I love, love, love about Christ is that even in death he looks down and has compassion on those he loves.  John tells of how Christ looked down from the cross and saw his mother mourning and had compassion on her.  He charged John with taking care of his mother since he would no longer be on earth to care for her himself.  In Luke 23:26-31, Jesus is being led to his death and followed by women mourning his death.  Knowing what is coming for them and not focusing on his current situation, Christ tells them not to mourn for him and warns them of coming tragedy.  I love how in the moment Christ has every right to think of and pity himself, he doesn’t.  He doesn’t focus on his present earthly struggle, but still takes care of those around him.

Even after the his death, the women follow his body to see where it is laid to rest.  After the Sabbath, several women (the Gospels differ on how many and who exactly went) go to the tomb to anoint the body with spices, but found the stone rolled away from the tomb and angels proclaiming Jesus had risen.  The angels told the women to spread the good news to the disciples, appointing the women with the Gospel message.  Women were the first entrusted to share that Christ had risen from the dead!  What I find even more interesting is that Mark and Luke both record that Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalene!  I have no idea why Christ chose to make his first post-resurrection appearance to a woman.  I like to believe that he did this to make a statement that women are just as important to him as men.  While seems to treat women with more gentleness throughout his time on earth, he treats them with the same respect as men and gives them the same opportunity.  This sends a message to the world that if women are worthy enough to be the first entrusted with the Gospel and the first to see the resurrected Christ, they are worthy of respect from men.

Much love–Char

The story in Matthew 26:1-8 is fairly well known to those familiar to Christ’s life.  Jesus is nearing the end of his life, and he is dining at Simon the leper’s house when a woman pours expensive ointment from an alabaster jar on Christ’s head.  The English Standard Version (my Bible translation of choice) says the disciples were idignant towards her action.  They thought she had wasted the perfume, that it would have been better to sell the ointment and given the money to the poor.  This is a noble use for the ointment.  Christ preached often on helping the poor, but the disciples have got their priorities mixed up again, focusing too much on the here and now and not enough on the eternal.  Jesus scolds them, showing them how the woman’s use for the ointment was a much higher calling than theirs.  Unlike the disciples, the men closest to Christ, this woman (John 12 identifies the woman as Mary, the sister of Lazurus) had her priorities straight.  Yes, the poor are important, and we should take care of them, but God was among them and not for much longer.  Mary was able to see this when the disciples couldn’t.  Mary was able to appreciate the beauty and worth of the ointment and willing to give it to God, and Christ rewarded her for it by ensuring that her love and awe of him would be forever remembered in the Gospel.

Much love–Char

I was flipping through Matthew, narrow-mindedly looking only for passages of scripture where Jesus encounters women, when I found this bit on divorce, which I think further emphasized Jesus’ view that women should be treated as people and not possessions.

In Matthew 19:1-9, Pharisees come to Jesus to try to trick him, their favorite past time in the Gospels.  They ask him about divorce.  “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason” is the question according to the NIV.  I thought it was interesting that they only say a man divorces a woman.  Today, women and men divorce each other.  They have equal rights under the law.  In Deuteronomy 24, the Jewish law outlines the grounds for divorce and never mentions that a woman has the power to divorce her husband so I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that a woman’s right to divorce was little to none in the culture of Jesus’ day.  A woman’s only worth in this time was her father’s social standing if she was still single, her husband’s social standing if she was married, and her own purity before and after marriage.  If a woman was divorced or widowed she had nothing–no possessions, honor, or rights.

The Pharisees asked if a man could divorce a woman for any and every reason.  To me, this implies that men could in that day kick their wife to the curb with nothing whenever they were bored or displeased with her.  She wasn’t a person, just another thing a man owned.  Jesus comes back at the Pharisees’ question with the answer that only on the grounds of adultery can a man divorce his wife.  This is Jesus’ way of protecting women of his day from a world and culture very unfeeling towards women.  It reminds me of the Old Testament laws regarding rape.

In the times of the Old Testament and surrouding cultures, if a woman was raped she was no longer worth anything to a potential suitor, and she had disgraced her father’s house.  If she wasn’t killed for the horrible crime inflicted upon her, she lived a life of shame and poverty.  However, according to the laws of Moses, if a woman was raped who was not engaged to be married, the rapist must marry her and provide for her a home and never divorce her.  While this might not be the best situation according to today’s standards, this fate was much better than those experienced by women outside the Jewish culture of that time.  With this law, God was offering women protection just as Jesus does in the New Testament with his answer regarding divorce.

Much love–Char

about the Canaanite woman Jesus meets in Matthew 15.  Basically as far as Scripture as told us in the Gospel of Matthew, this woman is the first foreign woman Jesus has come across.  She begs him to help her daughter and even though she’s not a Jew she recognizes who she is talking to.  She knows he is God and addresses him so even though he’s not one of his peeps.  At first he won’t help her, but she is persistant, just like Jesus urges us to do with our prayers to God in the parable of the widow and judge (not sure where that is, don’t have time to look it up).  Jesus comes back at the woman requests to heal her daughter with a comment about not giving the children’s food to the dog, but what’s interesting is that I have heard he’s not referring to her as a stray mutt on the street.  Apparently he uses the term for family pet dog and she has a wicked smart response for him.  She tells him that even the dog gets crumbs from the table, and for her faith, he heals her daughter.  He is amazed at her persistence and incredible faith in his power.  YAY FOR JESUS LOVING NON-JEWISH WOMEN!

Sorry for the speedy post, but my computer died, and the library is closing, and I wanted to post something because I want to remain consistent with the posting.  I’ll try to clean this up later.

Much love–Char

Soon after the Sermon of the Mount in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus heals two women in one story.  I want to focus on one of those women, the woman who suffered from bleeding for 12 years (Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56).

This woman suffered from a terrible predicament.  For 12 years, she had bled for no apparent reason.   According to Leviticus 15, this disease prevented her from any human contact.  She was deemed unclean for 12 years–no one could sit where she had sat; no one could lay where she had laid; no one could even touch her.  Any physical contact with her or anything she touched would make that person unclean as well.  She might as well have been a leper.  Imagine the loneliness she must have felt.  And if the loneliness of an existence without human contact wasn’t enough, she might have suffered the whispers and gossip from people who thought that she suffered because of her sin.  In Biblical times, often people’s sufferings were directly related to or believed to be directly related to their sins or their parents’ sins.

In the story according to Mark, the woman spent all the money she had going from doctor to doctor trying to find a cure.  This woman had nothing left.  She had lost all her money, friends, and respect to her condition.  She had nothing to lose the day she went into the crowd in search of a man named Jesus, a man she knew could heal her.  She was desperate.  He was on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus who was on the verge of death.  She reached out, thinking that if she just touched his clothing she would be healed.  The instant she managed to grab a hold of his garment, the woman felt the disease leave her, but Jesus felt it too.  He turned asking those pressing around him the crowd, “Who touched me?”  They thought he was crazy.  Everyone was touching him, after all he was in the middle of a crowd.  But Jesus insisted, and the woman fell at his feet, trembling as she explained what had happened.  And what was his response?  He doesn’t scold her for distracting him from his mission.  He doesn’t mention the fact that she has made him unclean.  He looks at her and says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”  He doesn’t even use his trademark “Go and sin no more!” He had every right according to Jewish laws and customs to be enraged at her for her bold move, not only as an untouchable but as a woman, but he wasn’t.  He ignored all that because he saw a person, hurting and alone, and he had compassion on her and healed her body and soul.

I think the most beautiful part of this story is that he called her “daughter.”  Jesus was on his way to heal Jairus’ daughter and paused to save his own daughter.  That is how Christ sees and treats all people–the hurting, the lost, the lonely, the weary, the humble, and those who are sitting pretty right now.  He sees them as his children, and he cares for them as a loving parent should care for their children as is illustrated in this story.

Much love–Char