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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Voices of the True Woman Movement: Part Two

Welcome to Part Two of the Voices of the True Woman Movement book! I am going to depart a bit from my usual overview of key chapter points this week as just the theme for this section has significantly impacted me. Part Two is entitled, The Battle for True Womanhood.

A battle.

When is the last time you engaged in a battle? Now ladies, beating out ten other women to get a pair of shoes in a sample sale does not qualify. Nor does Mafia Wars or Medieval Battleplex or whatever the games are called these days on Facebook (I just block these applications anymore).

You may not remember a time that you passionately fought for something you truly believed in and you are not alone. I think the issue has to do partly with apathy. Many of us look at the battle and decide there is little we can do to change the situation and really, who wants to make waves? Instead, we will just quietly go along and let biblical standards be altered. This may be a reason behind the success of the feminist movement. Here was a group of women that were fervent in their desire to reshape womanhood. How hard have we fought against this movement? In the end, their passion was rewarded as womanhood today is a far cry from the biblical model God provided us.

Why did we allow this to happen? I think part of it has to do with shame. We are ashamed of the gospel.

You read that right; we are ashamed of the gospel. Now some of you might say, “Christina, I love the gospel! Jesus died for my sins and I live for him now!” I agree that you love Jesus, but secretly you are ashamed to be set apart from the world. The world says womanhood should look differently than God intended. The issue is not with the world, it is with us. We long to be more like the world than we do God because we live in the world and want to be accepted by it more. It causes us to modify our faith in that it is okay to love Jesus as long as we do not look like crazed fanatics.

That doesn't sound very biblical does it?

To love the gospel means we are to do battle with the world. Now I am not saying we are to go out and beat people down in the name of Christ. We are not fighting against people, we are fighting against sin. John Piper once referred to this in a sermon I heard at a New Attitude conference. He stated that “the fight for faith is a fight to the death.” In other words, we can never stop fighting, as long as we live on this side of heaven, we will face temptation to be like the world.

Several years ago, I was publicly ridiculed for my beliefs. I was talking privately with co-workers about my understanding of biblical womanhood and marriage. Even the self-declaring Christians in the group looked at me as if I had grown two extra heads. They quickly spread the account of our conversation to everyone in the work place. This resulted in men constantly approaching me and asking me really inappropriate questions. The women would stand off in the distance and laugh. Having integrity and being willing to stand for what you believe in is going to result in being ridiculed, put down and possibly persecuted. Battles are not meant to be easy. You will break a sweat; you will feel anguish and heartache.

Remember what Paul stated in the book of Romans:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16)

To the world, biblical womanhood is folly. We women must be crazy to subjugate ourselves before men! That is what the world sees. What I see is women subjugating themselves before a holy and awesome God. Just as men do. God has assigned us roles. Our Creator has said to us, “I created you and want to see you serve in this role as it glorifies Me.” Our role as women, glorifies God. The world’s version of womanhood glorifies ourselves. Who are we to worship ourselves?

Do not be ashamed that God has set you apart from the world, for He has made you to be a light in the darkness. Embrace this amazing gift!

My next post will be on Part Three: The Refining of True Womanhood.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome post Christina. Thanks so much for putting into words the truths so often looked over. It is a great encouragement!

Judy

Anonymous said...

Great post, Christina! Is this a school project or are you actually trying to write a book. If you aren't though, you could still publish this in a Christian Woman magazine!


Lori