I'm back from a week of vacation with Tim. It was wonderful. A whole week of vacation, just the two of us. The first time we've ever done that. It was sweet. Very, very restful and a good time of reconnection. Though I didn't come back with a tan I did come back with a smile.
But because there is laundry to do, a menu to plan, groceries to buy and a house to clean (again!) this may be brief. Right about now I'm thinking someone should start a business called, "Vacation Magician". I'd be tempted to pay someone almost anything for me to be able to come home to a full refrigerator, a hot meal and someone to hand over all the unpleasant duties of re-entry into the real world. But, alas, this is life in my real world, and when I finally put my "hand to the plow", it does feel good. This is where I belong. This is my calling and it is GOOD.
If I could jump ahead in this series from Titus 2, I'd have a lot of inspiring words for young women to love their husbands! A romantic get-a-way away will do that! But I am going to try to stay on course with a somewhat systematic approach to this. So today I'll just give you a glimpse of what's ahead.
Paul tells us there are teachers and there are learners. So we will be spending several weeks looking at the teachers: both their character qualities and the content of their teaching. Then we'll look at the learners, who they are and what is to be the attitude of a humble learner.
But before we do, today can I ask you all, no matter what your age or stage of life, to be open to reading and being shaped by Titus 2? You may not be married. You may be a divorcee. You may be childless. You may be a teenager. Believe it or not, there is something here for you. I can guarantee it because it is God's Word and God's word is relevant for us all. For example, if you are single and you read about loving your husband you will have a choice. You can choose to skip the reading because it doesn't seem to apply to you, or you can read it and learn what loving a husband looks like. You can do this because you can prepare yourself for the day you might have a husband, and you can learn what loving a husband means so that you can encourage your married sisters.
I hope to bring application to all women, but please hang in there with me if you do not find an immediate application. We are all teachers and learners, no matter what is our age and stage of life and spiritual growth. We all have women we can learn from and there will always be women, teens and young girls younger than us who we can teach. Even if we've made a lot of mistakes through sinful choices. God is all about redeeming our lives in spite of all our baggage. He wants to turn our ashes into fire that burns brightly for His Kingdom. We are all spiritual Cinderella's: broken, lonely, lost. In Christ we are restored, given a family, a kingdom and a purpose. We all have much we can teach and we all have more we can learn.
How has this been your experience?
I'd love to hear who your teachers have been and who is learning from you?
Gotta go. The "To Do List" is calling.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
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7 comments:
Looking forward to hearing, learning and teaching with you in the days to come, Gayline.
I confess that I am often tempted to skim over 'wife' and 'mother' passages.
I'm looking forward to learning more from this text (and others)...and how to apply the truths found here.
Interestingly enough, I was thinking of the 'spiritual teachers' I have had in my life...I think they have all been married with children! It makes me thankful that they reached beyond their stage of life to minister to a single.
Reminds me to do the same.
Robin, I can see faces and give names to specific women the Lord brought into my life at key moments of my development as a young believer, then as a wife, and then as a mother and even as a pastor's wife.
I think especially of one single college woman who "happened" to be attending my church while she was getting her teaching degree at a nearby college. It was during the few months between my year at college and marrying Tim. This friend, named Eleanor, was solidly reformed with a deep affection for Christ (you and Jenn remind me of her). She and I would get together and talk about the things of God and pray about things going on in our lives. The Lord used my brief friendship with Eleanor to give me a more solid footing in my understanding of God, His sovereignty over all things and His grace in salvation, truths which have shaped my world view for daily living.
I see you and Jenn being this for women in your life, even the young ladies in the church. It is a beautiful thing to behold.
But, alas, this is life in my real world, and when I finally put my "hand to the plow", it does feel good. This is where I belong. This is my calling and it is GOOD.
Amen...
But, alas, this is life in my real world, it does feel good."
Yea!!!
It has been the minutia of those details in my life that have always been welcomed with open arms at the beginning and end of a day, and most especially after times of crisis. I've learned to thank God for them.
Looking forward to what is to come! Before God, I pray for a radical willingness to be a humble learner.
As He teaches me how Titus 2 sets within the context, of the whole counsel of His Word in teaching me, to be the woman of God I am called to be,I am, therefore, as willing to be shaped by Titus 2 as I am open to hear and learn and continue to be shaped by His Word.
I'm a daughter, sister, friend of few, wife, mother and more precious than all that is I am His daughter.
In all that I am I want to honor Him with my life in and out of the home.
...I forgot to comment about those who I have learned from and who have learned from me...
I think I'd say I have learned something from just about every woman I have ever met. I've learned and applied some really great stuff to my life. Some in the form of character, some as growing in the domestic arts, some in learning to stand strong for the Savior, etc.
I've also absorbed some qualities along the way that I'v had to shed after a season because it was or becoame sin for me; because that particular quality that I attempted to emmulate simply did not fit into the structure of my home life as well as it may have someone else.
Thus I have learned along the way first and foremost draw near to Him and do my best to immitate Him and then through life shared with spirit-filled sisters and brothers, glean and grow in grace for the glory of God.
Thank you to all who have commented. I'd like to ask for prayer for the Lord to lead me in the truth of His Word, and to communicate it with clarity and grace. I desire nothing else but to let the whole counsel of God shape our thinking and our "doing". We are easily set off course when we follow other women without there being a biblical basis for their way of doing things. This is when it can become "sin for us".
John Calvin once said, "The human heart is a factory of idols". Human beings (yes, women) are quick to set our hearts on something and/or someone more than on God. I want nothing more than for this series to fix our hearts, and minds and will on the worship of God alone.
I am confident we will see that what Titus 2 says for women is consistent with what the rest of scripture says about what is to be the character of a Christian woman and what are to be her priorities. When we stay within the guidelines of scripture it really is quite simple (though at times because of remaining sin it is difficult to apply) and liberating.
"And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (I John 5:20,21)
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