It's been awhile...
So how is everyone, anyway? I haven't updated because I didn't feel like talking about the Global Women retreat this past weekend. (Actually, I still don't.) It was horrible, but with a few good moments in it. Overall, though, I felt spiritually attacked. Yeah, in Biblical Women I face feminism all the time, but it was different there. It was their way of thinking or the highway, I felt like. An attack on conservative Christians. So I didn't dare tell them that I don't think it is right for women to be pastors or that God is both male and female (He is male! And yet women are still created in His image, along with man. It's extra because we are a gift to man, the completer of man, his "life-saver", as John Eldredge put it.) or that it was wrong to date a non-Christian (and stupid if you are seriously considering missions; what confusion to those who look upon your life!). I kept silent, and that hurt. I was face-to-face with persecution...and I gave in.
I left Saturday night. I couldn't take it anymore. I have talked to my pastor, which really helped a lot and got some great resources on the role of women, including a 600-page book rewritten by John Piper himself. And today I'm taking time for Jesus, because this whole thing has really affected my week, in a very negative way. (A friend of mine said a comment when I told her a little about the conference that hurt my feelings, made me feel pretty stupid.) So, it'll be one week tomorrow since then.
I'm trying today. I watched "The Passion" and dug into Scripture. I must fight sleep. I know it is Satan using this tactic to get me to not follow after Jesus. Sleep is not what I need right now. I need Jesus. In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus. (The most beautiful hymn in the world. Find the lyrics. "In the morning when I rise...give me Jesus.")
Amen.