marriage! one more time!

Aug 12, 2008 23:31

Okay, chicks and chickadees, cats and kittens. This is the last set of sermon notes on God’s design for families and marriage, and it is about mothers ( Read more... )

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lazy_sunshine August 15 2008, 04:54:23 UTC
I don't know if you've read all the notes on this, but I'm pretty sure when I talked about the love languages before, I specified that it goes both ways: if the husband doesn't learn his wife's love language, she'll look for what she's missing elsewhere, too. It's a team thing. Both people have to put forth the effort, otherwise it's evident that SOMEONE doesn't care, and the marriage will fail based on that. Both people need to be in on it.

Also, I disagree on all this sexism business. Yes, it was a totally different time for women back then, but at the same time, a lot of the reason people took issue with Christianity (and still take issue with it in certain cultures) is because women aren't treated like shit. A lot of women in the Bible are praised; while there are a lot of women who are looked on with favor for being perfect models of femininity, there are other women who are praised for their balls (haha, I threw in man parts!). In addition, there are some awesome love stories.

But let's go back to those tough-ass women! One of my favorite examples of this is found in Judges, during a time when there was a war against Israel. Put simply: Sisera is the bad guy here. Barak is the good guy. Jael is this woman who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Judges 4:17-24:

Now Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite. Jael came out to meet Sisera, and said to him, 'Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.' So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. Then he said to her, 'Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.' So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. He said to her, 'Stand at the entrance of the tent, and if anybody comes and asks you, "Is anyone here?" say, "No."' But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, until it went down into the ground he was lying fast asleep from weariness and he died. Then, as Barak came in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to meet him, and said to him, 'Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.' So he went into her tent; and there was Sisera lying dead, with the tent peg in his temple. So on that day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites. Then the hand of the Israelites bore harder and harder on King Jabin of Canaan, until they destroyed King Jabin of Canaan.

Main idea: Jael drives a tent peg through the bad guy's head! Don't you just love it? What kind of guts would it have taken to do that? She could have just as easily waited until Barak came in and let him take care of it.

So that's the awesome Bible lesson of the day. There's a book called Captivating that talks about women in Christianity, and it's actually a very empowering book.

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