The value of a woman 3: kingdom coworker

What is the value of a woman? Priceless, according to the Bible. First, every woman is a person in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Second, women are necessary for the growth and survival of the human race (Genesis 1:28; 2:18-24). Third, women are essential to the expansion of God's kingdom.

When God said, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28 ESV), he was talking to Eve too. Eve was Adam's coworker in filling and subduing the earth. When Moses' audience heard this command, they would have thought of their own mothers, wives, or daughters, who helped with the planting and harvesting and herding and milking. These were not surburban housewives but farm women!

I grew up on a farm and many of my relatives were farmers. I can tell you that even before the fall changed work into toil and the fertile ground sprouted weeds and thorns, there would have been a lot to do in the garden! Adam would have needed Eve working at his side, caring for the cultivated plants and domesticated animals. God put the world under Eve's feet too (Psalm 8). Carol Meyers (Discovering Eve) notes that in Genesis 2 Adam and Eve are set like bookends around the world they are to rule together: the garden, the rivers, the minerals, the animals.

Genesis 1 and 2 show us that God didn't intend for Adam and Eve to stay forever in the garden. There was a whole world outside to fill and subdue. Adam would have needed Eve's help to go beyond the garden into that beautiful but undeveloped world outside, where the four rivers flowed and the ground held gold and jewels waiting to be used (Genesis 2:10-14).

God made women to be out and about in his world, filling it with people who know and worship him and subduing it under God's rule, until the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). Because this world is God's kingdom, every good thing we do is kingdom work, whether we work in our own homes as wives and mothers, or work outside the home for income, or volunteer in our churches and communities.

What has God put under your feet? What is your sphere of influence? Whatever it is, remember that you are a kingdom coworker. Do your everyday work with all your heart; it is the Lord Christ and his kingdom you serve (Colossians 3:23-24).

The value of a woman 2: the war against girls

Since the 1970s, 163 million girls have gone missing! They haven't been kidnapped, but killed--by their own parents, before they had a chance to be born! Couples want to have boys, so they simply abort the girls. It's happening all over the world, but especially in India and China. Now the ratio between boys and girls is out of whack, and there aren't enough women for the men to marry.

Some cultures see girls as a liability. One ad in India reads, "Better 500 rupees now than 5,000 later." In other words, it's cheaper to abort a girl than to pay for her wedding! As the mother of two married daughters, I can say this may be true in terms of dollar amounts, but in no way is what they are advertising here "better"! Not only is every daughter a precious gift from God (Psalm 127:3-5), skillfully and wonderfully woven together in her mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-16), made in the image of God himself, and thus worth more than an infinite number of rupees. But also girls are necessary to the human race.

We see this when God creates Eve. When God had made the heavens and the earth, the sky and the seas, the sun, moon, and stars, the plants and sea creatures, and a man in his own image--and all "good" (Genesis 1)--he looked at his handiwork and said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:18). Then, the Bible tells us, he formed the wild animals and cattle and birds and brought them to the man. But among all these creatures "there was not found a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:19).

I can imagine God laughing a little bit at this point, as Adam scratches his head. These animals can help Adam pull a plow or a cart, they could even be companions, as all pet owners know; but they were not "fit for him." Adam needed someone like himself, made like him in the image of God and yet of the opposite sex. And so God put the man under anesthesia, took one of his ribs, and built a woman.

Eve was the last of God's creation works, and as Susan Foh writes, she was not a luxury but a necessity! She alone, out of everything God made in those six days, shared Adam's nature as image of God. She had intelligence, language skills, the ability to judge and discern, dexterity, the capacity to know God, etc. to be truly "fit for" Adam. And she was exactly what Adam needed if there were ever going to be more people on earth. That is how God made man as male and female; there is no other way to procreate the human race.

This is what countries like India and China are discovering. May God cause all nations to rediscover how "very good" it is to have girls!

Do you like your body?

Psychologist Mary Pipher has been asking young women this question for years. "When I speak to classes, I ask any woman in the audience who feels good about her body to come up afterward.... I have yet to have a woman come up" (Reviving Ophelia). The dissatisfaction, she says, comes from the culture we live in. We see the billboards and magazine ads and movie images, and feel that we don't measure up. But it goes back a lot further than the existence of modern media. It goes back to Eve.

Eve was created, body and soul, in the image of God. As John Calvin said, sparks of God's glory shine in our bodies (Institutes). Now "God is a spirit and doesn't have a body like men" (Catechism for Young Children). He doesn't need actual eyes to see or a mouth to speak, or arms and fingers to do his work, or legs to get about, but we need our bodies. We do need physical eyes to see and a mouth, lips, and tongue to speak and bones, muscles, and tendons, arms and legs, fingers and toes. We need every part of the body God has given us "to exercise the faculties of the soul," as Louis Berkhof put it. Our bodies are necessary to the image of God in us and part of the "very good" creation God made (Genesis 1:31).

So why is that we don't like our bodies very much? Well, the short answer is sin. When Eve took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate it, she no longer felt comfortable with her own body. She wanted to cover it up, so she and Adam sewed fig leaves together and hid from God (Genesis 3:7-8). But Eve didn't just have a psychological problem now. On that day something also went wrong with her body. She began to die. From their sin in the garden has come all the subsequent pain and disease and problems of aging and death we face (Genesis 3:16-19). But happily for them and for us, God didn't leave them there. He came down and sought them and clothed them and redeemed them (Genesis 3:7-8, 15, 21).

He does the same for us. The Puritans called it "the glorious exchange." Our Savior Jesus Christ took our sins and gave us his righteousness. He took our death and gave us life. The redemption Jesus provides includes even our bodies! The Christian's goal is not to get rid of the body. On the last day, Jesus will transform these bodies to be like his glorious body (1 Corinthians 15:42-49). This is good news indeed!

In the meantime, we live in imperfect bodies, and "in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling" (2 Corinthians 5:2). We see our imperfections; we see our bodies changing and aging and "wasting away" (2 Corinthians 4:16). But that's not the whole story. The "inner man is being renewed day by day." So, as Paul says, "do not lose heart" (verse 16). Like your body! Thank God for this amazing and good gift! Just don't make it the most important part of you.

Women's rights and the Taliban

Women in Afghanistan are worried, and for good reason. The price of peace in their country may be losing their rights to go to school, hold public office, go outside without wearing a head-to-toe burka, or for that matter, even go outside!

Women's rights, like the rights of all human beings, come from God, by creation in his image. Dominion and authority are part of the image of God. And so when God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion ..." (Genesis 1:27), he included all women. When he said, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion ..." (Genesis 1:28), God was talking to both Adam and Eve. That isn't apparent in our English translations, but the verbs in Genesis 1:28 are plural. It's as if God said, "Both of you, be fruitful and ... have dominion ..."

Eve's authority to rule over the animals and the earth comes from God, not from man. Yes, Eve is a helper (Genesis 2:18), but she is a helper with authority! Women have a God-given right to participate in the filling and subduing and ruling of the world God made.

Finding Your Purpose: women's spring retreat audio files

At the end of April I spoke at our Presbytery women's spring retreat on finding our purpose.

In the first session we saw that God has revealed our purpose in the Scriptures.

In the second and third sessions we fit the lenses of Scripture to our eyes, seeing that God has called and equipped us to be kingdom-building helpers through our everyday work.

In the fourth session, we looked at our biblical role model, the woman of Proverbs 31 and how we can use our gifts and graces in our homes, churches, and communities.

To listen to the audio files, click on the links in this post.

Finding Your Place in God's World: spring retreat session 4

At the end of April I spoke at our Presbytery women's spring retreat on finding our purpose. In the first session we saw that God has revealed our purpose in the Scriptures. In the second and third sessions we fit the lenses of Scripture to our eyes, seeing that God has called and equipped us to be kingdom-building helpers through our everyday work.

In the fourth session, we looked at our biblical role model, the woman of Proverbs 31. We found that she is not some superwoman meant to make us feel guilty, but a literary device meant to show us how to apply the virtues of Proverbs. Proverbs 31 is not a snapshot of "a day in the life" of any particular woman but a timeline, a lifetime perspective on how we might use our gifts and graces in our homes, churches, and communities. Each of us has gifts and graces for the kingdom, and we find them "where our passions meet the world's needs" (Sally Helgesen, Everyday Revolutionaries).

To listen to the audio, follow the link below.

http://www.windgap.com/PresWIC/2011/4-FindingYourPlaceInGodsWorld.mp3

Listening to the sessions:You can download each of these files to your computer, and store them on your hard drive, or copy them to an MP3 player so that you can listen to them on your car stereo. If you're a Windows user, right-click on the file link, and save the file locally.These are big files--so downloading may take a few minutes. If you'd rather, you can "stream" the files by listening to them with Windows Media Player, WinAmp, or another audio player. Each audio player allows you to load a URL (in Windows Media Player, for example, choose "Open URL..." from the "File" menu; in WinAmp, open the Playlist Editor, and choose "Add URL" from the File menu). Just copy the URL from your web browser, open your audio application, and paste the entire URL into the appropriate dialog.

If you would like a copy of the session notes, email me at mrmurdoch@windgap.com.

Seeing Yourself in the Big Picture: spring retreat session 3

At the end of April I spoke at our Presbytery women's spring retreat on finding our purpose. In the first session we saw that God has revealed our purpose in the Scriptures. In the second session we put on our first lens, that God has called us to glorify him in the world he has made by building his kingdom.

In the third session, we put on our second lens by looking at what it means to be in the image of God and kingdom helpers equipped for the building of his kingdom. We saw how sin marred the image of God in us and how Christ restores it so that we can reflect his glory to the world around us.

To listen to the audio, follow the link below.

http://www.windgap.com/PresWIC/2011/3-SeeingYourselfInTheBigPicture.mp3

Listening to the sessions:You can download each of these files to your computer, and store them on your hard drive, or copy them to an MP3 player so that you can listen to them on your car stereo. If you're a Windows user, right-click on the file link, and save the file locally.These are big files--so downloading may take a few minutes. If you'd rather, you can "stream" the files by listening to them with Windows Media Player, WinAmp, or another audio player. Each audio player allows you to load a URL (in Windows Media Player, for example, choose "Open URL..." from the "File" menu; in WinAmp, open the Playlist Editor, and choose "Add URL" from the File menu). Just copy the URL from your web browser, open your audio application, and paste the entire URL into the appropriate dialog.

If you would like a copy of the session notes, email me at mrmurdoch@windgap.com.

Seeing Your Purpose through New Eyes: spring retreat session 2

At the end of April I spoke at our Presbytery women's spring retreat on finding our purpose. In the first session, we learned that we need corrective lenses to see the purpose God has given us in the right way. So, in the second session, we began putting on Scripture's corrective lenses.

Our first lens is seeing that God has called us to glorify him (or make him visible) in the world he has made by building his kingdom. God made this world to be a kingdom for Christ, and so God's command to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over it (Genesis 1:28) is a kingdom-building mandate. Because Christ has redeemed us, every good kind of work--whatever we do to help our neighbors, do good to our families, or bring children up to know God--is kingdom work. Christ's kindgom is growing and transforming this world like yeast working through dough, and God has given us the privilege of being part of that transforming work.

To listen to the audio of session 2, follow the link below:

http://www.windgap.com/PresWIC/2011/2-SeeingYourPurposeThroughNewEyes.mp3

Listening to the sessions: You can download each of these files to your computer, and store them on your hard drive, or copy them to an MP3 player so that you can listen to them on your car stereo. If you're a Windows user, right-click on the file link, and save the file locally.These are big files--so downloading may take a few minutes. If you'd rather, you can "stream" the files by listening to them with Windows Media Player, WinAmp, or another audio player. Each audio player allows you to load a URL (in Windows Media Player, for example, choose "Open URL..." from the "File" menu; in WinAmp, open the Playlist Editor, and choose "Add URL" from the File menu). Just copy the URL from your web browser, open your audio application, and paste the entire URL into the appropriate dialog.

If you would like a copy of the session notes, email me at mrmurdoch@windgap.com.

Looking for Your Purpose: spring retreat session 1

At the end of April, I spoke at our Presbytery women's spring retreat on finding our purpose. In the first session, we saw that God has a purpose for us and he has revealed it in the Scriptures. But like Eve in Genesis 3, we have a vision problem. We look for our purpose through our own eyes rather than through God's lenses. We need an eye exam and corrective lenses! Eve was redeemed to fulfill her purpose. Because of Christ, we sinners can fulfill our purpose as well.

To listen to the audio of session 1, follow the link below.

http://www.windgap.com/PresWIC/2011/1-LookingForYourPurpose.mp3

Listening to the sessions: You can download each of these files to your computer, and store them on your hard drive, or copy them to an MP3 player so that you can listen to them on your car stereo. If you're a Windows user, right-click on the file link, and save the file locally.These are big files--so downloading may take a few minutes. If you'd rather, you can "stream" the files by listening to them with Windows Media Player, WinAmp, or another audio player. Each audio player allows you to load a URL (in Windows Media Player, for example, choose "Open URL..." from the "File" menu; in WinAmp, open the Playlist Editor, and choose "Add URL" from the File menu). Just copy the URL from your web browser, open your audio application, and paste the entire URL into the appropriate dialog.

If you would like a copy of the sessions notes, email me at mrmurdoch@windgap.com.