Friday, August 6, 2010

Biblical Womanhood Introduction

Biblical Womanhood Introduction:

Earlier this summer I was gifted a book from Revive Our Hearts Ministry in exchange for writing my thoughts about each chapter. The title of this book is 'Voices of the True Woman Movement~A Call to the Counter-Revolution.' Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing my thoughts on this book with all of you. I'm really excited to have this opportunity and hope that what I share leads you into a deeper realization of what a "true woman" is supposed to look like through God's eyes.

Introduction:

Most of what I'll share from the Introduction will come straight from the book. Anything that I take directly from the book will be highlighted in green.

One of the great challenges in our day is the vast number of voices vying for our attention....
So much is determined by which voices we hear and heed: our sense of who we are and why we are here; the way we relate to others; the choices we make; the way we spend our moments and years; the ultimate outcome of our lives.

Conflicting voices were an issue all the way back in the garden of Eden. The voice of God: "You are free to eat from every tree but one-if you eat from that tree, you will die." (Notice that NO choice was given here...just my 2 cents). The voice of the serpent: "you won't die-in fact, you'll become like God!" Which to listen to???

Eve was led astray by listening to the wrong voice. And she proceeded to become a voice that echoed the deception of the Serpent himself as she influenced her husband to choose to reject the voice of God.
God to Adam: Genesis 3:17 "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, "You shall not eat of it," cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life."

I don't think it would be overstating the case to say that most if not all of the pain, dysfunction, and distress we experience in this broken world comes as a result of listening to voices that counter rather than affirm the voice of God.

The author continues to draw attention to the fact that for many years (mainly since the 1950's) voices have been calling out to women in many negative, self-absorbing ways but are packaged to be appealing and good for us. Those voices sound like this..."have it your way", You deserve it", "It's about you." These voices are heard all throughout our culture-in best selling books, magazines, commercials, movies, t.v., songs, etc. and unfortunately the vast majority of us have listened to them and fallen for their lies.
Revive Our Hearts ministry was born out of a burden that Nancy Leigh DeMoss had for women. She had a vision for "a counter-cultural revolution in which women would reject the voices of this world and incline their hearts to Christ and listen to His voice."

Out of that vision the first ever "True Woman" conference was held. The chapters in this book are each highlighting portions of that conference that took place in October, 2010.