One word, heck, one letter can change the way we perceive things. Last week, when we were "flocking" pink flamingoes on someone's yard, I noticed a letter missing on the sign we placed in the yard with the birds. Instead of reading "We just flew in to say God loves you" like it normally read, it read "We just....God love you". God loves you verses God love you...just that one "s" changes the whole message!
I tell you that because this morning during my quiet time, one letter (which also serves as one word) grabbed my attention...the letter/word I. Read on and I will explain...
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent...1 Timothy 2:11. This verse has been a very hot topic and debated often among denominations. But as I was reading it this morning, God brought my attention to something I had not really paid attention to before. The writer...Paul, the "I" in this verse.
It was Paul that made the statement "I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man....she must be silent", not God. And upon further study, I found out the situation Paul was dealing with which provoked him to write this. In first century Jewish culture, women were not allowed to study. When Paul said women were to learn in quietness and full-submission, he was offering them an amazing NEW OPPORTUNITY. Paul didn't want the women to teach because they didn't yet have enough knowledge or experience. The Ephesian church had a particular problem with false teachers. Evidentially the women were especially susceptible because they did not yet have enough Biblical knowledge to discern the truth.
And as I was reading this passage this morning, my mind went back to a Bible study with the youth about 4 years ago. We were talking about God "calling" someone into ministry who had a "past"...maybe divorce, maybe homosexuality, maybe a criminal or felon, maybe a drunkard or whore...the list could go on forever. But one youth said this and I sat there with my mouth open in amazement at the knowledge of this 7th grader: "Who are WE, mere humans, to speak on God's behalf and say God has not called someone to ministry whether it be a woman, a divorced man or someone who has had a shady past? Has God given us male or female for that matter, the authority to judge who HE calls?" WOW.
As I sit here and think about this statement made by a youth, I think of Noah. Noah, the greatest hero of faith, got drunk (Genesis 9:21) yet God still used him. And then I think of David. David, a shepherd, poet and giant-killer but also a betrayer, liar, adulterer and murderer yet God refers to him as "a man after my own heart" (Acts 13:22). And what about Miriam? Exodus 15:20 talks of Miriam, the sister of Aaron, who was a prophetess and one of the triad of leaders of Israel during the Exodus from Egypt.
If we could have been there thousands of years ago when God was calling and using Noah, David and Miriam, would we have argued they weren't "worthy" because of their past or gender? Would we have went and got the scrolls to "make our point"? I don't know...maybe...but it wouldn't have mattered because it is up to God who He calls and uses, not us.
Until next time...
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