Freedom of Ideas

Okay, I had lost a blog post that I wanted to link here a few days ago. I was getting ready to look for it, but is found me by linking one of my blog posts. Boy, does that make life easier.

Sallie Borrink points out how the Internet has helped women find their freedom.

http://sallieborrink.com/the-internet-and-freedom-for-christian-women/

I would add that the internet has helped countless silenced women find their God-given voices.

Here is one of my favorite verses in the Psalms.

^{Psalm 68:11} The Lord gives the command;
The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host:

Could it be that, besides referring to the time it was written, that this verse could also be looking forward to this day when a great host of women are actually given the opportunity to proclaim good tiding through the power of technology?

I've heard grumblings from some men that are not happy about this new found freedom that women have. I've heard grumbling and shamings from certain men who don't want women to have so much freedom. These men fear the freedom of their women. Otherwise, why would thy work so hard to bring women under the bondage of religions and legalism?

Yet, God has called us to freedom.

And one of the good tidings that women are proclaiming is:

GOD DOES NOT FAVOR MEN OVER WOMEN. God is not the author of the injustices that certain men have done against women in His name. The hierarchy that certain men have been enforcing over women is based in the traditions of men and have nothing to do with the heart of God.

This is good news. These are good tidings of great joy.

When some men make it their ministry and life work to tell women to sit down and shut up in church or anywhere, they are NOT speaking with authority from God. They are bullying from their own broken and deceitful hearts. And we don't have to listen to them. The voice of a stranger, we shall not follow (John 10:5). We will follow the voice of the Shepherd who, for freedom's sake, set us free. (Gal 5:1)

Traumatized By Ephesians Five?

For my readers still suffering from PTSD from having Ephesians five shoved down their throats, let me tell you the reading assignment I'd give you if you asked me for one.

I'd say, read Ephesians chapters 1-4, skip 5, and if you are okay with chapter 6, read it. If chapter 6 also causes a degree of PTSD then skip 6 as well.

Now some would scream that I'm not respecting the family or the Bible or whatever by giving such advice. All I'll respond with is this. If I read all of Ephesians minus chapter 5 half a dozen times, it still wouldn't make up for the hundreds of times I've hear messages from chapter 5 while the teacher ignored the rest of the book. So in suggesting such a reading assignment, I'm not negating any part of the Bible. I'm simply bringing balance to an area so far out of balance in so many circle it is sick.

I knew a woman so traumatized by the word "submit" that if she saw it in completely innocent places like, "please submit paperwork to..." she'd have a panic attack. This is how bad it has gotten. And I'd really like people who have been traumatized to gain some benefit from the incredible book of Ephesians.

However, if just the word "Ephesians" traumatizes you, then you are better off reading Galatians, over and over, until God reveals to you the liberty that Paul is trying to get across.

One other little note on Ephesians 5 & 6:
As I've noted, neo-patriarchy and CBMW are hard at work creating an image and 'single story' of womanhood that strips women of being Deborahs (leaders), Huldahs (prophets/preacher/teachers), or Junias (apostle/elder). Their version of womanhood makes women small, weak, and helpless. This is wrong and not in keeping with how Christ handles his bride. First He gives his Bride all authority (check out Retha's link below). And according to Ephesians 6, he arms her to the teeth. This is a far cry from what Patriarchs and CBMWers do. They are too busy disarming and discouraging their women to see what they should be doing, what Christ does, arming and empowering.

http://biblicalpersonhood.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/authority-is-for-sharing/

Orientation

Last week I went with my daughter to her college registration and orientation. While sitting there listening to presentation after presentation, a thought came to me.

You know how it is when a child has to make the transition from grade school to middle school or junior high to high school or from high school to college? It's a whole new world. Sometimes it's a whole new set of rules and definitely a whole new schedule.

It's a good thing these institutions have orientations to help the new student to get acclimated to all the changes and all the requirements.

While sitting there at my daughter's orientation, I realized that much of our walk with the Lord is us learning how to oriented ourselves to His way of thinking and doing things. We have to learn how to see things as He sees them. And the way He sees and thinks things is so much higher than the way we see and think about things.

You remember that before the Apostle Paul became an apostle he was the Pharisee Saul who persecuted the church. With all sorts of Zeal he thought he was doing God's will by trying to stamp out this new religion that he believed was a heresy.

Well, in Acts chapter nine, Saul had his road to Damascus experience. He was thrown from his horse by God. When he asked, "Who are you Lord?" God said, "I am Jesus who you are persecuting." (Acts 9:1-5)

I love Saul's question. He asked God who He was. And Jesus gave him the short answer that day. But Paul spent the rest of his life learning the long answer of just exactly who Jesus was. Paul didn't start our preaching and writing epistles after his road to Damascus experience. He went to the desert for 14 years or more to orient himself to who Jesus was. (Galatians 1:11-2:2)

My son and I have been watching the television series "The Universe" on Netflix.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_(TV_series)
We are in season two.

Did you know that Scientists did not know that there was anything beyond the Milky Way galaxy until the 1920s?

The deeper they are able to look into space, the universe, the more they realize how infinite it really is and how much more there is to know about even things nearby.

So, here's my question.
When God said "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts," did He mean, as high as the clouds or blueness of the daytime sky, or was He referring to something well beyond the outer stars of the Milky Way Galaxy?

The problem with boxes is not only that we try to put each other in them, we also try to get God to fit into a box that is shaped and limited by our own finite thinking.

Of course He doesn't fit into our little boxes which is a problem. But an even bigger problem is that we try to orient ourselves to this little box that we have made for God. Once we do this, we think that the way we think lines up with the way God thinks when really it only lines up with our terribly flawed and insufficient understanding of the Infinite.

No Yoke of Slavery for You

Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Why did Christ set us free? For the sake of freedom.

Note, this is gender inclusive. This isn't just freedom for men, but for women also. There is no pink and blue freedom, different kinds of freedom for whatever gender you are.

This is radical, Spirit Wind freedom that we must continue to stand in and defend.

Paul warns them and us against subjecting ourselves to a yoke of slavery. He warns us against the teachings that say the works of the flesh earn us God's favor.

Yet there is much teaching about submitting and subjecting in the church today concerning women. Who is teaching it? Fearful men who are afraid of radically free women.

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)

But all preachers don't preach the truth. Some preachers preach the lie of patriarchy that sucks away freedom from people and makes them people of the Law rather that people of the Spirit Wind. Some preachers preach rigid roles and rules for individuals, legalism. And these preachers suck the life and wind right out of individuals.

No, Paul says to stand firm in our freedom and to not subject ourselves again to a yoke of slavery. We don't have to listen to those preachers any more. The truth in not in them.

John 8:36 If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

Bewitching Your Freedom Away

Galatians 3:1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
vs 2 This is the one thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the words of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
vs 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Paul here is asking the People of the Wind why they have turned in their status of freedom in the Spirit to become prisoners of the Law.

Paul asks them who has bewitched them, who has cast a spell over them that they would trade in the radical Spirit Wind freedom that Jesus bought for them with His own blood... why would they trade this in for rules and regulations and oppressive structures of religion.

He wants to know how they received the Spirit in the first place. Was is by the sweat of their own brow? And if they did not receive this Freedom by the sweat of their own brow and the carrying of heavy burdens, when did they start thinking they had to start picking up heavy loads and tying them up on their backs?

Who was bewitching their freedoms away from them? Who was demanding that they submit to structures and orders that wound them and break them down?

And this is the question we have to ask ourselves. Who is sucking our freedom away with their doctrine. Who is trying to separate us from the Spirit and freedom we have in Christ?

Jesus said, "Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."

Are the teachers you are listening to giving you rest? Or are they wearing you down with their obsession with certain structures?
Are the teachers you are listening to allowing you to be free in the Spirit Wind, or do they require you to be mired in the bog of their doctrine?