Overruled.

My sister is married to a woman, so homosexuality will be something that will be brought up in my home... but that doesn't mean that I don't want Abraham and I to be in control of when and how we explain to our children that Aunt Julia loves Aunt Sally like Mommy loves Daddy...

This is scary that Parents are losing rights... I remember when I was in 3rd grade my parents opted me out of sex education because I was too young... the next year they thought I was ready and I took the class... now a decade later and the schools can tell parents they have no right to decide what their 5 year olds learn? 

This country needs prayer.

Captivating Study: Chapter 1, Part 2: The Heart of the Woman

"And so the journey to discover what God meant when he created woman in his image- when he created you as his woman- that journey begins with desire. [pg. 8]" I like that the Eldredges say that God created "you" as "his woman". I think that in life there is no desire so great as when you find the one you know you are meant to love, to commit your heart to and you want and hope and pray and you desire more than anything to be "his woman".

I know that when I realized I was falling in love with my best friend [who is now my husband], I wanted more than anything to be his woman, for him to realize that he needed me to be his as much as I did.

Song of Songs 6:3-5,9-10, and 12 ESV

[She]I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies. [He] You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me... My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her.
The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.  Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?"[She] Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince...

She dazzles her husband. There is no doubt in her mind that she is his woman. From what I gather of her time and culture, chariots were very highly prized possessions. In the throws of hand to hand combat, having a chariot would be equivalent to having the first rifle in battle. The chances of winning against a soldier on a chariot when you yourself was on foot was slim to none. And so, I believe, this is why she chooses this as her metaphor for why her husband needs her. Her desire for him would most likely win any battle waged.

I believe with every fiber of my being that God is as relational as we need him to be. When we are children, he is to us a father. When we are confused, he is a guidance counselor if you will. And then there is the point in our life when we need to be needed. We need to be loved and adored. And it is at that point that God becomes our greatest love. And our desire for him can win the battle waged against us, because his desire for us has already won the war.

Satan, the serpent, the enemy, the wily one, has intent for the Children of the King. Yes, the war was lost on Calvary, but Satan still holds a temporary control. And so he seeks to destroy any assets for Christ's kingdom while he still can. What does this mean? It means that we will face hundreds of thousands of battles in our lives simply because he is an enemy who refuses to concede.

Imagine there is a four year old child. And it is up against an enemy soldier. It's not a pretty picture to imagine, because there is no doubt in our mind. If the child's father is not present, that child will die. Now, it is so easy to say "Well, I'm a Christian! My Father in Heaven will never depart from me!" And that is true. He won't. However from my personal experience, it is possible for us to depart from him. I went through at least 5 or 6 years where I separated myself from God. I chose to live in danger, and because He loves me so much that he lets me chose my path, God allowed me to do my own thing.

Now imagine a young woman in love. The same enemy soldier is in front of her. The soldier stands between her and her love. It's true, she could meet the same fate as the lone child. But she will do everything in her power to be reunited with her love. She would face the enemy a hundred thousand times, or more, if it meant being with the one her heart yearns for. That is the power of desire. And desire is what God wants from his bride, once we have transitioned from one stage of our relationship with Him to the next.

Song of Songs 8:6 and 7 ESV
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.

Desire is a seal, a flash of fire... the flame of the Lord. What an exciting way to begin a journey. So where does this journey take us? In Captivating, Staci tells of her romance. "John wrote me letters, lots of letters. Each one filled with his love for God and his passion for me, his desire for me... I came out to my car after my waitressing shift ended to find his poetry underneath my windshield. Verses written for me, to me! He loved me... I loved being romanced. [pg 10]"

How often do we as Christians look at the scriptures and realize that it is simply a love letter, it is poetry. And it is written for us, and to us. We are loved, we are being romanced! The journey that starts with desire suddenly erupts into the very flame of the Lord, and we can allow ourselves to be consumed by His passion for us. When this happens, as John and Stasi go on to tell us, God strips away the preconceived notions we have of ourselves. He, in the center of this great romance, shows us that he has seen in us a beauty that He would unveil, that he would reveal of his beloved, to her.

"The longings God has written deep in your heart are telling you something essential about what it means to be a woman, and the life he meant for you to live. Now we know-- many of those desires have gone unmet, or been assaulted, or simply so long neglected, that most women end up living two lives. On the surface... We are getting by. On the inside women lose themselves... to numb the ache of our hearts. But your heart is still there, crying out to be set free, to find the life your desires tell you of. You can find that life-- if you are willing to embark on a great adventure. [pg 19]"

Captivating Study: Chapter 1, Part 1: Sometimes It's Hard To Be A Woman

Hosea 2:14-2 ESV
'"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.  "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.  And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.  "And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heaven and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on [Lo-Ruhamah], and I will say to [Lo-Ammi], 'You are my people' and he shall say, 'You are my God.'"'

Lo-Ruhamah is the Hebrew name that the ESV translates to "No Mercy" and Lo-Ammi is the Hebrew name translated by the ESV as "Not my people". This scripture refers to Hosea's wife Gomer, and two of her children. God had commanded Hosea to take a wife who was a prostitute, who would stray. He also commanded Hosea what to name the children born to her within their marriage. It is possible that the children born to her were not even his because she continued to return to her lovers again and again. What a potentially devastating life for her husband. Instead of allowing this to destroy him, Hosea follows God's commands, and continues to take her back. His marriage becomes an illustration of God's people as a wayward bride.

In the midst of her betrayal, in the midst of her darkness, what does God promise? He says "I will allure her... and speak tenderly to her" and later "I will have mercy... and I will say... 'You are my people'".

It is from this view point that I look at the first half of chapter one in Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge.

"...there was only one alternative... and that was paddling back upriver in total darkness... the fact that it required all of me, that I was in it with my family and for my family....made the time... transcendent... [pg. 3]" So often the choices we know can lead us to something great, something wonderful (and even unknown to us, is part of God's plan for our lives) are scary and painful, dark and seemingly impossible.

"Then the time came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom -Anais Nin [pg. 3]" There are five women in the scriptures who faced such choices in their lives. To the world, to women of our generation even, they may have seemed to be shameful women. They were most likely unseen and unsought. They must have had moments on their journeys that left them uncertain of the path they had chosen to take and it's consequences. As a modern woman, there would be the temptation to pass them by and ignore them. In the context of their culture, they should have been killed.

God had the grace in their situations to reverse their destinies. He used their periods of seemingly utter darkness and made instead a life of glory and filled them with His light. He hand-picked these women as the five women named in the lineage of His son, our Savior.

Matthew 1:3,5-6,16 ESV
"and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram... and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by [Bathsheba]... and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ."

I won't go into each passage about them, but will list basic references and what they signify about each woman listed here.


Tamar: Genesis 38:6-26; Tamar was a young wife who unfortunately married a wicked man. When her husband died for his sins, he left her childless. Her father-in-law gave her to his second son, who was also wicked, so that she could become pregnant with a child to carry on her first husband's name. Her second husband prevented this, dishonoring his brother's name. He died as well. In fear for his third and last son's life, Tamar's father-in-law Judah tricks her by promising her his third son when he come of age as a husband, a promise he does not keep. Tamar, in turn, deceives Judah and becomes pregnant by her father-in-law in order to continue her first husband's name.

Rahab: Joshua 2:1-4, 8-14, and 19-21; Rahab was a prostitute in the land of Jericho. When spies came to her for help, she disobeyed her king and became a traitor to her country in order to assist God's people. Her choice of God over country could have put her and her family at risk.

Ruth: Ruth 3:4-14; After following her mother-in-law to a foreign land, Ruth lived a life of a poor immigrate widow. She had no one to care for or provide for her, and instead found herself caring for her mother-in-law. She followed her mother-in-law's advice and slept in the same bed as a man (she was not married to) in a public place.

Bathsheba: 2 Samuel 11: 3-5, 14-17, and 26-27; A married woman (who I believe according to verses 26 and 27 loved her husband) Bathsheba found herself seduced by a king. She slept with him and became pregnant. She informed her lover of her pregnancy and he used his power to try to cover his tracks. Bathsheba's husband was a good man, and refused to take advantage of his leave from war that was provided, and so the king had him killed.


Mary: Matthew 1:18-19; Mary was a young girl who loved God and was engaged to marry an older man. She became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and was on the verge of divorce (an engagement or "betrothal" in her culture was equivalent to marriage in our culture).

These women risked a lot. At times, they sinned to make these risks. All five of these women, according to the law, should have been killed. But God forgave their sins, God covered them in His grace. He counted them as worthy. Yes, he took these women who may have been unseen, unsought, and uncertain and transformed their lives. They are seen by the world, even today. Their spirits are and have been sought after by other women for generations. And we are certain that these women prove not only that sometimes it's hard to be a woman, but more importantly, with God's grace we can be exceptional women.