Perspectives, Gender Bias, Words & What God is Asking of Me Now

A real conversation from a few years ago:

Me: Even though we say that we affirm women in leadership in this denomination, I think there is still a problem with patriarchal attitudes in the denomination and even in my own local church.

Him: No there isn’t. So, why don’t you stop trying to take the word of God and use it to forward your own agenda.

Ouch. I brought up gender bias and I got told to SIT DOWN. The response shocked me. It was completely outside of my understanding of the character of the person I had begun the conversation with. I had said what I said to a trusted friend and ally, but was answered back by a cultural entrenchment. Looking back, I see the conversation was significant because it represented something much larger than one man’s opinion. That larger thing is systemic gender bias and it is real. My own experience with it in the church hasn’t been easy or pain free.  Still, I believe my experience, and the experiences of many people, are being used by God in order to give us a voice to insist that ‘God is calling us into a fuller experience!’ 

Same Place, But Different – Christ Visible

As many of you may have noticed (or not), this blog has been silent for a long time. I’ve thought about the blog, and you, quite often, but after my last post about sharing the gospel, I wasn’t sure how to proceed. In that situation, with the neighbor with cancer, the result was that I never felt bold enough to follow up with her. I never overcame the sense of irresolution and confusion inside. I never prayed with her. I never shared the gospel. She’s dead now, so the chance has passed. 

Scriputure Memorization Club Genesis 1:27

My neighbor, who I’ve been lightly acquainted with for a couple years, has been changing. As she’s walked past my house her gait has slowed. She’s lost weight. Her skin is different – less elastic, thicker, weathered looking. I’ve watched the change happen over the last couple of months and wondered what could be causing it. When she stopped to chat a few days ago the mystery was solved. My neighbor, not yet 40 years old, single mother of 6, has stage 4 lung cancer.

More John 1:1-5

I wrote yesterday on this scripture and made the statement that “Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the intention and nature of God. He is God’s thought and spirit, His essence, made flesh.”

Tonight, whilst doing some lectio devina style prayer, my heart swooning and open, I thought of the cross in a different way. If Jesus is God’s nature and intention, it’s safe to say He represents God’s hopes and dreams.

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him. And without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  – John 1:1-5

I read this passage and I am overwhelmed with the beauty in it. I’m compelled to repeat it, over and over, until it is committed to memory.

The ‘Word’ is translated from the Greek as ‘logos’, in this case meaning the Divine Expression.  Logos signifies the ‘Word’ being the personal manifestation of God, not of a part of the divine nature, but of the whole deity. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the intention and nature of God. He is God’s thought and spirit, His essence, made flesh. Hence, the many statements like these made by Christ: