The Greatest Story Ever Told

God really knows how to get my attention. Somewhere along the way I had began to lose my love for reading my Bible. I knew I should but…well, I’m not naturally a reader…but something was going wrong… Until tonight. The pieces began to fit back together. Let me tell you my little revelation.

(Don’t laugh) but I was sitting and watching Alice in Wonderland tonight. (Now if you haven’t seen the movie this part of my blog may not make sense to you) in the movie there is this magical scroll. It tells of all time-beginning to end. At the very end it tells of “frapcuous day” (not sure how to spell that). On this “frapcuous day” alice is to slay the jabawakee (which is similar to a dragon)… Everyone is looking forward to this day. This day marks when the white queen will regain the throne and the world will be at peace again. Suddenly, as I was watching this movie for the third time, it occurred to me. The Bible is much like this. It tells of all time-from creation and of what is to come. As Christians, we believe revelations will come to pass and we will slay the dragon…
“Every good movie/story has Biblical truth in it whether the writer knows it or not.”
The Bible was the greatest story ever told… Unlike a tv series where I have to wait another week to see what will happen next, I have it all-its in this amazing book that has stood the test of time. And not only is it not a story but it’s real -life. It’s not a dream. I cannot pinch myself and wake up whenever I want. We were created to live this story…
And now I have been caught up…lost if you will…in this story. I must read it. And I must understand it. I must know what it is that is expected of me in the future and I must grab hold of the past.

Women… in ministry? What?!

This week I was posed a question.  What is women’s role in ministry?  Is it right that women should be preaching? Teaching?  What is their role?  Are they worth more than cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the kids?

These questions rolled through my head.  How in the world could God create a “partner” for man whose role was simply that, where a man’s was so much greater- they get to conquer and rule out in the world… and we have to stay home and bake cookies all day and make sure everything is perfect for our husbands when they return from battle??

I have to admit.  I sometimes can lean on a feminist viewpoint BUT I still know what I will be doing when my future begins to roll out.  It’s interesting really.  I found that in my research, I already knew [or had a basic understanding of] all of the answers.  I just didn’t want to be told that that was what I was supposed to do.  Make sense?

Well, I’ll tell you a bit of what I found.
I found that in Genesis, after Eve ate the apple… or whatever fruit it may have been (that’s beside the point), it says that then as part of the curse, man would rule over her.  CLUE #1: it’s part of a curse.  so i guess it’s okay that i don’t like it all the time eh?
Next, I found that in many of the passages in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy, Paul was writing to specific churches during specific times in history.  You must know the background of why Paul writes these things to truly be able to interpret.  I’m not saying I’m any expert on this BUT during the time and at the place that Paul wrote in 1 Timothy, Paul was specifically writing that women should not have authority because of the rise of a goddess Artemis where women were given the authority over the worship of her.  I guess that when you think about it, it’s just like someone warning a certain church now of certain types of people because THEY were actually dealing with it.  [possibly] Paul would have written something more along the lines of “To all churches of all times, never let women be in any place of authority at all.”  Wouldn’t that have been a little more clear if that was what he wanted to come across?

There are a few specific women in the Bible that I think are worth mentioning.  Miriam was a prophetess.  Rahab was an innkeeper who helped save the spies in Jericho from the King’s men.  Deborah was a prophetess and judge.  The list keeps going on.  God used women in great ways.  Think of Mary.  Come on.  Without women, yes mankind would have ceased to exist but even moreso–they had to be hearing the voice of God and not just submitting to their husbands [which the Bible does command us to do, as they submit to God and to us (Eph. 5:21)] but even going beyond what they maybe were expected to do, maybe even go against the “rules” to obey what God has said.  Look at Esther.  If she had not gone before the king even when she could have risked death, her people would have died.

So.  You may be asking yourself, “what is Ashley’s conclusion after all of this?”  WELL I don’t think I’ve studied enough.  BUT I do believe that a woman’s primary  ministry is in her home.  She must firstly take care of her household–the kids, feeding her family, keeping it nice [a woman is specifically made to be more capable of this than a man]– but when this is all taken care of, and in order THEN if she has spare time or is able to work it out in her schedule and life, ministry is possible.  God gives gifts to all, man and woman alike.  God may give a woman the gift of teaching, another the gift of prophecy.  Others hospitality and others administration.  It’s bible.  Why would God keep these gifts just for man?

Well, as you can see, there is much more research to be done.  BUT these are my thoughts thus far.  When I have done more lengthy research I will post a follow-up blog.

The mystery that a man will abandon himself to God.

It’s so beautiful.  How could you ever doubt that there is a God who truly cares for you when you simply just look up into the sky?  It is so beautiful.  Just look up.  OR look down–down to the intricacy of an ant or the careful detailing of a leaf.  Think of the number of grains of sand–even in one handful.  Ever tried to count?  IMPOSSIBLE.  So answer me this:  Nothing new under the sun right?  Every thought, every idea–already thought.  Now, who thought them all first?  And even further–if every man has a similar thought process then there must be a point at which a decision to notice this creator or to dismiss Him as chance is made.  Why… or rather how could you possibly think this is all chance?  That we just “evolved” and now we are living this meaningless life for no reason at all except that we are.  And when we die we simply turn to dust and this world countinues on OR DOESN’T because we haven’t taken good enough care of it so that one day this earth will no longer be liveable.  Then man no longer exists.  We are just a memory.  AND ALL THAT BY CHANCE?!  NO!  I will not sit by and see that just because we don’t want to be accountable to something or responsihble for our own actions that we pass God off.  NO.  This has to stop.  There is an awe-inspiring God who not only created all of heaven and earth but also gave us purpose to keep sucking oxygen into our lungs long after birth and not just pull the trigger because it’s all pointless anyway.