MzEllen & Co.

Spanish final tonight…just a little stressed.

Interesting note: At least once a week I get a google or yahoo search hit on an essay I wrote a couple of years ago:

:Compare and Contrast Henry VIII and Martin Luther.”

I thought it sort of an oddball topic to be assigned but apparently it’s more popular than I thought…just remember, cite your source and no plagiarizing.

(With the name removed to make things interesting…but those who know…know)

“…is adopting a “literalistic” reading of the Bible when he takes Paul’s 2,000-year-old words as proof for all time that the Supreme Being –!(#%&#)@*$(&%–.

“It’s the same process of logic that leads to supporting slavery,” -$*@$&%- said, noting that the apostle of Jesus also did not oppose slavery.

“It’s important for people to understand that the holy scriptures is a very nuanced document. I think we need to allow people room to come to a new understanding,”

Not applicable for all time, same process that leads us to supporting slavery.

Question: is this an egalitarian supporting women in the pulpit? Or an Anglican supporting homosexual marriage?

yes…I am spoiled! I’m posting from my iPod touch from Schuler’s. Free wireless and an iPod….

Ah…this may the first semester my kids get a better Gpa than I do…

I’m still reading in Genesis 1 and 2.

I read that man was created first - there is an order that humans were created in.  Whether that means anything may be debatable.

I read that it was to the man that God gave the directions to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (in the more detailed account in Genesis 2) - before the woman was even created.  Scripture does not record that the woman was present to receive the instruction.

I read that Eve was not present when Adam had the responsibility of naming the animals…she had not been created yet.

I read that when God declared, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”, it was before the fall.

I read that when the serpent approached Eve, it was a very familiar approach…”Did God REALLY say…?”

(Around here we call them “serpent questions”:  “Does the Bible REALLY say…?”  or…”Does it REALLY mean THAT?!?!”  or…”Does that REALLY apply to us today?”  Serpent questions.)

I read that after the fall, it was Adam that God questioned.

The all-knowing and all-seeing Creator of the universe would have known exactly what had happened…yet he went to Adam first.

In Ephesians 5, when Paul writes the segment of instructions to husbands and wives, (wives submit, husbands love) and refers to what God declared BEFORE the fall: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
I believe that the inclusion of the one-flesh declaration from BEFORE THE FALL into the “wives submit - husbands love” instruction, God was instructing His bride in the redemptive love of the bridegroom for the wife who lovingly and willingly submits to Him.

I believe that before the fall, Adam was created first, Adam received the instruction not to eat of the tree, Eve was created as a suitable helper (complementary even).  I believe that the order in which things happened was recorded that way for a reason - the husband leads, the wife helps.

I believe that part of the curse was that no longer would a wife tend to lovingly and willingly submit to the leadership of her husband.  Evil had crept in.

I believe that after the fall the temptation would be for a husband to deal harshly with his wife, denying her the love that she desires.  Evil had crept in.
I believe that Christ offers us the opportunity:  to reflect Christ and the church.

“The mystery is profound…”

I believe that in Christ, husbands have the privilege and responsibility of loving as Christ loves the church.

I believe that in Christ, wives have the privilege and responsibility of submitting as the church submits to Christ.

I believe that the wife has been the “helper” since the creation account.  That has not changed.  Woman is still the “suitable helper”.  Complementary.  Half of the one-flesh.

I believe that the whole of Scripture leads to a reading of the husband as leader.  That has not changed.

From before the fall, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

From the writing of Paul’s instruction to wives and husbands, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Wives submit, husbands love.

“Organization” of the week: Making Great Waves for Kids.

GRAND RAPIDS — Less than two months before the start of the swimming season, organizers say they need private donations to ensure six outdoor pools stay open for a full eight-week run.

But a businessman who has helped make sure Grand Rapids kids can enjoy a summer splash says it’s time for the city to step up.

So far, the Making Great Waves for Kids campaign has raised almost $167,000 toward its goal of $300,000. That’s probably enough to open the pools but not enough to make sure they all stay open through August, organizers said.

Click on the first link for contact numbers for more information on how to donate money to keep the pools open, or gently used swim suits.
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“Narrowing the Risk of Mate Selection” - a short review at “Voice of Vision”

A seasoned marriage counselor has observed how couples wound one another in their marriage. He gave the following:

What Wounds A Woman

• An awareness that she is not first in her husband’s life
• Her husband’s failure to recognize her attempts to please him
• Unfavorable comparison to other women
• Her husband’s lack of spiritual leadership
• Rejection of her opinion as important
• Inconsistency in the discipline of the children
• Attempts to correct her in public

What Wounds A Man

• Resistance to his will
• Lack of confidence in his opinion or decisions
• Resentments for past failures
• Failure to build loyalty in the children
• Lack of a grateful spirit
• Inconsistency in the discipline of the children
• Criticism in public

OF COURSE these are not all-encompassing. OF COURSE there are more things that wound a person. OF COURSE there are exceptions to every “rule”.

Jay Adams calls “apologizing” the world’s unsatisfactory substitute for forgiveness.

“uh…sorry”…”that’s ok.” That is apology and it’s not the real thing.

There is another question that parallels “what is forgiveness”.

What does forgiveness DO?

What makes “forgiveness”, “forgiveness”?

Is it a feeling? No - Scripture says nothing about “feeling” forgiving. Scripture tells us to forgive.

Eph.4:32 tells us, “…forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

The “as” gives us a model. Strong’s gives the definition

1)according as
…a)just as, even as
…b)in proportion as, in the degree that
2)since, seeing that, agreeably to the fact that
3)when, after that

What does Scripture tell us about God’s forgiveness of us? Does He simply sit in heaven and “emote”? No, He gives us a promise.

Isa 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.

Jer 31:34b For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

If forgiveness were merely a “feeling”, we could not rely on this promise.

If forgiveness were merely “forgetting”, it would not be a purposeful relinquishing of the debt. I can “forget” my keys. But the Almighty Creator of the universe cannot forget anything. It is a commitment to not recall, not bring it to remembrance, not to bring it up, remind, mention or record the offense.

If I make that promise to forgive - to not bring it up again - and I do, that is breaking a promise. I went through a really rough time with my daughter a couple of years ago. That which was done is no longer between us - and the repentance/forgiveness process works.

We went through this book. I DID bring it up again and my daughter (as my sister in Christ) reminded me of the promise. I had my own repenting to do. The process works.

Forgiveness is a promise.

for the semester and school year.

My literature class is finished…

My Spanish final is on Tuesday…not so good…

Our school packages the giveaway bags for the 5/3 Riverbank Run (several thousand of them)…and we need to have them finished by Thursday because…

Friday is Very Special Arts!

And the following Friday is prom! (I think I’ll buy a new dress)

At any rate, I need quiet time with my Spanish today…made more miserable by an early summer cold.

(UPDATE:  the TN CHICK has lost her dog in an very urban area - Zoey has been gone for over 3 days now…)

(This sign appeared at our local zoo when “Precious” - our komodo dragon - came to live)

But not all are profitable.

I was on a long hike and the sky started to look like this:

Yes. I was watching the sky.

What I read in Genesis 1 and 2 is that God created male and female differently and He treats them differently and (where instruction is given to specifically men or specifically women) He many times gives them different instruction.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil is not mentioned in Genesis 1. In Genesis 2 we are told that Adam is given instruction independently of Eve - before she is even created. This infers that Eve was dependent on Adam for instruction. This was before the fall. The first recorded instance of a woman learning from her husband is from before the fall.

Also before the fall - God proclaimed: Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Eve was created differently - out of man. Man and woman are created to be two parts of the whole.

In Ephesians, Paul (inspired by the Holy Spirit) writes,

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

This reference to before the fall comes at the end of one of the longest passages in Scripture instructing (specifically) husbands and wives.

In that last sentence that I quoted, the word for “respect” is φόβος - phobeō. From which we get the word “phobia” - to fear. Strong’s also gives the definition: c) to reverence, venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience

Does the context of the word indicate that wives are to live in “fear” of their husbands, or that they should treat them with deference?

Especially give that a related word, φόβος - phobos is used in the same chapter of Ephesians.

…submitting to one another out of reverence (φόβος ) for Christ….

The “mutual submission” clause. We need to decide whether this statement rules out what follows, or whether this statement is explained by what follows. I believe that the statement is the instruction, what follows is the application.

We see that a general instruction of “submit to one another” is here, but then there are the specific instructions to husbands and wives that are different. Husbands and wives are instructed differently.

Why?

…it refers to Christ and the church …

“Mom…why are so many boys so wimpy?”

I answer: “Because so many boys are denied the opportunity to be godly leaders.”

We actually do have talks like these. This one was on the way to college yesterday.

My teaching to her…do not go out with a young man that she will not be pleased to submit to. If you don’t trust him enough to let him lead, why on earth would you trust him enough to marry him?

From “A Defense of Calvinism” by Charles Spurgeon

Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that God has never let me act as they have done! I have thought, if God had left me alone, and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone. I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit. Looking back on my past life, I can see that the dawning of it all was of God; of God effectively. I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me. I did not commence my spiritual life—no, I rather kicked, and struggled against the things of the Spirit: when He drew me, for a time I did not run after Him: there was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good.

The “T” of Tulip…

Total depravity of man.

It is not that each person is as utterly evil as they could be, it is that each person is born with a sin nature that touches every part of their being. With totality, it is impossible for them to reach out to God, unless the Spirit touches them first. Unless they are called, nobody seeks God.

• Romans 7:18 - For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
• Romans 3:10-11 - as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
• Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
• Psalm 51:5 - Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
• (from) Genesis 8:21 - for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth…

Westminster Confession of Faith:

Q. 25. Wherein consisteth the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilt of Adam’s first sin,[93] the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually;[94] which is commonly called original sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgressions.[95]

I (Ellen) can say that I know that without God speaking to me, I would not run after Him.

In the creation account in Genesis 2, the animals were formed out of the ground. As was Adam.
Adam (as the animals were) was created out of the dust of the earth that God had created out of nothing…and Eve was created out of Adam. Eve is the only creature that was created in this way.
Elsewhere in Scripture we are told “he [man] is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.” Yes, this is not a creation account, but Scripture does give us the sense of men and women being differently.

Men and women were certainly created differently, they were given different jobs and they were told different things after the fall.

When husbands and wives are given explicit instruction as husbands and wives (beyond the general instruction that we are all given), in many passages, husbands and wives are told different things, they are given different direction.

Scripture treats men and women differently.

Why? I believe that Scripture is trustworthy and tells us what God wants us to know. God wants us to know that He created men and women differently, He treats them differently and He gives them different instruction in Scripture.

In Genesis 2 we are given another creation account; a more detailed story of the creation of man and woman.

v. 15…man was put into the garden with a job to do - to work it and keep it.

v. 16 and 17, man was given the instruction to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

v. 18. God proclaims that it is not good for man to be alone and further proclaimed that He would make a helper suitable for him.
v. 19 and 20, God showed man every animal and man named them…but there was no counterpart for Adam.

v. 21. It is only AFTER Adam was created and AFTER man was given responsibility for the garden and AFTER Adam was told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and AFTER he had named all of the animals…

AFTER all of that, THEN God put Adam into a sleep and formed his wife from his rib.

and

v. 24 God tells us, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

THERE IS A DISTINCTION BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN. In the jobs they are given, in the roles that they play, in the responsibilities that they have and even in the way and time they were created.

God sees us differently and I rejoice in the difference.

In the New Testament (Eph 5), we are given a parallel. After the general instructions to all members of the church, Scripture goes on with further instructions to husbands and wives.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

We are given, as men and women; as husbands and wives, the wonderful responsibility and privilege of reflecting to the world the relationship of Christ and the church. The beautiful and willing submission of the bride to her bridegroom. The caretaking love of the bridegroom for his beloved.

and God again tells us, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

This is not language that sets men and women up against each other, it does not tell us of a selfishness that demands its own rights. It is a beautiful reflection of sacrifice and submission,