Andreas Köstenberger
Feb 3, 2011 1 Timothy, Book Reviews
Many people have asked me where they can find the resources by Andreas J. Köstenberger I referred to last weekend. So, without much ado, here they are in order of intensity.
A Quick Interview on the topic of 1 Timothy 2:12.
A 32 page paper on the topic of 1 Timothy 2:15.
Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15.
Tags: elders, femininity, manliness
Women in Ministry
Jan 31, 2011 1 Timothy
This past weekend we hit one of the most controversial topics in modern Christianity, the topic of male eldership in the church. As expected, this has generated a lot of feedback from both sides of the aisle. On this post, I simply want to list a couple of resources that may help anyone who is wrestling through this topic.
Riverview’s Paper on Women in Minisry
Summary of the two camps: Complimentarianism and Egalitarianism
Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood (Free Download of the Entire Book)
Tags: elders, femininity, manhood, masculinity, womanhood
Question for the Ladies
Jun 15, 2010 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
This weekend, I am going to be talking to the men at Riv. So I have two questions just for the women (I encourage you to answer anonymously to protect the men’s fragile egos…if your comment doesn’t appear right away, don’t worry. I may have to approve it first). If you don’t have a man, feel free to answer generically about men in general.
What is ONE of your man’s greatest virtues?
What is ONE of your man’s greatest flaws?
Tags: femininity, marriage, wives
Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood
Jun 14, 2010 Book Reviews
This past weekend, we launched a new series on the “Nuclear Family” at Riv. I’m going to blog on family themes for the month, as well. Today (since I lightly tapped on the subject during my teaching), I want to recommend an excellent book for you if you want to explore more of what the Bible has to say about Biblical Masculinity and Femininity. This is a bit of a meaty book, but if you are looking to really dive into this topic, this is the book for you. It’s called Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood.
The topics covered in this book are:
- The Key Issues in the Manhood-Womanhood Controversy
- Male and Female Complemantarity and the Image of God
- Marriage Lived for the Glory of God
- Answering Disputed Questions about Gender Specific Roles in the Church
- Standing Against the Culture in the area of Sexuality
Here are a couple snippets:
“The Bible thus almost immediately corrects the errors of male dominance and male superiority that have come as the result of sin and that have been seen in nearly all cultures in the history of the world. Wherever men are thought to be better than women, wherever husbands act as selfish dictators, wherever wives are forbidden to have their own jobs outside the home or to vote or to own property or to be educated, wherever women are treated as inferior, wherever there is abuse or violence against women or rape or female infanticide or polygamy or harems, the biblical truth of equality in the image of God is being denied. To all societies and cultures where these things occur, we must proclaim that the very beginning of God’s Word bears a fundamental and irrefutable witness against these evils.” – Wayne Grudem
“In modern society, we tend to think in this way: If you are a person who has authority over another, that’s a good thing. If you are someone who has to submit to an authority, that’s a bad thing. But that is the world’s viewpoint, and it is not true. Submission to a rightful authority is a good and noble and wonderful thing, because it reflects the interpersonal relationships within God Himself.” – Wayne Grudem
Tags: complimentarian, elders, femininity, husbands, manliness, marriage, wives
Halloween Dignity
Oct 26, 2009 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
Just read an amazing piece in The State News : Dignity has place on Halloween.
Here’s an excerpt (but you really need to read the whole thing):
Dear Starbucks Girl:
Standing in front of you, waiting for coffee, I heard you rather loudly talking to your friend about your Halloween plans. You said you were invited to some “awesome” parties during that weekend but hadn’t yet decided on your costume. One thing was for sure, though: you were definitely going to “slut it up,” to use your own words. The only dilemma in your mind seemed to be whether to get one slutty costume for the weekend, or two.
Starbucks Girl, you didn’t notice, but I turned around to look at you. You were pretty! Too pretty to parade your body around on a cold October night just for attention, and far too pretty to risk being taken advantage of by some drunken idiot at a party or bar…
The author goes on and makes a very compelling case for dignity in the costume you choose. His closing paragraph says it all:
Women of MSU — Oops! I meant to say Starbucks Girl — I realize that I might not have changed your mind. But I also hope that after Halloween you realize that you are beautiful the other 364 days of the year, and you don’t need to show off your body simply to get noticed. I hope you know that you, like every single woman on this campus, are worthy of respect and deserve to be treated like a lady. If nothing else, know that.
I am a big fan of Halloween, which any frequent visitor to my blog will know. I love Trick or Treating with my kids, hanging out with my neighbors and all of that, but this is the one thing that bothers me. Every year, the costumes seem to get racier and racier. I have commented on the “Slutty Halloween” phenomena before on this site.
For all the women out there who follow Jesus, take a minute, think about your costume and reflect on this verse:
Colossians 3:17 Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Tags: femininity
Amazing Grace
May 1, 2009 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
I don’t remember the last time I went a week without posting to my blog. In fact, I am pretty sure it has never happened…until now.
My last post was a week ago today.
I bet you’re wondering why…well, the short answer is this week I have been “Mr. Mom.” My wife (Grace) is in California with my 5 year old for a 12 day trip to help her sister out with her new baby.
When we first talked about her going, I said “sure..no problem.” She said, “can I go for a couple weeks?”
“Absolutely…I can handle it.”
Famous last words.
I have grown in my appreciation for my wife so much this past week. Her job (as a stay at home mom) is indeed a full-time job. She is a cook, maid, teacher, cab-driver, administrator, accountant, laundry-lady, peace-maker, mentor, coach and so much more.
The biggest struggle of this week has been keeping everything organized in my head. I am used to leaving for work in the morning and being able to focus on a single thing at a time (I am not a multi-tasker). But I haven’t been able to do that this week. A portion of my brain has to stay focused on…
Hang on a second, the kids are calling…Sorry about that–I had to mediate a little argument (I’m not just adding that for literary flair…it actually just happened). Go ahead and add “referee” to Grace’s job description. Where was I? Right…
A portion of my brain has to stay focused on taking care of the kids at all times. I have to make sure I pick them up from school at the right time and run them to practices and other events. I can’t just run home and eat dinner…I have to time it right so I can get it cooked (which I have missed a couple times). This week I have run medicine to school for a sick kid, run the laundry late at night so a uniform was clean for a game, coordinated many conflicting schedules and collapsed each night into bed exhausted.
Wow…this is quite a job.
I found myself drawn today to Genesis 2:18:
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
Many people balk at this concept of a wife being “a helper” to her husband but it is a great thing, a God-ordained thing. And don’t forget that “helper” is a word God uses to describe himself several times in the Bible. Basically, what this passage is saying is that Adam lacked something. His wife Eve provided what he lacked and he provided what she lacked. Apart, they were incomplete. Together, they were “one.” God called Adam to lead his family and Eve to help him–they each had equal but different roles.
With Grace gone, I feel incomplete. Not just as a husband and father, but as a pastor.
Grace is truly “a helper who is just right for Noel.” Her role in our family frees me up to lead and teach at Riverview. She may be one of the most important people at our church because she plays this role in my life. She is a great multi-tasker and keeps our house and family running like a well-oiled machine. That gives me the freedom to single-task on my duties at Riverview.
Let me add a little caveat: if you are a working or single mom, I am not trying to pour guilt all over you for the choices you have made. I believe there are many different situations where a wife can fulfill the role of helper to her husband in different ways.
I just think our culture poo-poos the job of Stay at Home Mom, and I believe that is a great disservice to families everywhere.
And with that, I have to run home to make tacos for dinner and then run Jesse to baseball practice and help Ethan with his homework. I’ll post this tomorrow morning…I don’t have time to hit “Publish” right now…
Tags: femininity, marriage, personal
Feminism and Slutty Clothes
Jan 20, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
.:mood:. I’m not telling
.:itunes:. Tongue by R.E.M.
OK, this is interesting. I very rarely quote an entire post, but this one by Liam Kinnon has to be posted in its entirety to be understood.
Therefore, I am going to post it without commentary. I would like you to comment on it, then after a bit of time has gone by, I will give you my perspective.
Feminists, you can stop now.
And by that I mean you can stop yelling at men. I know it seems that the world is unfairly skewed our way. It actually is. However this has ceased to be mens fault. Either start yelling at the women who decide to dress like sluts. Or stop dressing like one yourself.
Every time I hear about girls going to a pimps and hoes party, or some such thing that involves guys remaining modestly, if garishly, dressed while the girls dress like they stopped buying clothes after hitting kindergarden, I get mad. Every time I see a girl walking around in public wearing less than she probably should, I stare, then I get mad.
Why am I mad? it could be because that these pimps and hoes parties normally take place at university or at the earliest late high school. These institutions are the bastions of liberal thought, yet girls are taught the paradoxical idea that somehow a liberal view of sexuality and using the fact that men find women more attractive than women find men can somehow be balanced with women being mens equals. If you are willing to dress the way men want you to dress and fall into the stereotype that other women have fought and are fighting against you have lost your right to criticize the unbalanced nature of the world as it stands right now.
Or maybe it is because it is false to say that men are pigs for staring at you, and than to dress yourself provocatively. There is a constant fight for the idea of a “woman”. A woman can complain as often as she wants that men have over-sexualized their view of women. However until women start to take responsibility for how they dress and how they present their image en masse you can’t fault men. “But men design and sell the clothes”, Don’t buy them. “But that means not buying any clothes, they’re all designed that way”, not necessarily, maybe look a little harder. I know a number of women who manage to dress attractively without overly emphasizing their womanly features for lack of a better term. How hard do they have to look to do that, I don’t know, I don’t shop for women, I rarely shop for myself.
I can see some of you saying that this is an unfair comment, how can we judge people based on what they wear. However I think it is fair to say that we judge people if they dress like a punk, or a skater, or have an eyebrow piercing. Are these judgments fair? Maybe not, but you know what you are getting yourself into when you decide to make these things a part of your appearance. There are still enough women dressing in an inappropriate fashion that I feel these comments are merited.
There is a certain irony that the women’s lib thing really took off in the sixties right about the same time that this overtly sexualized image started becoming popular. It is almost as if there has been a fight over what woman means and what her place in the world is since then. I think the best thing for feminists to do is to shift their sights off the evils of men and start closely analyzing their role in equality. At least the role image plays in mens perception of women.
Tags: femininity
