Looking For Exceptions In The Bible

Are we reading the Bible looking for exceptions?
Are we reading the Bible looking through the lens of what the world is teaching us?

CREATION
The world tells us that the earth is very very old.
Many people in churches then try to triage the Bible to fit what "scientists" tell them.
The Bible says that there was evening and morning during the days of Creation.
Some in the church want to allegorize that to fit what the world says instead of the very clear account of Scripture.
The Bible additionally gives us a lot of genealogies which leaves us with solid clues that the earth is not remotely millions of years old.

A literal 6 day Creation is what God teaches me in His Word. 

I believe Him.
People can argue about it, but it's a fact.
So, God can make the earth and trees and animals and people as mature (trees with fruit & man with intelligence to name things, etc.), yet they were newly created.
Why should that surprise us? 

 Scientists have often gotten things wrong in their ignorance (just watch the news and you'll see how they change their minds on things), and they get it even more wrong when they try to explain things without acknowledging the God who rules over the universe.

WOMEN
The world tells us that women should be able to do whatever a man can.
The Bible teaches us that men and women are different and have different roles and that wives are to submit to their husbands (if they have one) and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church.
Many people in churches then look at where the Bible talks about women not being permitted to teach or exercise authority over a man and they again try to triage the Bible to fit in with what they world has taught them and their own desire to exercise authority over men because they feel gifted.

Even those who partially accept what Scripture says about the qualification for elder often put women in authority in mixed adult Sunday School classes and find ways to get them leading the men in pastoral type roles in church.

Some believe that women can be leaders in a body that helps to choose missionaries (which does affect church planting), or they encourage women to preach outside the church walls.

God teaches in His Word that elders are to be men and that women aren't to teach or exercise authority over men by reason of the order of Creation. 

 While Aquila was with her husband and explained the way more accurately to a man along with him, she was not teaching up front and there wasn't even any hint that there was a long formal instruction time. I wish people would read the context.

Even Deborah's being a judge was more of a judgment (and that wasn't being a church type leader).
1 Corinthians 14 fits in with 1 Timothy 2 & 3 and Titus 1.
Why is it that those even in churches that claim to believe Scripture want to find a way to get around what Scripture says?
I get frustrated when people teach women the lie that 1 Timothy 2 and the like were only based on a particular situation in history while ignoring that it is based on the order of Creation.


VICTIMHOOD
The world teaches us to view our world through the lens of victimhood or our perceived identities.
Many people in church then try to interpret Scripture and the idea of justice through the lens of the world's views on equality.
This thinking actually can lead to a twisting of what the Gospel is, and it can separate brothers and sisters which is the opposite of unity. 

 It can also eventually lead to acceptance of immoral behaviors and sin.
It leads to demands that the Scriptures don't teach us to make on each other.
It can encourage bitterness.
If you have actually been sinned against by one person or a few people, it's easy to project that on others with similarities to the perpetrator.
We get hurt, but our first reaction which might be righteous indignation can easily turn to sin (if it's not sinful to start with).
If you are able to restore a relationship with someone who hurt you, that is good.

As Christians, we must avoid turning our hurt into vendettas and bitterness and judgment on all people including those who haven't sinned against us.
It is hard to love our enemies, but when we don't obey God we can end up sinning and treating others like enemies who are not our enemies.
It's especially sad to see Christians not focusing on unity around the truth of Scripture and instead some are even distorting the Gospel.

As far as people claiming victimhood in other cases where people don't accept immoral behavior or lust or deception, we can't accept sinful lust and coveting or lies about who people are as okay in the church.
The Bible teaches us to confess and forsake sin...not to coddle it as something that we can't help.

Christians do struggle with sin, but we shouldn't make ourselves comfortable with it.
We need to examine ourselves if we try to excuse our sin (that which Scripture calls sin) and get others to as well.
It isn't loving to tell someone that sin is okay (like lust, coveting, or deception about our identity that God gave us).


Too much of the time the church is willing to believe the world and follow it's fashions and fads and ideas of what is right and wrong and justice and injustice.
We can be like Eve listening to the Serpent asking us if God really said what He said and then when the truth is twisted being deceived by the lie.

I get distressed by my own sinfulness and rebellion toward God.
As a believer, I need to submit to the Scriptures and believe its truthfulness no matter what the world says.
Sin wants to reign, but if we are Christ's we need to call our sins out for what they are.
We can't listen to our sinful desires or the world's ideas of right or wrong.
We need to call them out for what they are...liars.
We need to draw near to God.
This is my desire, but I'm weak.

I am thankful for those who care enough to pray for me, and I would like to pray for those who ask for it as well.

A Woman's Perspective on Women's Role

This post is for my Christian women readers specifically.
I was reading 1 Timothy 2 today.  I once memorized the first 3 chapters of 1 Timothy, but I do not have them still perfectly in my mind.  They are still very familiar to me though, and in going over chapter 2 today, I want to address the role of women issue.

The role of women is a very controversial one in the church today, and some people try to twist the Scripture to suit their own desires.  I have found though that 1 Timothy 2 does not have qualifiers that say that it is only addressing certain women of the day.  In fact, it clearly points to creation and the deception of Eve, which is something from long before the time when I Timothy was penned.

"A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 
But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.
And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint."
1 Timothy 2:11-15 NASB

So, it seems quite clear that women are not to teach men or exercise authority over a man not because of what the circumstances were at that time, but because of the order of creation and the fact of Eve's deception (who is representative of womankind). 
Naturally, women have pride and like to think that that only applies to certain women and not us.  We think about the fact that men can also be  deceived.  The thing is that there are consequences still from Adam and Eve's sin that affect all of us.  Since I believe that Scripture trumps personal feelings and any other experience that we have had, then I rely on Scripture as the authority over me as a woman.  Aside from that,  in recent times I have found that I have been deceived by someone online posing as different people.  I'm thankful for my Christian brothers who were there to point out the truth.

God has many roles for women to fulfill.  Even those of us who have never been married or had children can communicate with people in informal settings as Priscilla did with Aquila or serve the church by ministering in other ways.  It seems that women can teach children and mentor other women.  Do I believe that women should street preach?   I know a lot of people who believe there is an exception there too, but I do not.  There is still the order of creation and the matter of exercising authority over men. 
The reasons given in 1 Timothy 2:13-14 do not seem to be something that is negated when you step outside of a church building.
Definitely, it is a public setting where some of the audience can be Christians as well.  It is more than just explaining something in an informal setting with Christian men ready to help and correct in a discussion. 


I tend to go even further than some people in that it really bothers me when a woman reads Scripture up front in church or a woman is the head worship music leader.  I even have walked out of a service occasionally when  I have felt deeply troubled enough to not feel that I can properly worship thinking about it.
Here is a respected blogger and pastor's blog post on the subject of women and Bible reading in church: http://www.challies.com/articles/men-women-the-public-reading-of-scripture