Just some thoughts & quoteable’s i’ve been mulling around lately…
“Paul identifies [Phoebe] as a ’servant of the church’…. Dear ladies, peculiarly gifted by God as helpers suitable, heroically play your God-appointed positions in the church. You weren’t assigned to be corporately leading and publicly preaching, but supportively helping and humbly serving…. The church of Christ desperately needs Phoebe-like women of dominion.” pp. 91, 92
Question [and VERY practical challenge]:
Do you spend more time complaining about the men whom God has appointed to lead and publicly preach than aggressively “playing” the position God called you to in the church? How can you repent and begin to serve the church like Pheobe?
This is something that I want to learn and to start practicing. With a sinful/prideful nature and the influence of the Spice Girls & other propents of the grrrrrrrrrrrrl power phase I was influenced by during much of my adolescence this is NOT a natural mentality for me. But the more I’ve been thinking through the responsibilities outlined in scripture for women, how very important it is to re-program my mentality down to the roots. Starting with taking this prideful heart and programming humility – in serving and loving others because I want to show my love for my Heavenly Father. :/
“Jesus Christ is not merely the means of our rescue from damnation; he is the goal of our salvation….He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening waves; he is the solid beach under our feet, the air in our lungs, and the beat of our heart, and the warm sun on our skin, and the song in our ears, and the arms of our beloved.”
- John Piper, Taste and See, 406
This quote made me think of Phil Wickham song that I loved when I was in college…and made me think of how much more time I need to spend with the savior. Not to fulfill an obligation that hangs over me but to see and savor his beauty and his presence.
