A Challenge to Women

Download:

---

By John Piper January 1, 1995

---

1. That all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.
2. That the promises of Christ be trusted so fully that peace and joy and strength fill your soul to overflowing.
3. That this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven.
4. That you be women of the Book, who love and study and obey the Bible in every area of its teaching. That meditation on Biblical truth be the source of hope and faith. And that you continue to grow in understanding through all the chapters of your life, never thinking that study and growth are only for others.
5. That you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God would open to you; and the power of faith and holiness would descend upon you; and your spiritual influence would increase at home and at church and in the world.
6. That you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovereign grace of God undergirding all these spiritual processes, that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers and believers of these things.
7. That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific role, that you not fritter your time away on soaps or ladies magazines or aimless hobbies, any more than men should fritter theirs away on excessive sports or aimless diddling in the garage. That you redeem the time for Christ and his Kingdom.
8. That, if you are single, you exploit your singleness to the full in devotion to Christ and not be paralyzed by the desire to be married.
9. That, if you are married, you creatively and intelligently and sincerely support the leadership of your husband as deeply as obedience to Christ will allow; that you encourage him in his God-appointed role as head; that you influence him spiritually primarily through your fearless tranquility and holiness and prayer.
10. That, if you have children, you accept responsibility with your husband (or alone if necessary) to raise up children who hope in the triumph of God, sharing with him the teaching and discipline of the children, and giving to the children that special nurturing touch and care that you are uniquely fitted to give.
11. That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world. That you not only pose the question: Career vs. full time mom? But that you ask as seriously: Full time career vs. freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom— to be in the employ of someone telling you what to do to make his business prosper, or to be God's free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and your creativity could make God's business prosper? And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular trends or yuppie lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the family and advance the cause of Christ.
12. That you step back and (with your husband, if you are married) plan the various forms of your life's ministry in chapters. Chapters are divided by various things—age, strength, singleness, marriage, employment choices, children at home, children in college, grandchildren, retirement, etc. No chapter has all the joys. Finite life is a series of tradeoffs. Finding God's will, and living for the glory of Christ to the full in every chapter is what makes it a success, not whether it reads like somebody else's chapter or whether it has in it what chapter five will have.
13. That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might, and maximizing your joy in ministry to people's needs.
14. That in all your relationships with men you seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in applying the Biblical vision of manhood and womanhood; that you develop a style and demeanor that does justice to the unique role God has given to man to feel responsible for gracious leadership in relation to women—a leadership which involves elements of protection and care and initiative. That you think creatively and with cultural sensitivity (just as he must do) in shaping the style and setting the tone of your interaction with men.
15. That you see Biblical guidelines for what is appropriate and inappropriate for men and women in relation to each other not as arbitrary constraints on freedom but as wise and gracious prescriptions for how to discover the true freedom of God's ideal of complementarity. That you not measure your potential by the few roles withheld but by the countless roles offered. That you turn off the TV and Radio and think about...

The awesome significance of motherhood

Complementing a man's life as his wife

Ministries to the handicapped

• hearing impaired
• blind
• lame
• retarded

Ministries to the sick:

• nursing
• physician
• hospice care—cancer, AIDS, etc.
• community health

Ministries to the socially estranged:

• emotionally impaired
• recovering alcoholics
• recovering drug users
• escaping prostitutes
• abused children, women
• runaways, problem children
• orphans

Prison ministries:

• women's prisons!
• families of prisoners
• rehabilitation to society

Ministries to youth:

• teaching
• sponsoring
• open houses and recreation
• outings and trips
• counseling
• academic assistance

Sports ministries:

• neighborhood teams
• church teams

Therapeutic counseling:

• independent
• church based
• institutional

Audio visual ministries:

• composition
• design
• production
• distribution

Writing ministries:

• free lance
• curriculum development
• fiction
• non-fiction
• editing
• institutional communications
• journalistic skills for publications

Teaching ministries:

• Sunday school: children, youth, students, women
• grade school
• high school
• college

Music ministries:

• composition
• training
• performance
• voice
• choir
• instrumentalist

Evangelistic ministries:

• personal witnessing
• Inter Varsity
• Campus Crusade
• Navigators
• Home Bible Studies
• outreach to children
• Visitation teams
• Counseling at meetings
• Billy Graham phone bank

Radio and TV ministries:

• technical assistance
• writing
• announcing
• producing

Theater and drama ministries:

• acting
• directing
• writing
• scheduling

Social ministries:

• literacy
• pro-life
• pro-decency
• housing
• safety
• beautification

Pastoral care assistance:

• visitation
• newcomer welcoming and assistance
• hospitality
• food and clothing and transportation

Prayer ministries:

• praying!!!
• mobilizing for major Concerts of Prayer
• helping with small groups of prayer
• coordinating prayer chains
• promoting prayer days and weeks and vigils

Missions:

• all of the above across cultures

Support ministries:

• countless jobs that undergird major ministries

---

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

the song I cannot get away from...

(nor do I want to)

Thy Way, Not Mine

Thy way, not mine, O Lord
However dark it be
Lead me by Thine own hand
Choose out the path for me

Smooth let it be or rough
It will still be the best
Winding or straight, it leads
Right onward to Thy rest

I dare not choose my lot
I would not, if I might
Choose Thou for me, my God
So I can walk aright

Take Thou my cup, and it
With joy or sorrow fill
As best to Thee may seem
Choose Thou my good and ill

Not mine, not mine the choice
In all things great or small
Be Thou my guide, my strength
My wisdom and my all, my wisdom and my all

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)
Words by Horatius Bonar (1857)
Music and additional words by Joel Sczebel

the perfect day for...

AND:

check it out

Open: iTunes---> Select: iTunes Store

Search: The Village Church--->
Select: The Village Church - Sermon Audio

Select: Gospel Realization---> Click: Get Episode
Select: Gospel Contextualization---> Click: Get Episode

Listen: "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24).

a new heart?

"I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). Are we praying to this end?

Oh my God, look around this place
Your fingers reach around the bone
You set the break and set the tone
Flights of grace, and future falls
In present pain all fools say, "Oh my God"

Oh my God, why are we so afraid?
We make it worse when we don't bleed
There is no cure for our disease
Turn a phrase, and rise again
Or fake your death and only tell your closest friend

Oh my God, can I complain?
You take away my firm belief and
graft my soul upon your grief
Weddings, boats and alibis
all drift away, and a mother cries

Liars and fools; sons and failures; thieves will always say
Lost and found; ailing wanderers; healers always say
Whores and angels; men with problems; leavers always say
Broken hearted; separated; orphans always say
War creators; racial haters; preachers always say
Distant fathers; fallen warriors; givers always say
Pilgrim saints; lonely widows; users always say
Fearful mothers; watchful doubters; Saviors always say

Sometimes I cannot forgive
And these days, mercy cuts so deep
If the world was how it should be,
Maybe I could get some sleep
While I lay, I dream we're better,
Scales were gone and faces light
When we wake, we hate our brother
We still move to hurt each other
Sometimes I can close my eyes,
And all the fear that keeps me silent
Falls below my heavy breathing,
What makes me so badly bent?
We all have a chance to murder
We all feel the need for wonder
We still want to be reminded
That the pain is worth the thunder
Sometimes when I lose my grip,
I wonder what to make of heaven
All the times I thought to reach up
All the times I had to give
Babies underneath their beds
Hospitals that cannot treat
All the wounds that money causes,
All the comforts of cathedrals
All the cries of thirsty children - this is our inheritance
All the rage of watching mothers - this is our greatest offense
Oh my God
Oh my God
Oh my God

Jars of Clay, 2006


"We must live a holy life; the gospel is not to teach us to talk, it is not to make us eloquent and subtle, and I know not what; but it is to reform our lives, that the world may know our desire to serve God, to give ourselves wholly to Him, and to conform ourselves to His good will." -John Calvin

Hosanna

There was a man who smiled like the sunrise
His face I can’t forget
His love displayed was unlike any other
He humbly dressed just like a vagabond with
Discourse like a King
And when he talked the angels stopped to listen

Hosanna
Filio David (Son of David)
Hosanna
In Altisimis (in the Highest)

He often spoke about a Kingdom coming
His words I can’t forget
Where all who come may rest beneath His mercy
Where royalty is flowing through the veins of
Every citizen
And every soul is treasured like a promise

Jason Morant, 2006

Grace, all sufficient.

March 4, Morning,
Mr. Spurgeon writes:
"If none of God's saints were poor and tried, we would not know half so well the consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has nowhere to lay his head, who yet can say, "Still will I trust in the Lord;" when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, who yet has faith in Christ, oh! what honor it reflects on the Gospel. God's grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing 'that all things work together for [their] good' (Rom. 8:28), and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring—that their God will either deliver then speedily, or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as He is pleased to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea. It is a calm night. I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm. The tempest must rage about it, and then, I will know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit's work. If it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we would not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was. The masterpieces of God are those who stand steadfast and unmovable in the midst of difficulties—'Calm mid the bewildering cry, confident of victory.' He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with many trials. No man can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts are many. If yours, then, is a much tried path, rejoice in it, because you will all the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of God. As for his failing you, never dream of it—hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end."

grace.
the gospel.
all sufficient.
enough.

watch. http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=faf0159744aecaf5c732
_ _ _ _ _