Were there women among the “seventy”?

April 26, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 1 Comment

I’ve recently become fascinated by the life of a woman I call Mrs. Zebedee, mother of James and John, wife of a fisherman from Galilee.

 

Photo Credit: Hindrik S via Compfight cc

This is what Matthew’s gospel says about Mrs Zebedee on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion:

And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance.  Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James and Joseph), and the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. (Matthew 27:55-56)

When did Mrs. Zebedee join Jesus’ group? When he left Galilee for Jerusalem.

The first part of Luke 9 clearly takes place in Galilee. Then Luke 9:51-53 says this: As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival.  But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem.

This passage obviously refers to Jesus’ final trip to Jerusalem. If we marry these two verses, it sounds to me as though Mrs. Zebedee was with Jesus from this point onwards.

The remainder of Luke 9 is the passage where Jesus talks about the cost of discipleship. Luke 10 then goes straight into the story of sending out the seventy or seventy-two “other disciples.”  It’s hard to know if the rest of Luke’s gospel is in chronological order, but the end of Luke 9 and the first part of Luke 10 are clearly linked in time.

There’s no way to prove it, but it seems likely that Mrs. Zebedee and the other women were among the seventy that Jesus sent out to all the places where he planned to visit. They went out two by two, praying for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. They put into practice the teaching about the “person of peace.” healing the sick and telling the good news of the Kingdom. They reported back to Jesus how even demons were subject to his name. And Jesus told them too that they had authority over all the power of the enemy.

And Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, thanking God for revealing truths to the childlike (Luke 10:21).

 

5 signs that God may be on the move re women

April 24, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 6 Comments

In my last post, I suggested that the releasing of women to co-labor alongside men in the Kingdom may be one of the next moves of God. Here are five (somewhat subjective/anecdotal) reasons I believe this:

 Photo Credit:psd viaCompfightcc

    1. The  increasing number of respected theologians and leaderswho are vocally expressing their support of women–theologians such as Ben Witherington, N.T. Wright and Scot McKnight through their clear exposition of the Scriptures, leaders such as Bill and Lynne Hybels, Alan Hirsch, Dave Ferguson through both their words and actions.
    2. The number of books being written. Thirty plus years ago, when I first started examining this topic, it was hard to find a book written on this subject. There are an increasing number coming on the market–both theological such as Man and Woman, One in Christ by Philip B. Payne, and What’s With Paul and Women? by Jon Zens, and experiential–I think of Unladylike: Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church by Pam Hogeweide and The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules by Carolyn Custis James. (And yes, I ask myself, is there a need for one more–the one I’m in the process of compiling? I hope so. It will take a different approach.)
    3. I’m beginning to see tracks for women in leadership at conferences, and seminars designed specifically for women who are taking a lead. Conferences that traditionally only had male speakers on the platform are making room for women too. It’s a small number, but it’s a start.
    4. An increase in opposition. The conversation is becoming more heated, which often happens when something worthwhile is about to break.
    5. The number of both men and women who are changing their minds about women in ministry. I hear this quite often at a personal level, and the book, How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership details a number of stories from prominent evangelicals who describe their change in belief.

Are there other signs that I’ve missed?

 

Another movement?

April 22, 2013 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

A fascinating video on Youtube called Piercing the Veil by Lance Wallnau expresses this concept:

Certain Kingdom truths are veiled—the enemy keeps them hidden from God’s people  who have a veil over their minds and spirits. If someone tries to break through,  they hit a barrier. Finally a few pierce the veil, but at great personal price. Then it seems that God opens people’s eyes–gives them revelation from the Scriptures–and  the floodgates open. Anyone can walk into the “new” truth. Whole movements begin.

Wallnau’s conclusion?  Once you reach critical mass on a revelation, everyone gets access easily to what was once contested territory.

Here are some examples:

Justification by faith: Prior to Martin Luther, the church taught that people could “buy” their salvation–hence the sale of indulgences. Martin Luther knew that this wasn’t the way to salvation but he had many years of doubt and questions as he struggled to understand the truth. Finally God opened his eyes to “see” justification by faith. At a similar point in time, others, like Zwingli, came into the same truth. The truth spread rapidly as the Scriptures were made available in the language of the common people. From that point onwards, salvation by faith has been a truth open to all. It’s so obvious in the Scriptures that you wonder how people could have missed it.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit:  The Pentecostal/charismatic movements began in Azusa Street in 1906. Prior to this, a few people, after days and weeks of tarrying, might be filled with the Holy Spirit. Once God illumined the Scriptures, it became easy for people to experience. Now, the reality of the Holy Spirit, including the spiritual gifts, is widely accepted and people  are easily filled with the Holy Spirit.

I would put simple/organic/house church into a similar bracket. When we first became involved in this movement nearly 20 years ago, the idea that it didn’t take specially trained clergy to start a church was revolutionary and controversial. But again, God illumined the Scriptures. Now the concept has become mainstream, (according to the Pew Forum, 9% of Protestants meet this way) and its acceptable for ordinary people to gather in their homes to worship and to start churches working primarily with not-yet-believers.

I believe we are on the verge of the same thing happening with women. God is illumining the Scriptures. It may just be that I’m more aware of it, but it seems that everywhere I turn, people are interested in this topic. God is in the process of bringing this subject to the forefront. There’s a groundswell–a huge change of opinion, an awakening to its relevance to the Kingdom.

God is in the process of piercing the veil, and women everywhere will be set free to co-labor alongside men in the Kingdom.

What could happen as a result?

 Photo Credit: john14:6 via Compfight cc

Heroines of the faith: Corrie ten Boom

April 19, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 6 Comments

“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still,” were among the final words to her sister, Corrie, as Betsie ten Boom lay dying in a German death camp, a victim of starvation and torture.

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who worked in her father’s watch repair shop in Haarlem, Holland. When the Germans invaded Holland in 1940, the whole family became involved in the Dutch resistance movement. They constructed a secret hidden chamber, thirty inches deep, in Corrie’s bedroom on the top floor of their home above the shop where they hid Jews and others from the Nazi SS troops. Throughout 1943 and 44 there were usually at least 6 people hiding in their home. Additional refugees were given temporary accommodation until other places could be found for them.

In February of 1944, an informant betrayed them. The entire family was arrested, although the Nazis didn’t find the Jews hidden in the secret room. They were rescued later by members of the Resistance. Their elderly father died 10 days later in prison. Other members of the family were released, but Corrie and her sister, Betsie, were sent to the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp. There they endured unspeakable horrors, but held onto their faith. They were even able to conduct Bible studies using a contraband Bible.

Betsie died on December 16th 1944, and due to a clerical error, Corrie was released two weeks later, just one week before all women prisoners her age were executed.

After the war, Corrie set up rehabilitation centers for concentration camp survivors, and also for Dutch people who had collaborated with the Germans and were unable to get jobs. She spoke everywhere about the need for forgiveness.

In 1947, this was put to the test. She had just finished speaking at a meeting in Germany when a man in an overcoat and brown hat came up to her. She recognized him instantly as one of the guards who had abused her and Betsie.

“I was a guard in Ravensbruck, but since then, I’ve become a Christian. I know Christ has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there. Will you forgive me?” And he put out his hand.

This was the most difficult thing Corrie had ever been asked to do, but as she, by choice of will, gave him her hand, the love of Christ flooded her whole being, and she was able to say, “Yes, brother, I forgive you, with all of my heart!”

Sometimes there are books that have such an impact on your life that you can remember them decades later.  The Hiding Place  Corrie’s autobiography, became a best-seller that was later made into a movie.  I still remember its story and message.

Corrie traveled to over 60 nations, preaching the message of Christ’s forgiveness. Thousands became believers through her many books and her speaking.

Among her awards:

  • Israel honored her by giving her the title “Righteous Among the Nations.”
  • She was knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands for her work during the war.

Corrie died in 1983 on her 91st birthday.

(Information for this post came from here and here)

(Photo from Christianity.com)

Heroines of the faith: Amy Carmichael

April 17, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 1 Comment

Amy Carmichael was born in Ireland in 1867 to a well-to-do family. She decided to follow Jesus at the age of 13. At 18, her father died, leaving the family in a difficult financial situation. They moved to Belfast, where Amy became involved with the “shawlies,” mill girls who wore shawls rather than hats. She saw the appalling conditions in which they lived and worked. Starting as a small group class, the work grew until Amy needed a hall seating 500. Later she moved to Manchester, England, where she did the same.

A couple of interesting stories about Amy’s early life. She had brown eyes, but as a child always wished for blue ones. She was very disappointed when God didn’t answer her prayers for her eyes  to turn blue. But she was very grateful later on when God revealed his call on her life. Amy also suffered from neuralgia, a very painful neurological condition that often had her bedridden for weeks on end. An unlikely candidate for the mission field.

In 1887, at the Keswick Convention, Amy heard Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, speak about the missionary life. Soon, she felt God’s call to go overseas as a missionary. Initially she went to Japan, but she never really felt at home there. From there she went to Sri Lanka. Then, after a year at home, she set sail for India in 1895, where she did her life’s work. She never returned home again, serving for 55 years without a furlough.

Amy did not fit into the missionary community in Bangalore–she hated the tea-drinking parties and gossip of the missionary wives. Soon she moved to join the Walker family on the very southern tip of India. Along with one of the Walker daughters and a few Indian Christian ladies, they began an itinerant ministry, speaking about Jesus throughout the surrounding villages. Their motto? “How much can I do without that I may have more to give?”

Amy adopted Indian dress and lifestyle, sometimes dying her skin with dark coffee.

In 1901, a young five year old girl named Preena was brought to Amy. She had been sold by her mother into temple prostitution, and was being taught all the degrading practices of the Hindu temple prostitutes. She had run away twice before, only to be found, taken back to the temple and beaten. But this time, the lady who found her, rather than taking her back to the temple, brought her to Amy. From that time onwards, Amy Carmichael set herself to rescue these young children from this terrible lifestyle.

This work was known as the Dohnavur Fellowship. They have rescued literally thousands of children, mainly girls, from the horrific lifestyle of the temple prostitute.

In 1931 Amy was crippled by a fall that left her bedridden for the nearly 20 remaining years of her life. She wrote many books during this time. Wheeled in a wheelchair onto the veranda outside her bedroom, the children would come and sing songs to her in the evenings.

The impact of Amy Carmichael”s life and writing continue to have an impact, more than 50 years after her death–for example, her vision of Christians making daisy chains.

Information for this post came from here and here. There is an interesting short video about her life here.

 

Photo taken from the website www.amycarmichael.org

Heroines of the faith: Gladys Aylward

April 15, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 6 Comments

Gladys Aylward, born of working class parents in London, England, in 1902, became a domestic servant at the age of 14. From the time she attended a revival meeting at which the message was about dedicating one’s life to the service of God, her heart was in missions. She longed to go overseas as a missionary to China. However, when she applied to the China Inland Mission, she was turned down because of her inadequate education–she failed the mission’s entry exam. They also thought at the age of 28 she was too old to learn Chinese.

Undeterred, by 1932 she had saved up her money and eventually spent her life savings on a one way train ticket to China, via Russia. She couldn’t afford the boat fare. She had been invited to work with Jeannie Lawson, an older missionary who was looking for someone to take over her work.

The two of them decided that the best way to reach out in their city, which was an overnight stop for mule trains carrying consumer goods, was to open an inn. So they founded the “Inn of the Eight Happinesses.” (A movie, “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” starring Ingrid Bergman was based on this work.) After the first few months when they had to be coerced to stop, the mule drivers willingly stayed there because the food was good, the beds were warm and the innkeepers provided free entertainment in the evenings. They were storytellers, telling tales of a man named Jesus.

Gladys learned Mandarin from them, and adopted Chinese dress and culture.

After Jeannie’s death following an accident, Gladys Aylward served as a “foot inspector” for the Chinese government, traveling around the countryside enforcing the ban against the cruel practice of footbinding in which an infant girls feet were tightly bound with cloth to make their feet tiny–thought to be a sign of beauty, but crippling the girls in the process. It enabled her to get into many situations where she could tell the good news of Jesus. She also gained great favor when she stopped a prison riot.

Gladys took in orphans, adopting several herself. When the Japanese invaded her region of China in 1938, and with a price on her own head, she led 100 orphans to safety over the mountains. It was a twelve day journey with some nights spent unprotected on the mountainside, but eventually she delivered all the children to the safety of an orphanage in Sian. She promptly collapsed with typhus.

After 10 years back in Britain, she was denied re-entry to China by the Communist government, so settled instead in Taiwan where she became a friend of Tony (my husband’s) family. Again, she founded an orphanage. She died in 1970.

A book about her life by Alan Burgess, The Small Woman, was published in 1957.

Picture taken from Google images www.christianity.com

Information for this story was primarily obtained here and here.

Heroines of the faith: Sophie Muller

April 12, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 6 Comments

A few years ago,  I had the incredible privilege of visiting Puerto Ayacucho in the Amazon jungle of Venezuela. Many of those living there were primitive tribespeople recently out of the jungle.  I kept hearing stories about a lady missionary named Sophie Muller. A man named Ricardo knew her personally and one day, he told me some of her story.

Ricardo with veteran missionary to Venezuela, Buck Smith

Sophie Muller was a young woman in her early twenties when she came to the virgin jungle of Columbia in 1944. At that time, there were settlements of a few tribal houses scattered throughout the jungle often only reachable by a canoe journey of several days. The nearest town of any size (Puerto Ayacucho) was not built until 1947.

Sophie, originally a reporter for the New York Times, had become a Christian following an outreach in a New York street. She had seen a group of people singing and preaching on the sidewalk and, out of curiosity, had responded to their invitation to join a Bible study. Over time she opened her heart to Christ. She became interested in working with unreached peoples, longing to go somewhere no one had ever preached the gospel before. She eventually chose the Amazon jungle with the New Tribes Mission.

At that time, witches and sorcerers were in charge of the jungle. They had many strange rituals that included drinking and drugs and wild partying. But there was a legend that had been passed down through the years. Someone had dreamed that a strange-looking person would come with a power greater than that of the witch doctors.

With her white skin and blue eyes, Sophie certainly looked strange to the tribespeople. So the chief witch doctor  prepared a spiritual test. He made a chicken stew and added to it Caribbean stick poison—the strongest poison known in the jungle. It normally kills a person within five minutes. As she ate the stew, everyone watched her intently, waiting for her to die. She did not die, but did throw up a little. Some of the village dogs lapped at her vomit and a chicken pecked at it.  They fell over and died immediately, but Sophie herself was unharmed.

The witch doctor who had prepared the stew converted on the spot. Sophie became known as a daughter of God and was allowed to travel unharmed wherever she wanted in the jungle.

Ricardo’s grandfather was the head witchdoctor of the region. Around that time he saw in a vision that there was a more powerful spirit than the one over the jungle. The story of Sophie passing the poison test had spread far and wide, so Ricardo’s grandfather sent his son, Ricardo’s father, to find Sophie and investigate her. Ricardo’s father paddled his dugout canoe for one month to find her.

Ricardo’s father arrived and made friends with Sophie. He soon became a believer and they started working together.  She came to live in the next door hut, sharing the same lifestyle as the villagers, and the family would often wake at 3am to hear her singing praise to God. She and Ricardo’s father would paddle for months at a time to different communities in the jungle to evangelize.

Here’s one story from her life: Incited by the Catholic Church, the Columbian army persecuted Sophie Muller. She was put in a jail with double doors and double locks. As she lay there, she could hear the soldiers fighting amongst themselves as to who would be the first to rape her. They decided to play a game, and the winner would be the one to go first. But while they were playing, Sophie fell into a very deep sleep. When she awoke, she was in the middle of the jungle.

In the meantime, a rescue party, armed with bows and arrows, was formed. As they were paddling upriver in their dugout canoes they saw a beach with a large turtle. Of course, their immediate thought was food—in fact, banquet! So they pulled up onto the beach to jump the turtle. As they did so they heard a whistle. Ricardo’s father recognized the whistle and went looking. It was Sophie, hiding behind a rock. She had had days of just eating roots and was too weak to even call out. They put her in the bottom of the boat wrapped in plastic and paddled up river past various army groups who were no doubt looking for her. When they came to Sophie’s house there was a team there from the mission. They came out to greet her.

“Don’t be sad or worried,” she told them. “Nothing happened. I’m going north for a few days to recover.” Fifteen days later she was back in the jungle.

Sophie and Ricard’s father worked together for fifty years. When Sophie finally left the jungle, she was an old woman.  She had started several hundred churches.

Heroines of the faith: Aimee Semple McPherson

April 10, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 0 Comments

An extraordinary and controversial woman, Aimee Semple McPherson was like a movie star in the 1920s. But hundreds of thousands were converted under her ministry, thousands claimed healing, and her social ministries helped vast numbers during the Great Depression.

Here’s a documentary about her early life:

The second and third parts of the documentary can be seen here and here.

Aimee Semple McPherson was founder of the Foursquare Denomination, which is based on the fourfold foundation of Jesus Christ as Savior, Spirit-baptizer, healer and coming King. Attendance in these churches in this country is 257,000 with 7.9 million attending around the world.

A heroine of the faith: Lottie Moon

April 8, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 0 Comments

Lottie Moon, height 4 foot 3 inches, was a powerhouse for the gospel. Born to affluent parents who owned a tobacco plantation in 1840, she was indifferent to her Baptist upbringing until the age of 18, when she underwent a spiritual awakening at a revival meeting on her college campus. At the age of 33, with one of the first Master of Arts degrees accorded to a woman by a southern university and with a few years of teaching experience, she followed her younger sister onto the mission field in China. She spoke five languages, could read Hebrew and would learn Chinese. She had turned down a marriage proposal and left everything behind, with no expectation of ever returning home, in order to follow God’s call on her life.

Lottie started teaching at a boys’ school but soon discovered her real passion: evangelism. Most mission work at the time was done by men, but they could do nothing to reach the Chinese women. Frustrated at  being tied to teaching in school, she soon viewed herself as part of an oppressed class–that of single women missionaries. She became relentless in a battle to see women missionaries given the freedom to minister and to have an equal voice in missions proceedings. She wrote frequently to the head of the Southern Baptist Missions Board requesting more workers–whether male or female.

At the age of 45, Lottie Moon moved away from teaching into full time evangelism. Her converts numbered in the hundreds.

She wrote numerous letters to people back in the States describing the life of a missionary and encouraging Southern Baptist women to create support groups for missionaries, and to consider becoming missionaries themselves. She also argued for regular furloughs for those on the mission field, convinced this would extend their lives on the mission field.

When she returned from her second furlough in 1904, Lottie was deeply disturbed by the poverty and starvation she saw all around her and she started sharing her meager supplies with them–to her own physical and mental detriment. She pleaded for more money, but the mission board had none to send her. By 1912, she weighed only 50 pounds. Fellow missionaries were so alarmed by her appearance they arranged for her to be sent home with a companion. She died on board the boat home.

But Lottie Moon’s legacy lives on: In 1887, one of her letters home suggested that the week before Christmas be specially set aside for giving to missions. The idea caught on. The first offering raised more than $3000, enough to send three more missionaries to China. In the years since then, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Missions has raised a total of $1.5 billion and finances half the entire Southern Baptist missions budget every year.

In a letter dated February 9th 1889, Lottie Moon wrote this:

Recently, on a Sunday which I was spending in a village near Pingtu city, two men came to me with the request that I would conduct the general services. They wished me to read and explain, to a mixed audience of men and women, the parable of the prodigal son. I replied that no one should undertake to speak without preparation, and that I had made none. (I had been busy all the morning teaching the women and girls.) After awhile they came again to know my decision. I said, “It is not the custom of the Ancient church that women preach to men.” I could not, however, hinder their calling upon me to lead in prayer. Need I say that, as I tried to lead their devotions, it was hard to keep back the tears of pity for those sheep not having a shepherd. Men asking to be taught and no one to teach them. We read of one who ìcame forth and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. “And how did he show his compassion?” He began to teach them many things. “Brethren, ministers and students for the ministry, who may read these lines, does there dwell in your hearts none of that divine compassion which stirred the heart of Jesus Christ, and which led him to ‘teach’ the multitude many things”?

And from another letter:

Women, too, may find [a place]. In city and in village, thousands of women will never hear the gospel until women bear it to them. They will admit women, but men can not gain access to their homes, nor will they come to church. The only way for them to hear the good news of salvation is from the lips of foreign women. Are there not some, yea many, who find it in their hearts to say, ‘Here am I; send me’?

Amazing what one outspoken little lady can do!

(Information for this article from Wikipedia and the International Mission Board)

 (Lottie Moon–picture from the IMB website)

 

 

Women of significance in the Old Testament

April 4, 2013 in Kingdom Women with 5 Comments

For a very patriarchal society, God used a remarkable set of women in the stories of the Old Testament:

  • Eve was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20).
  • Miriam is described as a prophet (Exodus 15:20). She may have been the sister who watched over Moses in his basket when he was discovered by Pharaoh. She led the women in singing and dancing after Moses led the Children of Israel across the Red Sea (Exodus 15). She was temporarily struck down with leprosy after complaining against Moses (Numbers 12)
  • Sarah played a significant role in the story of Abraham and the formation of the Israelite people (Genesis 17-25).  The same is true of Rebecca (Genesis 24-29), and Rachel and Leah (Genesis 29-35).
  • Rahab protected the two spies Joshua sent to Jericho (Joshua 2).
  • Deborah was a prophet and judge ruling over Israel. She led the Children of Israel to victory in a battle against the Canaanites (Judges 4). Barak, the commander of the army, refused to go into battle without her, and God granted them victory.
  • Jael killed Sisera, captain of the Canaanite army by driving a peg through his temple (Judges 4).
  • The five daughters of Zelophehad faced Moses and the entire community of Israel to demand land as their inheritance (Numbers 27).
  • Ruth and Naomi are a beautiful example of God’s dealings with women
  • Hannah was barren until God answered her prayers. She gave birth to the Samuel whom she dedicated to God (1 Samuel 1)
  • Abigail saved her household by providing for David (1 Samuel 25). She later became King David’s wife.
  • A young servant girl directed Naaman to go to Elisha for healing (2 Kings 5)
  • When King Josiah didn’t know what to do, his advisors consulted with Huldah, a female prophet, who spoke God’s word to them (2 Kings 22).
  • God used Queen Esther to save the Jewish people (Esther).

Not only does the history of Israel include these women, several women are described in the genealogy of Jesus: Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba (Matthew 1). God has used women throughout human history.

 

  Photo Credit: BrianHenry ////|// via Compfight cc

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