For the last week, Nancy Leigh DeMoss of Revive Our Hearts has been doing a wonderful series called A Vision for Biblical Womanhood. Nancy has unashamedly discussed what the Bible says about men’s and women’s roles in the home, and confronted the complementarian and egalitarian views of men’s and woman’s roles. Today she discussed a woman’s role in her church. I love how she holds fast to what the Word of God says while being very loving and humble as she states her thoughts. The series is still continuing, and I urge you to listen to it on the radio or either at the Revive Our Hearts website. It is free to read or listen to all the past archives of her radio show back to 2001!

Here are just a few of the fabulous thoughts shared:

I began to see my womanhood not as a burden, but as a blessing, as a gift, as something to be received and embraced. I began to see that my womanhood is a means by which I can glorify God. It’s a means by which I can reflect His image. It’s a means by which I can experience true freedom and fullness and fruitfulness as a child of God.

Men and women are equally important to God, equally valuable to God. You’ll never find the Scripture belittling women. You’ll never find the Scripture demeaning women. And you won’t find the Scripture belittling or demeaning men either. You find the Scripture giving value and worth and significance to men and women, created in the image of God.

Those differences in the home and in the church between the masculine and feminine function enable us as men and women to complement one another, to complete one another.

You know that the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—are co-equal. They are all equal with each other. They are co-equal in all their attributes; yet there are essential differences between the three persons of the Trinity.

One is not more important than the others. One is not less important than the others, but they have different roles. They’re equal in their value and in their worth, but they have different functions.

So the fact that there are distinctions between male and female roles and responsibilities in the home and in the church is a noble concept. It’s a beautiful concept. It’s something that’s good.

Let me show you what I mean by that. For example, the husband is given the responsibility to provide for his wife loving, humble, thoughtful leadership, headship, direction, authority. But on the one end he’s not to be harsh or abusive or domineering. On the other end he’s not to be passive or lazy. He’s to be actively involved in providing loving, humble, thoughtful leadership to his wife and family.

And then we have the wife. She is called to give active, intelligent, joyful submission to her husband’s leadership. That steers clear of both of the extremes on either side. It doesn’t mean that she, on one side, has the sins of aggressiveness by domineering or belittling her husband or usurping his authority. Those would be sins of aggressiveness that wives might commit.

On the other end she isn’t guilty of sins of passivity. What would those be? She’s not a passive robot who never speaks up, never participates in the decision-making process, never challenges her husband if he is wrong. “Yes dear. Whatever you say, dear.” That’s not what we’re talking about here.

The Lord put on my heart ten years ago to make him sorry he had to leave in the morning and glad to come home. I want to greet him with a smile and a glass of iced tea for him. That’s his preference. I want him to be so glad to come home that it’s a refuge. -Maria Johnson

(This program was from Wednesday, January 30th. It was so good that I had to print it to keep. Christian women, including a pastor’s wife, shared how they almost drove away their husbands by the way they treated them and tried to be more spiritual than them. It will make you weep as you hear their brokenness.)

Regarding women’s roles in the church and in ministry, Nancy shared how she struggled with the standards of the Word of God and with what her emotions were telling her.

I want to tell you honestly that this is a Scriptural teaching that at times has been difficult for me. I’m a single woman. I’m in ministry. I love teaching the Word of God. I have leadership gifts. And there have been times when my emotions have bristled against what my theology told me was true, based on God’s Word.

So this is not something that has always been easy for me to accept. What I do have to do is obey. I need to bow to the authority of Scripture and say, “Lord, if there is some area where You do not want me to serve You or to use my gifts, You’re God and I’m not.” Ultimately, for me it comes down to an issue of surrender to the lordship of Christ and the authority of Scripture.

Now, let me say that only God can extend the call to ministry. But we don’t have the right to tamper with whom He chooses and whom He calls. The calling of God in your life or mine will never be contrary to the Word of God.

That doesn’t mean that women don’t have teaching and leading gifts. Many of them do. Some of you have those kinds of gifts. All it means is that our gifts as women—and men’s gifts as well—must always be used within the guidelines and the confines of Scripture.

What it comes down to is: Does God have the right to say how He wants His church to be run? And it comes down to a confidence that God’s ways are good, that God’s ways are right, and that God’s ways bring blessing.

A Vision for Biblical Womanhood series starts here. Nancy also had a 3-day series on abortion. If you are hurting from abortion in any way, the series will bless you deeply. Ten Fingers, Ten Toes, and a Beating Heart: An Interview with Nancy Lincoln

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14

Posted under Biblical Womanhood, Christianity, Encouraging Quotes, The Family