Our House Is Sold!!

Thank you all for praying for God to sell our house. It is sold! Praise the Lord, He is so faithful! We should be receiving the check in the next few days. We are still hunting for a home here. There is a home that we are going to look at for the second time tomorrow. It is a very good deal for us, so we just pray that God will give us wisdom! Thanks again for all your prayers!

WMitLC Chapter 2: The Need

I hope you can understand the title of this post, as I will be referring to my book review as WMitLC as the book title, Women's Ministry in the Local Church.
Chapter 2: The Need
"The church is a bride being prepared for the approach of her lover and husband."
Wow, what a profound quote! Do we really believe this? Sometimes I wonder if we do. We, the church, are Christ's bride, and we should be eagerly awaiting His return. What does this look like? I think that this chapter shows us a glimpse of what this looks like in the need of a women's ministry.
I. Covenantal and Complementarian
a. The covenant of grace defines our relationship with God and one another.
b. We are to be a complementarian- acknowledge that God created men and women equal in being but assigned them different, but equally valuable, functions in His kingdom order.
WE ARE EQUALS BEFORE THE CROSS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BUT HE HAS GIVEN US CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AND ROLES THAT ARE DIFFERENT FOR A MAN AND A WOMAN.

5 reasons a church needs a women's ministry:
1. We need to cultivate godly, feminine, Christian women. The word feminine here was difficult for me at first because I am not what someone would call a "girlie, girl." I think that many times especially for myself, I have a clouded view of what a word means because of how our society views the word. God has called us as women to be proud of our femininity, but to understand our place in His higher kingdom calling.
2. We need to promote healthy, Christian marriages. In other words, marriages should reflect our joyful submission to our husbands. It is not a burden or hindrance to submit to our husbands, it is a command of God. This command is to be done with joy because when we do not submit joyfully to our husbands, we are disobeying God.
3. We need, more specifically, to promote godly, monogamous, heterosexual marriages.
4. We need to cultivate among our Christian women a joyous embrace of godly, healthy, Christian, male spiritual leadership in the church. This goes back to number 2.
5. We need to help Christian women appreciate the many areas of service that are open to them in the church and equip them distinctively as women to fulfill their ministry.

There are also five reasons why women's ministry is important, but I think the five above sum up the chapter well.
Two really good quotes from the end of the chapter. Tell me what you think.

"The church has been called to shape culture, not ape it."

"He, God, did not give His benediction of "It is very good" until man and woman stood side by side, equal but different."

Here is a picture of the book I am reviewing for you. I know that sometimes seeing what a book looks like helps me find it if I want to buy it. Obviously, you cannot look inside it, so ignore the "search inside." It is the only picture I could find. Chapter 2 will be coming soon. Karis decided not to take a nap today, so no time to write.

Book Review Chapter 1

Women's Ministry in the Local Church
by J. Ligon Duncan & Susan Hunt

Before I moved from Beaumont my friend, Ashley Benson, and I were reading this book together. I am just now finishing it, and I feel it is very worthy of your time. This book has encouraged me and helped me see God's pure plan for women in ministry and why it is so vital for every local church.
Chapter 1
"In the whole world there is nothing enduring but the CHURCH.." John Calvin

What a true and powerful statement. How much we should love the local church because it is enduring. Chapter 1 is really just an introduction of how the book came to be. This chapter gives both Duncan and Hunt an opportunity to share why they felt that God wanted them to write this book. I am so glad to see that Hunt wanted to write this book with an elder, Duncan, and show how important and vital male leadership is even in women's ministry.
Ten Affirmations are listed from The Danvers Statement of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
1. Both Adam and Eve were created by God in His image, equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood.
2. Distictions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order...
3. Adam's headship in marriage was established by God before the Fall, and was not a result of sin
4. The Fall introduced distortions into the relationships between men and women.
5. The OT and the NT show the equally high value and dignity which God attached to the roles of both men and women.
6. Redemption in Christ aims at removing the distortions intorduced by the curse.
7. in all of life Christ is the supreme authority and guide for men and women so that no earthy submission causes us to sin.
8. In both men and women a call to ministry should never be used to set aside biblical doctrine.
9. no man or woman who feels a passion for God to make His grace known in all the world should ever live without fulfilling their ministry for the glory of Christ.
10. We are convinced that a denial of these rinciples will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large.

These ten affirmations are so true especially the last one. We can see in our culture today how neglecting God's call of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has caused pain and misunderstanding in our world. Even as a girl growing up in the church, I wasn't taught the true reason I was to submit to male headship. I really thought it was because of the fall, not that God had ordained it from the beginning.
The next chapter deals withe the Need of explaining Biblical Womanhood.

Commissioning Service, First two Sundays at CBCW

Open Door Baptist Church commissioning service, Sept. 10.



Pastor Dwayne, Tim Dale, Carol Dale, Justin, Me



Karis doing her favorite thing at the Potluck lunch after our commissioning service.



Just a cute picture of Karis in Tim and Carol's back yard!

I realized today that I haven't written on my blog in a long time. I just figured out how to put pictures on my blog without having to use Justin's computer. On September 10, Open Door Baptist Church (our sponsoring church) did a commissioning service for our church here in Wilson. It was very moving, and we were very encouraged by the memebers of their church. They also had a pot luck lunch for us after the service, that is where Karis is feeding her face like usual!
Our first service was held on my mom's birthday, Sept. 17. The Lord blessed us with 44 people. What a joy it was to be with His people and worship with them! Everything with the nursery went well, and we had two visiting children. Karis wasn't alone in the nursery.
Today was our second service and again the Lord exceded our expectation of people. We had close to the same amount as last week. We also had a couple, Wes and Angey, come from Open Door and lead worship for us. They did a fantastic job leading us in song. Justin is starting the book of Ephesians. He would pick a book about predestination as the first book to do a series on. Ephesians is such a vital book about the church. He reminded us that everything including predestination God does for His glory. Praise the Lord that He does save us through Jesus for His glory!
Our house in Beaumont is officially sold as of yesterday. Praise the Lord! We are still looking here and need your prayers. Thank you for all your prayers, we really appreciate them.

Birthday and House Hunting

I am starting to feel the emotion moving far away from family. My birthday is tomorrow and my mom's birthday is Sunday. This will only be the third time that my mom and I have not gotten together on our around our birthdays. Birthdays are big in my family. This year is really hard for me to not be with my mom because she is turning 60. Mom, you are so special to me and I love you very much. Thank you for being my best friend and loving me no matter what. Thank you for encouraging me in my walk with the Lord and for always wanting Justin and I to go where God leads. I miss you so much.
Karis woke up with fever this morning so Carol and I went to look at houses, and Justin stayed home with Karis. I was disappointed. It seems that all the houses that are in our price range don't have a bath tub in the master bath or a laundry room. We are also having a hard time finding something that has enough space. The houses here are less square foot for the price. I am going to have to compromise on something, I just don't know what yet. Please continue to pray for us. I am getting weary, but I know that God has a house out there for us. I'm sure in posts to come I will be able to tell you what He is teaching me.

First Service and House Hunting

We will be having our first service on Sunday September 17. It will be more of a get together than a full blown service. We will be doing lots of prayer, and Justin will share a message from God's Word. Praise the Lord! I am so excited about being feed and Justin being able to use his God-given gift of preaching. I am in charge of getting everything ready for the nursery. Since at this moment, I am the only one who has a vested interest because Karis is really the only child. I know now why God had me working at Mother's Day Out at FBC Beaumont, I needed to learn the skills to be able to run a nursery well. Thank you FBC! Please continue to pray for us as we start this great adventure of church.
We did get an offer on our house this last week. Praise the Lord again! It is a good one, and the Lord continues to show us His leading and His will by "meeting all our needs." We are still looking at houses here. I just haven't found "it." I keep telling Justin I will know when we have found the right one. For some reason I just feel like God is still telling us to wait, the right house is out there. Thank goodness that the Dales aren't getting tired of us yet! :)
God has shown me His goodness and His everlasting comfort this week. Last week on Thursday I had a small melt down. Karis decided not to take a nap, and I didn't get any rest from her. I also didn't have a car and couldn't go anywhere. God gave me strength and I made it through, but it was hard. She is now still havinng a hard time taking naps again. I pray this is only a phase, I am not ready for her to outgrow naps yet.

Labor Day at Emerald Isle

My trusty life jacket that helped save me from the water.



Karis is enjoying her time in the sand.



She is very determined to fill up the pail on her own.



The water is so cool Mom!

We had a wonderful and relaxing time at Emerald Isle with the Dale's and Lisa. Karis really liked the beach and the sand. We played on the beach for about 2 hours and then Karis came home and took a four hour nap. She was exhauseted. She was very carefree in the water, that is why we had to put a life jacket on her. I know one thing for sure, she loves the water. Don't have a lot of time right now because I am writing this in Justin's office.

Daily Life

You will have to forgive me for waiting so long to blog again. I have been busy, and I haven't been able to download the new pictures of Karis yet. I will have some from our weekend at the beach with the Dale's and Lisa. We had a great time of relaxing, and Karis had a wonderful time playing in the sand and water. She is fearless!
Justin's office is slowly getting put together, literally. He is putting together a desk today and his bookshelves tomorrow. He will now be spending more time at the office so it will be like old times with Karis and me all day long, except we are not at our own home. The Dales are wonderful though. We are still trying to sell our home in Beaumont and looking for houses here in Wilson. Please continue to pray that God will give us wisdom in all these decisions.