Biblical Womanhood-Part 3–Dr. Voddie Baucham

Am I a Reverent Woman?

Since I’m posting the interview by Lindsay this weekend, I thought it a wonderful time to interject an audio series by Voddie Baucham on “Biblical Womanhood”. He is FANTASTIC. I listen and just say, “WOW”.

The first message in the series was more of an intro and less to do with the meat of his message, so I started with the second one–he asks a biblical question not asked very often anymore of godly women…”Are we reverent women?” And to the guys–”Are you looking for a reverent woman to marry?”

It’s not very long–this is GOOD STUFF!

Launching Children Like Arrows

I’ve been all about “taking action” this week But living deliberately is what I think must happen if our culture is ever to be taken back for the Kingdom. There is no more room for apathy, nonchalant, careless Christians. We must know what we believe, why we believe it, and then fight for it.

If you have a large family, you know one of the challenges is answering people for the “odd” decision you’ve made to allow God to give you more than two children. And I submit to you, that this is just one of many areas where we can live deliberately, and use the incredible opportunity right in front of us to “shine” in the world.

Based on something Dr. Baucham said in the sermon I posted yesterday, I came up with an answer that I’m going to start using when someone questions me. Devising an answer isn’t boastful or self-righteous; it is a duty to be able to “give an answer for the hope that is within us”. Thinking through situations and having an answer for why we live the way we live is a good thing.

The most common question that is often difficult to answer is “Do you want anymore [children]?”

Voddie Baucham quoted God’s command for the children of Israel while they were slaves in another country. Here’s what He told them:

“Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and have sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters–that you may be increased there, and not diminished.” Jer.29:5,6

I’ve taken what Baucham says he and his wife say to people who ask about their large family(they now adopt), tweaked it a little, and have come up with a truthful answer that I challenge you to use as well. So, to the question. “Do you want any more?” Or, “Are you going to have anymore?” I am going to begin answering:

“We are going to have, teach, train, love, disciple and launch as many children from our home for the glory of God that we can before we die.”

Simply put, we’re in spiritual warfare, and one of the main weapons God has given His people is more children (arrows). What kind of warrior do we want to be?

Why else would God be constantly admonishing His people to “have more children, and teach them about Me”? Why did he specifically command His people to marry and have children, and so on? Because He wanted His own people to multiply and take dominion!

I’ve actually heard Christians accusing other Christians in a demeaning way for “seeing how many children they can have”. Well? I think that’s an excellent practice given the implications of Scripture! That is, if you understand WHY you are having children–as a dominion-taker. If you don’t want to, OK. But that should make you an even bigger cheerleader for those who do! We’re on the same team, remember? And by God’s economy, more is better!

Dr. Baucham jokingly explained how he wanted as many arrows as possible, as would any warrior in his right mind. “Never mind where I’m going to put them….I’ll find a place–just give me more arrows!”

Lies or Legacy…What Will We Leave Our Children?

It is so amazing how warped our theologies can become if we do not understand God’s Word, and do not see life as God sees it. The way we live, think, act–it is all a direct result of the way we understand God’s Word. And thus, the way we raise our children will be a direct result of our biblical understanding.

Never in my life have I seen this concept so clearly stated as in this amazing video by Voddie Baucham (I guess you know by now he is one of my favorite pastors!)

The majority of Christians have bought the world’s lie–”It’s all about me”…and that lie is having devastating implications for the family…and we all know, as the family goes, so goes the culture.

I would encourage you to ask your husband if the whole family could sit and watch this clip–really profound.

It is also especially helpful in answering some of the confusion encountered with the Prosperity message…

Click on the link below:
Legacy: Generational Promise

The Real Fight–For Our Children

A state ruling in CA sent shock and fear through the hearts of homeschoolers in that state this week. And rightly so. In short, an appellate court ruled that only parents with credentials can home educate their children. The ruling is being appealed in the Supreme Court, and thankfully, Schwarzenegger vowed to do whatever he had to do to ensure parents’ right to homeschool.

In light of what John Taylor Gatto was saying in the recent youtube video I posted, it is unthinkable that a parent’s right to choose his child’s education could be threatened. It is a basic constitutional right in question.

And yet, the attack on homeschooling is understandable in every sense, when one understands the ulterior motive of the state–to engineer state-slaves.

If you don’t think that a socialistic current is running viciously underneath the public education system, you better wake up and smell the coffee.

Homeschooling dares to allow parents to raise children who think outside the box–the classroom box, the curriculum box, and the social box. It allows parents to transfer their values to their children–there’s a novel idea–and to be in control of their experiences, of what they’re reading, studying, hearing and seeing. And there are actually some of you–Christian parents, reading this right now and feeling uneasy. Because you have been told that a parent shouldn’t have so much control. And worse yet, you’re convinced that the government needs this control!

Homeschooling is a huge threat to the state’s tidy little program for mass-producing docile, compliant, socialistic citizens. (And all you public-school graduates who feel you did not conform to the state’s agenda–calm down…I am one too. Some of us slip through only partially brainwashed–but it’s the exception, not the rule. And we still must spend the rest of our lives unlearning our public school dogma to some degree.)

In the words of Voddie Baucham…

Godly Rebels

“See the thing is, when it’s all said and done, and I’ve heard all the arguments about why mom can’t stay at home, and why daughters have to prepare for a career, and why the children have to stay in day care, and why we need two incomes, the fact still remains that THE FAMILY SUFFERS.”

We watched The Return of the Daughters over the Christmas holidays. (I’m so scatter brained, I can’t remember if I’ve already mentioned this!) What an inspiring tool for families!

If you haven’t got it, it’s a must-have for your library.

In a nutshell, the film paints a beautiful picture of what it looks like when a young woman embraces a radically different vision than that of the culture. It’s the picture of a family working together toward one goal, not segmented members of the family all doing their own thing.

One of my favorite points in the film was something Voddie Baucham said. He asks why it is that when Condoleezza Rice is a helpmeet to the President she is esteemed as a hero…but when a daughter and wife are a helpmeet to her husband she is an unintelligent doormat?

The film interviewed 7 young women and their families, giving a powerful answer to the question, “What does a girl do after high school?” Unlike cultural assumptions, these women were intelligent (that’s probably an understatement), pursuing higher education, articulate, strong, talented, opinionated, and yet godly women with a determination to help their parents build strong families in order to prepare to build their own strong families.

Because isn’t that the basis for our whole society? The liberals would tell you differently, but in my estimation, the entire success of a nation depends on the strength of its families. Would you agree?

Return of the Daughters portrays homes filled with the aroma of love…laughter, the delicious smells of cooking, unity of spirit, and peace. Not perfect homes, those don’t exist, but homes that mirror God’s grace and love. It’s really a simple concept, and yet a picture so absent in the typical family!

It took us a long time to get to the place where we don’t even see the importance of the home, not “home” as in the place people sleep and keep their clothes, but the vibrant, busy glue-of-the-family home.

Is it any wonder marriages are falling apart left and right? Imagine any organization, any organized group that starts out with a purpose, then all its members break off and pursue their own interests…

Go back to the Condoleezza Rice comment. Imagine the cabinet members, the staff that work for President Bush, calling in one day and saying, “Mr. President, today I’ve got an important meeting elsewhere–I won’t be able to make it to work. Oh, and after that, I’ve got a tennis match. But I will be able to come in after that, only I’ll have quite a few phone calls to make regarding my invested shares in the Keebler Corp., and let’s see, well maybe I’ll have a few minutes later tonight and we can go over that speech you’ve got coming up.”

How well do you think things would be going in the White House under such conditions?

See the thing is, when it’s all said and done, and I’ve heard all the arguments about why mom can’t stay at home, and why daughters have to prepare for a career, and why the children have to stay in day care, and why we need two incomes, the it

At what point are we willing to lay aside all of our arguments, or excuses, or situations, and set our faces like flint toward the truth, and just do what we need to do to preserve our homes?

I read a secular article yesterday (pretty sure the author was not a Christian), and she made such an excellent, obvious point. She said, “Why are we still pretending that both parents gone from the home is OK, and not harming the family? We know statistically and intuitively that it is.”

So why do we keep ignoring the obvious? Because we want what we want and will go around the world to justify it.

And I can hear readers saying, “But what about this circumstance, or that one?” I’m not talking about that 1 in a 1000 unusual, difficult circumstance that doesn’t have a clean-cut answer. I’m talking about the acceptance and even promotion of a design that is harmful to the family, and was never intended by God, in my opinion.

People every today will make comments such as “this world has gone crazy”, and “I can’t believe what’s going on these days”…but they will not be upset enough to think…and to reevaluate their ideas. They will not be willing to take a stand against the popular currents of thought and practice. They will get into their Mercedes and drop the kids off for someone else to raise, and then go to help another man build his business and wonder why family life isn’t all they had dreamed about. One day they may wonder why their husband left; or why their daughter is pregnant, or why their son is on drugs. And they’ll chalk it up to life, and keep living in the same direction.

Don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. Mom deciding to stay home will not miraculously turn everything into a rosy, glowing, happy place. Sometimes the right thing is the hardest thing. Trials exist. Burdens happen. The problems we built for ourselves did not happen overnight; neither will the solution.

But gradually, as more and more people forsake the world’s formula for success and embrace God’s, the Original Creator, He will bless. What we need are Godly rebels. Amen, and amen.