The CBE Scroll

We hear about how God used Abraham to establish the nation of Israel through whom the Messiah would come, and we hear how Abraham’s faith helped accomplish this.  We also hear about Abraham’s faults, and how God accomplished His will through Abraham in spite of them.  But do you know that God used Sarah in the same way?  She also was used to establish the nation of Israel, and her faith was also instrumental in achieving this.  And like Abraham, God accomplished His will through Sarah in spite of her faults.

Here is a brief overview of her life.  To learn more about her read Genesis 16 and 21.

Today’s New International Version

Genesis 17:15-16 – Sarah is a woman who was unable to have children.  Yet God promises to give her a son and that she will become the mother of nations.  Notice how God says “I will bless her…”.

    15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Genesis 21:1-3 – Sarah gives birth to Isaac through whom the nation of Israel will come, and through Israel the Messiah.  Notice how it says “and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised”.

 1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.

Genesis 21:8-12 – It was through Isaac, Sarah’s son that the nation of Israel would be established.  God uses Sarah to ensure that it is through her son, and not through Abraham’s other son that this happens.  Although Sarah’s attitude isn’t perfect, God still uses her to accomplish this purpose.

 8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

    11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your servant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

Hebrews 11:11 –Sarah is used as an example of faith.  Notice how the author of Hebrews says “because she considered him faithful who had made the promise”.

11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.

And even though Sarah had faults, such as abusing Hagar, we find God working to redeem the effects of her mistakes.  Because Sarah abuses her Hagar runs away, yet God meets Hagar while she is running away.  After Hagar’s experience with God she has this to say, something that continues to inspire people to this day that God sees them in their time of need.

Genesis 16:13 -     13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

Through it all, whether through her faith or her faults, God uses Sarah’s life to accomplish His will in bringing about the nation of Israel, and through Israel, the Messiah.  And in the end, because she believed, she is used as an example of faith.

Sarah’s life is an example of what faith can accomplish, in spite of human faults.  It shows how God uses us to accomplish great things, in spite of the mistakes we make. 

“Sent to Preach the Gospel”

Final Day of CBE International Conference in Toronto – July 19, 2008

 Faith-friend writes:

 The day began with Job.

 Mary Gonsior, CBE staff member, led Sunday morning devotions in the beautiful “Room of Truth” prayer room designed by Mandolyn Johnson.

 “There lived a man whose name was Job.  This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil…” (Job 1:1)  Mary began to tell the story of Job’s wealth, his seven sons, three daughters and vast herds, in her own words.  “He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.” (Job 1:3)

 “But suddenly, for no apparent reason,” Mary reminded us, “Job is ruined.   In a single, awful day, disaster strikes and Job loses everything in the world that he owns…he really doesn’t understand his suffering and so he no longer sees any purpose for his life…”

 “I’m sharing Job’s story with you today,” Mary explained, “Because I want you to understand that Job’s situation is connected to the sense of pain, loss, and confusion that many women in the church today suffer as a result of the effects of patriarchy.”

 She went on to talk about the good news – the ordination of women being seen as the most significant accomplishment of the women’s movement in churches in the last 30 years, according to respondents to a National Council of Church’s 2003 survey.

 “But many women still do not experience encouragement and opportunity. In spite of being called and gifted to serve, they find themselves facing strong opposition to their calling from friends, family and church,” she said.  The enrolling of women in seminary is actually slowing down.   Mary told of a CBE volunteer, keeping her grandchildren at various times during the summer, watching as her 10 year old, visiting grandson could get up and lead worship in her church, but she could not.

 Women who do find a way to move forward in their leadership gifts often experience the effects of backlash  - the work of the “system” to correct itself backwards to the “way it was.”  Mary commented that “this backlash against women in the church includes a general climate of suspicion or hostility, personal attacks, subtle and not so subtle demeaning of women, loss of job, and strained relationships with relatives and friends.”

 Several in the room had these stories to tell.  How the words brought comfort as they shed light on pain quietly endured.

 But the story of Job is ultimately a story of hope and restoration.   It’s a story of a good God who is faithful and of a man who wouldn’t let circumstances lessen his love and dependence on our good God.  “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him,” Job declares.  (Job 13:15)  That’s a tenacious faith!!  And God restored Job.  “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first.” (Job 42:12)

 Perhaps each individual woman at this Conference will not fully realize the use of all her gifts in her own lifetime, though we pray for it, but those coming after us…may their gifts be fully utilized in Kingdom work because we were here…

Second Day of CBE International Conference in Toronto – July 19, 2008

 Faith-friend writes:

 Another good day…but a hard one too.

 Listening to the story of gender discrimination in the firing of one of our workshop leaders from her seminary professorship and of failings in her personal life due to a difficult marriage brought the issues of a “woman’s place” sharply among us. 

 The professional pain that this very accomplished speaker underwent was shared by several in the room.  When stories were invited from others, one woman shared that her pastoring of a small church had been degraded by her current pastor as meaningless because of her gender.  His view is that women ought not to be in ministry.  The irony she described, however, is that this pastor, a pony-tailed, “modern guy,” is supposed to be bringing what is new and fresh to the Church.  The thing that appears to be intact is that too small view of a woman’s place.

How different is the perspective of some of the leaders of house churches in India and China, we heard in another workshop.  They have no time for debates about 1 Timothy 2:12.  Lives are at stake!!  The new Christians in China feel that their baptism is their commissioning to go and preach the gospel, men and women both.  They feel an urgency to share the gospel and speak even of taking it to the Muslim world – back down the silk roads and on towards Jerusalem.

 One Indian man speaking joyfully of shared ministry with his wife on a video, commented that the Great Commission has not been completed in “every nook and cranny of the world because men and women have not worked together.”

 The urgency of spreading the gospel causes Christians in these parts of the world to press on.  We heard of one Chinese woman leader, and others with her, hand-copying the Bible!  She spent 9 years in prison (she called IT her seminary), and yet none of this slowed her down.  She and others have planted countless house churches and continue to do so. 

 The main point made again and again as we spoke of the Great Commission in these sessions was that of Jesus, “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field.”  (Matthew 9:38) 

God needs women to also be released into this field so that all might be reached with the gospel…now!

First Day of CBE International Conference in Toronto – July 18, 2008

 Faith-friend writes:

 The second half of this year’s Conference’s title is: “Women and Men Using Their Gifts for the Great Commission” and it was clear from the first general session today that we would be emphasizing having a heart “for the nations” in this conference.

 Our opening speaker, a senior vice president from Coca-Cola, spoke of her Christian theology of work – that her company has global influence and she sees her work, in that company, as a way to aid the carrying out of the Great Commission.   Not only can she practice Christian ethics in the workplace and evangelize people she has contact with at appropriate moments, but the work creates improved environments where people are enabled to hear the gospel by having jobs, improved social conditions through the company’s philanthropic work, etc. 

She quoted Michael Novak as saying, “A business enterprise is…with the exception of Christianity, the greatest transforming power of the condition of the poor of the earth.” 

This first speaker came from a family of ministers, missionaries, etc, but she felt led by God to the business world.  She had no role models of women in business, but it proved a good fit for her giftedness.  Though business is often condemned as exploitive, she commented that we need “more people in business who understand how and desire to glorify God in the product and process of their work.”

The focus on the need of people of all nations to hear the gospel as well as to receive real aid for poverty, disease and hunger brought us back to the urgency for more Christian workers to be released around the world in the afternoon panel discussion.  We need to have “a full team” – women as well as men, allowed to do that for which God has gifted them.  One speaker in the panel session said, “Imagine if you kept half your soccer team on the bench.  There’d be no way to win.  Isn’t it just the same for the Christian community charged with bringing the gospel to all people?”  With half the team on the bench, we’re hard pressed to carry out this mandate from God.  We were reminded by personal anecdotes and stories of others from the speakers that oppression of women, in general, and in the Church is still very real and painful.

But, notes of hope were sounded in this panel session of missionaries – stories were shared, for example, of more Indian leaders being open to gifts-based ministry, men and women working together, and of urgency for the gospel in India.  Indigenous women church planters and women house church leaders having fruitful ministries in other parts of Asia were also described.  One panelist noted, “This is the most exciting time for expansion of the gospel we have ever known.”  Wherever there have been great movements of God, he said, “There has been a hunger for the Word, creativity in worship, holiness, evangelistic effort, AND equality of men and women!!

On Sunday morning, September 13, 1953, my father faced a really tough decision. My mother was in labor at the end of a troubled pregnancy that had included a late-term case of hard measles. She was headed to the hospital. But Dad was a fundamentalist preacher in a small church and had an obligation to lead the service and give the sermon. The problem was that he had no men to call on to give the sermon.

Enter his mother. She was a deep Christian with a thorough knowledge of the Scripture and led a life of service. She was there to help with the pregnancy. After careful, if hurried, prayer, Dad asked my grandmother to take the service. She agreed to do so.

At least two church members walked out when this woman went up to the pulpit. She would not “usurp” a man’s place by standing behind it, so she stood to one side and down a step.

If I could go back in time, I would rather hear that sermon than witness my own birth. As far as I know, it was the only sermon she ever gave. As the years progressed, my father grew a little more tolerant of women, at one time telling me “women are the backbone of the church.” Unfortunately, he never reached a point where he felt they should teach men. Unless, of course, it was his mother and he had somewhere very important to be.

I’m wondering if other people have had experiences with “breaking the rules” that have had an input on their lives perhaps edging them away from complementarianism; examples of the Spirit overriding human error to use His chosen minister to do His will? I’d love to hear about them.