Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Two Close and Two far




These are the two closest ones now. Rebecca, the oldest, and Hannah, the youngest are 30 - to 60 minutes away.
Sarah is soon to be 5 hours away and Leah us 10 hours away. (Sniff sniff)

Dear D.O.E. (Daughters of Eve)




This is a lesson I had the opportunity to teach this past weekend at Franklin Road Baptist Church.


Part One

The Divine Design of Eve



My husband always says that if you are looking for an answer concerning something such as doctrine, or anything that is taught in the Bible, it's always good to go to the beginning.   We need to go to Genesis, the book of beginnings.   That's  exactly what we're doing today as we start a four part study on why woman was created.  Thus is a study, of course, on Eve.

 Now in my husband's book, The Divine Design of the Family,  he entitles this chapter, the Devine Design of  Eve.  I'm  going to change it up a little and entitle it, Daughters of Eve or in abbreviated form, D.O.E.  (Daughters of Eve), because  all we women are daughters of Eve .

  Eve was the  mother of all living.  She was the first mother and her name means mother of all who have life.  God designed her so perfectly and just the way He wanted her to be.  in Eve we have our Design.  When  God designed Eve, He showed a perfect picture of  just how he wanted every woman that was to be born after her and all her descendants to be.  So we can learn from this study what God wants us to be.  




Eve's Creation Was Decreed By God

First of all we will see how Eve was created by decree .   God decreed that Eve was to be created.   Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 the Bible says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."   We were made in his image;  in the image of God.  We were made just the way he wants us.   In Psalm chapter 139 verse 14 the Bible says,  "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:....."

So often, however,  we women aren't happy with the way God made us. We want to look different. We may have blue eyes  and want brown,  even to the extent of changing them by using colored contacts it.   We might have a pear shaped body and want an apple shaped body or we might have an apple shaped body and wish we had a banana shaped body.  What 
we all wish for is a Coke bottled shaped body, but that's just not going to be the way it is  in most cases!   We  need to be happy with the way God made us and thankful that he designed is just the way He wanted us to be designed; by the decree ofGod, and that it is good!

In the beginning when God  designed woman, He designed her for a specific purpose.  The main purpose he created woman was for the man.   There's a verse of scripture that you  don't hear very often.   It is Corinthians 11:9 "Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man".   This verse plainly says that the woman was created for the man.  I know there's many Liberal women's groups who would not believe that and would not be happy with me  saying such things.   It is in the Bible and it is true!

Woman was made for man  with  a  purpose.    God decreed the purpose of the creation of woman  for three main reasons.  

Woman was made to contrast man

The first one is for contrast.  The woman was made  to contrast the man In case you haven't noticed, men and women are different.  Some differences are very obvious, and some of the differences are not so obvious.  Of course, we know  the woman has a smaller bone structure, she has softer skin she is less aggressive  ( in most cases anyway).  One interesting fact,  and we really don't have to look too far to see,  and most of us know too well,  that women have more fat cells than men.   We all know that we store them in different places as well,  don't we?

  Another interesting thing is how different the brains of women and men are.  Studies have been done on the brain to compare  male and female brain activities.    In several test it is a proven fact that men use only one side of the brain and in fact it is a very minute part of the left side of the brain.  Women, on the other, hand use both sides of the brain.  Isn't  it wonderful how God designed that!  God knew that as a mother we would have to be able to do all the household duties and take care of small children at the same time never taking  our eyes off  them.   SonGod made us to be able to do this.   Now this doesn't make me think  less of the man or to make fun of the man.   It makes me know what a wonderful creator we have!  

Also Test were done in the area of how differently male and female view objects of beauty.     
When a man looks at a picture or a painting or some article or item that relates to beauty he sees it in relation to dimensions.   In other words he sees all the architectural elements.   He literally sees it in what we would think of as square boxes.   A woman views   it very differently.  She,  for some reason links it to language.  Real beauty is more to her than just  an object.  This is amazing to show how different we are and it is a very good evidence that homosexuality does not come from God.  He wanted us to be different.   For Adam there was a need For someone totally opposite from him to be his partner;  someone to contrast him but also someone to compliment him.




Woman was made to compliment man

Secondly the decree was given by God for woman to be created for the purpose of complimenting the man.  
As I was studying this I actually thought I had to look up the definition for the word compliment, only to find that I already what compliment meant.  It  simply means to praise;  to honor; to lift up.   One of the reasons woman was made for man is to compliment him.   Something that might make it easier for us to understand is to look at the color wheel.  Now on the color wheel there is such a thing as complementary colors; two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.   These two colors are made to complement each other.   They are made  to bring out the best color the opposite from them on the color wheel .   This is what we should do even though we are totally opposite from our husband .  It is our job as a wife to bring out the best in him; to make him look good; to honor; to lift him up; to praise him; "to make him known in the gates", as the Proverbs 31 woman did.  

I like to get advice from older women.  I love to glean wisdom from them.  One thing my aunt told me that I will never forget concerning her husband who had passed away.  They had a wonderful relationship,  and of course she missed him terribly.  She said to me, "tell him every day how much you love him"!    I might add to that, make ways to show him every day how much you love him.  We were made to compliment him and to honor him.  



Woman was made to complete man

Thirdly,  one of our purposes as it was Decreed by God in the beginning, was to complete the man.  Now  we all know that there are certain things that a man cannot do and cannot be without his wife.  Guess what!  The man knows this too!  He does not need to be reminded of this all the time.  In  our society today so many agendas and platforms are aimed at making him, the man,  look as if he is ignorant,  stupid or of less intelligence than the woman.  This is from Satan, not from God.  Yes,  God designed the woman to complete the man; to be the feminine side of him.  My husband often laughs and says the only feminine side of him is me!   That is true.  We are made to complete him.

We were made to be his ". help meet".   This word means to be the " helpful partner".  In verse 19 of chapter 2 we see that God saw that man needed and help meet.  He created the animals and yes, they were helpful to to man.   I'm sure  the dog was His best friend, and 
perhaps the horse or the donkey carried him from one end of the garden of Eden to the other.  The monkeys no doubt made him laugh and he enjoyed watching the squirrels scamper and the rabbit hop, but none of these were even close to what he really needed.  So God said, "I will create an helpmeet for him",  so he made woman and she became his encourager and his helpful partner.  She  was created to help him, to complete him;  not to discourage him or to bring him down but to build him up.  Proverbs 14:1 says, says, "Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands."   We will be considered a wise woman if we do that for which we were created,  to complete our husbands.  

Under the divine design of woman, the second thing we see at is that she was designed by degree.

Woman Was Designed by Degree


When our girls were young, we sang the song, "He's Still Working on Me".  Eve could have surely sung this song.     The  Bible says in  Timothy 2:13, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve".  When God made Adam and when he designed Adam, He actually designed Eve.  The framework for her was made in the creation of Adam.  In fact, our design was in Adam.  When God  made Adam, he made us.  Every human being was designed  in Adam.  When God breathed life into Adam,  He breathed life into the whole human race.   Eve had her beginning in Adam.

In the design of Eve,  we see every area,  or season, of a woman's life.   we see her as a wife.   We see her as a mother and grandmother.   We know she didn't have a mother -in-law,  but she was a mother-in-law.   Even though she was never a daughter in he sense of being a young girl, she did have to learn like a daughter has to learn.  Adam taught her.   Adam was responsible to teach her just like every husband has the responsibility to teach their wife.  Every woman should have the opportunity to be taught by their husband.  The Bible says that if a woman  has questions concerning the church that she should learn at home that's God's plan and God's design is.   The woman is to be under the authority of the man, but we know, so often,that is not the case.  Sadly,  many men are not like they're supposed to be;  not like  Christ.  They do not fill the role that they were created to fill.  They fail to or are incapable of teaching their wife.   Non-the less women should always be under some authority.   A daughter should learn to be under the authority of her father just like Eve had to learn.   Then that daughter can be given away to her husband who is to take that role of teacher and the one to be her authority.   She should be under his authority until death parts  them.  If the husband goes first, the wife still needs to be under the authority of some godly man.  The  place that she can be sure to get this is through the church.   Church should be the place that teaches the word of God, the law of God.  This is what is we Christians should govern our lives by.   Therefore,  it's very Important to be under a pastor who follows the Word of God and lets the word of God lead him and direct him and then that woman can be under his authority, if she has no one else to be her authority figure.   My husband did a thorough study on this and found  a woman should never  be out from under the authority of the man.  A wise older woman made a very interesting statement to us concerning this.  She said that she liked to think  that a girl should marry young because if she has been brought up to obey and be submissive to her father,  she will have no problem being submissive to her husband.   If she goes directly from being a submissive daughter to being a submissive wife, without any lapse of time, it would be easier for her.   

At any rate we as women should always be learning.   As a young daughter, as a young girl Eve like Eve had to learn.  We as well in  every stage of our lives, should be constantly learning.   We should be under the authority of someone.  We  should recognize that as God divinely designed Eve by decree and then by degree,  so He designed us and that He's is still working on us!