I saw this the other day at a blog I stumbled across. Have you visited The Decorated House yet? What a great inspiration blog! If you click on the link it will take you to the post tutorial of how to do something wonderful with your fabric, pillows & dining room chairs like she did. Can you believe that is an iron on transfer? Nice & easy, just like I like 'em.

I have some more to post about the study I am doing on "Woman" but to tell ya the truth, I am just overwhelmed right now putting it all down on paper to teach this Thursday. I have had a terrible headache & such. Hopefully tomorrow I can post.

There are a lot of things stirring over at the house right now. Lots to do......

Jenn

What does The Bible Say About Women?

WOMEN



I was looking up all the scriptures on women yesterday listed in the back of the Bible. Part of our next ladies bible study this next Thursday. I noticed something I had never ever noticed before.

I posted the other day my other revelation that Eve had eaten the fruit to gain more knowledge & to gain the ability to be like God (wanting his supreme authority & ability to do anything). Instead when God punishes Eve he changes the original plan. The original plan was that they would be immortal, she would be the mother of mankind, & she and Adam were equal in Creation and co ruled the earth. The punishment? Now we are no longer immortal, women would birth in great pain & we were no longer equal in creation, we were going to be "ruled over". Basically Eve got the exact opposite of what she was seeking when she sinned.

From that point on women's rights were not very pretty.

ENTER JESUS.

As I was studying I was taken to the book of Luke. In Luke we see Jesus & his disciples traveling with a group of women. What were these women doing? They were financially supporting Jesus & his disciples, that is what they were doing. Since they were travelling with him they obviously would have been learning from him also.

In my study portion of the Bible it says that in Jewish culture women were not allowed to learn directly from rabbi's. Their husbands would give them instruction. By Jesus allowing a group of women to travel with him and also learn from him & to have those women in a place of supporting him and the disciples (not the more traditional role of men supporting women) Jesus was making a huge statement by his actions. He was saying that men and women were equal in creation & should be equal in the kingdom of God. Men and women could both participate equally in the things of God, neither sex meant more to God. God cared about the person, not the sex of the person. WOW.

It occurred to me that Jesus came to restore relationship with God. He came to "fix" what happened at original sin. One of the things that needed fixing was what happened with women at original sin. I asked myself, did Jesus come to heal that too? When you look at God's original intent for woman & then after the punishment what woman had was no place close to what God had intended. We see Jesus over and over breaking Jewish traditions & man made customs to show mercy & love, to give restoration. Although I have never ever heard any teaching on this, as I am studying all the scriptures on women I am wondering..... was Jesus also here to show God's forgiveness on the impact of Eve's sin? Was Jesus trying to restore woman's place in the world?

It is obvious that women can be used by God. Look at Esther & the Judge Deborah for instance. Women were prophetesses also throughout the old testament & such. But still, our place was a low one as far as rights & being educated.

As I study more I am more convinced than ever that God cares for the person, regardless of our sex. I am convinced that God will use whoever is available to be used regardless of their sex.

I just thought that was amazing yesterday, the part in Luke about the women supporting Jesus's ministry and the glaring statement that must have been making in Jewish society. Did He come also to say that He loves women just as much as men & wanted healing in this great rift between the wall being put up barring women from serving in the church like they could do otherwise? Makes ya wonder.......

Women struggle so much. What is our role? Men have such clearly defined roles, that must be so wonderful! Our struggle goes all the way back to original sin. Why Eve didn't you just go have a heart to heart with God before you took the devil at his word? If we work full time then what is our role & our hubby's role at home? Why do women who work full time still do the majority of all housework, grocery shopping, meal planning, doctor's visits, play date making & taking, & all things kid? What is that all about?

I tell ya, men would get a lot more sex if they just realized all they need to do is work more around the house. One, she is not so tired & might actually have some energy left to extend around bed time & two, she will be so moved & feel loved & appreciate her man that she will WANT TO PLEASE HIM. Duh.

If a woman is a stay at home wife, what is her role? Should the hubby do any housework? Does that answer depend on how many or how young any kids they have are? Is everything her responsibility? Some of the housewives I know have hubby's that expect that they work hard the entire day they are at work & give them a hard time if they do anything pleasureful during the "work day". Humph, don't get me started on that topic.

What is okay for women to do in the church? I personally love having at least one women's pastor around to talk to about my woman stuff. It is such a pleasure to speak sometimes to someone who is just like me but also completely thoroughly schooled in pastoring as a man. The woman pastor's I have been around are just a treasure.

The other thing that jumped out at me yesterday? When God said to Eve that your desire will be for your husband but he will rule over you, it is clear that women are no longer equal with man in leadership on the earth due to her sin. However, however however, let us look at God's example of what rulership should be shall we?

God is our ultimate ruler. We are all under the ruling authority of God. I believe God sets the best example of how one should rule. With love, with care & compassion. How does God rule over us? I believe God is the example for leadership on how men should lead their homes & in everything that they do.

God told Adam & Eve to rule over the earth. He also expected them to take care of it as he told Adam to work in the garden of Eden. We should care for what we are ruling over, it is in our care, it is in our responsibility. That is actually a pretty big responsibility for men, imagine God asking a man or judging a man at judgement time and making him accountable for how he "ruled/lead" his family. I can't imagine how God does not make man accountable for how he handled his rulership that he was entrusted with. What would God say about your leadership as a man? Ahem, if I was a man, that would get me right in the heart. Big responsibility I should say.

Women hate that word rule because it almost always has negative connotations with it. I personally have experienced & continue to hear horror stories from women on how their men abuse their rulership/leadership in the home. Men are told to love their wives as their own bodies, meaning treat your wife as you would want to be treated. Then we all, men and women, have the golden rule to live by. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. There is no room for selfishness & meanness in God's kingdom.

I can see God wants us all to work together & love each other. I am really learning a lot about what went horribly wrong with women and some great insights on what Jesus says about women. Lots more to study here, I can't wait.

If you have any insights on this topic I would love to hear anything about God's plans & purposes for women for our next bible study. I will be teaching on the Proverbs 31 woman also. BTW, notice the proverbs 31 woman also has servants to help do all the stuff she does. So if you ever read proverbs 31 & feel a little too convicted just remember that she had full time staff okay?

Love y'all,

Jenn

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Going To The Mountains

I had a really neat moment with Braxton the other week. He was riding his little toy around the bottom of the driveway and having a great time. It is nice and flat at the bottom and he is able to easily navigate where he wants to go with no help from anyone.

With my back turned to him I began to hear him grunt. He then in his most frustrated voice yells "I can't get up this mountain!" He then asks for my help. I laughed because he called our driveway a mountain, that seemed so silly to me. A mountain? It isn't even that steep. Laughing as I walked over to push him "up the mountain" I decided to get down on his level & look up the driveway.

Sure enough, from the standpoint of a almost 3 year old, that driveway may as well have been a mountain. He was right, for him it was a mountain. For me it was a mildly steep driveway, piece of cake. It was then the scripture hit me about Jesus talking to the disciples about having faith the size of a mustard seed and if they ask a mountain to move it shall be moved.

How many times have I seen a mountain in my life & because it was so impossible for me, well.... you know where I am going with this. What may be a monumental mountain that we could never climb could just be a bump in the road for God. It is a piece of cake for him & he must just shake his head and laugh sometimes at how we cry out, like Braxton did, at the mountain in front of us.

It was my pleasure to come to Braxton's aid and help him up the mountain. He smiled and thanked me. Surely God feels the same joy when his children call out to him and ask for the help from their Abba Father.

It was a nice moment, a moment of reflection and a gentle reminder of how big our God is. Nothing is too hard for God, nothing is to difficult for Him. What comfort in knowing He is on our side, He is our way maker. I need only to call out to my Daddy.

Jenn
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The Light of The Gospel

I am a believer, and the light of the Gospel shines in my mind. 2 Cor 4:4

Yesterday that scripture taken from all the scriptures that say who we are in Christ really spoke to me. I need to keep God's word in my mind. I need to not let anything but God's word influence me. Not always an easy thing to do, for me in this particular time it is not as easy as before but it is still required.

I was studying in Genesis today about woman and it was amazing to me that in one conversation Satan was able to convince Eve that God was holding out on her. He convinced her that the fruit of the tree they were not supposed to eat of would make her like God and that God did not want that. God wanted to keep the supreme rulership & knowledge for himself but it was available to her also if she would just eat, oh clever Satan.

Do you suppose that it was this momentary quest to be more powerful, more wise and more like God that God's punishment to woman was to become under the rulership of man instead? She was seeking more wisdom & was not content to co rule the earth with Adam, no she wanted more than to co rule so instead God, after this sin did what to woman? Women were ruled over instead of being equal co rulers & they were not given the same education as men. They were denied the same knowledge and privileges as men. Hmmmmm......... A fit punishment perhaps for Eve but I am not quite sure how much I appreciate it, ha ha.

The scripture at the top made me more aware than ever when I am in a hard place that I need to keep the light of the gospel in my mind. I need to believe God at his word, period. The battle place is in the mind and I need to let the Gospel shine it's light on any dark thing that would try to persuade me in any other direction than to love others & seek my Lord.

Things are so much smoother for my family than they were even this time last year. I had some fun reading some of my posts from this time last year. Boy oh boy was August and September a rough place last year. I was reading them last night and wow, if only I knew what I know now I would have never written any of those things. I would have known, but I didn't back then and it was so sad to look back & see me flailing about. Goodness, did God do a work in me. There was so much anger at my circumstances it made me cringe sometimes. But I look now and the change in me is so drastically different & the change in our circumstances changed also with it. Are we perfect, oh no we are not. Is everything okay every day, nope. But, it continues to improve always and so does our growth in the knowledge of the Lord. Amen to that!

No matter what, in sick days & in healthy days, in days of prosperity & days of lack I will keep the light of the Gospel in my mind. Pressing onward, I will not falter in my belief that God's word & his promises are very alive & true for me. I don't know if anybody else needed that but I sure needed to remind myself of how real & true the Gospel is today. I needed to see the sin of Adam & Eve, that she did not trust in what God did say & tried to achieve for herself what seemed good instead and she got exactly the opposite of what she tried to get for herself.

She sought more and she got less. She sought to become just like God in authority & knowledge and she became less of both. She tried to do it on her own and did not believe in what God said & look what happened.

Lesson learned, I will trust in you Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding, in all my ways I will acknowledge you and your word says you will make straight paths for me. Proverbs 3:5&6 slightly personalized by moi. Once again, my life verse is just perfect for me today.

Braxton just spilled his drink all over the table & the floor. Then my 12 year old walked through it and fell. Fruity Pebbles & milk all over the floor now too. Amber is sick. I cleaned it all up of course & then came back here, looks like I am going to need this word today! Good grief, how is that we can get all prayed up & feeling wonderful & then life just happens & we are so tempted to throw it all away. Well, I have all four home today, no school, so I love it that this morning 's word I let soak in seems to be just perfect for today, for me at least.

I hope all of you are having a happy & blessed day,

Jenn
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My Son Got The Computer

Hello y'all. My son got ahold of the computer today & I see he spent some tick clicking on some blogs. Some blogs repeatedly. If um, he left you a strange comment of jibberish I apologize! Sorry about that.

Jenn

Who Am I?

Who am I? Who am I that God would _____________ for me? Do you have a fear or doubt that you could fill in the blank with?

I was reading something this morning & it took me back to a time of great refinement for me last year. One of the greatest things I learned in that year was who I was. I didn't learn who Jennifer was in Jennifer. I learned who Jennifer was in Christ. It changed forever the way I viewed myself.

You see, in a time of refinement God is bringing to light our impurities. Our filth is displayed in full light for us to see & there is no getting away from it. This process can be quite painful to realize the realities of our "fleshiness" & it can lead to a lot of self condemnation.

During such a time for me I could barely stand to think anything good for myself. I could not believe how much work I had to do inside of me, it was mind blowing. But then God led me to a book by Joyce Meyer called The Secret To True Happiness. Great book by the way. The best part of the book is in the Appendix. Why, you may ask. In the Appendix of this book are all the scriptures listed in statement form that say who we are in Christ. I have listed all of them in this post.

I read them once and never thought about them much again. I continued to grow but I still felt something was missing. God led me to a wonderful woman who sent me some tapes on speaking the expected end and the power of words. God spoke to me in all of that and led me back to those statements of who I am in Christ. It was like God impressed upon me that I needed to not only know who I was in Christ, but I needed to speak it also. So I began to do that, I included my kids in this journey also. Part of our daily routine is to take 5 minutes and go off alone and read these out loud.

You know, it was amazing how the condemnation left me when I started doing that. I felt so much love in what God was showing me that I needed to work on instead of feeling shame, humiliation and great embarrassment. It was like God was extending an invitation to me to do a work in me with him. Each opportunity to work on something new became a treasure instead of another trip down condemnation lane.

Now, each new impurity became an opportunity to be closer to my Lord. Each victory brought me closer to my King. We were working together to remove my filth because God wants the best for his children and he loved me way to much to let me stay the way I was. What a treasure when we can work with God to overcome our obstacles!

I saw so much of me in what I read earlier, I found it a great source of joy because I know (having gone through this process) what is waiting on the other side. God deals with us so individually of course though and for me, I had to learn who I was in Christ along with my refinement. It may not be the same for others but can I also suggest that it is extremely critical that you know who you are in Christ.

I have heard "who you are in Christ" forever it seems and nobody ever told me what any of that meant. They just said I should know it, which really aggravated me as I guess I just couldn't figure it out on my own or realize it as I studied. Would you please buy Joyce's book or click here and print them and read them out loud please? I promise after reading these out loud for a few days the scriptures will begin to settle inside of you. They will become your reality. You will identify yourself with who the scriptures say you are instead of how you feel about yourself based on your emotions. That is freedom my friends!!!!

I truly hope that some of you will take the time to copy, paste & print these scriptures. Reading them once will not do it. Who of us can read a bunch of scriptures once and have them all memorized and settled inside of us? Not me! Please, know who you are based on the scriptures & not your emotions. There is a huge difference and it will make a tremendous impact on how we battle, how we pray, how we approach the Lord & how we view ourselves. But it takes reading them for a bit to let them sink in. Soon it won't be long before some negative thoughts creep into your mind and you will immediately shake it off and say "I can quench the fiery darts of the evil one with my shield of faith!" and you give those negative thoughts the boot and finish it off with a "I am holy and without blame before Him in love".

Enjoy!

Jenn

Even though, But God

Well the morning started off beautifully, unfortunately it took a turn towards Crappyville. I keep trying to leave Crappyville, really I do. Sometimes I get everything all cleaned out, packed up and head towards the city limits of Happytown.

Crappyville unfortunately just does not want to let the family out of it's grasp. Sickness, ill attitudes & MONEY all pull on us. Actually the ill attitudes all stem from the money thing so.......

This is where I remind myself to stay in an attitude of praise, even though. Even though the finances are killing me, I will praise Him.

Even though nobody can be well for more than a day, I will praise Him.

Even though some kind gestures were made & they were turned around for evil, I will praise Him.

Even though every time things seem to turn around for good, they turn right back around to bad, I will praise Him.

Even though, I will praise Him.

God has spent a lot of time teaching me about praising Him even though. That is not an easy thing to do when even though is pounding at your door. Very loudly, house shaking, he pounds.

I will have to stay in this attitude today or I may just fall over from the pressure. But I know that God is with me & I know he inhabits the praises of his people. His word says so, so when I need Him, I need to praise Him. I will trust in you Lord, with all my heart. I need a straight path and the word says that if I trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding, he will make straight paths for me. Yes, today I will have to practice what I have learned, practice what I preach.

We have been experiencing snipets of joy & for that I am so grateful. But I have to say, with my whole heart, that I really really desire a season of joy. Really, I do. I would love people to stop taking advantage of my hubby, really I would. Mean, greedy & ungrateful people stink. You give someone a loaf of bread & when you turn around they took everything in the pantry too. Or someone promises you a loaf of bread and they give you a crumb instead. Well, back into a season of struggle we go, maybe.

We have an even though pounding at the door but I have a BUT GOD inside with me. This is my circumstance but God can change everything. This is what I walk through but God is with me. I have the Lord God Almighty on my side, so even though can just go bite himself.

Already I can see you working Lord, but for you it would all be too much. Even though wants to kill, steal & destroy. BUT GOD's word is my sword and I will speak it & praise Him.

So when even though comes knocking, don't forget to pull out your but God.

Tough day today but this too shall pass. It won't kill me & I will stay strong in the joy of the Lord.

Any prayers you may want to throw my family's way would be greatly appreciated.

I hope you all have a happy weekend,

Jenn