John Macarthur, Beth Moore and Women Preachers

OK.  I am going to give my opinion this time and ask for yours as well. 

I really like John Macarthur.  If you don't know who he is you can go to his website at http://www.gty.org/ and read all about him and listen to all of his wonderful sermons spanning 30-40 years of preaching.  He has written countless books.  I have read countable books (3 or 4), but I really like them.  He is not a man of vanity.  He only refers to himself as John Macarthur.  Not Dr. Macarthur or Reverend or Pastor or President  or Dean.  Just John.  And he teaches about the Bible, just the Bible.  He is polite and peaceful.  He doesn't scream and yell.  He just teaches about the Bible and you can tell he loves every minute of it.

There are a lot of things to consider when looking for a church.  Does the preacher teach from the Bible or from the Inspirational section at Barnes and Noble?  Does the church have any weird ceremonies involving black cats?  Does the church permit children to attend worship service?  Is the church 100 miles from my house?  Do I feel like I am hearing a paid political advertisement when I listen to a sermon?  Does the pastor do things in his personal life that he wouldn't want you to know about in his pastor life? 

One thing to be considered is how strongly does the church feel about a women being a leader in the church or not being a leader. 

And once you discover the answer to these things.  How important are they to you?
Can you live with some things but not others?  You are OK with driving 75 miles, but the black cats just won't work out for you.

I believe that God gave us his Word and intended it to be shared with everyone.  I honestly don't remember Jesus telling the disciples just before he ascended into heaven, "Oh by the way, I want you to make disciples, but a woman cannot preach to a man." 

I recently sent this email to John Macarthur:

John,

Let me preface my comments and questions by saying that I thoroughly enjoy listening to your radio program, reading your books and perusing your website. I am a person that likes to get to the root of things and when I am trying to learn more about the Bible there is no better way. I say this not to flatter you, but to indicate that I respect you and I am seriously trying to understand this topic.

I raise a question regarding your teachings concerning a woman's role in the church. Tonight I read through your series entitled "God's High Calling for Women." It seems as though most of the supporting statements for the reason's that a woman should not be a leader in worship services or teach men are rooted in the culture of the time. I am talking specifically about the statements in which you say there is no record in the old testament or new testament of a woman being an apostle, or a "real" prophet or a church leader. I consider this statement about as valid as saying that a black man could not be President of the United States because there is no record of this occuring in American History books (until recently of course). As a record of history, a woman had not taken on these roles because I am assuming it was forbidden in their culture. Similarly I don't recall seeing anything in the Bible about a disabled person being a church leader (I could be wrong and I am certain you would know for sure). Was there a reference in the Bible of a slave being a church leader or a Roman soldier being a church leader? I feel confident that there are not these references. So the argument that there are no references in the Bible of a woman being a church leader or teaching the Gospel to men, is pretty weak.

So as I was reading I was really not buying in to your article. But then you went back to Adam. If you are going to get to the root of something it nevers hurts to go back to the beginning. Right to the source of all humanity. Adam was first then came Eve. Eve was subordinate to Adam therefore she should submit to him. But just prior to that in your article (God's High Calling for Women, Section IV under usurping authority), you give the example of Elisabeth Elliot. She taught the Auca man the sermons and then he preached it to the church. It seems that if God intended for a woman to not teach a man about the Gospel then this would not have happened. Really what is the bottom line. Which is it, a woman should not teach the Word to a man or a woman should not teach the Word to a church. All of your evidence that is not cultural has been dismissed by your example of Elisabeth Elliot. God used Elisabeth to teach a man. From her teachings, a man went and taught an entire church. If Elisabeth had not taught the man, which based on your argument is what she should have done, the church might not have heard the Word. If God wanted those people to hear his word, but did not want Elisabeth to teach His Word to a man, I believe God would have intervened in some other way. I also wonder if the Auca culture would have accepted a woman teaching men.

Here is where I am going with this. My wife really enjoys Beth Moore. Beth Moore holds fast to the belief that a woman should not be the preacher in her church. I will admit that I have sneaked into a room where a Beth Moore bible study DVD was playing and I learned a lot and I was inspired to dig deeper into my Bible. The woman has a wonderful ability to relate God's message. Isn't it a shame that men are missing out on opportunities to hear God's word because Beth believes it is not right for her to share the Gospel with men in church.

So I ask you what is truly important and God's will: Going out making disicples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit OR keeping a woman in her "place" and potentially hindering her from fulfilling Jesus' commandment?

I am curious about your thoughts; however, I will continue to pray to the Father for discernment in this area.


I hope John responds to my email, but honestly I don't think it is going to change my mind much.  I don't think I will be changing his mind either.  So what does that mean?  I mean honestly.  Do I stop listening to Johnny Mac because I simply can't get past his thinking about women being preachers OR do I have to let that one slide and plug my ears when he is talking about it on the radio.  Truly this is a perplexing issue. 

"We are perplexed but not driven to despair....what we proclaim is not ourselves." 
Tell me how you feel. 

A New Perspective

 A couple days ago I was in my reading/thinking spot (bathroom) and it suddenly dawned on me that I had it all wrong with my blog.  In my attempt to create a blog name that would remind me to think about Jesus, I instead took the title literally and began to lose focus on the message of Christ.  My blog became an 2-3 hour ordeal in which I would stay up until 2:00 in the morning typing away, when I should have been asleep. 

As you can probably tell, I figured this out in the middle part of last year and began to spend less time on the computer and more time asleep or with my family (depending upon the time of the day).  Now don't get me wrong it was not an obsession, but I definetly found myself having a sense of pride in what I had typed. 

Perhaps I should tell you why I started the blog.  A few years ago, I was muddling along in life.  Trying to do the right things and thinking that one day I would get more serious about God and learning more about Him.  Well, I went on a little 2-3 day church retreat and quickly realized that my priorities in life were way out of whack.  It really left quite an impression on me. One of the strongest memories I have from the retreat is a beautiful song that was sung to the men in my retreat.  It was sung to us by men and women who over several years had each attended the very same retreat.  Most I did not know, but some were there specifically to support me and to my surprise some were there to provide support that I did not deserve.

The song went like this...
Jesus
Jesus
Let me tell you how I feel
You have given me your Spirit
I love you so.

It is a memory that I could type all night about, but let's just say that I will remember it forever.

That song was my new theme song.  I sang it to myself all of the time.  My little girls soon new the song and they were singing all of the time.  I often would sing it to get myself focused on where my mind should be.
Unfortunately, I was supposed to be telling Jesus how I felt.  I don't need a computer to do that.  In fact, a computer makes it more difficult.

Perhaps I had a few good things to say and perhaps it was a bit therapeutic to reminisce about my frequent periods of idiotic (yet hu'man') behavior.  But as I sat thinking, I realized that I have much to learn and many to learn it from. 

So I came up with an idea.  I will continue to tell Jesus how I feel, but I would like for you to tell me and anyone else who stumbles on to this page, how YOU feel.  Now it is a bit scary to think about putting your thoughts out in the open for others to read.  But I can assure you that not many people read this blog.  In fact, I may be the only one reading this for quite some time.  My wife might read it, too. 

Let's lay some ground rules. 
1.  Voice your opinions and thoughts without degrading another person or group of people. 
2.  Be factual when applicable.
3.  Pray before you write something.
4.  Be real.

That's pretty easy.  I will not allow anything on my blog that I would not be comfortable reading to my mom or mother-in-law (they might be the only ones reading this), so use your comments to give others something to think about that they might not have considered otherwise.  Feel free to make your comments anonymous.

Let's kick this off with something intriguing...OK, here it is...(actually I stole this from someone)...

IS THE UNITED STATES A CHRISTIAN NATION NOW and WAS IT EVER A CHRISTIAN NATION?  BY THE WAY, WHAT EXACTLY IS A CHRISTIAN NATION? 

Why do I ask this question?  As I am trying to teach my girls about what is right and wrong, I am reminded of cultural advances our country has made that I am pretty embarassed had to be made in the first place.  Not because they are not necessary, but because it is appalling the way people have been treated by our country in the past. 

I hope you enjoy the new format.
Love,

Johnny

TEST YOUR IQ and Get a FREE HOT DOG

I just tried taking one of those "TEST YOUR IQ" quizzes. I should have known something was up when I got a popup ad after the first question and nearly all of the questions are really easy. When I finished I couldn't get my brilliant test results until I gave my cell phone number. Once I gave them the good ol' 555-1234 number, clearly I am a genius, I was told that my results were only one screen away, as long as I agreed to sign up for some web service like online dating or find out who is searching for you or something dumb like that. I quickly or maybe not so quickly realized that this was not a legitimate IQ test and I was not a genius. Perhaps 10 questions is not enough to determine if you are truly a genius.

This has reminded me of a story. A long time ago, I know it is long because it was before I had any children and that seems like a really long time ago; my wife, Amy, and I were shopping at the mall. We were new to the area and this was not a mall that we knew very well. Amy stepped into a store and I decided to hang outside the store and look around. While I was standing there I was approached by this very nice lady with a clip board. Now usually when someone with a clip board approaches in the mall you quickly divert your eyes to some store you would never go in and start running away. But this time was different. She walked up to me quietly and asked if she could ask me a few questions. She even said that I could get a "FREE HOT DOG" if I was willing to help her out. My goodness, a kind person who would give me a free hot dog, if I only answered a few questions. So I said, OK. It seemed pretty harmless. A few questions and then the free hot dog.

Then she said, I will need you to come to our office, which was a few stores down. OK now this was getting a little complicated. How would I leave and not let Amy know that I would be a few stores down securing a free lunch for the both of us. But don't worry, because Amy walked out right as I was about to turn down the hot dog lady. So I quickly said to Amy, come with me I need to answer some questions and we will get a free lunch. Amy was not happy but she decided to come along anyway (this was prior to her developing her keen bad idea sniffing ability).

Unfortunately we would have to go into separate little offices to answer questions. They were actually little booths with pulled curtains. You could pretty much hear everything going on in the store. And I could hear Amy answering her marketing questions.

Yes. No. I don't know. Yes. No. Why do you need to know that? Yes. What? No. NO. NO. Johnny I am getting out of here.

Oops, I better go.

I learned that day that none of the clip board people can be trusted.

But lately I am understanding that it is not their fault. While Satan may not be behind the online IQ test or clip board people at the mall, he is behind plenty of phishing techniques that try to pull me away from God every day. It is easy to blame those slick computer spammers and hackers or the crafty clip board people, but it is my shortcomings and sinful nature that is to blame. It is probably not a sin to have fun with a game on the internet or to do something crazy and talk to a marketing person, but it is our purpose for participating that gets us into trouble.

I was most certain that I would get the highest or at least close to the highest IQ for the day, since I am so incredibly smart. Obviously I am personally responsible for my enormous IQ. I suppose I was hoping for a little self recognition and ego inflation. With all of that ego there is not much room for God.

And who can pass up a hot dog and a FREE one at that. Another desire for inflation, although, the hot dogs will stick around a little longer than the IQ test results. Food gets in the way of many things in my life. Unfortunately it is mostly God.

I started a new way of reading the Bible yesterday. It is not my own idea, it is from John MacArthur. I will read all of 1 John once a day every day for thirty days. By the end of thirty days I should have a good grasp for what is said in the book and be in a better position to apply its teachings to my life on a daily, hourly, minutely (pretty sure this is not a word, but you get my point) basis. Next, I move on to the Book of John. 1st seven chapters for thirty days, next seven chapters next thirty days, final chapters next thirty days. Then I move on to another small book. In about 2 1/2 years I will have ready the entire New Testament and hopefully retained most of it. Without that constant reminder in my soul of God's desires for me, it is very easy to let my personal and worldly desires get in the way.

This is the last verse of the Book of 1 John. "Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts." 1 John 5:21.