Weak Women and Worms

Weak women. Are you one? Would you even know it, if you are?

In the last days (all the days from the ascension of Jesus Christ until his return), people will become lovers of self. They will do all the bad things. (Just look at 2 Timothy 3:2-4) But the worst of the worst is this:

They have the appearance of godliness but they deny its power. (2 Timothy 3:5) 

When you look at them, they have it together. They're in church on Sunday, they're in ladies Bible study, sitting next to you. They're singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School, serving on committees and going on mission trips. All these people who appear godly, but never allow the power of the Holy Spirit to transform their lives on the inside. Ouch. Chris calls that the unregenerate church member. It's so easy to go about our business, assuming that the people we go to church with are saved. But that's just not true. Sadly, there are a lot of church members who have never actually become new creations. (Could that be one reason church can be so hard sometimes?) These people joined the church as if they were joining a book club. Sign me up, they said. No regeneration. No transformation. No power! They have the appearance of godliness but they deny its power.

(Can I just say something? If that just struck a nerve with you, if you thought, "That's me!" when I described that unregenerate church member...It is never too late to be changed. It's never too late to fully accept the power that the Holy Spirit offers to those he transforms! Please let me know if that's you so I can pray with you and pray for you and help you get pointed in the right direction.)

As if all that didn't step on our toes enough, Paul keeps going. There's a big problem here in Paul's day, and it is still a big problem in our day. Weak women. False teachers. Paul has written pages and pages now to Timothy, warning him of the false teachers that are so prevalent in Ephesus. And if you think for three and a half seconds, I bet you can come up with a few false teachers in our day too. But here's the problem with these false teachers- they needed a way to spread their lies. So guess who they went after? The women. Women were the doorway to the home back then. And for the most part, I'd say that's still true today. In most homes and families, the woman is the one who keeps the calendar, makes scheduling decisions, oversees the day-to-day happenings of the family. She's the one who looks after the children most of the time, does the shopping and keeps everyone in line. And most of the time, it's the woman who thinks about spiritual matters. 

But actually, these false teachers didn't just worm their way into households looking for women, they wormed their way into households looking for weak women. Paul describes these women in verse 6 as women who are" burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth." These false teachers look for weak women who don't really know what they believe or why they believe what they believe, women who are trapped in sin or just plain old led astray by various passions. Maybe their passion is their work or their kids or their friends or their hobbies. Whatever these passions are, they're distracting these women from arriving at a knowledge of the truth!

So check yourself, women. Are you weak? Is there a worm in your house? Are you believing the false teaching being whispered in your ear because you simply don't know the difference between a truth and a lie or because you're so busy, wrapped up in your various passions? Once these worms, these false teachers, get through you into your household, they will go after your children, after your husband, after everything precious to you. And remember, they don't scream lies in your ear, they whisper lies that are so subtle you don't even realize they're lies.

You must be so careful who you listen do, dear woman. You must be so careful what teaching you allow into your home. 

Hang with me - next week we are finishing up Paul's letters to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4. I promise, you're gonna want to stick around for that one! There are some things we need to watch out for! 

I want to end this blog on a positive note, on a precious promise, but the gravity of the subject matter we've been working through is weighing heavy on my heart. I don't want you to miss the fact that there are unregenerate church members who look like they have it all together, but inside they're an un-saved hot mess. Ask God if that's you. Ask him if you're a weak woman who's been letting worms into your home. Ask Him to show you and He will. So the precious promise I will leave you with is this:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

Just ask.

These Precious Promises

Allow me to introduce myself. 

I'm Amber, wife to Chris, mother to Matt, Jake, Karalyn, Katie, Kylie and Ben, plus two little babies I never got to meet. I'm a pastor's wife, chef, chauffeur, housekeeper, finder-of-all-missing-things, seamstress, homework-checker, errand-runner, grocery list maker and shopper, couponer, story reader, piano player, worship leader, encourager, kisser of owies and washer-of-all-the-little-people. 

Now before you get the wrong idea about me and place me on a pedestal of some sort, let me shoot straight with you. We've eaten out three times this week (and by eating out, I mean I slung a paper bag with some fried food in it towards my kids and told them to eat up). My husband does all of the morning drop-offs while I mope around in my slippers and robe, mourning the loss of my beauty sleep. My house is a WRECK and has been since Christmas. I don't know that I could find anything amidst all the chaos right now. The last thing I sewed for my daughter came apart at the seams. My kids don't ever have homework, so checking it is the easiest thing I do. I haven't made a list for groceries in quite a while, so we are eating whatever is in the freezer, or more accurately, whatever is in the sack I throw at my kids. I DO ROCK THE COUPONING. I dread bedtime because reading those stories takes FOREVER. I don't get to play the piano for my own enjoyment nearly as often as I'd like. I feel so incredibly inadequate as a leader of worship in our praise band. Encouraging is sometimes hard for me because I just want to smack you and tell you to get over it. Getting bandaids for all those owies is one of my least favorite things. Seriously, you don't need a bandaid for something I can't even see. I hate bath time so much that we bathe the kids on a pattern. If Bath Day is A and No Bath Day is B, we do ABABAB some weeks. But many others we do ABBABBBBBABBBBBBBB. Grab a wipey and get yourself clean, I say.

So most days I feel totally inadequate and like I am failing completely. So when I come across a verse like this, I cling to it with everything I am. 

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:4)

Word.

Divine power. Godliness. Glory. Excellence. Precious and very great promises. Divine nature.

His word is so full of precious and very great promises. And He gives them to us so that we can participate in the divine nature. We are not slaves to sin any longer. We are children of the One True King, partakers in the divine nature, co-heirs with Jesus Christ himself. Hallelujah.

I don't have to be all the things that I think I have to be. You want to talk about corruption because of sinful desire? That's me, trying to Be All and Help All and Save All and Serve All and Do All. If people look at me and think, "Wow, she's got it all together!" they don't get to see Jesus in me. Anything good you see in me is Jesus, because I am corrupt.

So what are these very great and precious promises? They are scattered in the pages of God's Word. Throughout Scripture, we find a treasure trove full of precious promises, things that God has promised He will do for us, his beloved. The greatest promise of all? 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life." 

That's John 3:16, in case you don't know. He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die so that we don't have to spend eternity apart from him in Hell. We get everlasting life. What an incredible promise! He gives us everything we need for life and godliness here on earth and he gives us eternity with him...IF we believe. 

Oh, these precious promises.