Eve- What Happened?
Eve was given to the world as a beautiful, life-saving lover, full of mercy and strength! She was inviting, alluring, captivating.
Do we see many women in the world like this today? Why do many of us feel the complete opposite? Why is it that even when relationships are good, there is still this bottomless pit that says it's still not enough?
Many of us are just plain tired, our lives are filled with routine, chores and deadlines. Efficiency has taken the place of adventure for a lot of us.
A Woman's Deepest Question
Most women doubt that they have any genuine beauty to unveil. We tend to either strive for beauty or feel we should simply resign. New diets, hair color, outfits, work outs, something new to work on in our life, new discipline. These are not all bad things to strive for, but when that becomes our driving passion to feel beauty and it fails, we feel we ourselves have failed and feel we might as well resign.
We as women are usually the hardest on ourselves, we judge ourselves every time we pass by a mirror. We are more aware of our shortcomings than anyone else.
Every little girl, and every little boy is asking the same question, but in different ways, we all want to know if we have what it takes? Little girls want to know, am I lovely? It's why we twirl in our skirts for our daddies, play dress-up, anything to capture attention.
Why is this question still sought after so much?
The Fall of Eve
In the beginning man and women were both innocent (Gen. 2:25). But, something dreadful happened that we are reaping the results of every day of our lives. Thankfully we can also learn the chances given to us every day to reverse what happened!
You see Eve's stumbling block was that she was so easily convinced that God was holding out on her. Convinced that she couldn't trust His heart toward her. Convinced that in order to have the best possible life, she must take matters into her own hands. How often I fall prey to this same lie.
The Curse
Gen. 3:16-18. You need to look closely into the curses here to fully gain understanding of our life's struggles today. You see Adams curse wasn't simply dealing with thorns and thistles, but more describing the daily grind men go through. Fear of not measuring up enough, fear of failing, not being able to provide. Failure is a man's worst fear.
Eve also can not be limited to simply pain in childbirth, that would let all the single ladies off the hook:) No, women is cursed with loneliness, with the urge to control, and with the dominance of men.
As women we often shy away from feeling vulnerable. At times we are far from inviting, we are guarded. A lot of our energy is spent trying to hide our true selves, and control our worlds to have some sense of security.
Dominating Women
Fallen Eve controls her relationships, she refuses to be vulnerable, protecting her heart against being hurt.
Controlling women are those who don't trust anyone else to drive their cars, help in our kitchens, speak at our retreats or meetings, carry something for us.
We are often the ones who receive the promotion, plan the perfect birthday parties, Martha Stewart perfectionist types.
Yet, we have never considered that by living a controlling and domineering life, we are really refusing to trust our God!
Desolate Women
These are the types ruled by the aching within them. They are consumed with a hunger for relationship. Sadly though, we tend to hide our true selves. We are certain if others truly knew us, they wouldn't like us. Hiding women are those of us who never speak up in meetings, pass by a beautiful dress in a store window, knowing we could never pull it off. We stay busy at gatherings rather than enter the conversations, we dismiss every compliment, we relinquish decisions to others.
We tend to hide behind our make-up, our humor, angry silence or punishing withdrawals. We hide our truest selves. And so by hiding, we take matters into our own hands. We don't turn to our God with our broken and desperate hearts.
Indulging
Whether we tend to dominate and control, or withdraw and hide, or maybe a little of both, the ache remains.
So, we buy ourselves something nice, we read something, watch something, eat something, daydream, find some kind of substitute that might work for awhile to fill that ache, but nothing ever truly fills us. These are what we give our hearts away to instead of giving them to the heart of God.
We don't need to be ashamed of our hearts ache; that we need, hunger and thirst for much more. It is our unquenchable need for more that drives us to our God!!
Eve's Lingering Fear
Women's worst fear is fear of abandonment. That we will be left alone. This is a lie and we need to see it for that. We need to stop substituting our aching with things that don't last and fall more and more in love with our Creator who loves us and gave Himself for us, that we could be free!! He loves us with such a passion, and there is never any real reason for us to feel alone. He is the same yesterday, today and forever and He is with us always! Psalm 139.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Captivating Chapter 2
What Eve alone can tell?
We've probably all dreamed of being Cinderella at some point, but the desire of a woman’s heart and the realities of a woman’s life seem an ocean apart sometimes.
Women sometimes struggle with a sense of self worth. Am I worth more than simply a household appliance, nurse maid, exedera.
Our struggle with self worth and the emptiness we feel sometimes points us to our creator, to understanding who we are in HIm and falling more in love with Him every day!
To gain a new perspective of women, we're going back to the begining of it all.
The Crown of Creation
When thinking of creation, think of the most beautiful piece of art you’ve seen. Creation itself is a great work of art, and all works after it are echoes of the original.
Gen.1:2 It begins, the dark before the first notes in a symphony.
Gen. 1:6,9 A canvas is set for Gods’ masterpiece to begin. Now comes color.
Gen. 1:11, 14, 20, 24 The masterpiece is becoming more intimate and intricate. Flowers, trees, birds, wild animals.
The masterpiece keeps building, beauty becoming greater with each creation. What was once formless and empty is now overflowing with life, color, sound and movement in a thousand variations. Creation is coming to its climax, creation of man.
Gen 2:7 The masterpiece has come to completion yet the Master says something’s not good, not quite right. Something is missing, that something is Eve, women.
Gen 2:21-23 She is the final, astonishing work of God, women. She is the Masters finishing touch. God’s creation wouldn’t have ever been complete without women, femininity. There is purpose, meaning, importance, fulfillment we bring as women to this earth.
What Does Eve Speak to Us?
She has a crucial role to play, a destiny of her own. She too bears the image of God, as only femininity can. We as women reveal a part of God that only shines through women.
We discover God is relational to His core, He longs to share adventures with us, and He has a beauty to unveil.
Romance and Relationships
God said something was missing; it was not good for man to be alone.Think of it, Adam walks without sin and has an amazing intimate relationship with God himself, but still something was missing?! That something was femininity, talk about feeling significant!
Women are relational! When boys fight, it’s all about who can punch the hardest, when girls fight, it’s all about who hurt who’s feelings, she looked at me funny, said this thing, didn’t do this, did do this, it’s all about relationship and feelings.
Men don’t often know specifics of relationships, women do. Who’s dating who, getting married, size of a new baby born, who’s upset with who. It comes second nature to us.
We also often define ourselves according to our relationships; single, engaged, married, separated, stay-at-home mom, grandparent, widowed. This isn’t a weakness in women, but a glory. This reflects God’s heart.
God’s heart for relationship
Our deep desire for relationship and intimacy speaks to us of God’s deep desire for relationship and intimacy with us, His children. The whole story of the Bible is a love story between God and His people. He yearns for us, He cares.
Isaiah 49:14,15,18
Jer. 24:7
Matt. 23:37
Not only does God long For us, but He longs to be Loved by us! Have you seen God this way, longing to be loved by you?
We see him as strong and powerful, but not always yearning to be desired. He wants to be a priority, He gave us choice in this. As I was pondering this, I thought about how God, being God the Creator of all things, could have made us to be and act like robots, to walk around saying how much we need Him. But, instead He longs for relationship with us. It means so much more to Him when we choose Him, when we long for Him because we love Him, to say we need Him!
The first command is to love Him, Matt. 12:29,30. Women want to be sought after with the whole heart of her pursuer, and God feels this way too! When we truly begin a love affair with our creator God, it completely changes our perspective of Him and of ourselves. We are made in His image, He “gets” us completely like no one else! I know as a women, that is one of the greatest forms of love, when you feel someone "gets" you. How amazing to rest in the knowledge that our heavenly Father loves us and gets us, He always understands and is always there for us!
Women speak of the qualities of God. She is inviting, tender, vulnerable, embodies mercy, and is also fierce and fiercely devoted. We have a natural and strong protective instinct, to protect what is precious to us. God is like this too! His Word says He’s a jealous God, Ex. 20:5.
An Adventure to Share
Gen 1:26-28 The mission God gave to man to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over every living thing is given to both Adam AND Eve. She is a partner in this great adventure. All we were created on this earth to do; we were created do it together!
Yes, as women we are to respect and submit to our husbands, but in God's eyes we are equal, we are not loved less than man because we were created after him.
When God creates Eve the word He calls her is an ezer kenegdo. Gen 2:18. This phrase is hard to translate, but the attempts don’t quite cut it either. Eve’s been labeled a helper, companion, or help meet. The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the Old Testament, and these are used to describe God himself, when you need Him to come through for you desperately!
Deut. 33:26,29
Psalm 121:1,2
Psalm 20:1,2
Psalm 33:20
Psalm 115:9-11
Most of these contexts speak of life and death situations and God being your only hope. Your ezer. A better translation for ezer would be “lifesaver”. Kenegdo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart.
God does not call us to a safe life; think of Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Esther, and of the friends of God in the Old Testament. Also, Mary, Lazarus, Peter, James and John, Priscilla and Aquila, any of the friends of God in the New Testament. God calls us to a life filled with risks so He can be our ezer, our lifesaver! As we prepare to move to Africa next year this has become very real to me! For over a year God was speaking to John and I about moving, but every time we would respond from our flesh, it's not safe, there's no way we could live and raise our girls there! But, when we finally said yes to God, we realized that being where He is calling us to be is the safest place we could be and that no matter where we are we are in His hands! He's a big God and can take care of us! You don’t need a lifesaver when your mission is to be a couch potato:)
Our longing as women to share life together as a great adventure comes straight from Gods’ heart. He does not want to be an option in our lives. He does not want to be an appendage, tagalong, neither do us women. God is essential, He wants us to need him, desperately. We are essential, we have an irreplaceable role to play. Women are endowed from God with a fierce devotion, an ability to suffer great hardships, a vision to make the world a better place.
Beauty to Unveil
Beauty is essential to God, beauty is the essence of God! Nature is not just functional, it is beautiful! God could have made the same things that we use for function, but be boring and all look the same. Instead, we see intricate designs on a wild flower, a weed! Our God takes pleasure in creating beauty, enjoying His beauty and watching us enjoy His beauty!
With such beauty here, imagine the beauty created for us to enjoy in heaven! Rev.4:3,6. Not only does God create beauty, He is beauty, beyond description! God wants to be seen and for us to be captivated by what we see!
God creates women, beautiful! We shouldn't follow after the beauty the world throws our way, it’s often a cheap version, but we also can’t throw beauty out the window and say it doesn’t matter. It does!
God gave Eve a beautiful form and a beautiful spirit, beauty is both.
Think of artwork depicting the women’s body, not many are done of a naked man, for one thing a man would look ridiculous lying on a bed buck naked, half-covered with a sheet. It doesn’t fit the essence of man, something seems lazy about it. His essence is strength in action, He bears the image of God, who is a warrior! On the other hand, women just don't seem to fit in a scene of brutal combat, or chopping a tree down.
Why beauty Matters
Beauty is powerful. It may be the most powerful thing on earth.
First, beauty speaks. It’s the rainbow after the storm, the beautiful baby in your arms after delivery, a quiet star filled night after a long hard day, the smile from a loved one when you’re down. It’s like coming into a beautiful place, a place of comfort and rest. All is good, all is well.
A women at rest and comfortable in her feminine beauty is a joy to be around, she is lovely. In her presence your heart stops holding its breath. This is also why a woman striving and not comfortable in who God made her to be can be restless to be around. It says that all is not well, you feel worried.
Beauty also invites. Remember a beautiful piece of music, your heart just wants to linger there and soak in the beauty of the melody. Beauty goes deeper than what we can just see.
Beauty nourishes. It is food to our souls. Women’s breasts are beautiful, and with them she nourishes her baby.
Beauty comforts. There is healing in being enraptured in beauty. It’s why we send flowers to ones in grieving.
Beauty inspires us. Think of the beautiful life of Mother Theresa and others like her, beautiful lives lived out doing beautiful things inspire us!
Beauty is transcendent. It is our most immediate experience of the eternal. Sometimes beauty is so deep it pierces us with longing, for what? For a life living with our creator in heaven for all eternity. Beauty draws us to God. One of my favorite places to spend time with God is outside surrounded by His nature, I feel drawn to Him, closer to Him.
But Why a Beauty to Unveil?
One of the deepest ways a woman bears the image of God is in her mystery. Something to be explored. God yearns to be known. Jer. 29:13. I think of the things we are still finding out about Him, the greater our technology gets, the more we can learn new things about Him! Women don’t just want to give all of themselves right away. There is a process to getting all of us, a courting, a building of trust, we enjoy being sought after.
In Closing
It is God who created and longs for romance, it is God who longs to be our ezer, it is God who reveals beauty as essential to life. We are created in His image, that’s why we crave these things too. Every women has a beauty to unveil, all her own!
What Eve alone can tell?
We've probably all dreamed of being Cinderella at some point, but the desire of a woman’s heart and the realities of a woman’s life seem an ocean apart sometimes.
Women sometimes struggle with a sense of self worth. Am I worth more than simply a household appliance, nurse maid, exedera.
Our struggle with self worth and the emptiness we feel sometimes points us to our creator, to understanding who we are in HIm and falling more in love with Him every day!
To gain a new perspective of women, we're going back to the begining of it all.
The Crown of Creation
When thinking of creation, think of the most beautiful piece of art you’ve seen. Creation itself is a great work of art, and all works after it are echoes of the original.
Gen.1:2 It begins, the dark before the first notes in a symphony.
Gen. 1:6,9 A canvas is set for Gods’ masterpiece to begin. Now comes color.
Gen. 1:11, 14, 20, 24 The masterpiece is becoming more intimate and intricate. Flowers, trees, birds, wild animals.
The masterpiece keeps building, beauty becoming greater with each creation. What was once formless and empty is now overflowing with life, color, sound and movement in a thousand variations. Creation is coming to its climax, creation of man.
Gen 2:7 The masterpiece has come to completion yet the Master says something’s not good, not quite right. Something is missing, that something is Eve, women.
Gen 2:21-23 She is the final, astonishing work of God, women. She is the Masters finishing touch. God’s creation wouldn’t have ever been complete without women, femininity. There is purpose, meaning, importance, fulfillment we bring as women to this earth.
What Does Eve Speak to Us?
She has a crucial role to play, a destiny of her own. She too bears the image of God, as only femininity can. We as women reveal a part of God that only shines through women.
We discover God is relational to His core, He longs to share adventures with us, and He has a beauty to unveil.
Romance and Relationships
God said something was missing; it was not good for man to be alone.Think of it, Adam walks without sin and has an amazing intimate relationship with God himself, but still something was missing?! That something was femininity, talk about feeling significant!
Women are relational! When boys fight, it’s all about who can punch the hardest, when girls fight, it’s all about who hurt who’s feelings, she looked at me funny, said this thing, didn’t do this, did do this, it’s all about relationship and feelings.
Men don’t often know specifics of relationships, women do. Who’s dating who, getting married, size of a new baby born, who’s upset with who. It comes second nature to us.
We also often define ourselves according to our relationships; single, engaged, married, separated, stay-at-home mom, grandparent, widowed. This isn’t a weakness in women, but a glory. This reflects God’s heart.
God’s heart for relationship
Our deep desire for relationship and intimacy speaks to us of God’s deep desire for relationship and intimacy with us, His children. The whole story of the Bible is a love story between God and His people. He yearns for us, He cares.
Isaiah 49:14,15,18
Jer. 24:7
Matt. 23:37
Not only does God long For us, but He longs to be Loved by us! Have you seen God this way, longing to be loved by you?
We see him as strong and powerful, but not always yearning to be desired. He wants to be a priority, He gave us choice in this. As I was pondering this, I thought about how God, being God the Creator of all things, could have made us to be and act like robots, to walk around saying how much we need Him. But, instead He longs for relationship with us. It means so much more to Him when we choose Him, when we long for Him because we love Him, to say we need Him!
The first command is to love Him, Matt. 12:29,30. Women want to be sought after with the whole heart of her pursuer, and God feels this way too! When we truly begin a love affair with our creator God, it completely changes our perspective of Him and of ourselves. We are made in His image, He “gets” us completely like no one else! I know as a women, that is one of the greatest forms of love, when you feel someone "gets" you. How amazing to rest in the knowledge that our heavenly Father loves us and gets us, He always understands and is always there for us!
Women speak of the qualities of God. She is inviting, tender, vulnerable, embodies mercy, and is also fierce and fiercely devoted. We have a natural and strong protective instinct, to protect what is precious to us. God is like this too! His Word says He’s a jealous God, Ex. 20:5.
An Adventure to Share
Gen 1:26-28 The mission God gave to man to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over every living thing is given to both Adam AND Eve. She is a partner in this great adventure. All we were created on this earth to do; we were created do it together!
Yes, as women we are to respect and submit to our husbands, but in God's eyes we are equal, we are not loved less than man because we were created after him.
When God creates Eve the word He calls her is an ezer kenegdo. Gen 2:18. This phrase is hard to translate, but the attempts don’t quite cut it either. Eve’s been labeled a helper, companion, or help meet. The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the Old Testament, and these are used to describe God himself, when you need Him to come through for you desperately!
Deut. 33:26,29
Psalm 121:1,2
Psalm 20:1,2
Psalm 33:20
Psalm 115:9-11
Most of these contexts speak of life and death situations and God being your only hope. Your ezer. A better translation for ezer would be “lifesaver”. Kenegdo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart.
God does not call us to a safe life; think of Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Esther, and of the friends of God in the Old Testament. Also, Mary, Lazarus, Peter, James and John, Priscilla and Aquila, any of the friends of God in the New Testament. God calls us to a life filled with risks so He can be our ezer, our lifesaver! As we prepare to move to Africa next year this has become very real to me! For over a year God was speaking to John and I about moving, but every time we would respond from our flesh, it's not safe, there's no way we could live and raise our girls there! But, when we finally said yes to God, we realized that being where He is calling us to be is the safest place we could be and that no matter where we are we are in His hands! He's a big God and can take care of us! You don’t need a lifesaver when your mission is to be a couch potato:)
Our longing as women to share life together as a great adventure comes straight from Gods’ heart. He does not want to be an option in our lives. He does not want to be an appendage, tagalong, neither do us women. God is essential, He wants us to need him, desperately. We are essential, we have an irreplaceable role to play. Women are endowed from God with a fierce devotion, an ability to suffer great hardships, a vision to make the world a better place.
Beauty to Unveil
Beauty is essential to God, beauty is the essence of God! Nature is not just functional, it is beautiful! God could have made the same things that we use for function, but be boring and all look the same. Instead, we see intricate designs on a wild flower, a weed! Our God takes pleasure in creating beauty, enjoying His beauty and watching us enjoy His beauty!
With such beauty here, imagine the beauty created for us to enjoy in heaven! Rev.4:3,6. Not only does God create beauty, He is beauty, beyond description! God wants to be seen and for us to be captivated by what we see!
God creates women, beautiful! We shouldn't follow after the beauty the world throws our way, it’s often a cheap version, but we also can’t throw beauty out the window and say it doesn’t matter. It does!
God gave Eve a beautiful form and a beautiful spirit, beauty is both.
Think of artwork depicting the women’s body, not many are done of a naked man, for one thing a man would look ridiculous lying on a bed buck naked, half-covered with a sheet. It doesn’t fit the essence of man, something seems lazy about it. His essence is strength in action, He bears the image of God, who is a warrior! On the other hand, women just don't seem to fit in a scene of brutal combat, or chopping a tree down.
Why beauty Matters
Beauty is powerful. It may be the most powerful thing on earth.
First, beauty speaks. It’s the rainbow after the storm, the beautiful baby in your arms after delivery, a quiet star filled night after a long hard day, the smile from a loved one when you’re down. It’s like coming into a beautiful place, a place of comfort and rest. All is good, all is well.
A women at rest and comfortable in her feminine beauty is a joy to be around, she is lovely. In her presence your heart stops holding its breath. This is also why a woman striving and not comfortable in who God made her to be can be restless to be around. It says that all is not well, you feel worried.
Beauty also invites. Remember a beautiful piece of music, your heart just wants to linger there and soak in the beauty of the melody. Beauty goes deeper than what we can just see.
Beauty nourishes. It is food to our souls. Women’s breasts are beautiful, and with them she nourishes her baby.
Beauty comforts. There is healing in being enraptured in beauty. It’s why we send flowers to ones in grieving.
Beauty inspires us. Think of the beautiful life of Mother Theresa and others like her, beautiful lives lived out doing beautiful things inspire us!
Beauty is transcendent. It is our most immediate experience of the eternal. Sometimes beauty is so deep it pierces us with longing, for what? For a life living with our creator in heaven for all eternity. Beauty draws us to God. One of my favorite places to spend time with God is outside surrounded by His nature, I feel drawn to Him, closer to Him.
But Why a Beauty to Unveil?
One of the deepest ways a woman bears the image of God is in her mystery. Something to be explored. God yearns to be known. Jer. 29:13. I think of the things we are still finding out about Him, the greater our technology gets, the more we can learn new things about Him! Women don’t just want to give all of themselves right away. There is a process to getting all of us, a courting, a building of trust, we enjoy being sought after.
In Closing
It is God who created and longs for romance, it is God who longs to be our ezer, it is God who reveals beauty as essential to life. We are created in His image, that’s why we crave these things too. Every women has a beauty to unveil, all her own!
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