Eighth Week Bible in 90 Days

"Ideal Womanhood"
Bill Senyard
March 21, 2010
'Olah service
We are reminded that 'Olah refers to burnt sacrifice and that Spiritual Renewal (growth) rises out of disruption. This was a disruptive service for many but especially the women who were primed to participate with the sermon. It is highly recommended that one listen to a tape of this service, available in the LMCC Bookstore.
Today's culture is unfair to women, since a woman's value and identity is judged by beauty, freedom from blemish,etc. but begs the question "where is your soul?" To answer this, we look at Biblical ideal characteristics of a woman, a more radical belief relying on their willingness to lay aside deceipt and instead honor God developing a greater sensitivity to the presence of God. Proverbs 31 gives these characteristics, which today, seem unattainable.
Several weeks ago, men were invited by God to participate in a redo: the Adam narrat5ive. Adam needed to "look" right instead of going to God, to become filled with the Spirit. Likewise, it is woman's task to redo the Eve narrative when she fell to temptation instead of asking God or deferring to Adam who was commanded to "rule and subue" thus covering his wife. Instead she trades her intimacy with God and Adam for an "illusion of control" and her attainment of glory for "feelings on a level with God". To help those women present to particate in "disruption" (for spiritual growth), they were invited to find another woman and tell their story. My wife could not do that and consequently was disrupted for being unable to know "what to do". I pointed out a nearby lady she could go visit with but she didn't go. Now, both of us had been "disrupted". The last week or so I had become aware that, like Adam, I hadn't "manned up" for my poor decisions. Now, my wife could have "submitted" to my suggestion of just going and visiting with another woman, but she couldn't. By the grace of God we were able to discuss our experience the next day. This is the way God worked: We had stopped for dinner before the 'Olah service and as I looked at her, a wave of emotion came over me and I told her how unbelieveable beautiful she was. She told me later that this was the first time in years that I had genuinely acknowledged her hair and how she looked in a loving, postitive way. God's hand was preparing me and I, unlike Adam, was preparing her for the 'Olah sacrifice she would experience that evening. I pray for our spiritual growth together. It is an unbelieveable journey, one of intimacy and redemption, a journey from man's natural spirit to God's holy spirit and it happened at Lookout after many, many years.