Words of Encouragement

Encouragement seems like such a small thing to give. But, for the recipients, it might play a large role in the decisions facing them at the time.

One of the most significant acts of encouragement that we have been a part of came about a year ago, when God sent us to a very small church in a small town in North Carolina.

My husband had been asked to help place a headstone at the grave of a woman that had died a few months earlier. While at the small mountain cemetery, he met the caretaker,  who told him of his mother's church. There was nothing special about it; just a small church with a small congregation on Sundays.

The following Sunday morning, we felt inclined to visit the church. Once there, no one showed up for almost an hour. We were about to leave, thinking we possibly had the wrong place. Since we didn't know the area, we had searched out its location on the satellite map.

We approached the little old lady that came and unlocked the door, and introduced ourselves. She told us her husband had pastored the church, but since he had died some months earlier, she was trying to keep the church going. Partway through her tale, another woman showed up. These two women were sisters-in-law, but both had lost their husbands recently. This pastor's wife went on to tell us that most of the time, it was just the two of them that turned out for the services.

She asked my husband to speak. He felt humbled by the request, and spoke about Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. His message emphasized the fact that Nehemiah did in 52 days what was not accomplished in the 150 years previous. Not knowing until he was finished, he spoke the very words the faithful woman needed to hear. 

She also told us that she had been debating whether or not to shut the church down. For several weeks, she had been seeking an answer to her prayer. Her dilemma was that it was a Baptist church, and we all know that Baptists, as a denomination,  don't 'believe' women should hold positions of authority in church. Yet, she felt a strong desire to keep having services, even though it was against the denomination with which she associated herself.

She needed to know if her wanting to keep the church open was really God speaking to her, or her own desire to see her husband's work continue. The words given to my husband to say was the encouragement she had been looking for. (Obviously, God's call is of higher authority than that of any denomination.)

When God sends us on a mission, we never know the extent to which it will be the encouragement someone needs to make a life-altering decision.



A Woman's Place

"Women in Israel have been partners in defending Israel. Those in Israel who think a woman’s place is only in the home, they don’t get it. In Israel, women defend our homes. As I said last year at a ceremony in which we had air force cadets finishing their pilot school training, and there were five female pilots there that earned their wings. I said there that in Israel, women not only sit in the fighter pilot’s seat, they’ll sit anywhere they want. Shabbat Shalom to all from Jerusalem." ~Benjamin Netanyahu, Oct.19, 2012

The quote from Benjamin Netanyahu reminds me of a book I read a few weeks ago, 'When Life and Beliefs Collide' by Carolyn Custis James. She shows, using the definition of the original Hebrew word ezer, translated as 'help-meet' in Genesis, means a lot more than a woman put in a position to 'benefit' the man. The word ezer in other places in scripture is used to describe God himself when fighting for Israel and her people. So, ezer not only describes the 'helper' as in 'help-meet', it also describes the warrior, which is God fighting on the side that chooses Him.

Examples of these scriptures are Psalms 33:20, 70:5, 115:9-11,121:1-2, 124:8. Who better to understand the ezer of God than David, who sought God continually while he was on the run from Saul? Hosea 13:9,  Deut. 33:26 and 29 speak about God being the 'help' to His people. My favorite, Deut. 33:7, says this: And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be you an help to him from his enemies.

If the same word is used to describe help from God and the help to Adam~and therefore all men~then how high is the expectation of women in God's eyes? He wants us [women] to be in a position to help Him, and others, in a capacity that only He can give. Examples in scripture are Deborah, Abigail, and Esther, to name a few. The women were all faced with issues that dealt with not only their own personal future, but the future of Israel, as a land and as a people. The Bible is full of women who rose to the challenge, went against tradition, ceremony, and concepts acceptable to everyone else, and chose to do what God asked of them. Not because they were female, but because they were obedient.

About a month ago, a clear message was given to my husband and I. The message was that we make it publicly known that we stand with Israel. I am not an Israeli soldier, as are the women pictured at the top of the page, but I fight in God's army just the same. Times are changing~finally~so that women can answer the call given to them, whether in the literal army, or the spiritual army.

A woman's place is to be an ezer, a helper, in the way that God created her to be in the beginning. In His image, fighting His battles, along side the man. We women must step into the role created for us, because there is no one else to fill it.