“Women should
not be pastors! They shouldn’t even
preach!”
Those were the words I opened with.
These two sentences quickly made me the villain in the debate to a room made up
of mostly women. But I had just gotten
started.
The year was 1997. I was standing in front of my Bible College
speech class having just started my argument in a debate about “CHIVALRY,”
courteous behavior, especially toward women.
I was assigned to argue against it.
I grew up in a single parent home:
Mom, my 2 sisters and me. I
learned early on to treat women with resect.
So how was I suppose to win a debate, arguing against a principle so
ingrained in my life?
“Women should
not be pastors! They shouldn’t even
preach!”
[Pause for
effect]
“Those are
hurtful words—especially to a woman who has the call of God in their lives and
the burden in their heart to proclaim God’s life-changing Word to the lost,
hurting, and broken!”
[Heads are
nodding. I had them right where I wanted
them]
“In the garages
of America, fathers have been pulling their sons aside for the sole purpose of
teaching them this lesson: ‘Mijo, women
are weak and frail. Too weak to open
doors for themselves. So Mijo, you must
do it for them”
I won!
It didn’t matter what my opponent argued, her points were powerless
because I reshaped truth to make chivalry the enemy.
I can’t help but realize how the devil has
been winning debates like this since the beginning of time: Now the
serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He
said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the
garden’?” The
woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but
God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the
garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly
die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”Genesis
3:1-5
Reshaping the argument! It’s no longer a right and wrong thing. It’s a “God’s holding our on you” thing. The trap has been set, the bait is dangled
before us. Before you know it, we’ve not
only eaten the fruit but we’re sharing it with others: “It’s not that bad. It’s yummy!”
And that’s the problem. Sin is
fun. The enemy isn’t dangling brussels sprouts, trips to the dentists and never
ending lines at the DMV before us. It be
easy to say: “Get thee behind me,
Satan!” if that were the case.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the
tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining
wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was
with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:6
It looks good and is desirable. We want it.
But sin will always cost you more than you want to spend and take you
further than you wanted to go.
Perhaps that’s your story today. Sin was fun but it cost you too much.
The GOOD NEWS is: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1
John 1:9
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