From Woodstock up: The Journey

Hang in there with me. Before we get to the meat of the subject we have to read the back story on how you may get to be one of those special influencers according to brother Paul as he instructed Titus…

ON BEING AN INFLUENCER

10 So that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (Titus 2:10)

Titus 2 1-5

But as for you, teach what accords with sound[a] doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controled… 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure,,,

Thats pretty standard Biblical stuff in the above quote, right? We can do this, No sweat:.

Men and Women be reverent, and sober

Older women should teach what is good

Train young women to love their husbands and children (while staying sober)

Be self controlled and pure, and work hard

Finally , stay close to the home and be submissive to their own husbands (no one else’s, mind you)

I admit we women still have a big issue with the “S” word however it can be easily resolved when we think about it from the perspective of the writings of Paul. The word hupotasso, really means to be well-pleasing, “ranked under another”, yes, but specifically, in Pauls writings, it is unto God that we must be pleasing and not argumentative. It does not say to be a mindless, door-mat. I am not even sure if there is a Greek word for door-mat. I should look that up.

But what about the following quote, still from Titus, digging a little bit deeper into your “space”

 ⁹ Bondservants^[b] are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, ¹⁰ not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

Now I would like to adorn my Lord, wouldn’t you? That sounds lovely. I would bring garlands and beautiful robes, sweet oils and a crown. I have to understand here, and be ok that a bond-servant was usually someone paying off a debt (that would be me) and sometimes voluntarily went into bondage to a master (again, me). But wait, it was another version that said that “they may adorn the Lord.’ This ESV inserts “the doctrine of” the Lord.! Kill-joys. It means the same thing.

Anyway the problem with me here on earth trying to “adorn the Lord” and make Him as attractive to the world as possible is that it makes me a modern day influence. And in this media driven world trying to reach others for Christ too often puts all that stuff, the beauty, the robes, the crown, on me, for self glorification.  Trying to share Gods truth in a blog or website often looks like this. Publishers actually push you to self promote, list your credentials and accomplishments and if you look nice in a photo publish that too. On and on. 

So I ask, who was the earliest woman influencer in the scripture. EVE obviously. Ouch. Lets move on to Sarah. So beautiful she tempted men to snatch her away more than once. Poor Abraham. He surprisingly did not initiate the burka but chose to lie instead about her identity and not worry about whether her virtue was compromised. I am sorry, maybe he did worry a bit, but at least,I am sure he rationalized, he was still breathing. Definitely Not the value God put on marriage. Then we have Rahab the prostitute who coming from a culture that was without God, incredibly understood entirely what was required of her and gave everything she could to make the quest of the Israelites to take Jericho a success.

I wonder how much influence she had in the coming months and years as she joined herself to the people of Israel. She became well known in the genealogy of David and thereby, Jesus. That was then. No media, no interviews, no TV cameras. Just alot of papyrus, reeds and dusty old scribes. Yet no one ever forgot to include the fact that Rahab had been a beautiful harlot. Influencer? I think so.

My point is that now, when we represent Christ, in the media especially, we must be very discerning. Who I am, where I have been and what I have done will not be forgotten. That’s why I freely share my past including my trip to Woodstock. Once we have opened our mouths the truth of where our hearts live and to whom we belong will come pouring out. And I may only have one chance with someone to get it right. Sure. it is freely given but I want to believe I earned at least one star in my crown of righteousness for Christs Sake!