Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“A doctrinally sound church will guard the truth and help believers grow in knowledge of God.” ~ R. C. Sproul

“Doctrinal integrity is not optional; it is the very foundation of a healthy church.” ~ John MacArthur

You realized that the preaching you were sitting under wasn’t just a little off— it was false, even dangerous. You took the right steps before realizing that you needed to find a doctrinally sound church.

You weren’t filled with excitement. You were unsure of who to trust and you really didn’t know how to even trust yourself. You’re the one who got yourself into bad theology in the first place. God graciously opened your eyes to the falsehood and began showing you the truth.

It was hard. It was painful. It cost you, well, everything. Your reputation. Your pride. Relationships. Ministry positions. While it didn’t feel good, it was worth it. You know that’s true even though it still doesn’t feel like it.

Sanctification is a lot more painful than you ever knew it to be when you were chasing those emotional highs and getting your temporal fix.

Now, you don’t trust your emotions but you also don’t want to become emotionless. You are learning what to look for in a doctrinally sound church. You had no idea how much bad theology has swallowed up so many churches. You continue searching. You’re learning that most of those Statements of Faith on church websites are pretty much worthless. You listen to some of the sermons to try to discern if that church is sound. You’re struggling because you still haven’t worked out so many of your own false beliefs and corrected them Biblically.

It’s overwhelming. It’s incredibly lonely. It’s painful. You wrestle with remembering how good you once thought it was and how happy you were and how hard it is now and it feels like going back would be so much easier, but you can’t do that, and truly, as much as it hurts you don’t want to.

You didn’t want to leave. You imagined when you sat with the leaders and shared your concerns that they’d be receptive and they’d want to reform their beliefs according to Scripture. You still didn’t realize how bad the teaching actually was or that they never meant it when they said they were open to Biblical correction.

You tried to tell the leaders; they talked down to you and tried to make you feel like you were crazy. You showed them Scripture and tried to reason with them, feeling very inadequate for the task because you were still so ignorant yourself and didn’t really know how to explain what you were learning and why their beliefs are dangerous but you knew they were. By the time you left speaking with them, you began to question yourself.

Oh, how you wish that unlearning bad theology and learning the truth could happen as quickly as it was when the delusion fell away. Why is it so painful? Why is it so hard to find a doctrinally sound church? When will you stop crying? When will you be able to cry again? Why are you so emotional? Why are you so numb?

Coming out of bad theology is NOT easy. The lie we desire is that it will be easy, but that’s what got us in trouble in the first place.

The process is hard and painful but it is worth it. It does get better! The first few years are often the most painful. Please, don’t give up!

The more you learn the truth, the more you realize how much you have yet to learn and the more you learn, the more you desire to know the truth. What you are gaining is FAR greater than anything you lost. Before, when you were tested and tried your emotional experiences failed you. They would come and go, but now you are building on a sure foundation. Now, lies are being torn down and that’s painful. It’s a real loss. But you are also being built up in the truth. That does not come and go! In time, when tested, it will stand firm.

The process is hard. It is lonely. It is painful. But keep studying your Bible. Keep learning how to study your Bible. Keep looking for a doctrinally sound church. Don’t give up! The same God who brought you out of bad theology is leading you in the truth and He will lead you to a doctrinally sound church!

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  What to Look for in a Doctrinally Sound Church (Mark Dever & John MacArthur)
  
  
  Mark Dever (Nine Marks of a Healthy Church):
  Expositional Preaching – Scripture is faithfully explained verse by verse.
  Biblical Theology – Teaching is rooted in the whole counsel of God.
  Biblical Understanding of the Gospel – Christ-centered, salvation by grace alone.
  Biblical Church Membership – Members are committed to the church’s doctrine and life together.
  Biblical Discipline – The church lovingly restores and corrects members in sin.
  Biblical Leadership – Elders and deacons lead faithfully according to Scripture.
  Biblical Worship – Worship glorifies God, is rooted in Scripture, and focuses on Christ.
  Biblical Stewardship – Resources are managed according to God’s principles.
  Biblical Discipleship – Members are equipped to grow in godliness and truth.
  
  
  John MacArthur (Characteristics of a True Church):
  Commitment to Sound Doctrine – The church protects and proclaims God’s truth.
  Biblical Teaching and Exposition – Pastors faithfully expound Scripture, refuting error.
  Christ-Centered Confession – The church exalts Christ and proclaims His work.
  Guarding Against False Doctrine – Leaders identify and reject deviations from Scripture.
  Spiritual Maturity and Discernment – Members grow in knowledge, unity, and stability through sound teaching.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“Any gospel that looks within man for good is not the gospel of God’s grace; it is another gospel.” ~ R. C. Sproul

If your gospel is that God is looking within you to find something good, useful, or beneficial to Him and He is calling you to Himself in order to bring out of you the potential within then you have another gospel. (Galatians 1:6-9)

God is not looking within us and seeking something useful to Him because He needs us (Acts 17:24-25). Consider the implication. When we believe that God needs me or sees something in us worth saving, we are elevating ourselves and bringing God low.

Who wouldn’t think this way? We are sinners (Romans 3:23). We have a high view of ourselves (Romans 12:3). Of course, God needs me, right? Of course, there’s something within me worth saving, right? I’m not totally depraved; I’m just a little messed up but me plus God can make me fulfill what I was always meant to be. I just need a little fixin’ up.

This is not the Gospel! But we may miss it. Gospel language is used but either in addition to or subtraction from some of the correct components of the Gospel. When this happens it becomes another gospel.

A gospel presentation that has some of the right components may sound like the Gospel. Some may let it slide when important components are missing or when other components are added. They don’t realize the danger. This is not acceptable.

At any point we add to or take away from the Gospel, we have another gospel. Scripture is clear concerning the man who proclaims another Gospel: let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8-9). It’s a matter we must consider of utmost importance.

The truth is, God is self-sufficient (Psalm 50:9-12; Acts 17:24-25). God does not need us.

If your gospel fails to deal with sin and does not use words like judgment, wrath, hell, or the holiness of God, then you have another gospel (John 16:8; Romans 1:18; Matthew 10:28; 1 Peter 1:15-16). If your gospel presents a different problem than Scripture by addition or subtraction, you have another gospel.

If your gospel presents your problem as not realizing your full potential and sin is hindering what is great within you from being manifest, you have another gospel (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-12). If your gospel presents your problem as your lack of realizing what you were made to be and needing to repent of the sin of not realizing your potential, you have another gospel.

The Gospel begins with God. The Gospel does not begin with man or something in us worth saving (Romans 3:9-28).

God is not just longing for us and desperate for us to see how wonderful we really are. That is NOT good news! Consider that. If God needs us and the problem is we just don’t realize our potential and God is trying to bring out our full potential, then we have a fundamental misunderstanding of just how sinful we are and who God is (Ephesians 2:1-3).

When we hear the Gospel we do not look within and see anything worth saving (Romans 7:18). We cry out against our hearts (Psalm 51:10). When we come to understand the holiness of God as presented in the Gospel, we do NOT know how we could possibly be saved (Isaiah 6:1-7). We see how evil we are—how depraved. We do not want what is within to be brought out (Matthew 7:20-23).

The Gospel calls us to come and die (Luke 9:23; Galatians 2:20). When we hear the Gospel, we want that old man to die (Romans 6:6)! When we hear the Gospel we are not encouraged to be a better version of ourselves or think that we are something worth saving and God needs us. No!

We understand that we are not worth saving and we don’t know how we can be saved and we fear the just wrath of God that we deserve (Romans 3:19; Hebrews 10:31). Then, at this point, comes the Good News of how we may be saved. Then, we rejoice when we hear who Jesus is and what He has done for wretched sinners like us (Romans 5:1-11)!

God has never saved anyone who was good and just needed to realize their full potential (Luke 5:32). God saves hell deserving sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Any gospel that adds to or takes away from that is a false gospel (Galatians 1:6-9).

God is not saving us from our sins so that we can be a better version of ourselves. As flattering as that is to our sinful nature, it is horrible news! We do NOT want to be a better version of our depraved selves (Romans 7:18; Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 2:1-3; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-18). We must come and die. We must hear the Gospel that leaves us asking, “How can I be saved”? But we must be careful that we have a right understanding also of what we are being saved from (Romans 5:9).

We may agree that we are sinners, but if we define sin as something external that is hindering our potential, we make ourselves victims of sin and not those who are guilty before a holy, righteous, and just God for our sins against Him (Romans 3:19-20; James 2:10)!

We have sinned (Romans 3:23). We have sinned against God (Psalm 51:4). We have sinned against holiness (Isaiah 6:5). We have no good thing to offer God that He may look upon and determine that He needs us so we are worth saving (Romans 7:18). Our sin is so grievous and heinous before God that we deserve an eternity in hell (Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:15). The punishment is not too severe. It is just (Romans 6:23)!

God cannot be unjust (Deuteronomy 32:4)! Do we realize how sinful we are? Perhaps not! Perhaps this is because we do not know Who we have sinned against and we can’t imagine ourselves as bad as we truly are (Exodus 34:6-7). We are a lot worse than we think ourselves to be (Romans 3:10-12)! God is much holier than we realize (Isaiah 6:3)!

It is not that you are a sinner, and you just need to realize how great you are. We stand justly condemned before a perfect, holy, righteous Judge (Hebrews 9:27). There is nothing in and of ourselves worth saving. We deserve the full undiluted wrath of God (Romans 1:18).

Scripture says that we are dead in our sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1). It says that the intentions of men’s hearts were evil only (Genesis 6:5). It says that the heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). Scripture testifies to the goodness and the greatness and the power and the holiness and the majesty of God. It reveals that God is self-sufficient in need of nothing and no one outside of Himself. God does not need me or you!

Any gospel that begins with men and presents God as looking within man seeing something worth saving is a distorted view of the gospel and of who God is and who we are.

Scripture says that there are none good, no, not one (Romans 3:10). God saves us for His own glory (Ephesians 1:5-6; Isaiah 43:7).

The true Gospel is offensive to those who think themselves better than they are and God far less Holy than He is (1 Corinthians 1:18; John 3:19-20)!

Once we understand the Gospel, it is very humbling and no man can stand before God thinking that there was something about himself that God saw within him that was worth saving.

The Law reveals our depraved, wicked, and wrath-deserving condition. Any gospel that points to the cross apart from dealing correctly with the holiness of God and the depravity of man, is a blasphemous gospel.

Any gospel that is man-centered is a blasphemous gospel that denies the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Christ on behalf of wicked sinners (Isaiah 53; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone as revealed in Scripture alone that any man is saved. The true Gospel leaves no room for boasting (1 Corinthians 1:22-31).

The true Gospel starts with God’s holiness (Isaiah 6:3), not man’s perceived potential or inherent value (Romans 3:10-12).

Let every man examine himself.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“We are to study, pray, and obey; God gives no secret knowledge to absolve our diligence.” ~ Richard Baxter

God has gifted Biblically qualified elders to proclaim His Word, but they do not have a special anointing that gives them access to secret knowledge withheld from you or me. They do not have new knowledge hidden from the church over the last two thousand years. God has gifted them to teach faithfully. He has not called them to bring new knowledge that would require us to trust whatever they say based on phrases like, “God told me” or “God gave me this word for us today.”

That God has been so gracious to gift the church with Biblically qualified elders who can teach and who are faithful to study and exposit His Word does not allow you or me to be lazy students of Scripture, nor can we leave discernment solely to others.

There are many false teachers as well. How can we know the difference? We must learn to study our Bible—faithfully, according to what the text says and means—so that we may rightly apply it to our lives. When anyone introduces a doctrine contrary to the text, we must be able to discern truth from lies, and even more so, truth from “almost truth.”

Friend, in a healthy church, there are Christians who have studied more and know more about the text than we do. If they are faithfully handling God’s Word, and it is evident in their life that they are being changed by it, we can learn from them.

But today, we don’t just learn from those in our local church. We now have access to many others who faithfully exposit God’s Word. Among them are wolves and false teachers. Again, we must be discerning—not by feelings or impressions. That is not discernment. We must be Biblically discerning.

When others are more knowledgeable of the text, we must be careful not to view them as having some “super-anointing.” Consider this: if God had given them a super-anointing with secret knowledge, how could we be held responsible for being deceived? If His Word is the sufficient and objective standard to which we are all held, then how could He hold us accountable if He had granted them secret knowledge? They don’t have it, though some love to convince the naive and gullible that they do.

We are responsible for studying our Bible so that we may not be deceived by others. We don’t get to be lazy, nor can we lay our responsibility on those who are faithful to study and exercise Biblical discernment. We can learn from them, but we cannot transfer our responsibility to them.

Open your Bible and study. If you feel like you will never grasp the text, and others seem to be talking past you, that is okay for a short time. But if, years or decades later, you remain at the same pace, could the problem not be them—but you? Have you decided you can’t understand, so you don’t try? Do you trust God to fulfill His promise to help you understand the text? If so, be faithful. He is faithful. Study! There will be a reward for your diligence. Keep studying. We cannot grow apart from the Word. You’d be surprised how many of those who seem to know the Word so well feel very inadequate themselves. The difference is they keep studying and do not allow doubts about their own ability to hinder them from obeying God.

Grace and Peace, y’all

Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

 “The Christian is not above the law, but walks within it as one redeemed to honor God.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

The Christian thinks himself not above the law nor a victim when he is made to face consequences even for past sinful choices. That we are justified before God and being sanctified, does not lead the Christian to think that now whatever he has done prior to salvation that he can no longer be made to face the consequences. No!

Now, he understands more than ever that what he did was sinful before God and that he must face the consequences of his sinful (even criminal) acts. Now, he faces those consequences as it pleases the Lord. He submits to the law he once resisted and despised. He reveals the work of God in him by how he submits to the law and not as one in rebellion against it.

He does not pridefully act as though because he is a Christian that he is somehow above the law. No! He understands that he is not a victim of those enforcing the law, but he is guilty, and must still face the consequences of his crimes. He does not use his conversion as an excuse to evade consequences for his crimes.

Tragically, many who profess to be Christians behave with such pride that it brings reproach on the name of Christ. Though we have been justified in Christ, that does not mean we are no longer responsible for facing the consequences of criminal acts.

Sadly, some false teachers promise that if you accept Jesus in your heart that you can claim your crimes are removed. That’s a lie! While we may find Grace in the justice system, we are not guaranteed that as a result of new life in Christ.

We are not above the law—if anything, we have more reason to honor it: to glorify God and to well represent Christ. Many claim to have respect for the law and those who uphold it until they are made to submit to it.

Friend, when the Apostles wrote that we must obey the governing authorities, it was done so while under the rule of corrupt leaders. We obey such as it glorifies God unless the law leads us to disobey God and then we obey God—yet even then, we do so peacefully and to the glory of God.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“You cannot make anyone a Christian by your prayers or tears; only the Spirit can awaken faith.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

 “The duty of parents is to teach the Word and pray, leaving the conversion of the heart to God.” ~ Richard Baxter

“Parents may sow, but God alone gives the increase.” ~ Matthew Henry

We are not promised that our children will be saved. We cannot “claim them to the Lord”. God is not giving new revelation by which He promises that your children will be saved.

A heart that cannot accept the reality that we are commanded to raise them up in the truth and trust God with the results, will find comfort in false—even heretical—doctrines that promise what their hearts desire.

The mind is not informed by truth so that the heart delights in what pleases God and the will sanctified to the glory of God. No! The heart desires that God must promise what it wants and cannot accept the will of God if it is contrary to ones own desire. It corrupts God’s Word to promise what it desires.

Every Christian parent wants their child to be saved. Not every Christian parent trusts God with the results. Not every Christian parent goes to God’s Word seeking truth but rather seeking ‘a word’ that can be twisted to promise what they desire. Prayer becomes a means to claim what they desire. It’s not faith! It does not honor God. It perverts His Word, abuses prayer to become a means of claiming what one desires and commanding God to do what they desire. It turns one’s own ‘good works’ and ‘faithfulness’ into a means to manipulate God to do what they desire because of what they’ve done for Him.

It is painful for a Christian parent to see their adult children walk away from God. Either we trust God and we pray sincerely and passionately on behalf of our children according to the will of God, or we show ourselves enemies of God when He does not do what we believe He must do because He can.

Do we really love God or do we love Him so long as He does what we believe He must do?

Friend, if you think you can ‘claim anyone to faith’, you are deceived. You are not God! You do not have that kind of authority over someone else. If that were so, why would you not just claim everyone to faith in Christ? God ALONE is Sovereign over salvation. Either we trust Him and we find comfort in that so that our prayers are not futile or we don’t trust Him and we think we must take authority from God and do it ourselves.

Pray for your children no matter their age. God is still sovereign!

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Written by: April J. Buchanan

 “True religion is the sense of the heart’s dependence on God, and the vigorous exercise of holy affections in the pursuit of His glory.”  ~ Jonathan Edwards

Ladies, while we are not called by God to the pulpit, we are called to study our Bibles and to be discerning.

Sadly, many women have been deceived by their own hearts and led into disobedience to God by cowardly and Biblically ignorant men who have encouraged them to be pastors. In response to that error, another extreme has emerged. Some men—while seeking to “take back the pulpit”—behave like Pharisees. They would rather their wives get together to drink wine than to study God’s Word. They forbid them from gathering with other women to study God’s Word, pre-approve their reading material, and instruct them that they may only hear Scripture taught to them from their husband or pastor.

Like the very error they seek to oppose, they imitate it. They do not faithfully exposit God’s Word but read into the text their ideas and answers to real problems in the church. They become like what they hate. They use Biblical language but they pervert the meaning. They seek to answer real problems but they do not get their answers from a proper exegesis of the text. They study other materials that offer them power and give a pragmatic answer.

These men, on each extreme, are disobeying God, and misleading many women, their households, their churches and bringing reproach on the name of Christ.

Scripture makes it plain that women are NOT called to preach, no matter how strongly she feels “led” to do so. However, Scripture in no way forbids women to study our Bibles, to gather with other women to study together or only be allowed to read pre-approved material from one’s husband.

We are living among extremes. One seems to be a response to another and both are unbiblical and dangerous.

While no woman is ever Biblically qualified or called to be a pastor, we are not forbidden from faithful study of God’s Word or gathering with other women to study God’s Word. No passage of Scripture—rightly exposited—teaches or instructs this.

Men who love and care about the women in their churches and in their home and in their lives do not impose on them rules foreign to Scripture. Likewise, they do not abandon their responsibilities or encourage women to disobey God by doing what men should be.

And ladies, even if men abandon their responsibility in the pulpit this still does not give us the freedom to disobey God and step into the pulpit. We are not preachers! And that does not diminish the beauty of who God created us to be or our God-given roles that glorify Him.

The church needs men who will go into the Word of God and submit to what it says and means, leading the church and their households accordingly. The church has long been led by weak and cowardly men, who have abandoned their roles and responsibilities, encouraged women to disobey God and have so feminized the church that we now have a new problem. We have men who are taking back the pulpit but are doing so as goes beyond Scripture.

The church needs women who once again see the beauty in who God has created us to be for His glory and to honor Him in it. We do not need to be men or to assume the God-given role of men to be of value. We need to be women. And we need to submit to the Word of God according to its proper exegesis. We need other women who know their Bible, so that we may encourage one another in the truth of what it means to be a woman who loves God and honors Him.

The church must be careful of extremes. Only God’s Word—rightly exposited—will keep us from extremes and walking in the truth.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“God does not need our tongues to slay the wickedness of men; He needs our hearts to yield to His Word.” ~ Richard Baxter

We abuse Scriptures of threatening and warning when we violently thrust them into the heart of a man, rather than faithfully proclaim them and trust the Holy Spirit to work in his heart.

Restrain our hearts before we foolishly unleash our tongues to speak with unbridled passion, using God’s Word to inflict wounds for our own honor. Oh, what a sinful heart beats wild within.

The heart rests not until it finds satisfaction in justice. Wait upon the Lord—the saint wrestles against this wicked heart. Wait! Wait upon the Lord! That wicked traitor fights hard but oh what grace of God to the saint that he may overcome his own sinful heart. The truth can be a weapon wielded violently against another or it can be a weapon to destroy the wicked desire within.

Command our hearts according to God’s Word!

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“A lie is never harmless; the smallest error is the seed of death for the soul and dishonor to God.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“False doctrine creeps in subtly and may look like truth, but it robs God of His glory and enslaves men to delusion.” ~ Jonathan Edwards

Tackling error isn’t always as challenging as we think, but other times once you begin digging to expose error you find heresy hidden beneath and the threat is greater than you realized. It has so woven itself and entangled itself in every other area of doctrine that even what appears sound has been corrupted.

False doctrine gets as close to the truth as possible and holds many of the same theological tenants as Historical Christianity. It seeks to have its roots in the past though when we look more closely we can see where those before us recognized the evil and slayed these giants in their own age.

Lazy men have fell asleep during the battle and have ignored the warnings of those in our age warning that these giants have arisen once again—they are not new. They are the same old heresies just repackaged.

They take root in Genesis and develop their theology through the end of Revelation. They seek to rob God of His glory on every page and in every age.

Men boast of their courage, their faith, their humility, while they allow false doctrines to enter in without correction, rebuke or tearing down lies that threaten the sheep.

Not all false doctrines are built off isolated verses; many begin in Genesis and aim to rob God of His glory from the beginning to the end. Their theology runs counter to God, deifying man and demoting God.

It is no lazy man’s work to exhaust the pages of Scripture and test one’s own beloved beliefs. Those who care about the truth cannot be lazy but diligent to study the Word, be changed by it and test all things according to what the text says and means.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“True joy is not found in the satisfaction of our desires, but in the enjoyment of God Himself, who alone is our exceeding delight.” ~ Jonathan Edwards

“To look to ourselves for comfort is idolatry; to look to God is the cure for despair.” ~ R. C. Sproul

 “The soul that trusts in God finds joy in His sovereignty, peace in His providence, and hope that is never confounded.” ~ Richard Baxter

Some seek to unburden their hearts by sharing what they are going through with others but they find no hope, no joy—just those ready to tell them how great they are and how amazing they are. It gives no real comfort; it only adds to the burden. The truth is, we’re not the heroes in our own story, and while we may feel empowered from such conversations, they simply don’t last long til we realize how “not great” and “not amazing” we really are. These may be trying to help, but they just made us our own hero and god in our lives. We just don’t need that! We are not God!

Others run to “Christians” who comfort them much the same but now doing it in God’s name. They tell them to “remember who you are,” “you are made for more,” “you have authority over this,” “your words are powerful, so use your words to come against what is after you and bind satan and rebuke what is attacking you and speak life into your situation.” I mean, who needs God when they just gave them equal authority with God and they can speak and do what they so desire? They are now “like God”.

But then there are those Christians who listen, come alongside, and who remind you who God is. They don’t promise what they cannot promise to try to make you feel better—health, wealth, job promotion, family reconciliation, or whatever you desire. They remind you who God is: He is sovereign, and He is working all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. You don’t know how He is working it out but you know that while what you look at hurts and is not as you would like it to be—and though it appears out of control and hopeless— He is God and He is sovereign. To that Christian, that is enough, because He is enough. No matter what happens, He is enough, and we know that He is in control.

We have joy in our circumstances—good and bad—because we have God. It is not a pursuit of God to have what we desire so we may have joy. No! He is enough. No matter how things work out, He is our joy; He is enough.

We do not abandon prayer; rather, we are all the more encouraged to pray because He is sovereign, and we have certainty in the midst of what looks uncertain. God is Sovereign, and we can trust Him.

Grace and Peace, y’all
Soli Deo Gloria

Written by: April J. Buchanan

 “A wife’s submission is not her weakness, but her strength under the mighty hand of God.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

Rather than seeking to usurp her husband’s role and responsibilities, a godly wife submits to God in her role and prays for her husband, understanding that he will give an account to God for how he led—or didn’t lead—his household.

A man leaned over and jokingly teased the husband and wife saying, “Oh, I forgot; she’s the boss isn’t she?” She smiled and gently said, “Oh, no sir. God has made him to lead and I understand the weight of that responsibility. I don’t seek it; I support him in it.” The older gentleman smiled and agreed.

A godly wife knows she is different from culture and she is pressured to conform. But she knows the beauty of God’s order and she knows the sinfulness of her own heart. Her desires are being sanctified by the truth and the more she studies her Bible the more she sees the beauty and glory of God in all He has created and in His order.

The world speaks to her sinful heart and tells her she is oppressed and lumps her in with those who have taken the truth beyond its beauty and corrupted it by adding to it—Legalism.

She wants God’s will in her home. The more she studies the more her mind and heart are changed. She begins to love what she once hated and desire what she once disdained. Rather than desiring her husbands role and responsibility, she recognizes how she can be of support to him or by her pursuing what is not her role, she can make his burden heavier when he stands before the Lord to give an account.

Did he lead well? Did she make that easier for him or harder? Did she walk alongside him and help and encourage him to obey the Lord as she obeys the Lord? Did she adopt the lies of the present evil age and place stumbling blocks before him?

If he’s not saved, did she pray for him? While her role was harder, did she trust God and continue to obey Him or did she stand in the way of her own prayers by her woeful and willful disobedience? Did she trust God who is sovereign or did she brazenly seek to take authority even from God and try to save her husband herself with her words, her declarations, her perceived power?

It’s not easy being a godly woman in a culture that hates God and Biblical womanhood. But, it is easy when we are led by the Lord and trust Him, understanding that the culture is led by satan and his lies and sadly, many in the church as well.

Grace and Peace, y’all.
Soli Deo Gloria