rambling rosemarie

It is a glorious day in Kentucky. The humidity is gone. Mornings are crisp, evenings cool and it is toasty warm during the day. This morning I sat out on my front porch enjoying the birds, flowers and gentle breeze. I took with me an outstanding cup of Colombian coffee and my Voices of the True Woman Movement book. Before I started reading I took a moment to think about my stereotypical idea of the perfect Christian woman. In my mind she is perfectly dressed, perfectly coiffed, and demure. She speaks in dulcet tones and only when she has something encouraging to say. There is no doubt that her make-up is the perfect shade and she uses just enough to allow her to radiate a pleasing angelic glow. Her nails are manicured. Her feet are Barbie-like. She is Jackie O and June Cleaver combined with an encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture and a repertoire that includes a series of perfectly timed, perfectly targeted encouragement statements. She and I look nothing alike. As I inventor...

As I sit here preparing to review Nancy Leigh DeMoss' " Voices of the True Woman Movement A Call to Counter-Revolutio n" I am realizing just what a radical change having a biblical perspective makes in your life. As a new Christian, I would have thrown this book in the trash before bothering to read it. Thankfully I have matured in my faith and wisdom. I no longer dismiss books or people because I assume (even rightly so) that I disagree with their position. I have to wonder what my various groups of friends must think of me now as they read this. Those friends who knew me in high school, those who knew me as a wild young adult, those who knew me in my career at the sheriff's office and/or at the fire department, those are all folks who knew me a feminist and liberal. Truthfully, I have a hard time believing I am a conservative let alone that I am reading books like this one and agreeing with the premise. Becoming a woman of faith is easy if you don't f...

When I am studying something that bothers me, I do just about anything I can to stall. In doing so I stumble upon a lot of odd information. I love history and any student of history will tell you that most everything we are familiar with has had an odd beginning. Sometimes there will be different odd stories regarding the genesis of a myth, folkway or idiom. Somewhere in the mix the truth can be found. You just have to look. While I lived in Australia I went to a visit a little town on the Murray River called Echuca. Echuca has a wonderful history and boasts the largest collection of paddle steamers in the world. It also has a coach house and carriage museum. It was during my visit to the carriage museum that I was told the origin of the expression to 'drop off to sleep.' According the docent, the carriage cheap seats were the ones outside and on the back. You had a platform to sit on and a rope or rail to hang onto for dear life. During a long trip a poor unfortun...

Wit: I have said it before, I love that my pastor reads my blog. That he cares enough to read, encourage and hold me accountable is testimony to the type of godly man that he is. That he sent me this link to read tells me he is brilliant, witty and knows me too well. (HT Bill Haynes ) White: My friend and brother, James White, is going to be debating Bart Erhman on the topic, "Does the Bible Misquote Jesus?" I urge you to check out the information here on his website. If you can make it, I think you will be blessed. I plan on attending, Lord willing. You can listen to the Dividing Line podcasts to get an idea of what you would be hearing. You can find them here and here . You will also find a treasure trove of resources, books and videos on the website. It is well worth your time to peruse. Women: I have listened to three teachings given by Alistair Begg on the topic of "The Place and Posture of Christian Woman. It is in three parts and very much wort...

When Luther really understood the holiness of God the tenuousness of his life was magnified exponentially to him. He became obsessed with his death and the judgment of God. Why? He knew what his sinful life looked like in comparison to the holiness of the Almighty. John Owen understood that believers lives are about sanctification and holiness. He had this to say: "This work of holiness in us is wonderful. It is a supernatural work and is known only by supernatural revelation.We must not be deceived by a false holiness. Holiness is not just a reformed life." Holiness is not about being as good as you can be for as long as you can be. I was talking to my pastor's wife and telling her that I loved the fact that her husband reads my blog. I told her I liked the accountability and have caught myself asking, "Would I say that in front of Bill?" I also confessed to her that I would hold my tongue in front of her husband more than I would before God. Her respons...

You cannot come to God with bargaining and with promises. But if you will throw yourself recklessly upon God, trust His character, trust the merits of His Son, you will have the petition you have asked of him. You can have this confidence in God, and you can have this respect for His will. Do not expect God to perform miracles or you so you can write books about them. Do not ever be caught asking God to send you toys like that to play around with. But if you are in trouble and concerned about your situation and willing to be honest with God, you can have confidence in Him. You can go to Him in the merit of His Son, claiming His promises, and you will find the way of deliverance. God will move heaven and earth for you if you will trust Him. *A.W. Tozer, Faith Beyond Reason It is certainly not enough for me to identify fear as an obstacle for women and not offer godly solutions to fear. In I John 4:18 we find this gem. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, bec...

One of the most frequent answers I received to my questions regarding the complementarian position went something like this. "Of course you don't like it, the bible says you aren't going to like it so your rebellion to being submissive is expected." That sort of answer infuriated me. The idea that sin is the primary obstacle to understanding the Word of God is a no- brainer . This answer struck me as condescending and dismissive. Which may or may not have been true. It also seemed to assume that I wanted to rebel more than I wanted to understand. I am fully capable of rebellion, obstinacy, pride, arrogance and a list of other besetting sins. No question about that. However, what I really wanted was someone to engage my mind, answer my questions and see my challenges as an attempt to learn. I felt like I was hitting a brick wall. I did become bitter and angry but mostly because I couldn't find a way to get my questions answered. So I left the topic ...

I know I am not the only woman who has struggled with understanding her God given role. I also know that for some women, submission and femininity come easy. We are all made from the same dirt and suffer the same effects from the fall. However, human beings are like snowflakes in that we share the same building material but our Designer has engineered each individual differently. Some people understand math, some people are artistic, some folks learn from doing and others just have to be told. For me, I am a combination of all of the above, with the exception of math. I am decidedly math deficient. Math is not my only shortcoming. I do a lot of spinning of my mental wheels that isn't necessary and gets me nowhere but frustrated. Generally this occurs when I start with the wrong premise. Foundations are important. Alan Kurschner, one of the members of Alpha and Omega Ministries blog team, wrote an an excellent article about starting with the wrong premise. You can read it her...

I got up fairly early this morning and took my dogs out into the backyard. I did some weed pulling and they did some romping. It is amazing to see how much energy my new pup has. She has two speeds, full out and knocked out. Chet the Wonder Dog, my faithful companion of the last 11 years, just watches her as she bounces and spins around him. All the while she is taunting him with the toys she steals from him. It seems youth is wasted on the young in all species. Speaking of species....two years ago my best friend, who still lives in California, sent me plants for my garden. Among the varieties she sent was scarlet bee balm. It is a perennial here and is quickly overtaking my garden. That's OK with me, I like it. Today as I was waging war on squash bugs, I was treated to half a dozen hummingbird moths sipping nectar from the bee balm. The plants are sizable enough that the hummingbird moths, hummingbirds, honeybees and bumble bees all got to eat their fill without fighting. I wat...