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Paul and His Subversive Passage on the Family
In the first half of the Book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul lays out the Christian’s new identity in Christ. In the second half, he provides the “so what,” or the ramifications. As he outlines what Spirit-filled living looks like (Eph. 5:18ff), he envisions a community in which people show Christ’s love by serving one another. And one of the places where such service happens is in the household—where in his day he would have found spouses, kids, and slaves under one roof. People living in the first century under Roman rule would have been familiar with instructions for respectable families known as “household codes.” These codes outlined the ideal…
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Can a Wife Ever be a Spiritual Covering?
Pastor John Gray was recently interviewed on Sister Circle Live concerning hardships in his marriage and how his wife was the one to see him through. His comments have since gone viral and have garnered the following questions: Is the man always a spiritual covering for his wife? What happens when he is not? Can a woman biblically act as a covering for her husband? People have called into question his sense of biblical manhood, the role of a husband and the church’s view of the archetypical “Strong Women-” the good wife, that patiently endures the hardships of her husband while from a posture of prayer. Grey is quoted as…
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Submission: The truth about Ephesians Chapter 5
Submission is one of those subjects that many people like to tip toe around. It often conjures up ideas of cringe worthy male chauvinism or maybe for you, it brings about the dark idea that women are to be seen and not heard. It's understandable that so many women like you and I have this type of reaction to the idea of submission because it has been distorted, misused and abused for centuries. Before digging into what is laid out for the wife and the husband in Ephesians 5:22-33 one must undo these distortions by putting this passage of scripture into context. By doing some ground work and taking a…
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Movie Review: Moms’ Night Out: A Laugh and a Missed Opportunity
Moms' Night Out, the movie starring Sarah Drew ("Grey's Anatomy") opened over the weekend, right in time for Mother's Day. And Christians filled theaters to see it. The film is clean, it's funny…and it's also a missed opportunity. Drew’s character, Allyson, and her two friends — played with expert performances by Logan White and Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond)— want just one thing: a peaceful night out eating food off a menu while enjoying uninterrupted adult conversation. But for that to happen the dads have to parent their kids for three hours. And they are incapable of doing so without endangering their offspring. The film is billed as a “true-to-life…
