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What Does It Mean That God Is Imaged as Both Male and Female?
The following article is excerpted from a forthcoming book authored by Dr. Sue Edwards and myself. 40 Questions about Women in Ministry offers answers to common questions related to women—what does the Bible say and how do we apply its teaching in home, church, work, and beyond? We answer those questions by showing readers how scholars on each side of the debate (for it is quite a debate) come to their conclusions. We aren’t after telling you what to think as much as showing you how to think through each question. Here, we explore perspectives on the imago dei in women and men (footnotes have been omitted for ease of…
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When the Holy Spirit Speaks
Last Friday the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He probably speaks to me a lot, but this time I heard him. I had been mentally prepping for the upcoming Sunday school lesson that I was slated to teach in place of my absent husband. Ironically enough, our topic was—yes, you guessed it—the Holy Spirit. Our recently completed series on the Nicene Creed had spawned a secondary discussion on the Spirit, who gets short shrift in that ancient text. Our class had asked for more teaching and discussion on the mysterious third person of the Trinity. The previous week my husband had taken us through the Old Testament, showing how the…
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Chores, Lent, and Discipline
My mother used to say she had a hard time disciplining me. "Send you to your room? You would be thrilled to have an excuse to read books uninterrupted. And it seems somehow wrong to take away books from a kid…" I’ve always understood discipline in two basic lights, one negative and one positive. You either get disciplined, or you are disciplined. Both can result in positive change, but one is somewhat less painful than the other. Getting Disciplined Like my mother years ago, my husband and I now wrestle with creative and effective ways to discipline our four children. Timeouts, spankings, grounding, withholding electronics or books (yes, I went…
