Church

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

Lessons from Mahlah and her sisters on the first step to self-advocacy

In August 2017 I wrote an article called “Lessons from 5 Rebel Girls of the Bible”

Which you can access here, sis

Among those that got an honourable mention were Mahlah and her 4 sisters- Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah

To summarise Numbers 27:1-11, they were the daughters of Zelophehad and when he died they advocated for themselves regarding their inheritance

by standing

“before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying: 'Our father died in the wilderness...and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers'"

Causing God to instruct Moses to give it to them

Like it literally says that, when Moses brought their case before the Lord, He spoke to him saying:

“The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right; you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them."

Which shows that God is an advocate of women's rights, equality and leadership- despite what we may have traditionally been taught

Lessons from Miriam and Pharaoh's Daughter on how to be a woman of influence

Lessons from Miriam and Pharaoh's Daughter on how to be a woman of influence

So if you follow me on Facebook and Instagram, lovely, you would have seen that I was named 1 of 101 Women of Influence! Receiving this honour also got me thinking about what it means to be a woman of influence from a Biblical perspective, especially because:

  • God promotes us so that we can ultimately promote Him

  • There are many scriptures that say that we, as the church, are supposed to influence the world in order to bring them to Christ (e.g. Ephesians 1:23, Matthew 13:33 and Mark 16:14-18)

  • Every God-sized vision is going to require a team (so you will need to know how to go about being influential so that others will help make your vision a reality)

When I started to think about the how or the blueprint to becoming a woman of influence, I found myself back in Exodus 2 because Miriam and Pharaoh’s Daughter displayed the very definition of “influence”- which is:

“The action or process of producing effects on the actions, behaviour, opinions etc of another or others”

I shared all of this and more via the (live) video below.

Lessons from Eve on how to defy the curse & have a godly relationship

Lessons from Eve on how to defy the curse & have a godly relationship

So...if you've been rocking with me for a while then you will know that I have a real heart for women and all things female empowerment.

If you've been paying really close attention, you'll also know that a lot of the reason for this is because of things like:

  • Having a grandmother who was denied an education (whilst growing up in Nigeria) simply because she was female- restricting her options and quality of life

  • Witnessing multiple (other female) role models either forfeit their dreams, stay in abusive relationships or operate from a place of low self-worth

due to projected social norms, tradition and religion.

This is why I do what I do in terms of writing, mentoring, podcasting and speaking via the FarAboveRubiesCollection.com. (By changing the narrative for Christian women- one Bible story at a time- my mission is to help Christian women to know their worth, power and purpose so that they can speak up, step out and shine as women of God (rather than end up in the kinds of situations I grew up seeing)).

Well, recently I had the opportunity to take my message offline when I was invited to speak at the "Real Life" youth event at Edmonton Methodist Church, as shown via the video below.

Lessons from the 10 virgins on how to build purposeful relationships

Lessons from the 10 virgins on how to build purposeful relationships

When I was in secondary (or high) school our head mistress taught us a song in one of our assemblies. The lyrics were:

"Accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

Latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mr. In-between"

I know you're probably wondering how this all ties in with today's theme and title, right lovely?

Okay, let me explain!

It occurred to me that in all my recent chat about relationships, I'd only really talked about how to set healthy boundaries in them- aka how to swat away negative, unhealthy or non purposeful relationships.

Yet I hadn't spent much time talking about how you can build positive, healthy and purposeful relationships so that you can harness their power (as detailed here). To fix that, I shared exactly that on my Facebook page this week via the (live) video below!

Lessons from Anna on Being a House of Prayer

Lessons from Anna on Being a House of Prayer

We first hear of Anna in Luke 2 which details, amongst other things, Jesus':

  • Birth
  • Circumcision
  • Presentation at the temple in Jerusalem.

It is during Jesus and His parents' stint in Jerusalem that Anna makes her debut in Luke 2:36-38, which says:

"Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem".

When I read that scripture it reminds me of Matthew 21 which tells of Jesus' triumphant return to Jerusalem many years later, as a grown man. The part of this passage that I am particularly put in mind of is Matthew 21:12-13:-

"Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

Whilst these scriptures speak of contrasting moments in Jesus' life (the beginning of His life and the end of His life respectively), there are some common themes that I would like to explore. Namely, what it means to be a "house of prayer".

Lessons from 30 amazing Women of the Bible

Lessons from 30 amazing Women of the Bible

This week (October 3rd to be exact) was my birthday and- it wasn't just any birthday- it was my 30th! Also, although I didn't actually make it public until late November, this month will mark a year since I started this blog with a view to:

  • Raise the profile of the contributions of the women of the Bible and how the lessons contained in these can be practically applied in our modern spiritual walks
  • Empower Christian women to fully embrace their unique identities and purpose in Christ, free of the stereotypes and traditions that can "so easily best" us

To celebrate, I am going to share my top 30 women of the Bible along with what they taught me either about Christian womanhood/femininity or life in general. So, in alphabetical order, here goes!

An Interview with Jess on Ruth

An Interview with Jess on Ruth

Today's piece comes from the lovely Jess of jessrealloutiman.tumblr.com, where she collects and displays inspiring images and quotes about faith and life in general. Read on as she talks about Ruth, why she is her favourite woman of the Bible and the lessons that we (as modern women) can learn from her.

Lessons from the Church on (Mutual) Submission

Lessons from the Church on (Mutual) Submission

Did you know that the church is a woman? Well, she is! As detailed in my guidebook, The Ultimate Guide to Eve, Jesus is referred to as “the bridegroom” many times in scripture (John 3:29; Mark 2:19-20). Marriage symbolism is also used in relation to Him on several occasions (John 14:1-3; Ephesians 5:25-27), including the analogy of the church as Christ’s “bride” (2nd Corinthians 11:2; Revelations 19:7-9). 

Most people tend to think of church as simply being a building in which people worship God. Whilst this is true, the fact remains that the church is not just simply made up of bricks and mortar, but the people that comprise His network of believers (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1st Peter 2:4-5). As such, Ephesians 5 verse 22 says:

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything...."

Verse 32 of that same chapter then goes on to clarify:

"This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

One of the definitions of submission is to:

Accept or yield to a superior force or to the authority or will of another person

Hence, in a nutshell, this is how I always heard submission taught growing up-

Men are "superior" to women/their wives because "woman came from man". As such, God made each man the "head of his household". Wives should therefore submit to their husbands (unquestioningly) because that is what men are entitled to and that's what a "good" or "godly" wife does.

That's all good and well in theory but what if the man is not subject to God and so is asking his wife to sin? What if the man is controlling, manipulative and/or abusive? What is the man is negligent of his responsibilities? What if the man stops the woman from walking in her God-given purpose? I saw many female relatives come under fierce attack for not submitting to their husbands, even under such circumstances. Yet the men were never held to the same standard or scrutiny. I know many others, women especially, that have had similar experiences and upbringings. It is because of these things that the mere mention of the word "submission" can be enough to:

  • Make some women's blood boil (!)
  • Make some women prefer to remain single
  • Cause some women to see God as unjust, since His words seems to promote inequality
  • Cause some women to believe that God doesn't love them or value women in general

Hence, the afore-mentioned scripture in Ephesians, shows us that the church has much to set the record straight on with regards to this controversial topic.