Feminine Images of God In Scripture & Church History

1. The Word of God: 
"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."        Genesis 1:26-27 

2. The Word of God: 
"Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him."   
                                   Deuteronomy 32:11-12 

3. The Word of God: 
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing."                    Luke 13:34 (also: Matthew 23:37) 

4. The Word of God:

"When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

The more they were called,

the more they went away;

they kept sacrificing to the Baals

and burning offerings to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;

I took them up by their arms,

but they did not know that I healed them.

I led them with cords of kindness,

with the bands of love,

and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,

and I bent down to them and fed them."                                      Hosea 11: 1-4 

5. The Word of God:

"Yet you are he who took me from the womb;

you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

On you was I cast from my birth,

and from my mother's womb you have been my God.

Be not far from me,

for trouble is near,

and there is none to help."                                              Psalm 22: 9-10 

6.The Word of God:
"Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you."                                   Psalm 71: 6  #6

7. “Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb.       Isaiah 46: 3-4

8. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?”
says the Lord;
“shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?”
says your God.        Isaiah 66: 9-10

9.“Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?”      Job 38:29

10. “For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant.”       Isaiah 42:14

11.  “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.”                 Deuteronomy 32:18

12. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open.     Hosea 13:8

13. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:13

14. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.      Psalms 131:1-2

15. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;

break forth, O mountains, into singing!

For the Lord has comforted his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted.

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet I will not forget you.      Isaiah 49: 14-15

Just a Thought: The Scriptures contain many references to God that are explicitly feminine in character.  They all flow out of the creation account where we are told humanity, male and female, is created in the image of God (Genesis 1: 26-27).  God speaks of Himself as having a womb (Job 38: 29) and of giving birth (Deuteronomy 32:18). He compares Himself to a nursing mother (Isaiah 49:15). He cries out like a woman in the labor pains of birth (Isaiah 42:14). He repeatedly describes Himself in the role of a midwife at the birth of a child (Psalm 71: 6, 22: 9-10, Isaiah 46: 3-4, 66: 9-10).  He fulfills the role of a mother or nanny nourishing and teaching Israel like a young child (Hosea 11: 1-4). He comforts like a mother comforts her child (Psalm 131: 1-2, Isaiah 66:13). He is as the mother eagle who cares for and teaches her young (Deuteronomy 32: 11-12) and He protects His own like a mother bear protects her cubs (Hosea 13: 8). Jesus speaks of Himself as a mother hen who would gather her young to herself (Matthew 23: 37, Luke 13: 34). These feminine images of God do not make Him female any more than the masculine images make Him male. All of them serve to communicate to us that our God is a personal God to whom we can relate. How sterile would our knowledge of God be if we did not know Him both as father and mother, masculine and feminine? JDJ # 416

Just a Thought: The straight and narrow path is not a slippery slope, but it is often lined with pitfalls, enemies, and anti-Christs, those who presume they have the right to mark the path. I grow weary of warnings about the proverbial slippery slope, especially as it relates to issues concerning women in the church. The recurring argument against women being charged to serve God in all the offices of the church is that any discussion of women’s rights and responsibilities within the church will start us careening down that slippery slope into the ordination of homosexuals. Frankly, I find that offensive, illogical and demeaning to women. The question of the place of women in the church should never be juxtaposed with the issue of homosexuality or any other sinful behavior. It is offensive, if not sinful, just to make that link. The question of the role of women in the church may be debated in light of the Scriptures, but it must never be stated or implied that women are by nature spiritually deficient just because they are women. The Scriptures never frame issues concerning women in terms of sin; the texts that supposedly restrict women address the issues in terms of Christian practice or decorum and not as issues of sin. The Bible does not suggest that a woman who speaks or acts in a manner not appropriate to church life has disqualified herself from membership in the Body of Christ. Homosexual behavior is always addressed in the Bible as sin that disqualifies persons from participation in the Kingdom of God. It is never addressed in terms of misguided Christian practice. The world may place women’s rights and homosexual rights on the same slippery slope that they call social justice or civil rights, but the church must see them as altogether separate issues. In modern times, the issue of women being ordained to ministry and sharing as equal partners in the life of church and society was born out of the Wesleyan/Holiness movement with its commitment to sanctification and social holiness. The Holiness churches have maintained that commitment and never found themselves on a slippery slope into sin because of it. They have always understood that the path of holiness is a straight and narrow way that both eschews evil and cherishes the promises of the kingdom. JDJ # 417

Worship on the Lord's Day

[This entry is taken from an unpublished piece I wrote a couple of decades ago. Pastor Jackie]

For two thousand years the overwhelming majority of Christians have gathered on Sunday to worship God through Jesus Christ.  Historically, Sunday has been both a Sabbath day and a Feast Day.  As a Sabbath day it is a day of rest and remembrance.  It is a holy day that belongs to God.  On the seventh day of creation God rested and so he decreed that creation rest and renew its devotion to its Creator.  On the Sabbath all the ordinary activities and engagements of life are set aside in order to focus fully on God and his Word.  This holy day is intended to actualize and reinforce the fact that God is sovereign over all of his creation.  As such, Sunday is a time of surrender to the lordship of Christ who continues to work in history by attending to his creation, especially his people.
     
Sunday is also a feast day, a day of celebration.  The first Christians moved their Sabbath from the seventh (last) day of the week to the first day of the week.  Their reasons were simple.  Sunday was the "day of the Lord."  It was the day of Christ's resurrection and the day of his post-resurrection appearances. For them, attending to the Word of God meant meeting with the living Word of God and living under His direct sovereignty by the powerful, personal presence of the Holy Spirit.

Early in the second century Christians began referring to Sunday as the "eighth day" of the week.  For them
it was the last day of the first order of creation,  the order and age that was passing away because of sin.  In the resurrection of Christ, God had brought into final completion the first order of creation by conquering death, hell and the grave.  The resurrection was a restoration from death to life for someone (Jesus) who was fully human.  Therefore, in the resurrection Jesus entered into an ultimate rest.  In so doing, He split the veil of separation between God and humanity. As "Son of Man" and "Son of God" He entered into the eternal rest of living in the presence of God.

Jesus is the second Adam, the firstborn of a new order of creation. Through faith in Him believers also become a whole new creation and share in the life he gives.  The hope of the resurrection should be a vibrant reality. When the early Christians met together they understood they were sitting together in heavenly places in Christ. When they ate at the Lord's table they considered they were at the marriage supper of the Lamb of God. They were feasting on the presence of God and understood themselves to be living in His Kingdom.  Sunday was by its very nature a day for celebrating the righteous reign of Christ over creation.  It was a day in which the believer's future resurrection was a present reality.

Thus, on Sunday believers gather as members of God's family to attend to the things of God.  On this day they meet together as one body to make real the Lordship of Christ over all creation.  The past is remembered and brought into the present as a sacrifice of praise.  In hope, the future is grasped and made real in the present. The old is passing away; the new is breaking in.  Sunday gatherings for worship infuse believers with the grace and strength they need to walk with Christ until that day when He splits the eastern sky and gathers them together in the air.

But in this time in which we live Christian seem to have lost both of these two understandings of Sunday. We neither rest nor enter into the coming presence of Christ. Can we recapture a sense of it being a sacred day? What would that be like? How would we be changed? How would our worship change?

Just a Thought on Family with link to book chapter

Just a Thought: Modern myths about Biblical families. I am concerned about families in the Western world. Our culture is disintegrating; there is an absence of core values and even foundational social definitions are suddenly being changed. Decades ago my commitment to the family drove me to study closely God’s plan for family life. Those studies led me to challenge several modern myths about family. If we are going to nurture Godly families we must follow God’s plan which is not the same as the one promoted by many. One overarching myth of the modern church is the very definition of family. To my surprise, there is no Scriptural term for our modern concept of “family.” Instead, Western Christianity long ago adopted a Roman definition of family as being determined by the father as titular head, the “pater familias.” The Biblical terms, both Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek, which are generally translated as “family” are more literally translated “house” or “household.”  The error is that we read into our understanding of the Scriptures our definition of “family” as principally a nuclear, biological unit. In brief, we define family in terms of a contract of “commitment,” and “love,” etc. while the Scriptures understand family as grounded in a social covenant with God. Certainly the marriage covenant is at the core of the family identity, but by its very nature covenant is a different kind of relationship than one defined primarily by affections and genetics. Covenant with God holds families together and not the inverse. [More to come tomorrow. You may wish to read a piece I wrote as a chapter in a book published by the Church of God: “Our Covenant to Nurture Our Families” in “NurturingPentecostal Families.”] JDJ #242http://www.newcovenantcleveland.org/uploads/4/7/1/2/4712880/our_covenant_to_nurture_our_families_-_jjohns.pdf

Blog Entries

My current Facebook series on marriage and intimate relationships is being added daily to "Thoughts on Human Relationships" below (2-10-2013).

Thoughts on the Spiritual Disciplines

[This collection of thoughts on the spiritual disciplines first appeared in a series of random thoughts on Facebook. They are collected here and will be edited and expanded throughout 2013.

The faculty of our seminary have agreed to produce a book on the spiritual disciplines. I have agreed to be co-edit the book, along with Dr. Sang-Ehil Han. The target date for completion is next spring with publication next summer. Although I have taught on the disciples for decades, I have been thinking a lot about them since accepting this assignment.]

1. The spiritual disciplines are those personal Christian practices that are acts of worship and means of grace. Through them we express our faith and open ourselves to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. They include all of the Scriptural activities whereby persons knowingly share in the life and purposes of God. The best known of these are prayer, fasting, Bible reading and study. The list includes submission, confession, meditation, acts of benevolence, and Christian service, etc.. These should not be thought of as mere rituals of self-denial; they are intended to be avenues of fellowship with God. They are exercises whereby faith is discovered, remembered, renewed, and expressed. They are activities of listening for, discerning, and responding to the voice of God. JDJ # 130

2. If the spiritual disciplines are to bear fruit in our lives, they must be practiced as acts of worship. This requires that at the core of all of the disciplines be active meditation on the presence of God within the practice of the discipline, meditation that is joined with a conscious desire to honor and glorify Him. Worship also requires a consciousness of our selves before God. Spirit-filled worship is in its essence a state of being in which we know ourselves knowing God (“Abba Father”) and being known by Him. This worship is an experiential re-member-ing of our union with God in Christ. Through the disciplines as acts of worship we anticipate and celebrate the strengthening of our union with Christ. In other words, the disciplines are means of grace but not mediators of grace; they do not cause God’s favor. They are tools for creating an inner environment for unmediated communion with God through Christ, an environment conducive for worship, fellowship, formation, transformation, and the reception of God’s good gifts. JDJ #143

3. The spiritual disciplines are means of grace. This is not to say that grace is automatically imputed to us when we practice a discipline. That would be a form of “works righteousness” or earning God’s blessings. It is to say that when practiced with a sincere desire to know God better one should expect to know God better. His grace abounds toward those who seek Him and seek to please Him. JDJ #144

4. The practice of the spiritual disciplines, like all of the Christian life, is always personal but never private. Some of the disciplines by their very nature require that others participate with us (confession, submission, etc); many are best done in solitude (silence, meditation, etc). But the disciplines are communal in their very nature. Our life in Christ is a shared life. When we withdraw from others in order to draw near to Christ we are in fact drawing near to all who are in Christ. The grace that we receive in the practice of the disciplines, like all grace, is intended to flow through us to others. The disciplines must always be practiced as exercises in receiving and in giving; they are exercises in being joined both to Christ and His body. JDJ #145

5. The disciplines are events of remembering and testifying. By their very nature they embody aspects of our faith and they recall the stories of our faith. Through them we rehearse what we believe. We fast, we pray, we confess, we submit, we study, we show mercy, etc. because through these disciplines we remember who we are, where we have come from, and where we are headed. And in re
membering we bear witness to the truth that is in us. Because they are done in Christ and not just toward Christ, through the disciplines we are salt and light set on a hill; in them we are extensions of the ministry of Christ. In the practice of the disciplines we touch the world and our witness is made more effectual.

6. Love for God should be at the heart of our practice of all of the disciplines. They are means of renewing and consummating our union with Him. As such, they are not burdensome; they are life-giving. JDJ #152

7. The spiritual disciplines should not be thought of as a means to an end, i.e., if I practice this discipline God will bless me. The end is contained in the means. The disciplines are a way of being, a form of knowledge which merges thinking and doing. The Greeks called this type of knowledge praxis. There are some things that can only be known through a fusion of reflection and action. This is the knowledge of creative engagement with the world as expressed in activities such as sculpting, riding a bike, playing a musical instrument. In this type of knowing the conceptual and the actual (or behavioral) are united as a single event. The disciplines should be approached as praxis with God, or entering into God’s praxis. They should be experienced as what I call theopraxis, or knowing God in His encounter with His creation. Through the disciplines we can be united with God as He intentionally engages His Trinitarian self and our world through His reflective action. JDJ #153

8. By approaching the disciplines as theopraxis we exercise our faith that we are indeed joined with God in Christ. We pray with and in Him, We fast with and in Him. We meditate with and in Him. We submit with and in Him. In His divinity and in His humanity Jesus fulfilled what it means to be a person of spiritual discipline. It was as both that He fasted for forty days. It was as both that He withdrew for prayer on many occasions. As both He submitted to the Father and to others. The disciplined life is the way of Christ, Son of God, Son of Man. We should not practice the disciplines as some form of preparation for future transformation into the image of Christ; we should practice them because they are the form and motion of His image. In other words, we should not practice the disciplines in preparation for the future, we should practice the disciplines as a way of knowing God in the present, an expression of what we are and what we are becoming. In the disciplines we follow Him, are joined to Him, are transformed into His likeness, and we extend His life and presence in the world. JDJ #154