We will be women of the Word, seeking to grow in our knowledge of Scripture and to live in accord with sound doctrine in every area of our lives.<\/em><\/p>\n
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Women of the Word . . . growing in our knowledge of Scripture . . . and living in accordance with the Scripture in every area of our lives. I think that for some it might be easy to hear this and other statements in this Manifesto and think, \u201cOh, this is one more thing I have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
You wouldn\u2019t say that out loud, but sometimes it goes through your mind, \u201cThis is one more thing. My life is so busy I hardly have time to sleep at night, and now you tell me there\u2019s one more thing: I\u2019ve got to be this woman who\u2019s living in the Word; I\u2019m growing in my knowledge of the Word; I’ve got to read it through twice every eight months.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t say that, but you do notice when you\u2019re hungry for something, you\u2019ll find a way to get it.<\/p>\n
But let me just remind us that being women of the Word is far more than a duty.<\/strong> Think about what the Word is and what it\u2019s likened to in the Scriptures . . . some of the metaphors for God\u2019s Word<\/strong> that you find in the Word of God.<\/p>\nFor example, we read that the Word of God is food, and it is drink. It\u2019s bread; it\u2019s water; it\u2019s milk; it\u2019s meat. What does food do? It sustains life. It nourishes. It satisfies. It brings refreshment. <\/strong><\/p>\nThe Word of God is the source of our life. You will starve without the Word of God. <\/strong><\/p>\nThe Word of God is likened unto a light. You will be lost without the Word of God. <\/strong>Psalm 119: \u201cYour Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path\u201d (v.\u00a0105). \u201cThe entrance of Your words give light; it gives understanding to the simple\u201d (Psalm 119:130\u00a0NKJV). God\u2019s Word as light gives us direction; it gives us wisdom, discernment, perspective.<\/strong> It\u2019s a blueprint for life as a true woman of God.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a guide book. It will give you direction.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t know the Word of God, you won\u2019t know what to say\u00a0\u201cYes, Lord\u201d to. In fact, you may be saying yes to some things that are not God\u2019s will for your life if you don\u2019t know the Word of God.<\/p>\n
The Word of God is how you get to know God. Let me say that you will never know God any better than how well you know His Word. <\/strong>If you want to know God, you have to get to know His Word. It is light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nYou will never know God any better than how well you know His Word.<\/p>\n
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God\u2019s Word will protect you from sin.<\/strong> Not only will you starve without it and get lost without it, you will sin without God\u2019s Word. You can count on it. It\u2019s a protection. It sanctifies. It cleanses. It washes our hearts.<\/p>\nMany mornings as I open God’s Word, I pray from the\u00a0psalms, “Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things in your law. Give me understanding and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Show me your ways oh Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me. You are God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long. That which I see not, teach thou me. If I’ve done iniquity, I will do no more. Would you wash me with your Word. Keep me from sin. Cleanse me from sin.”<\/p>\n
God\u2019s Word guards our hearts and our minds. You will be vulnerable without the Word of God<\/strong>. You will be like a city without walls, a city without defense, without protection from rogue emotions and wrong ways of thinking if your life is not being guarded and directed and protected by the Word of God.<\/p>\nThe Word of God renews your mind<\/strong>. You will be foolish without its input in your life.<\/p>\nThe bottom line is that my faith cannot survive without substantial, consistent infusion of the Word into my heart<\/strong>, and neither can your faith survive without that kind of infusion of the Word.<\/p>\nIf we\u2019re not women of the Word, we\u2019re going to be women of the world.<\/strong><\/p>\nIf we\u2019re women of the Word, we will be wise women. If we\u2019re women of the world, we will be foolish, wild women.<\/p>\n
Do you want to be a woman of the Word? Or do you want to be a woman of the world?<\/p>\n
What is shaping your worldview? What shapes your perspective on life? What shapes your responses to life?<\/strong> Is it television? Movies? Magazines? Novels? Friends?<\/p>\nI am astounded over and over again when I see how familiar with contemporary entertainment so many Christians are. They know the names of popular songs. They watch popular TV shows\u2014don\u2019t miss a week of ______ (I won\u2019t say what they are). I\u2019m not saying necessarily that there\u2019s anything wrong with some of those shows and songs, though you may want to evaluate it through the grid of Scripture.<\/p>\n
My bigger concern is that they\u2019re more tapped into, more connected to the world\u2019s way of thinking than they are to the Bible. They can\u2019t name the Ten Commandments or the twelve apostles or the Beatitudes, but they know all the popular heroes and celebrities and stars and models. They know People<\/em> magazine better than they know the people in God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s going to be the result of that? Essentially, they\u2019re going to live secular lives, not true lives based on the truth of God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n
A Christian leader in Britain said that,<\/p>\n
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More than 200 million people have no access to spiritual food, with no Scriptures in their own language. [That\u2019s a tragedy if you think about that.] Yet we in the West, despite owning more Bibles per household than we will ever use, are slowly starving to death because we have lost our appetite for Scripture. (Krish Kandiah, director at the Evangelical Alliance, UK)<\/p>\n
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We\u2019re a generation that is perpetually plugged into Facebook, X-Box, 3-D movies. You open the Word and begin to read it, and your eyes glaze over because it\u2019s not entertaining enough. It doesn\u2019t stimulate us and scintillate us the way that these things of the world do. We don\u2019t think that the Word is really satisfying, really filling, rejuvenating, replenishing. That\u2019s why we turn to other things, trying to fill those empty places in our lives.<\/p>\n
So we fill our lives with entertainment, and in the process we lose our appetite for substantive food<\/strong>\u2014like your kids eating candy before eating dinner. You spoil your appetite. It\u2019s not that the candy is better for you than the dinner, it\u2019s just that it dulls your hunger so you\u2019re not really hungry for the good stuff.<\/p>\nWe need to cultivate hunger by eating the Word of God. Sometimes we need to disconnect from the things of this world that are filling us that we think are so satisfying. They really aren\u2019t\u2014like cotton candy. You\u2019re satisfied for about thirty\u00a0seconds, and then you\u2019re hungry again. But you start to fill your heart with God\u2019s Word, and you\u2019ll find it really does truly satisfy.<\/p>\n
We want to be women who are growing in our knowledge of Scripture, it says at this point of the True Woman Manifesto. That suggests that knowing God\u2019s Word is not a static thing, but that we\u2019re always increasing, making progress in our knowledge of God\u2019s Word. <\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve been reading the Bible for more than forty-five\u00a0years now, since I could first read. I don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019ve read it through from cover to cover, many, many times, scores of times. But it\u2019s amazing how often I would come to a passage and think, I don\u2019t remember ever reading that before.<\/em>\u00a0Now, I have, but it hits me in a new way, or I had just never stopped to think about it before.<\/p>\nThen I come to passages that are extremely familiar, passages I\u2019ve memorized, I\u2019ve taught on, but I come to them with a fresh heart, fresh eyes, fresh longing for God, meditating on them, and God opens up whole new aspects of His Word even in those very familiar passages.<\/p>\n
So I want to be, until I face the Lord, a woman who is continually growing in my knowledge of His Word.<\/strong><\/p>\nIn fact, when I was eighteen years old, I was with my family on a missions trip in Haiti. We were sitting in the back of a little, black church in Haiti, on hard, wood benches. My dad leaned over to me and whispered, as only Art DeMoss might do, “Honey, what are your fifty-year goals?”<\/p>\n
I confess that at the age of eighteen, I had not given a whole lot of thought to my fifty year goals. But I did at that point over the next weeks sit down and wrote out, “If the Lord gives me until I’m sixty-eight, what things do I want to be true of my life.”<\/p>\n
One of those goals was that I would be able to teach any part of the Bible in a way that would be pleasing to the Lord.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, at that point, I could not have taught much of it. Even parts I have taught since then I’d like to go back and re-teach because I’ve learned more. But it’s been neat to have that as a guiding goal for my life. I want to know God’s Word\u2014not just so I could teach it, but so I can know God.<\/p>\n
So are you growing in the knowledge of God’s Word?<\/p>\n
My vocation, which is teaching the Word, gives me a lot of opportunities to do that. But listen, growing in your knowledge of God\u2019s Word is not just for Bible teachers. It\u2019s for every believer. This is God\u2019s<\/em> Word, and we want to be growing in our knowledge and our understanding of Scripture.<\/p>\nHow well do you know the Word? What are you doing to grow in your knowledge of God\u2019s Word? Do you read it, for starters? Do you study it? Do you meditate on it? Do you memorize it? Are you too busy to spend a lot of time in God’s Word?<\/p>\n
We have time for computer games. We have time for Facebook. We have time to exercise. We have time to socialize. We have time for the things that matter to us. If growing in your knowledge of God\u2019s Word matters to you, then you will find a way to do it, although it will likely mean saying no to some other things that are less important.<\/strong><\/p>\nI think of Mary and Martha there with Jesus visiting in their home. Martha is frantically preparing the meal\u2014not a bad thing to be preparing the meal\u2014but her sister has carved out time to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His Word. It takes sacrifices. You say, \u201cOkay, family, you\u2019re not going to eat anymore. Nancy DeMoss said I need to sit and listen to Jesus speak His Word.\u201d (laughter)<\/p>\n
Listen, priorities and the will of God never conflict. If you will use the time you have to study God\u2019s Word, He will help other priorities fall into place. <\/strong><\/p>\nWe want to not only be growing in our understanding and knowledge of God\u2019s Word, but as true women we also want to live in accordance with God\u2019s Word in every area of our lives. It\u2019s not enough to know it. We need to live it, because all of God\u2019s Word, all doctrine has implications for life<\/strong>. This is true; therefore, this is what it should look like in your life.<\/p>\nThe book of 2 Timothy was written by the apostle Paul to his young friend Timothy who was serving at the time as the pastor of the church in Ephesus. As you go through 2 Timothy, there are two themes that are recurring. One is the challenge that Paul gives Timothy to study and to live out the Word of God that he had received from Paul, who was his mentor, and from his mother and his grandmother.<\/p>\n
So Paul says in chapter 1, verse 13, \u201cFollow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapter 2, verse 15: \u201cDo your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapter 3, verse 14: \u201cContinue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work\u201d (vv.\u00a014\u201317).<\/p>\n
So one of the themes through the book of 2 Timothy, Paul says, \u201cGet the Word into your life. Dwell on it. Continue in it. Grow in it. Listen to it. Learn it, and live it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not enough to let others feed you the Word of God\u2014your pastor, Christian radio. Thank God for those, but your pastor grows by studying the Word of God so he can feed it to someone else, and that\u2019s how you will grow. Don\u2019t let your pastor spoon feed you. Don\u2019t let this program spoon feed you. You need to get into God\u2019s Word for yourself. <\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a young woman on our team who is a graduate of a Bible college. As we were talking about this program, she said,<\/p>\n
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When I was a student, I had the Word coming at me from all directions, but I wish I had spent more time just alone with God, getting to know Him, cultivating a personal relationship with Him, and learning to trust Him, letting His Word get worked into the warp and woof of my daily life.<\/p>\n
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So Paul says to Timothy, \u201cGet the Word into you and live it out.\u201d And here\u2019s the second thread: \u201cNot only get it into you and into your life, but you also have a responsibility to share with others what you\u2019ve received from your mother, your grandmother, and from the apostle Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n
So he says in chapter 2, verse 2: \u201cWhat you have heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.\u201d<\/p>\n
I would say to some of you who\u2019ve been mentored by Revive Our Hearts<\/em> over the years . . . I\u2019ve often had women come up to me and say, \u201cYou were my spiritual mother. You have mentored me.\u201d Some of those women are older than I am; some are younger than I am. But it\u2019s a privilege to be involved day after day in sharing with you what God is doing in my life, teaching me through His Word.<\/p>\nBut don\u2019t let it stop at you. You need to be sharing with others the stewardship, the investment, the deposit that others have placed in your life<\/strong>, the deposit I\u2019ve given you, the deposit your pastor has given you, your parents, Christian education. As you take the Word into your own heart, then you become responsible to share it with others.<\/p>\nPaul says, \u201cI charge you . . . preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching,\u201d chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, verses 1 and 2.<\/p>\n
Now, we can read those instructions and tend to think that those just apply to pastors\u2014\u201cAfter all, I\u2019m not called to preach the Word.\u201d Or we can think that these instructions just apply to Christian leaders or Bible teachers. Let me tell you, there\u2019s a sense in which these instructions apply to every child of God, every servant of Christ. It applies to you. It applies to me. We are to be reproducing in the lives of others the Word of God that has been entrusted to us. Each of us is to pursue serious study of God\u2019s Word and then to pass along what we have learned to others.<\/p>\n
So let me make it personal here: are you taking time to dig deep and to grow in your understanding of God\u2019s Word? <\/strong><\/p>\nListen, twelve minutes of Christian radio on your way to work will not do it for you. Thank the Lord for Christian radio, but I sometimes think it\u2019s a little strange that I\u2019m often challenging women on the radio to turn off their radios. (laughter) But you know what I mean. There has to be times in your life when you do turn everything off and just you and God and His Word, and get to know Him.<\/p>\n
And then, are you passing along what you have learned to someone else?<\/strong> Are you pouring into someone else\u2019s life? If not, ask God to open a door. Even in this next week, no matter how old or young you may be, ask Him to open a door where you can share some of what you have learned.<\/p>\nNow, let me just keep reminding us that the only way we can live out these commitments we\u2019re talking about in the True Woman Manifesto is by God\u2019s grace and in humble dependence on the power of His Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t remember that, then you will hear a session like this, and you will make all new kinds of resolutions, and you go out and try and do it on your own, and you\u2019ll come up with some new lists about what it looks like to be a woman of the Word.<\/p>\n
Listen: devotional life, Bible study\u2014it may not always look the same for you in different seasons of life.<\/strong> You need to fit this concept of becoming a woman of the Word within your framework or season of life. It\u2019s easy to get under the pile and to get on a guilt trip.<\/p>\nFor example, it\u2019s great if you can be involved in Bible study with other women, if your church offers that, or through other Bible studies offered in your community, or coming to a recording session like this. But there may be seasons of your life when for a period of time you can\u2019t be in a group study on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
If you notice, we don\u2019t have a lot of young moms in these recording sessions because many of those women cannot take a day like this to come and sit under this kind of teaching. So if you\u2019re a mom with small children, Bible study for you may look different than it will for someone else in a different season of life.<\/p>\n
If you go to ReviveOurHearts.com, we\u2019ve prepared a list for you of just some practical, creative ways that you can get the Word into your system at different seasons of life: singing or listening to Scripture that has been set to music. We\u2019ve come up with several of those creative and practical ways you can get the Word into you. I would encourage you to go to ReviveOurHearts.com and get that list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then let me just encourage you, as you fellowship with other believers, as you\u2019re engaging with other women, with family members, to talk about what God is doing in your life through His Word. I\u2019m amazed at how many times Christians get together and talk about everything except the Lord, everything except the Word of God.<\/p>\n
If you will interact with other believers about what you\u2019re reading in God\u2019s Word, what He\u2019s saying to you, what He\u2019s teaching you, it will increase your hunger and your desire to be in God\u2019s Word on a regular basis. <\/strong><\/p>\nI was on the phone with a friend last week, and she said to me, \u201cWhat are you reading in God’s\u00a0Word? We haven\u2019t talked for several weeks. What are you memorizing?\u201d<\/p>\n
I got an email from another friend this past week who said, \u201cDo you want to memorize the book of Philippians together?\u201d<\/p>\n
We need to encourage one another to be in God\u2019s Word. \u201cWhat are you reading? What are you studying? What is God saying to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 20: \u201cHear, O women, the Word of the LORD<\/span>, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth.\u201d<\/p>\nOh, Lord, I pray that You would make us women of the Word who are growing in our knowledge and our understanding of Your Word and who are living in accord with sound doctrine in every area of our lives. I pray it in Jesus\u2019 name, amen.<\/p>\n
Dannah:<\/span> \u201cWe will be women of the Word.\u201d That statement appears in the True Woman Manifesto, a document you can read at ReviveOurHearts.com<\/a>.<\/p>\nNancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been showing us what being a true woman is all about. And loving the Word is a big part of that! Between the pages of our Bibles, we get to know God\u2019s promises, we learn what it means to obey Him, and we discover His good and beautiful design for women.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it comes to God\u2019s design for us, it\u2019s easy to feel pulled in a dozen directions, unsure where to stand. This month, we\u2019re opening God\u2019s Word together to rediscover the beauty and freedom of womanhood according to God\u2019s plan. And we\u2019ve got a new resource to help equip us in this area. It\u2019s Mary Kassian\u2019s newly-released book, What Is a Woman? <\/em>It\u2019s such a needed and Scripture-saturated book that speaks to a question so many are afraid of in our world today. We can\u2019t wait for you to read it.<\/p>\nWhen you make a donation of any amount, we\u2019ll send you a copy as our thanks. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com<\/a>, or call us at 1-800-569-5959 to donate, and be sure to request Mary\u2019s book when you do.<\/p>\nDo you feel like a great prayer warrior? If not, you\u2019re in great company. Learn how to pray from someone who doesn\u2019t find it very easy tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.<\/em><\/p>\nThis program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts<\/em> in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.<\/p>\nAll Scripture is taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.<\/p>\n
\n *Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n