The Value of a Woman

From the perspective of the Bible, men and women are made equal in the sight of God. Even though the men are celled to lead the house and take charge and the women are supposed to submit to his authority, both are supposed to work together as partners, no one is more superior than the other. God is fair.

Let’s look:

From the account of creation in Genesis 2:18 – 22. “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a suitable helper for him. Now the Lord God has formed out of the ground all the beast of the field and all the birds of the air. He bought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature that was is name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, and the birds of the air and the beast of the field. But for Adman, no suitable was found. So the Lord cause the man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s rib and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman form the man, and he brought her to the man.”

Notice this:

From the man, God made woman, but from the woman (when both man and woman come together to procreate) another human is produced. God called the woman a suitable helper for the man; I believe God made the man the head of the house, not because he is more superior, but because he is stronger of both gender and he is to protect the woman, since he came first into the picture. We came in second after him, not because we are an afterthought of the Lord, or because we are inferior, but because God saw that the man cannot be alone and therefore, He made us to help and compliment whatever is missing from him.

Many women (including myself) do not understand or even very often forget, their value, nor do some of the men (unfortunately). However, I do believe that a person who is truly rooted in Christ will see and understand that men and women are equal.  They are not to compete with each other but to help one another. Although, God has set in place the order that men should be the head and the women should submit, it does not give the men the right to abuse this authority and do anything he pleases, disregarding the women. Neither, is the woman supposed to be so passive in submission that she doesn’t contribute to the leader of the man.  The men should respect his woman and consider having her come along his side in partnership for anything they might want to embark on, together, even as individuals. Both are to respect each other and hold one another accountable in whatever they are doing.

God is equally fair in distributing spiritual gifts to His children. In Acts 2:17, ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see vision, your old men will dream dreams….” What does “All” means”? The bible is clear all means everyone - the men and women the young and the old. God doesn’t exclude women when he gives the gift of teaching, prophecy, healing, shepherding etc… if that is the case the ministry of the church would be male dominated with no room for the women to play.  But you know that’s not true. All of us make up the body of the Christ, and the body consist of men, women, young people and older people. The body have hands, legs, mouth, eyes etc. Each member of the body has a part to play in the healthy functioning of the church.

The Bible showed us women that have played very important roles in history. Queen Esther, Deborah, Huldah are some great examples. The virgin Mary, Hannah, Elizabeth; without these women, Jesus would never come about, we wouldn’t have the prophet Samuel and John the Baptist. Some of the other women that were mentioned in the Bible was the woman in the well, the woman with the alabaster jar and Rahab the prostitute who hid the 2 spies in Jericho. The woman in the well evangelised to the whole village and brought many to Christ, (John 4:1-29) the woman with the alabaster jar was commented by Jesus that her small act would always be remembered and mentioned, in the preaching of the gospel (Matthew 26: 6-13) and we also have Rahab who was credited as righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in different directions (James 2:25).

We have already seen in all these examples that women are indeed equally important and of great value. So, we as women, shouldn’t look down on ourselves nor should we ever allow ourselves to be put down by men. No! The order of the family as shown in Eph 5:21-33, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husband as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ as is the head of the church, his body of which he is the saviour.  Now was the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husband in everything.” “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husband ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church – for we are members of his body, For this reason a man will leaves his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the who will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery – but I’m talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and wife must respect the husband.”

I have said before in the beginning of the blog that the man was made the head, because he was the first to come in to the picture and the woman was subsequently brought to him to help him. I did say too that the Lord is fair to both men and women.  The above passage shows us in marriage God gave specific instructions to both the man and the woman. And it is fair, both have a role to play in order to make things work out. The famous saying goes “It takes two to tango”. That’s so true!!!

So women, chin up! You are just as important as the men, don’t let others tell you other wise and men, don’t put down your women! You were there to protect and lead us, not to trample upon us and abuse us!

Be blessed!

Serving with you in His kingdom with love;

Princess Michelle –

Beloved Daughter of the Most High King

Reflection: Love is a choice!

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Love is a choice!

Reflecting upon an incident that took place several years ago... And as I thought about it, there's one thing that is clear. Since God created the world, He knows the past, the present and the future. He sometimes preamps His children about what it is to come and it is up to them to choose to decide their attitude.

Some how it always amazes me when I reflect on the incident on Judah's betrayal of Jesus. Jesus knew everything from the start and yet He still... chose to love Judah and did not harbour any negative thoughts about him... Throughout, Jesus's heart towards Judah is one of kindness, forgiveness and mercy. This brought me to an incident which has personally took place in my life.

God asked me this question once (many years ago) regarding a friend whom I love dearly. He asked" "Would you still love him and regard him as friend, if one day he did something that would hurt you?" It was a honest and hard question, I eventually replied "Yes" not fully understanding what it meant.

The "hurt" that my friend caused me, eventually happened many years after the Lord has asked me that question. When I was dealing with the hurt, God reminded me about the question He asked me years ago..... I honestly struggled with it. I realised and learnt from Jesus that, love is a choice. Knowing that you are going to be hurt and still choose to love and forgive him is a deliberate choice.

Dealing with the pain, God asked. "Are you willing to give up that pain to Me and still love your friend?"

I had to make a choice - to be angry with my friend whom I love, or trust God to graciously help me deal with the hurt and than forgive and love him the way Jesus has dealt with Judah!

It is a hard choice, but since I treasure the friendship so much, I had to put aside the hurt if I really wanted to keep him.. Honestly, it still hurts every now and than when I think of my friend, but I have chosen to think of the positive things that has happened. The longer I harbour and think of all the negative things that has happened, the further I will cause the friendship to drift.

Love and hate is a choice. Choose wisely!

Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;
Princess Michelle -
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King

Reflections on marriage

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If a Christian knowingly marries a pre-believer is against the Bible but still goes with it and eventually having the spouse turn to Christ, is nothing more than the grace of God at work. That is NOT an excuse to say it is ok, when the Bible clearly says NO!

"For if we go on sinning wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgement, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries (Hebrew 10:26-27)

In regards to marriage, the Bible clearly has this to say: "Do not be yoked together with unbeliever for what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common which an unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)

At this junction, some may point to a verse in Bible that says '"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that if any of them do not believe in the word; they may be own over without words by the behaviour of their wives" (1 Peter 3:1) and take it has an excuse to say - look the Bible has given us an example that there are wives who are married to pre-believer..

Nope! I personally feel and believe that this passage assumes that both parties were pre-believers before marriage and subsequently the wife came to the Lord before her husband does.

God is clear in His words, our duty is to obey it and accept it as it is, not argue about it and make excuses to justify our mistakes!

God bless you!

Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;
Princess Michelle -
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King

Respecting and praying for God's authority over us

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Recognising the different form of authorities: teachers, parents, bosses and pastors.

In this time and age, it is not uncommon to see rebellion and disrespect among our youths. It is very disheartening to see young people nowadays not having basic manners or courtesy. Words such as “please” and “thank you” seemed to have become foreign terms and are rarely heard of. Such behaviours are not in born and therefore must be taught to our children. While the emphasis is on moral education on children, let us not forget that parents themselves have to be “educated” to be reminded that they are role models towards their child and it is their responsibility to teach them basic manners and social etiquettes. As parents become more highly educated, their focus is to give their child the best academic education, but let not forget which is more important - IQ or EQ?

Society does not lack academic geniuses, but are crying out for people with good moral values such as righteousness, integrity, justice, fairness, such education does not comes from books but are means of values taught to them by an adult who is in charge of them. There is no perfect parent or perfect child, but all are learning from one another to become a better person.

Such is the basic form of respecting ones authorities such as our parents. In work, we have a different set of authorities called our bosses. We might have mean and demanding bosses, but they are after all still our bosses who are in charge of our payslips, since we are working for them, we ought to give them due respect and do the work which we are being paid for.

In church we have our pastors, which make him the leader and the head of our church, whom God has selected to put over us to lead and shepherd us. While we learn to give respect to our parents and bosses and even our teachers, we must remember that our pastors are there by God's appointment to mentor us and help us grow in the word.

They have an equally high calling from God which we must respect and honour. To disrespect or disregard our authority in Christ is to dishonour Christ Himself.

Importance of praying for your leaders (pastors)

1) They have (spiritual) authority over us
2) They are God’s way of protecting us
3) They have a heavy responsibility given by God
4) They are humans just like us and are also prone to sin
5) They are held up to impossibly high standards

Ways to honour your leaders:

1) Obey them
2) Submit to them
3) Pray for them

Prayers

Dear God, we thank you for the leaders You have placed over us. We acknowledge that they are Your chosen authority over us to protect us shepherd us. Help us to honour them by obeying and submitting to them in love. We know that they have high standards to live by because we tend to impose unrealistic, superhuman expectation upon them causing them to feel pressurised. Forgive us for our blindness and help us to remember that they are also human just like us and are prone to sin and we all require grace and mercy. Forgive us Lord for the times when we disrespect Your chosen servants by our grumbling and disobedience against them, when we do not fully understand or agree to what they are leading us to. Lord, help us keep our eyes and focus on You and teach us to have faith in our leaders. Lord, I pray for wisdom over our leaders to make right decisions, discernment to hear Your voice correctly and guidance to lead us in the right direction according to Your will. I pray for favour, grace and for our protection upon them. Lord, we know that our leaders are prone to be attacked by the devil, because he knows that is an effective way to cause the church to fall. Lord, I ask that You will always send a team of loving and supporting community of believers to surround them with encouragement, love and support and prayers. I pray for Your church to be united and cause us to have a spirit of humility, obedience and submission towards one other and especially to have love, respect and honour towards our leaders. In Jesus mighty name Amen!

Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;
Princess Michelle -
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King

Father's Day Reflection

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This Sunday, 15 June, is a very special Sunday because it is Father’s Day. And as the world celebrates fatherhood tomorrow, let’s spend a few moments reflecting on what a father is like.

Whenever we think of our Fathers, what is one common thing that we usually think of? Maybe the word – discipline & authority comes to mind. But how often do we think of a father as someone who is a figure of love and gentleness? Most of us would naturally feel that the loving and gentleness part is played by the role of the mothers; rarely would we associate dads with tenderness and understanding. The father is usually identified as the breadwinner and the one who plays the role of a discipline master. The mother is usually identified as the gentle parent who takes care of the family with love and patience.

I am not sure what kind of dad you may have in your lives. Some may have very protective and caring fathers, one who is gentle with them in words and in actions. Some may have abusive fathers, who are harsh and merciless in their speech and violent in their ways. Some may not even have a father.

Whatever kind of family background we may have come from, whether a not we have a good or bad father, one thing is quite certain. We all do need a father and a mother figure in the household in order for the children to grow up in a complete family environment. We need the fathers to provide the bread and to protect and teach the children how to live a life of integrity and honesty. We also need the gentleness and the patients of mothers to take care of us when we are ill. Though we admit that we all have imperfect parents, it is essential that we learn to recognize and honour the roles of both the fathers and the mothers and give thanks to God for them.

God gave us our parents, both the mothers and fathers. They are God’s authority over us and we as children must learn to recognize that. Even though many times we complain about their imperfection, we fail to realize that we ourselves are imperfect too. Speaking as a child of my own mother, I admit that there are many times in our growing up lives when we often do not see eye to eye with them for many reasons. Some children have constant squabble with their parents. We often hear of children grumbling about their parents for not being loving or caring enough. We blame them for not spending enough family time with us and we complain that they do not give us freedom to go out…. We grumble and complain about them for so many reasons, but we know that in general, most of us come from very normal and healthy families where our parents take good care of us. They make sure that we are well fed, well clothe and they ensure that all our daily necessity is well taken care of. For that, we all should learn to thank God for our parents, no matter how unhappy or unsatisfied we may be with them.

The truth is that our parents love us; they just do not know how to express them vocally. I used to complain and grumble about my parents and accuse them of treating me unfairly from my younger brother. My younger brother (10 years my junior) seemed to get everything he wants and has all the love and attention from my parents while I on the other hand, have to work for the things I want and I never seem to be able to please my parents no matter how hard I tried. I have lived with this emotional imbalance for many years but the fact is that my parents do love me. I just failed to see it because I was focussing on the things I didn’t get from them. I only see what they didn’t give me or what they didn’t do for me, but not realising and appreciating the things they do for me every day.

Actions do show that they are concern for us, – When we are sick they show concern by taking us to the doctor, reminding us to take our medication. When we were still schooling, they will remind us to study for our exams and do our homework. My dad drives me to school every morning while I was still in high school. Even till now as an adult, my dad still drives me to my examination hall when I’m taking private exams, to endure that I will be early for my papers. My dad will also endure I have a proper meal before I go for my papers, so when possible he will either take me out to have breakfast with him or buy lunch for me on his way back from work than pick me up from home to send me to my examination venue. I can no longer still complain that my dad doesn’t love me… He does love me and a lot… I was just too bitter and jealous over the love and attention my brother got more than me to see that.

Even as we look to celebrating Father’s Day in a weeks’ time, I want us to take this time to remember and honour the Heavenly Father. Many of God’s children today, have a hard time accepting and receiving the Father’s love, because many of us have a false or distorted image of a father in our own lives. God modelled for us what and how a father should be like. Throughout scriptures we read of the many attributes of God the father being gentle, forgiving, loving, merciful, and patient.
One of the best loved story and perhaps one of the most popular of all the Parables told by Jesus are the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin and The Prodigal Son.


The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15)

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The Parable of the Lost Son

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Jesus through His Parables, shows us the Father’s heart and love for His children. He is always seeking out for the lost.

The greatest demonstration of the Father’s love is the death and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ – God’s only beloved Son. This is the ultimate love – unconditional and self-sacrificial, all for the sake of His precious children. “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). God loved us and died for us while we were still sinning, He did not wait for us to get better before He does anything good for us. He has been loving us since the day we were born. “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you were have been borne by My from birth, and have been carried from the womb; even to you old age, I shall be the same, and even to your greying years I shall bear you! I have done it, and I shall carry you; and I shall bear you and I shall deliver you.” (Isaiah 46:3-4)

This is the kind of God we serve, and this is the kind of Father that we as God’s children have and so we can rejoice. Imperfect as our earthly fathers may be, they all desire that their children grow up in a safe and loving environment. No parent will allow their children to suffer in life; they all have good intention for us just that, most parents don’t really know how to express it. The Bible says in Matt 7:7-11, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.”

What gifts did God gave us –

He gave us life through the death of His Son Jesus, “The wages of sins is death, but the free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:23).

He gave us the Holy Spirit -  “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)

He gave us healing in exchange of his wounds. “But He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised of our iniquities, the chastening of our peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5).

So we may not have a perfect earthly father that we can all look up too, but Christians can rejoice in the fact that we have a perfect Heavenly Father that loves us beyond our own biological parents. Hallelujah to that!!!

To close, I just want to wish all fathers a very “HAPPY & BLESSED FATHER’S DAY”.

And to all of God’s Children, let us celebrate and rejoice in the love of our Heavenly Father!
May the love of the Heavenly Father, flow through you, so that you will learn and experience the truth and the warmth of the Father’s love.


Serving with you in His Kingdom with love;
Princess Michelle -
Beloved Daughter of the Most High King