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Women On Mission - May 2022

Ukraine Crisis Response

Will Burnham sees the widespread displacement of millions of Ukrainians as an opportunity to grow God’s kingdom.  As campus minister of Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green KY, he recently took an eight member fact finding team of ministers to Poland to locate churches and others to partners with in trauma counseling, evangelism and discipleship for Ukrainian Refugees.

“It’s an Acts 1:8 moment where God is distributing His people,” Burnham told Baptist Press from Warsaw. “There are probably 100,000 Ukrainian believers being scattered across Europe.” (This interview was in January, so the number is much greater.) He sees it as an opportunity to take the gospel throughout Europe and make disciples and plant churches. “We just want to be able to meet the Lord wherever He’s at work.” he said. Burnham found opportunities to show the gospel during his trip, receiving “ every response you would typically get in the states. Some are excited to hear it, some are reserved, and some don’t want to listen.”

He implores Americans to learn to share the gospel now, in order to be prepared when God allows them to meet refugees in need of good news. “Learn how to share the gospel and make disciples in the states, so they’re ready to do it when God sends them somewhere else,” he said.

Send Relief, the combined compassion ministry of IMB and NAMB, is currently working with local and Baptist Partners in Ukraine and other counties to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis. Gifts to Send Relief’s Ukraine Crisis Fund are vital to these relief efforts." The main thing with Trauma Counseling is listening and letting people share what they’re comfortable sharing, Burnham pointed out, and then there’s a way to bridge that with a traumatic story from scripture like Joseph (Jacob’s son) and show how God uses what is intended for evil for good and provide a bridge to being able to share the true hope through the Gospel.

This wont be a “one– person– can– save– the– day” mentality. This will be the church being the church and working together in unity as an “all hands on deck” approach. 

Women on Mission will meet Thursday, May 5th at 1:00 pm in the Grace Ladies’ classroom. All our ladies are invited to join us.

Spare Change - April 2022

What is a woman?

It seems like such an easy question to answer but recently this very question stunned Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson.  She responded that she did not know how to answer the question and alluded to the fact that she was not a biologist.  Before everyone rushes to condemn or defend her we need to understand our culture has made it impossible for anyone that wants to be deemed culturally appropriate to define simple words like "man" or "woman".

It should be a simple question with a simple answer.  We all know that a woman is a female human being.  Biology tells us that almost every species on the planet has a male and female component.  Both flora and fauna operate on this basic level for the sake of reproduction.  We can answer the question, "What is a woman?" by looking at the physical traits of a human woman but also we can look at their DNA and know that they are defined by their XX chromosomes.

I have come to understand this is not an issue of biology, rather it is one of perception.  The reason this is a problem in our culture is because many want to say that transgenderism is right and good.  They would say that a man or woman is not defined by their DNA or even their physical traits; that reproductive organs do not matter. The only thing that matters is what they want to be true.  Now we come to the rub…the real issue is about truth.

If truth is whatever I want it to be then, sure, I can self identify as a purple dinosaur and everyone has to agree with me and treat me as such; however, truth is not whatever I want it to be. Christians should know that God is the definer of truth in all areas of life including our gender identity.  In Genesis 1:27 God defines a man and a woman. He states very clearly they are different genders and thus not interchangeable.

Since God’s Word is the arbiter of truth we must stand on it no matter what culture says.  This will put us at odds with many people.  To say that we know a person is born a certain gender and should remain that gender and even identify as that gender is very controversial.  We must prepare ourselves for this.  

That doesn’t mean we have to be mean or nasty about it.  Jesus never had an attitude of hate or bigotry toward anyone.  We should be as loving and gentle as we can be without backing down from the truth.  If people want to ignore us or call us names we must take it.  On the flip side, if there are people that want our help we should help them; first by sharing the gospel with them but also by being there to help them through their gender identity struggles.  It is not easy being caught up in that cultural machine, as you can see with what happened at the Supreme Court nominee hearing.

Christians should always seek to have a Christ-like attitude in whatever situation they face.  When confronted with the situation of gender identity we must stand on truth and say that God has already defined gender.  We do not question it and it cannot change.  We must never back down from that truth found in God’s Word.  We also need to have tender hearts, understanding that there are many people trapped in a terrible lie propagated by Satan himself.  We must commit ourselves to pray for them and offer to help anyway we can.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32