A Woman's Call to Counsel

A Woman's Call to Counsel (notes)

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
Titus 2:3-5 (NIV)

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
...
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
Psalm 40:1-2 (NIV)

I. Older woman qualifying description
- Age physically and spiritually
.....- in Biblical times, the ideal older woman (mentor) is in her 60s and kids grown
.....- this woman has the physical and spiritual maturity and the time to mentor
.....- this "command" applies to both married and unmarried women because what needs to be taught never changes in the Bible
- Reverent in behavior - suited to a sacred character
- Not slanderers - slanderer is another word for the Devil, accuser
- Not given to much wine - not under control of anything except the Holy Spirit
- Teachers of good things - those things that please God

II. These Women would also qualify by obedience to the things which are taught
.....Areas of instruction to your younger women:
.....- Love your husbands - should be our 1st love of our "earthly" relationships
.....- Love your children - "dearly beloved", do your children know they're dear to you by your conduct to them, correction done with love and not malice
.....- Discretion - of sound mind, self-controlled vs. being "overwhelmed" or ruled by emotion
.....- Chaste - purity & modesty, to keep oneself unspotted from the world (world's philosophy -> ME first)
..........- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)
.....- Homemakers - a home is a good place of ministry to others, refuge for children & husband; if working, the home is priority over work
..........- Loaf of Encouragement story - One woman didn't think she was a good speaker or teacher, but she was a great prayer warrior. Therefore, she made a loaf of bread for people she was thinking and praying for during the week and once a week delivered them as a way of encouragement to let others know she was thinking and praying for them. One day during her delivery, God put a particular woman in her mind whom she hadn't thought or prayed about that week, but she decided to go to this woman's house to drop off a loaf of bread because she just thought she would need some encouragement. When the woman opened the door, her eyes were filled with tears and she explained that she had just been praying about her lonliness to God and through that visit her prayers were answered. This is a story to exemplify how even just making a loaf of bread, a ministry from the home, can be an answer to prayer.
.....- Good - a character or constitution that is beneficial in its effect, a life seasoned with grace
..........- Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)
.....- Obedient to their own husbands - to put yourself under your husband as long as your husband is not asking you to sin

Why these specific areas?
.....- "That the Word of God may not be blasphemed"
..........- When you claim to believe in Christ but don't live out the Word of God, the Word of God is blasphemed