Felicity Dale
-
Heroine of the Faith: Phoebe Palmer
Phoebe Palmer was “the mother of the Holiness Movement.” Born Phoebe Worrall in 1807, she was brought up in a devout Methodist home. She married a Methodist homeopathic physician, Walter Palmer. Their first two children died within months of their birth. In early Methodism, conversion was an emotional experience, and the fact that Phoebe hadn’t …
-
Heroine of the Faith: Jessie Penn-Lewis
Jessie was born in South Wales, U.K., in 1861. The daughter of a mining engineer/Methodist minister, she married William Penn-Lewis at the age of 18. Eighteen months later, she realized that if Christ were to return, she wasn’t ready, and so she began to seek the Lord. Soon she met Jesus and began a deep …
-
Why I Submit to My Husband
I’m so thankful for my husband, Tony. The blessings of being married to him are beyond words. It’s my delight to serve Tony and submit to him. And it’s his joy to serve me and lay down his life for me. Really, it’s a race to go lower. A mutual submission. It wasn’t always that …
-
Heroine of the Faith: Amy Carmichael
Amy Carmichael was born in Ireland in 1867 to a well-to-do family. She decided to follow Jesus at the age of 13. At 18, her father died, leaving the family in a difficult financial situation. They moved to Belfast, where Amy became involved with the “shawlies,” mill girls who wore shawls rather than hats. She …
-
Heroine of the Faith: Corrie ten Boom
“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” These are among the final words Betsie ten Boom spoke to her sister, Corrie, as Betsie lay dying in a German death camp, a victim of starvation and torture. Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who worked in her father’s watch repair …
-
Heroine of the Faith: Lottie Moon
Lottie Moon, at a height of 4 feet 3 inches, was a powerhouse for the gospel. Born to affluent parents who owned a tobacco plantation in 1840, she was indifferent to her Baptist upbringing until the age of 18, when she underwent a spiritual awakening at a revival meeting on her college campus. At the …
-
Can Women Have Authority Over Men?
In his book,Why Not Women, Loren Cunningham tells this story: Duncan Campbell, who had witnessed an extraordinary revival in the Hebrides, was asked to speak about the revival in a London church that was known for its legalism. After the meeting, the elders expressed their disappointment that he hadn’t talked about a recent dramatic move …
-
Was Deborah’s Leadership of Israel a Sign of God’s Judgment?
Some people claim that Deborah, rather than being a blessing, was actually a judgment on Israel. This opinion is derived from Isaiah 3:12, which in most translations says something like this: “As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them” (NKJV). Undoubtedly the context of this passage in Isaiah, as rendered in most versions, …
Was Deborah’s Leadership of Israel a Sign of God’s Judgment? Read More »
-
Did Jesus Reject Women as Disciples?
It sometimes puzzles me that women weren’t included among the twelve disciples. How easy it would have been for Jesus to have six disciples of each gender. But as I’ve been pondering it over recent days, I’ve come to a realization… Jesus never seemed to care too much about his reputation. In fact, sometimes it …
-
How Jesus Defied Convention in His Dealings With Women
Jesus refused to be bound by the conventions of his day. At times he even seemed to go out of his way to provoke the religious leaders. He chose to ignore manmade traditions. One of the ways in which Jesus defied convention was in his treatment of women. Think, for example, of his willingness to …
How Jesus Defied Convention in His Dealings With Women Read More »
-
Why Didn’t Jesus Have Female Disciples?
Oh, but he did! Jesus chose twelve men to be with him. What is often forgotten is that a group of women accompanied him too. Luke’s gospel describes these women: Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took …
-
Small is the New Big
Making sense of the diverse house church movement currently sweeping across the U.S. There is a major shift going on across the church landscape of North America. God is placing the church back into the hands of His ordinary people. Not church with buildings and professional leadership, but rather intentionally small groups of disciples, led …