Bible Blog

We are called to be a light on a hill acting as a beacon to a lost and dying world. Matthew 5:14-16

How do we go about doing this?

Assuming that I show you photographs of women; one with long hair wearing a covering on her head similar to the bonnets in the television show Little House on the Prairie. Then I show you a photograph of another woman smoking, and finally a third woman pictured with short hair, body piercings, and tattoos.

If I ask which woman is a Christian who accepts that God commands a wife to submit, obey, and respect her husband?

Any guesses on what photograph people will choose?

In a fallen world where Christians are supposed to be different from the world and lights upon a hill, how does the world see people who:

• affirmatively and readily speak up about God’s gender roles for men and women.
• live out God’s instructions for the wife to be obedient, reverent, and submissive.
• a woman who wears a covering on her head to worship.
• a man whose wife chooses to wear a covering on her head to service.
• a father who requires his daughters who are living under his roof to properly cover their heads.

These are rhetorical questions. I know the answers.

And I believe that you know the answers too!

So, how can we in good faith say these answers are culturally irrelevant?

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The right to prayer comes with requirements and limitations.

One requirement for our prayers to be heard by God is that we must pray through Jesus. John 14:6

For your prayers to reach God, access is by communication through Jesus. John 14:12-14 He is our Mediator. This is a limitation on the authority granted to us to pray to God. If we want to talk with God, then we must approach Him through Jesus.

Otherwise, the door is closed. The only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ.

This is why you frequently hear people close their prayers with “In Jesus’ name. Amen” or something similar.

Another requirement is that we must enter into His presence with humility and reverence for Him.

This reverence and humility are shown by the head covering that He designated for our respective sex or gender. This means no covering for the man.

This reverence is the willingness to “hear” God’s laws and requirements. Consider for a moment:

“One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.” Proverbs 28:9 NKJV

A person who stops listening to God (and His law) sends up prayers that are an abomination. That’s really strong language for God to declare a person’s prayers coming up to heaven to Him as an abomination.

An abomination is something regarded with disgust or hatred. God says that anyone who will not listen to His commands sends up prayers that He detests.

The proper head covering by men and women is spelled out in 1st Corinthians Chapter 11.

The instructions are to demonstrate that we know our place or station. Keeping one’s assigned station or rank is critically important to God. He is about order, not disorder.

Refusing to hear His law results in our prayers being an abomination.

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