Fairhaven Shorts 11-19-2023

Using Our Gifts

The point is that we all have a small fortune to work with. So what are we going to do with it? And then taking the story one step beyond that, we also have a group of people here who have talents and gifts. And we're all together in this church, and our talents become a collage of personalities and skills. And we begin to see that our talents come together in ways that meet the needs of people in our community.

 That's what Jesus is getting at. We are far more wealthy than we know, both as individuals and as a church. And investing who we are in the lives of the people around us is a joy because we are being and becoming exactly who and what we were created to be by God.

Women Leaders in the Bible

So what's remarkable about this particular passage though is that this time the nation's rescue was brought about mainly by two women, which is a foretaste, a prophecy of the two women in the New Testament who will bring about our rescue, namely Elizabeth and Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the book of Judges, the two women's names are Deborah, who was the judge at the time, and J.L., a Kenite woman.

 Deborah was the leader of Israel at that time, and this is important for a number of reasons. There are many, many Christian churches today, even today, that will not allow or recognize female leadership, and many of them say the reason is because God never appointed any female leaders in the Bible. This passage proves otherwise. Deborah's role was both religious and civil.

 She was a prophetess, and she was the judge of all Israel, and she was the commander-in-chief of Israel's army, all rolled into one.