We must remember the mercy of God in Christ, as we acknowledge, hate, and turn from our sin and rebellion to Him who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness,” to the God who “forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.” May God give us grace to see that his patience is part of his goodness and that his goodness leads to repentance. 

Augustine once said, “God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.” This is a sobering truth—a much-needed reminder that we are called to repent of our sin as soon as God has convicted us of it. It is also a sobering truth in so much as it relays the fact that God does not owe us life or forgiveness. He can do with us whatever he wants at any time (Deut. 32:39).
When we come to terms with this fact, we fall on our faces and cry out with the psalmist,
Enter not into judgment with your servant,for no one living is righteous before you.(Ps. 143:2)
We cling to Christ crucified and risen and cry out with the psalmist,
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,O Lord, who could stand?But with you there is forgiveness,that you may be feared.(Ps. 130:3-4)
This is not something that must happen just one time in our life. We must do this throughout the totality of our short lives until we are with Christ in glory.
God bears long with us in order to encourage us to repent.
Sadly, we so often act just like the Israelites—seeing God’s glorious works and yet rebelling against him time and time again. In Numbers 14, we have one of the most instructive examples of Israel’s rebellion and God’s mercy. The people were murmuring against God’s appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron—though they were really complaining against the Lord. The Lord asked Moses,
“How long will this people despise me?”(Num. 14:11)
Moses then interceded on behalf of the people for the sake of the Lord, his attributes, and his covenant promises (Num. 14:15-19). The Lord then granted Moses his request, saying,
“I have pardoned, according to your word.”(Num. 14:20-21)
However, God brought the following charge against the people:
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Written by T. M. Suffield |
Sunday, June 4, 2023
If we chase after experiences we won’t find them, but that if we look to worship God in spirit and truth, we will have dramatic and dynamic encounters with God by his Spirit that will change us, change our churches, change our towns and cities, shake the foundations of the earth, challenge the powers successfully, and occasionally be just a little bit strange.

In my last post in this series filling out my ‘eucharismatic’ manifesto, I argued that the church exists to worship God, and therefore our primary purpose is worshipping God.
However, if you’ve been following along, you might think that this is an odd first step when I have argued that the church is defined by her encounters with God, which seems to shift the focus to us. That’s not right, church isn’t about us, it’s about God.
Except, I’m a Reformed Charismatic; Calvinistic in my understanding of salvation (and more). Which means I want to argue an important point that affects what happens on Sundays, but also everything else in the entire cosmos. It’s this: God always moves first.
When I repent what I discover is that in the counsels of the Almighty God, he first chose me and elected me to life, the Spirit regenerating my heart so that I can respond in faith to his call and repent. When God calls, he makes what he calls for happen.
When I move towards God and meet him, I will always find that he has moved first. God’s kindness is gratuitous, it overflows, what we call grace or gift is how God always works with his people.
It’s because of the Lord’s gracious posture towards us, his movement, that we can speak of the gathered Church as a series of encounters with God, or even of the Church itself as the mystery of the bride encountering the husband, the son encountering the father, the army encountering the general, the Temple bricks encountering the divine presence of Yahweh filling the holy of holies.
When we gather to worship God, he will have graciously ‘presenced’ himself with us. And before you cry that ‘God is everywhere’ and so can’t be especially present, you’re going to need to go and look at the holy of holies again.
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We can shout to the heavens how excellent and wonderful it is for women to be women! And by women, we are talking about Biblically defined womanhood! We are not celebrating the perverted, diminished, and hollowed-out femininity the world has championed. We are celebrating the God-ordained, glorious femininity that is beautiful and wholly pleasing to God.

You Can’t Talk about That…Watch Me
In clown world, you cannot speak to me unless you agree with me. And you certainly can not speak intelligently on a topic unless it comports with your personal experience. For instance, a white person could not and should not opine about a topic like racism these days because they obviously have no experience with being oppressed (as assumptions go). At best, she is a closet white supremacist, and he is clearly sitting advantageously atop the oppressor mountain (as assumptions continue). According to our new class of social and moral philosophers, the melanin-challenged among us could not possibly have anything to add on such a subject because they have been blinded by decades and centuries of toxic advantage and privilege. If you disagree with such pitiful logic, it is just your white fragility barking.
The same is true when a man opens his Bible and studies a topic like womanhood. He may be learning the truth from the very designer of women, but his opinions are somehow invalid because he has no experience of being a woman. This kind of abysmal logic comes from a feministic culture that no longer knows what it means to be a woman. Now, women can have penises, men can have babies, and groomers who wear dresses can disrobe and flash their genitals in front of little girls, all in the name of womanhood. Perhaps, even a white male pastor, looking at what the author and perfecter of femininity has to say about it, could offer a clearer picture of a woman than the so-called experts. Just maybe.
Putting Forward the Question
The question “What Is a Woman” has more recently become a viral topic on social media since the Daily Wire decided to make their signature documentary “What Is a Woman” by Matt Walsh free on Twitter. The documentary explores that very question, “What is a woman” and allows various representatives from clown world to hang themselves with utterly ridiculous propositions. For that reason, it is a must-see.
Yet, other than a last-second quip by Matt’s wife that a woman is a “Human biological female,” the documentary utterly fails to answer its own question with any sufficient treatment. Therefore, I would like to offer a Biblical case for what a woman is and why womanhood is a very good thing.
What Is a Woman?
From the moment we open the Bible, we are bombarded by what a woman is. According to Scripture, a woman is a special creation (Genesis 1:26) endowed with blessing, significance, and value by the creator who sculpted her in His image (Genesis 1:27-28). In that image, she has been made equal in personhood to the male God called her to correspond with, yet she is made distinct from him in her body, role, and rank.
The Woman’s Body
Regarding her body, she was made to be visually stimulating to her husband. The Bible does not present an androgynous woman who binds her breasts and wears men’s clothing; in fact, it forbids such a thing ( Deuteronomy 22:5). This is because feminine sexual beauty, when rightly expressed in the confines of covenant marriage (1 Timothy 2:9-10), is a beautiful and glorious thing. Take, for example, Adam. When he stirs from a deep siesta the Lord God put him into, He awakens with blissful delight to behold a woman’s naked body (Genesis 2:23). She was made lovely, with softened curves and rounded thighs (Song of Solomon 7:1) that will intoxicate her man, and leave him ever satisfied with her breasts all his days (Proverbs 5:19). Far from being a repulsive aspect of masculinity, male sexual attraction for his wife is part of a woman’s glory. The man is not deviant for desiring his wife, and she is not sensate when flaunting her naked body in front of him to cultivate his desire. She receives affection and attraction from her husband in a way no one else can, and he covenants to cling to her, protect her, provide for her, and love her all His days (Genesis 2:24).
This is why the Bible says it is not good for the man to be alone, because when the man is alone, the woman is left unprotected, unloved, and unprovided for. Instead, her radiating beauty is meant to allure him and then tame him to become more than a man. In her love, he becomes a gentleman, a provider, a father, and a companion. Through her womb, she will bring forth legacies of people who will subdue the earth per God’s perfect vision (Genesis 1:28) and bring manifold blessings to her husband (Psalm 127:5).
Neither the man nor the woman could accomplish God’s plan independently. But through distinct yet equal giftings, they cling to one another in blessings; she becomes the man’s helper (Genesis 2:18), and together they become fruitful, multiplying, ruling, and subduing to the glory of God. In this sense, she was made for man, to help execute the vision he will be held accountable to the Lord for, not vice versa (1 Corinthians 11:9).
Women are also made with a body that can produce children. She has a monthly menstruation that men cannot have, signifying her ability to bring life, even from the throes of death (Leviticus 15). During ovulation, a woman’s sexual drive increases as a way of helping her become pregnant. During conception, she will take a single sperm cell and transform it into an eternal living being (Psalm 139:13), which demonstrates part of the miracle of what it is to be a woman. She takes the small blessings a man gives her, and she multiplies them across the whole of her life. And while the delivery of those children has become arduous and painful because of sin (Genesis 3:16), the woman has a unique and hormonal ability to forget her pain the moment the child is born (John 16:21). After the delivery, the breasts that were used to satisfy her husband, now nourish her infant babes physically from the milk God has made for her to produce (1 Thessalonians 2:7). And, in her mothering, she develops an extraordinary love for her children, that even their father cannot fully comprehend (Isaiah 49:15) that will cause her to give up everything for the blessing of her children. Her body was made for her husband and her children, and from her body, a multitude of blessings flow out to everyone around her.
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