When Women Unite

When Women Unite

Hello Church Family,

I hope you’ve had a good week. I’ve been praying for you, that God would enable you (and all of us at Northpoint) to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God for us in Christ (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Tomorrow begins an exciting and busy weekend for our church. Along with celebrating the Lord’s Table together on Sunday, and hearing testimonies from seven people who are getting baptized (which happens to be one of the most encouraging things we do as a church, in my estimation), we’re also hosting a women’s conference featuring renowned author and speaker, Elyse Fitzpatrick.

On Saturday, beginning at 9:00 a.m., Elyse will share how the good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection assures believers of the steadfast and immovable love of God—and how that practically helps and encourages women day-by-day and moment-by-moment.  At last report 480 women had registered, and more will undoubtedly show up at the door.  It’s not too late, by the way, for you to attend. You can still register online by clicking here, or just show up on Saturday morning at 8:45 a.m., and there will be a spot for you.

In light of Elyse’s visit to our church, I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes from the writings this grace-saturated theologian:

On moralism and parenting, from Give Them Grace:

“If our human obedience or morality isn’t motivated by gratitude for God’s grace, it is very dangerous. If not rooted in gratitude for God’s love for us in Christ, morality is deadlier to the soul than immorality. Those who excel at “human obedience” [keeping a set of external rules] may not see their need for a Savior, their hearts hardened and unfazed by God’s grace. Remember that it was the woman who knew she had been forgiven for much that loved much (Luke 7:47). Forgiveness for deep offenses breeds deep love. Forgiveness for perceived and reasonable slights breeds apathetic disdain. A society riddled with immorality will not be a pleasant place to live, but a society riddled with self-congratulatory morality will be satanic and resistant to grace—nice and tidy and loveless and, oh, so dead.”

On modesty, from Revive Our Hearts (blog):

“Immodesty flows out of the heart of a show-off. Showing off is a fruit of pride and love of self. Immodesty demonstrates a cold unconcern for the church. The beauty of the gospel, however, is that while it convicts us that we’re all unloving show-offs in some way, it also assures us that we’ve been loved and that we no longer need to show off to get other people’s approval. The record of our Modest Redeemer is ours! Our identity isn’t wrapped up in the approval, envy, or lust of others. Our identity is found in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. He loved us and refrained from showing off so we could be His. We can be freed from the need to prove that we’ve got a great body or wardrobe because we’ve been lavished with His love instead!”

On misplaced identity, from Because He Loves Me:

“This epidemic of ‘Identity Amnesia’ is seen in serious Christian books that focus on improving outer behaviors … or overcoming sin, without much reference to God’s love for us or his ongoing work in us. It’s seen in the hymns and choruses we sing in which we declare our determination to follow Christ without a mention of his determination to cause us to do so. It can be observed in the astounding absence of the gospel in sermons. … These calls to godly living are built like houses in the sky: fine looking edifices, but lacking the essential foundation.”

The ladies of Northpoint are incredibly blessed to get a regular diet of outstanding biblical teaching from Marti Wiegman, our Director of Women’s Ministries. She is fantastic! This weekend, they’ll get to gather and hear from a different voice the same essential message: Jesus’ work on the cross was enough. We can’t add to it or take away from it. We just receive the benefits by faith.

I’m excited that the women of our church get to hear from Elyse, and I’ll be praying that God does a mighty work in the hearts and lives of those who attend.

Pastor John