Biblical Worldview & Other Phrases I Had Never Heard Of

I was not raised in church.  I started going to church on my own at the age of 19.  Some time after that I went before the church to make a public profession of faith and was baptized.  Sadly, I don't know the date, so I do not know my age at the time... early twenties... 22-ish.  For years I went to church and attempted to learn as much as I could from the preaching and Sunday School classes.  I thought I was doing this right.  And I really did not know how to do it anyway.  I remember being told the night I went down to make my public profession of faith that the best place to start in reading the Bible was to read one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), but I did not even feel I could really understand the "Bible language".  How was I going to understand it?  I bought a "Rainbow Bible" in the NIV thinking that would help me understand.  I mean, I had really not read much of the Bible.... just random segments of scripture.  And so it kind of continued that way for a long, long time.  I would just learn what I could from preachings and Sunday School and read some random stuff in my Bible and try to figure it out.  Sadly, the problem with that is that for the most part a lot of the teachings from preachers and Sunday School are on the simpler issues or either it is the same sort of thing and nothing too deep. 

About six years ago I attended the first Bible Study outside of regular church services that I had ever attended.  Really!  Yes, that was about 14 years into my church experience.  And when I think of that now I think that is ridiculous, BUT I am sitting here pondering it and I have to say I know part of the reason.  A BIG part of the reason is that even though I had turned to God and the church I still had the mindset in many ways that I just needed to attend the church services... and that all those Bible studies outside of that were a bit strange.  Let me clarify... I admired people that attended those, but I just did not feel comfortable doing that myself.  Part of that would probably really be my own insecurity.  Maybe I felt that was for the "really good and worthy Christians".  In fact, at that time I would not even call myself a Christian because I had heard all my life that calling yourself a "Christian" was a bad thing (because if you could not be sin free you were a hypocrite if you called yourself a "Christian").  I no longer believe that way (just to clarify).

A few months after I began my homeschooling journey I attended a very small homeschool conference and I remember someone saying that all of your "issues" would come out when you start homeschooling.  Boy, did I ever know that.  Having only been doing this homeschool thing for a few months I had learned already that I had "issues".  And the great thing about having "issues" is that you turn to God to figure out the answers.  One thing I did was read all of Teri Maxwell's stuff I could get my hands on and it was wonderful for me because she openly talks about her "issues" in her books.  My favorite thing is "Homeschooling With A Meek and Quiet Spirit" and I began to read it.  All that to say that since beginning homeschooling I personally have had the most spiritual growth of my life. 

Also, our church is a wonderful "teaching" church and we started going to this church a couple of months after we began homeschooling.  Before this time I had only attended one other "Bible Study".  Our church offers many opportunities for Bible Study and specifically, each Fall and each Spring offers a Ladies Study of some sort.  I have had the opportunity to attend Beth Moore studies and Priscilla Shirer studies, etc..  One in particular that had a huge impact on me was about Hearing the Voice of God.  It changed my life really.  Up until that point I felt like I was just grasping for straws about how to know if God was really guiding me or if it was something else.  I learned most importantly that whatever God is "saying" to you it will always be able to be backed up by scripture.  If I ask God if I should "follow my heart" on an issue and I think He is telling me I should, well that is an example of me being decieved because the Bible says the the heart is decietful.  The study also went through the many different ways God speaks to us. 

As we attended more homeschool conferences I began to hear phrases like "Biblical Worldview", "Biblical Womanhood", "Biblical Manhood", etc..  I had NEVER heard talk like this in ANY church or from ANY preacher I had ever sat under.  Once I heard these terms I knew they were at the core of being a Christian.  When we start to filter EVERYTHING in our life through the Word of God... through our Bible we will have a "BIBLICAL Worldview".  I don't know why the terminology seems so odd or hard to understand what it would mean.  Look at the words.... they all start with "Biblical" and that is so simple understand.  Bible!  Yes, the Word of God!  So, those things are simply:

• Biblical Worldview = having a view of how the the "world" should work should be based on the "Bible"
• Biblical Manhood = that men should model their lives after the model that God designed for us as laid out in the Bible
• Biblical Womanhood =  that women should model their lives after the model that God designed for us as laid out in the Bible

That is simple enough to understand, but the wording seems complex at first.  I am so thankful that I have learned about these things now and that I sit under a preacher that just finished a series of sermons he preached on about Biblical Worldview.  A few months before that he did a series on Biblical womanhood and now he is preaching  a series on Biblical voting.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  God has opened up so much opportunity for me to learn more lately and improve my marriage, my family, my parenting, and my relationship with Him.  I feel so blessed and I had to share this with you.