Page 27 - Sarah's Children

The message of the previous chapters is that a woman must come to a place of having
no life of her own. She must give up her own life. She must die to self. She must
embrace crucifixion of her flesh and all of its desires. I can hear the objections in the
silence.

"Is there no other way?"

"Cannot this cup pass from me?"

"Must I truly take man as my head and become submissive to him, even calling my
husband lord?"

"Must I truly remain silent, chaste and respectful even when he is walking in
disobedience to the word of God, as Peter has said?"

"Must I refrain from usurping authority over man in anyway?"

And with every question the flesh of woman cries out for deliverance. "Must I endure
the scourging, the crown of thorns and the nails? Must I really die in order for life
and fruit to come forth?" Yet once again we hear the words of Christ:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Death comes before glory. The seed must die to bring forth fruit.

Know this, the objections that arise have nothing to do with whether these things be
true, for they are, and they are exceedingly plain in scripture. The objections arise
because the flesh seeks to avoid suffering and death. "The flesh wars against the
Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5), and this warfare can be brutal.
The greatest struggle in our lives is always at the crisis of decision.

Consider the suffering of our Savior. His greatest agony wasn’t on the cross, it was
in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is where He sweat drops of blood. This is where
His soul was deeply grieved to the point of death (Matthew 26:38, Mark 14:34).
Gethsemane means "olive press". It is here that the olives were crushed to separate
the pure oil from them. It is the oil from the crushed flesh of the olive that was used
as a continual light in the Temple.

For our lives to become as light in a darkened world we must undergo the crushing
of our flesh. But if we crucify the flesh, if we surrender our lives and refuse to hold
onto our will, then we will not abide alone, but we will bear fruit.