October 12, 2021

Episode 07 – “Fighting Battles Together” with Carolyn Custis James

God has created men and women to be in partnership for His mission. Carolyn Custis James is on a mission to help women—regardless of age, location, or circumstance—to realize that we are all made to be God's image-bearers. She states that as His daughters, we are to "be warriors in the battle alongside the men."
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Show Notes

 

Guest Bio:

Carolyn Custis James is an advocate for women worldwide and an award-winning author. She specializes in strengthening relationships between men and women and writing about what it means to be a female follower of Jesus in a postmodern world. She serves as an adjunct faculty member at Missio Seminary in Philadelphia and is married to Frank James.

Summary of EPISODE:

We were not created to fight life’s battles on our own. We were created for community, and humans are at their best when men and women pursue God’s mission together. On this episode of Where Ya From?, Carolyn Custis James shares her personal experience with gender inequality and learning about injustices toward women around the world. These experiences led her to become an advocate for women, and to develop a robust explanation of why men and women need each other to both survive and thrive through the ups and downs of life.

 

Notes and Quotes:

  • “So when I went to seminary, we couldn’t go during the school year. We had to go in the summers because they didn’t want us to take the place of a male student.”
  • “Women don’t need a softer teaching. We need really strong teaching because we’re experiencing deep struggles and hard questions.”
  • “I ended up convicted that the questions that were being asked about women in leadership and women in ministry were not big enough.”
  • “You need to find out what your gifts are and what God wants you to do with your life, and I’m not the answer to that question.”
  • “Women need deep theology. We need to know God for ourselves.”
  • “The moment the word ‘why’ crosses your lips, you are doing theology. And if you’ve been trying to survive on fluff, you don’t have anything that’s going to hold you.”
  • “If you’re created in the image of God, it means that your first calling is to know the God who created you to be like Himself.”
  • “The Bible is for all women. You could tell a trafficked woman, ‘You are God’s image bearer, and that has never changed, and that heightens in infinite ways the atrocities that are being committed against you.’”
  • “When we read the biblical text we need to foreignize it, because we are foreigners to the world of the Bible. And the stories in the Bible are drained of their potency when we just look at them through American eyes.”
  • “Our first calling is to care for creation . . . one that men and women share. God created male and female, and when He creates His image bearers. . . . It means our first calling is to know Him and to find out what He loves, and to look at the world through His eyes and to love what He loves, and to join His mission in the world.”
  • “Two Hebrew words refer to the ‘woman’ in the Old Testament, ezer kenegdo. Kenegdo means she’s his match, like the South Pole is to the North Pole. She’s on equal ground with him. Ezer is a military word and always occurs in a military context where God is our shield in defense, and it also refers to women.” 
  • “I think that the marriage ceremony establishes the ground rules. And God didn’t create the woman to add responsibility to the man. He created help, real help.”

 

Links Mentioned In Show:

 

Verses Mentioned in Show:

  • Genesis 1 & 2
  • Book of Ruth
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