Where Are We?

(Quoted from the book "Kissed the Girls and Made Them Cry - why women lose when they give in)
By: Lisa Bevere
One of my fav portions in the book...Enjoy..=)

Where Are We?
Woman all over the World are crying out, "I don't like what i see. I want my clothing back! I want my dignity, honor, and mystique restored. I want to push away fear. I want to be empowered and free!"
~ I want to pinpoint our spiritual position as women: I believe we're naked and trapped in nightmare ~

We are living in a nightmare because like disobedient children, we believed the lie that rebellion would set us free. But ultimately it is women who suffer the most when the laws of love are desecrated. This is not a new struggle... it is the same one waged in the Garden of Eden long ago when the serpent whispered, Rebel against God, and you'll be wise and free! So we took the fruit, ate and closed our eyes, momentarily reveling in its intoxicating flavor. But when we opened them, we discovered something was amiss. We were naked and covered in shame. We turned to Adam, but he was naked as well and too busy wrestling with its own issues to help or restore us. After all, he was feeling shamed and powerless as well, and blamed us for it!
~ Ultmiately it is women who suffer the most when the laws of love are desecrated ~

So the man and woman run and hide and try to cover their nakedness before God comes into the Garden. With His arrival the blaming begins.

Adam: "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and i ate it" (Gen. 3:12).
Eve: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate" (Gen. 3.13).
God: "And i will put enmity between you and the woman...Your desire will be for yor husband, and he will rule over you" (Gen. 3:15-16)

Notice Adam blames both the woman and God..."the woman You put here." What kind of comment is this anyway? What happened to the joyous proclamation of she is "bone of my bonus and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23)? Quite an attitude change has taken place! Something really happened here...the two were no longer one, for they were no longer naked and unashamed. Shame had already worked its divisiveness and seperated them.

Then the woman is questioned, and she honestly replies, "I was deceived and ate." I don't hear blame in her words, but i do hear remorse and regret. At some level she is already aware of her losses. She will forever be at odds with the serpent. She will desire her husband, but he will rule over her. Here is our first hint the law (the knowledge of good and evil) rather than love is in charge, for law demands and dominates, but love leads and gives.

Too often, like Adam men respond to their own feelings of powerlessness by approaching women s objects to be controlled. They may enforce this control by enacting law in some nations and behaving lawlessly in others. Women are reduced to possessions or sex objects to be conquered, controlled, or used.

And so the wrestling begins. Lost in this struggle for power is the noble orgin of women as the completion and helpmeet of man. Lost is the image of a strong and protective male provider. Longing to be restored and whole again, broken and wounded Adams and Eves turn from each other and look elsewhere for their fulfillment. Homosexuality has turned the heads of broken men and risen to prominence by promising them completion through union with other males. But this can never be. When something is complete, it brings forth life; men cannot complete men just as women can never find their completion with other women.

Before the Fall, Adam surveyed all creation in its glorious perfection and found no one who could complete him, that is, until he met Eve. Together, the free man, Adam, and his beautiful counterpart, Eve, would have been invincible, and Satan just could not stand back and watch that happen. So he perverted the pure and perfect truth by questioning God's goodness and wisdom. He deceived Eve into taking the forbidden fruit, and she in turn gave it to the silent Adam at her side. The evil one and father of lies lured them away from God's presence and in the process robbed them of their positions of authority and power.

Then he added insult to their injury by telling each of them the other was the enemy. And the struggle continues between emasculaed, angry men and wounded, angry women because each blames the other for their pains an wants them to make it right. But neither men nor women can heal these places....only God can restore us again to the gardens of our dreams.

~ Daughters of God, earthly sons of Adams cannot save you from this serpent...it will take a heavenly prince ~

The serpent's goals has always been the same: to strip the daughters of Eve of their dignity, strength, and honor and in so doing to render them powerless.

But when women are stripped of their dignity and degraded, the men are shamed as well, for the woman is the glory of the man (1 Cor 11:7). When he strips her, he dishonors himself. He loses his God-given desire to protect her and with its purpose for true authority. Just as we have been stripped off our feminine garments of strength and honor, men have stripped of their genuine masculine authority

~ When femininity and virtue are no longer honored as noble, women are tempted to turn to the lesser powers of seduction and slip on the garments of sensuality. If women never connect with the purpose for their feminine beauty, honor, and dignity, they become incredibly vulnerable to sexual exploitation.~