Equipping Eve Episode 1: Who, What, Why

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Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

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Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

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But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

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Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

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No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

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My name's Mike Ebendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

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Well, hello and welcome to Equipping Eve. My name is Erin Benzinger and this is a show that seeks to equip women with the truth of God's Word so that we will be prepared to stand firm on that Word when faced and confronted with the inevitable onslaught of lies and deception that are running rampant in the church and in the world today.

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The very same lies, by the way, that were spewed from the mouth of the serpent there in the garden all those thousands of years ago.

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As I said, my name is Erin Benzinger and this is the very first episode of Equipping Eve. The show came about in kind of a random manner.

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Several months ago, Pastor Mike Ebendroth of No Compromise Radio sent me an email, kind of out of the blue, and asked if I would consider doing a show for women where we do talk about Bible truths and get into some of the issues that are facing women in the church today.

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There just is such an obvious lack of resources for women, it seems, in evangelicalism.

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And so I'm prayerful and hopeful that God will use this to kind of help fill that gap.

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And so I'm very thankful for this opportunity. Let's see. It's been a few months since that very first email, and here we are after a lot of prayer and a few technical endeavors.

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This may be the seventh or eighth take of this first episode that I've recorded, just because I'm still kind of getting the hang of the whole radio thing.

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So give me a little grace here in these first few episodes, but I'm sure it won't be long before we're rolling like it's second nature.

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So what I want to do to start is talk a little bit about myself, which is not something

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I enjoy doing. I really don't like to talk about myself, so I want to get it over with.

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But it's important for you, I think, as the listener, to understand a little bit of my background and where I'm coming from so that you know what

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I'm bringing to the table and where my perspective is as we talk about things in this show and in the shows to come.

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So, some of you may be familiar with my writing. Maybe not, and that's okay, but I have a blog called

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Do Not Be Surprised. It's at DoNotBeSurprised .com. I've been writing there for a little over five years, maybe five and a half years or so.

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And what I seek to do there ultimately is to proclaim Christ, proclaim the gospel of salvation, and always point people back to Him.

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If you were to dig back into the archives of that blog and look at some of the early articles that I wrote way back in 2009, you definitely,

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I think, would see a progression if you compared it to something that's been written a little more recently. And that's because, like anybody,

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I've grown in my Christian walk, I've grown in my understanding, I've grown also practically in my writing and whatnot, and that's all by God's grace and goodness.

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And He's really used that forum to stretch me and challenge me and to help nurture that growth in me.

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And where it started out as what many would call kind of a quote -unquote discernment -type blog, it's,

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I believe, by God's grace progressed to the point where we may deal with a lot of the same issues on that blog, but I think

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I approach them in a little bit of a different manner with the ultimate goal, again, of exalting

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Christ and pointing the reader back to Christ. Because I can sit there and talk all day long until I'm blue in the face about what is wrong with a person's teaching, you know, or this latest movement or that movement, and tell you even how it's unbiblical, and even take you to Scripture and show why it's unbiblical.

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But ultimately, if I do not point you back to Christ and to the One who is the way, the truth, and the life, then

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I've just been making noise, whether it's in written form or whether I've been talking out loud.

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And so then what's the point? If we are not always pointing people back to the only One who can save, then we've just wasted our time.

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We've wasted everybody's time. So that's kind of the progression that the blog has taken there, do not be surprised, over the past five and a half years.

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And if you would go there now, you might notice there's not a lot of new material. I'm not able to post as frequently as I used to, and part of that is because I do have a day job, and life keeps me busy with that and other endeavors, and by God's grace, hopefully there will be a little more opportunities for writing here in the coming weeks.

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But I have a day job, but my heart is here, and my heart is in equipping women with, as I said, the truth of God's Word, because the deception is so prevalent today.

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But ladies, if we can know that we can trust that firm foundation of Scripture, then we can stand strong against any doubt that Satan tries to throw at us.

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A little bit more about me, I received my bachelor's degree in religion from Pepperdine University.

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I'm not going to tell you when I graduated. It was not that long ago, but it was long ago enough that I try not to think about it.

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Time flies. And Pepperdine is a more liberal Christian university.

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That's something I did not realize when I attended there. I actually attended as a false convert, interestingly enough, and still sought a degree in religious studies.

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But now I look back, hindsight's 20 -20, and I look back and I see how God used that time and used that education to prepare me, even for what

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I'm doing here today. And I also see something that I'm just so thankful for when

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I do reflect back on those years. I see how God protected me there in that environment.

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I was reading some things and hearing some things from my professors that really could have led me down a road of deception.

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And God is so good that even though I was living a hypocritical life claiming to have been saved by Him and yet living like the world completely as a false

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Christian, He still was good to protect me from so many of those things. And so what a blessing that has been to look back and reflect and see

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God's hand in my life there. I am still actually continuing my education.

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I currently am pursuing a master's degree in biblical studies, but this time at the master's college so that I know my education is far more trustworthy than it was for my bachelor's degree.

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And I opted for a kind of a long road to finish that degree, and it's been a long road.

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And I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the classes and the opportunities that I've had through that program there, and I'm very thankful for it, although I will admit

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I'm anxious to finish and finally be done. And Lord willing, I have one more year of that and then

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I can finally be done writing term papers. So that's a little bit about me.

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One more thing that I have to, I have to give thanks to the Lord for another resource that He has provided for me that will hugely impact what you hear on this show is that He has graciously provided me with a

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Bible teaching, Bible believing New Testament church here, a local church body.

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We have a wonderful gifted pastor, dedicated godly elders, and it's just a really, really wonderful body of believers to be a part of.

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And it's such a gift to be able to go week after week and to just have

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God's Word open before you and just proclaimed without fear, without doubt, and just completely just so bold and clear exposition of the text week after week from our pastor.

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And I'm very, very thankful for that. That's a resource and a blessing that unfortunately too few believers enjoy.

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There seems to be a shortage of godly, dedicated, faithful pastors who just open the

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Word and proclaim it in season and out of season. And so if you have a church like that, you have a pastor like that,

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I hope that you're praying for him every day. I hope that you thank him and encourage him because you have a, unfortunately, it's a rare gift.

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And so you are very blessed if you have that. And it's actually because of one of those men who is just like that, who opens the

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Word faithfully week after week, Pastor Mike Gabendroth, it's because of him that I'm here talking to you.

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And so I'm very thankful to him. I've been blessed by his teaching and his ministry. And so you can maybe shoot him a thank you note as well if you've ever enjoyed his teaching from the

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Word of God. Okay, so that is plenty about me for today.

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So let's move into this first episode of Equipping Eve. Let's talk a little bit,

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I want to kind of lay some groundwork here on what you can expect from this show.

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You know, you don't know me, maybe you've read some of my writing, you have never heard me talk, let alone for 25 minutes straight.

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So what are some things that you can maybe expect from the show and future shows?

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Lord willing, there will be many of them. Something that you should maybe not expect, something you may have determined already from what you've heard is that this is not your typical

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Christian, using the term loosely, radio station, women's midday talk show.

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We've all heard those. I get a little white knuckled if I'm in the car when those come on.

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I try not to turn on Christian radio because it frustrates me. And many of you can probably understand why.

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But so many, not all, so many of those women's midday talk shows, you just hear these women kind of talking all googly, gaga, gushy over things that are just empty, warm, fuzzy demonstrations of feel -good religiosity.

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You know, it's these things that just have no substance and no basis in biblical truth. And it seems like so often the approach might be that while women are to have a gentle and quiet spirit, so we don't want to talk about the hard things.

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We don't want to talk about those things that might cause controversy between believers, you know, oh, eschatology or, you know, election, predestination.

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We don't want to talk about those things because it might upset someone and that's not demonstrating that gentle and quiet spirit.

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But ladies, it's true. We are called to have a gentle and quiet spirit. Peter tells us that in his first epistle of the third chapter.

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He says, your adornment must not be merely external, but it should be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

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And I really do love that verse, that gentle and quiet spirit is precious to our

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Lord. And that's something that we do need to keep in mind because we, as ladies, we approach things very differently.

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We're gifted very differently than the men, and that's all by God's design. And our gentle and quiet spirit is precious to him.

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And so we should not forget that. And we do need to remember that in all of our conversations and all of our thought lives and our behaviors and our actions.

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But what that does not mean is that we back down when we hear error being spouted.

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If you know the truth, ladies, it's okay to stand up and proclaim that truth when God's word is being trampled on.

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It does not mean that we necessarily need to avoid controversy. It doesn't mean that we need to only think about those things that make us feel good.

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Those things that give us that warm, fuzzy feeling. Those things that make us think that God's just giving us a great big bear hug.

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To have a gentle and quiet spirit is to realize that the Spirit of God is growing us, guiding us, polishing our words and thoughts so that we can reflect the righteousness that's been granted to us in Christ Jesus.

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That doesn't mean that we just sit quietly in a corner with our hands clasped all the time. But it means that we dig into the word, we learn the word, we love the word, we treasure the word, and we proclaim and exalt

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Christ at every opportunity within our God -ordained role. And so that kind of leads a little bit into something else that you will not be hearing here at Equipping Eve.

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And that's an overemphasis of emotions. I was talking about how so many women seem to just want to talk about what makes them feel good, and we can't do that, because theology and doctrine cannot be built on our emotional whims.

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We are women by nature, by God's design. We do respond more emotionally to situations, and that's okay.

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Emotions are good. Happiness is good. Joy is wonderful. It's good to cry. I enjoy a good cry.

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But we cannot let our emotions control us, and we cannot base what we know to be true on our emotions, because those emotions are so easily manipulated.

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You know, all it takes is the perfectly timed song at church, and you can be bursting into tears, or the sermon goes to the crescendo at just the right time, and all of a sudden you're bursting into tears, and you're rushing down the aisle to once again rededicate your life to Christ.

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How genuine is that when it's really just a response to emotional manipulation? It's not.

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And so here at Equipping Eve, we will not let our emotions control what we know to be true. We will let the

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Word of God determine what we know to be true. We will seek to engage in God -honoring,

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Christ -exalting, truth -proclaiming conversations. And we will not compromise here.

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We will not sugarcoat. We will back everything with Scripture. We will teach the truth, seeking to exalt

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Christ above all. We will, from time to time, name names. I don't want this to be a type of discernment type radio show.

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That's not what we're going for. But if there is something that's prominent in the church today that's affecting women in the broader church, then we're going to discuss it.

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And if that means naming names, then that's what we're going to have to do. I hope that we can be providing some suggestions of resources, books and websites and teachers and whatnot.

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And those are all ideas. And this is just the first show. So all things to be looking forward to,

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Lord willing, in the future. There is a need in the church today for trustworthy, valuable,

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Bible -centered resources for women. And I do pray that God will help use this show to just kind of help fill that void, just begin to barely fill the gap.

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So let's move on to, I want to explain to you why I chose the name

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Equipping Eve. And it's probably a little obvious, especially based on what we've talked about. Ladies, if we're honest with ourselves, we are starving spiritually.

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And I think part of the reason that we're famished is that we've bought into the idea that in -depth, deep theological

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Bible study might just be for the pastor and the elders and maybe my husband. But, you know,

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I'm just going to read this book over here that just gives me like a little gospel nugget here and there and just takes me to a half of a proverb each day.

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And that's really all I need. And I'll just get my deep study from the men. But ladies, if you've been saved by God, you know that you hunger and thirst for the righteousness that is grown by knowing

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His Word and you just desire and long to read His Word and to know more of it and to drink deeply from its truths.

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And it's okay if you want to pull a big, thick commentary off the shelf that's been written by a trusted scholar or teacher and use that to aid in your

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Bible study and help you to understand the Word, to understand it better. And that's okay.

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And you should desire that. But for some reason, so many churches and women's ministries, if they have any sort of Bible study for women, so many of them just put women in a room with these

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Bible teachers, these female Bible teachers who, when it comes right down to it, most of them do not accurately handle the

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Word of God. And it does not matter how popular or prominent you are. If you are not accurately handling the

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Word, you shouldn't be teaching. And as a result of this poor teaching, they have led countless women into error and sometimes damning error and deception.

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I mean, I'm talking to the point where there may be women who one day stand before the Lord and say, Lord, Lord, did we not attend

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Joyce Meyer conferences in your name? And he will say, depart from me.

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I never knew you because Joyce Meyer never pointed you to the true Christ. Ladies, we were the first to be deceived.

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So if you have your Bible with you, hopefully you do, unless you're driving or if you're like me.

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I listen to podcasts when I'm running. It's hard to have my Bible with me then. So if you're maybe just able to be sitting at the kitchen table and sipping a cup of coffee with us today, turn to Genesis 3, and this talks about the fall of man.

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And I'm going to read through it very quickly here. The first seven verses say that now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the

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Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?

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The woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden,

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God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. The serpent said to the woman, you surely will not die, for God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

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Well, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate, and the eyes of both of them were opened.

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So at the fall, Adam, through his deliberate sin, acted as a proxy for the whole human race and plunged mankind into this state of fallenness from which he can never break free on his own.

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But because we do love to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to take a brief tangent here, and if you do have a

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Bible, turn very quickly to Romans 5, and there in verse 18, it says,

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So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, that's Adam's sin, even so through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men.

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For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous, and that's the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And ladies, aren't we so, so thankful for that last Adam, our

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Lord Jesus Christ. But let's go back to Genesis 3, and remember again that the woman was deceived, and Paul even reminds us of this in his first letter to Timothy, the second chapter, verse 14.

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He says it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.

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So let's take a look at this deception. In the garden, Satan singled out the weaker vessel.

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Now some say that Adam wasn't nearby when this conversation was taking place, but if you were reading the text with me, you see that it says that she gave the fruit to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

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It seems that he was standing there passively silent, whether he was there or whether he wasn't. It really doesn't bode well for him because he wasn't watching over his wife.

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We see already that the roles of man and woman are being overturned, those

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God -ordained roles. And aren't we still seeing that today in so many instances, so many families, and within the church and professing

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Christendom, we see women leading the men, and you can see where that's led us today.

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And so here's Eve in a vulnerable position, and in her innocence, she's susceptible to these half -truths and lies of Satan.

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So what does Satan do? Well, first he questions the Word of God. And isn't this always his tactic?

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We're constantly being encouraged, aren't we, by people who even claim Christ to question

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God's Word. You know, is that really what the Bible says about homosexuality? Would a good

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God really send people to hell just to be punished for eternity just because they lied?

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You get the idea. We've all heard these arguments. And next, first we see

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Satan questioning the Word of God. Next we see him twisting the meaning of God's Word. God had given his admonition to Adam and the positive.

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Satan presents it in the negative. He says, what? You mean you can't eat from any tree here in the garden?

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And finally, he just flat -out contradicts the Word of God. So he questions the Word, he twists the

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Word, and then he contradicts the Word and presents to the woman the lie of lies, that she can be like God.

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But I think it was John MacArthur who has said that she would not be like God, but she would be made like the devil.

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You can see again how the woman is deceived. Genesis 3 .6 says she saw the tree was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes, it was desirable to make one wise, and so she took from the fruit and ate.

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And that reminds me of a verse in 1 John 2 .16, it says, And the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the

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Father, but is from the world. It's from the world, from the prince of this world. And so in the moment of their sin, the eyes of the man and the woman were opened and they're filled with shame.

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And the woman, she was deceived, but Satan's guilt and lying words do not justify her sin.

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And so ladies, if we are equipped with the truth, we should not be easily deceived by these predictable devices, this questioning of the word, the distortion and twisting of the word and the contradicting of the word.

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And trust me, Satan is not that clever. He has not changed his MO in all these years.

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And this is why we need to be equipped. We need to know the truth so that when it is questioned, twisted, contradicted, we will recognize the tactic and stand firm against it.

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And that is exactly why Equipping Eve exists. As women, we have a marvelous

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God -ordained role within the body of Christ. We bring something unique to the body and that's all by God's design.

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But we can only do that and we can only effectively serve the body and thus serve Christ and bring glory to God if we do so within His ordained structure.

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But if we listen to the world, we may start to believe the lie that this role that God has designed for us is not good enough, or that fulfilling that role would actually be degrading rather than God -glorifying.

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The Prince of this world wants us to believe that what God ordained for our good is not good enough.

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But ladies, if you have been saved by the grace and the mercy of God and you've been redeemed and adopted as His daughter, then you know that living in willing obedience to Him brings some of the greatest rewards and blessings.

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I'm not talking about a new car or a bigger paycheck or a bigger house. I'm talking about those eternal blessings, that eternal inheritance that is ours at the moment of our salvation.

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And you know that your Heavenly Father has set things in place for your good. And if you know

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Him and if you love Him, then you eagerly embrace His will and His word.

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Okay, it looks like we're about out of time. I could keep talking because I love talking about the Word of God, but we need to end this first episode here today.

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So I thank you again for your time. I would ask for your prayers in this endeavor, that the

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Lord would bless it and sustain it as He sees fit, and that He would equip me.

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It's something, it's certainly an endeavor that I'm thankful for, an opportunity that I'm very, very thankful for.

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But in many ways, I feel ill -equipped for equipping Eve, but I know that the Lord will provide just the right equipping.

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So I would covet your prayers. And I look forward to the next time that we can meet together here.

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And I hope you're looking forward to it as well. So for now and until that next time, ladies,

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I would just say to you, get in your Bible, get on your knees, and get equipped.

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Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a no -compromise radio production. If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com,

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or you can check out one of our two websites, donotbesurprised .com or equippingeve .org.