Disciplines of a Godly Woman

Leslie Basham: The pattern of a Christian's life can be summed up in one word, one unpopular word. Here's Barbara Hughes.

Barbara Hughes: All of life as a Christian is about submitting my will to God's will. It ends up bringing us face to face with things that are absolutely contrary to what is being said all around us.

Leslie Basham: It's Memorial Day, Monday, May 26; and you're listening to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Submission sounds threatening, doesn't it, like we're going to give up something important and be forced to live a lesser life than we should? But that's not at all what happens when we submit our lives to God as today's guests have discovered. Here's Nancy to introduce them.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I'm so delighted to have with us today on Revive Our Hearts, Kent and Barbara Hughes who are new friends. Kent and Barbara, thanks for being with us today on Revive Our Hearts.

Barbara Hughes: Thank you.

Kent Hughes: Thank you, Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And, Kent, you're the pastor of the College Church of Wheaton. Actually my sister attended Wheaton and that church; I used to go when you first became the pastor there. You've been there a number of years and you've both written books.

Kent Hughes: That's right.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: You've both written books. Kent, you've written a lot of books and you've written together. Barbara has just written a new book, which has been such a blessing to me. It's one of those books I read and I said, "I wish I could have written this."

Barbara Hughes: Oh, thank you, Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And I'm so glad that you did. Actually it's a book that was successor to a book that you, Kent, had written some years earlier. Kent, your book was called Disciplines of a Godly Man.

Kent Hughes: Disciplines of a Godly Man, that's right. And it was her idea because I was talking to my colleagues about doing a series on disciplines because it was very dear to my heart.

And I came home and she said, "You preach that to men; men need it more than women." And she actually gave me the idea of something that was really same-sex directed and very pungent. Now the women listened and loved it because the principles are transferable.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Yes.

Kent Hughes: But it was my wife's idea.

Barbara Hughes: That's how my book actually was born.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Your book, which is called?

Barbara Hughes: Disciplines of a Godly Woman.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Disciplines of a Godly Woman.

Barbara Hughes: And Kent wrote Disciplines of a Godly Man, ten years ago?

Kent Hughes: Yeah...

Barbara Hughes: Well, Kent was asked actually to rewrite Disciplines of a Godly Man for both men and women. It was suggested that instead I write a companion book, Disciplines of a Godly Woman.

So, that's how Disciplines of a Godly Woman was born. I was approached to write a companion book for Kent. And, actually, several of the chapters from his book are just simply rewritten. I rewrote them for women. But I couldn't rewrite his book for women because it had to come out of my burning passion. So it's different.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Well, and your book obviously does come out of your burning passion and it comes out in conversation; it comes out through this whole book. And it's the word the "Gospel."

You say it with a capital "G." And you know, we sometimes think of the Gospel as something we needed years ago when we got saved, but it doesn't really have any bearing on my life today. And yet you start out; you lay a foundation in the book. You say that the "Gospel is everything."

Barbara Hughes: It is everything. It's where we begin. It's where we live. It's where we're headed. It's the culmination that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I suppose, if you could say in a nutshell what the Gospel is, it's Jesus Christ is Lord. We see it in the beginning in Genesis 3:15 when He's the victor over Satan. You see that He will crush Satan's head.

And then Isaiah 45 says again"¦that wonderful refrain of Isaiah 45 is "I am the Lord and there is no other. I am the Lord and there is no other." It goes over and over again, God speaking on God.

But then he says in the 21 verse, "There is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me."

Verse 22--"Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other."

In verse 23, "By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked. Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear."

That is just Philippians 2:10 all over again "that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow." That's where we're headed one day when "every tongue will confess." It's the messages of the Scriptures.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: So you're saying in your book and, Kent, you as well, in yours, that the Gospel that Jesus Christ is Lord is not just something that gets us a ticket to heaven.

Barbara Hughes: Absolutely not. It is everything. The Gospel satisfies us. It motivates us. It defines us. It is our hope for the future. It is everything.

And when I say the Gospel, I'm thinking of course in 1 Corinthians 15 when Paul gives his beautiful illustration or definition of the Gospel, when he says "this is of utmost importance" and then he states the Gospel that Christ died for our sins and was resurrected "according to the Scriptures."

And he repeats "according to the Scriptures" several times. Well, what scriptures was he referring to? He was referring to the Old Testament.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Yes.

Barbara Hughes: And the thing that is just so beautiful, Jesus in His own words when we was on the road to Emmaus, when He met His disciples who didn't recognize Him, and it says...

(Luke 24:27) "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Imagine, Him, the Lord Jesus Himself going from Genesis to Malachi pointing out Himself in those scriptures.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Wouldn't you've loved to have been in that classroom?

Kent Hughes: Yeah.

Barbara Hughes: It must have been incredible. Then in 1 Peter 10, Peter says, "Concerning this salvation (the Gospel), the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you (that's the Old Testament prophets), searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

"It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, (that's us) when they spoke of the things that have been told you by those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things." That is the Gospel that we have. It is the Gospel from Genesis to Revelation.

Kent Hughes: Mmm.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Now, I think for a lot of people, their relationship with Christ, what they conceive of Christianity, the Gospel, is a compartment of their life; but it's not their life.

It's something they tack on to an already overcrowded schedule. Yet you say, as the Scripture does, that the Gospel and our relationship with Christ and His work for us are to affect everything we do. It's not just something we add to our day timer, you say, or our kitchen calendar; but it's to have bearing on every aspect of life.

Barbara Hughes: That's right. When you think of the Gospel as defined by the Scriptures, you understand that in the beginning God had a plan and He set it in motion. And it is that we would live under His loving rule as Adam and Eve did in the Garden. And then something happened. But when we are restored in the Gospel, what is it we're restored to? Living under His loving rule.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I love the way you say that "living under God's loving rule." And that really brings us to another word that is the probably the second most repeated word in your book.

You introduced this word right from the outset, and that's the "S" word: submission. And not only did you introduce the word but it's in almost every chapter.

It's a framework. You talk about submission's lifeline, submission's celebration, submission's education. You relate the Gospel in every area of our lives to this matter of submission. You're really defining submission not as we often think of it, not just as a wife submitting to her husband. That's what comes to mind first for most of us as women. But you're saying that submission is much bigger than the marriage relationship.

Barbara Hughes: I am. I used it as a refrain, as a subtitle for every chapter. The Discipline of Worship is for instance submission's celebration. The Disciplines of Mind's chapter is submission's education. So every chapter I used sort of a byline, a subtitle.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Now submission is something that in our culture doesn't have a real positive ring in most people's ears.

Barbara Hughes: That's why I sort of did an in-your-face thing on submission.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I guess you did.

Barbara Hughes: Because I think it has fallen into the category of a bad word. People don't like to use that word in our churches because it just conjures up two things: submission in the church and submission in the home.

But all of life as a Christian is about submitting my will to God's will. Every single discipline is about that. It's bringing my will in alignment to God's will. And I've really learned this from Kent. It ends up bringing us face to face with things that are absolutely contrary to what is being said all around us.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And you are Countercultural. And what you're calling for in this book is a new way of thinking. On Revive Our Hearts here, we're focusing on the call to women to go against the tide, against the current, against the movement of this world to be Countercultural and that's really what the Gospel calls us to do.

Barbara Hughes: And it's really not a new way of thinking. It's an old, old, old way of thinking. It is the message of the Bible.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: And what you're talking about Barbara, in this matter of submission is really modeled for us by the Lord Jesus who submitted Himself to the will of His Heavenly Father.

Barbara Hughes: In everything.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: In everything. And he calls us as women to submit our lives, to live life as you say, "Under His loving rule." And I love the way that in your book then, you begin to apply what that means in many different practical areas of life.

And over the next several days, we are going to look at what some of those practical areas, what it means, what are the implications in marriage and family in the way that we dress, in the way that we talk, in the way we spend our money, in the ways we use our time. What are the practical implications for us as women living under the loving rule of Jesus Christ.

Leslie Basham: That's Nancy Leigh DeMoss talking with Kent and Barbara Hughes about the Disciplines of a Godly Woman. That's the name of the book Barbara has written and it can help you grow in your submission to Christ.

If you have ever been inspired to go deeper in the things of God but don't know where to start, this book will help. It has chapters on prayer, worship, rest, good deeds and giving. The book will help you develop habits in these areas.

You can get a copy for a suggested donation of $18 when you call us at 1-800-569-5959, or order by visiting our Web site ReviveOurHearts.com. When you contact us, please remember that we are supported by our listener's prayers and financial gifts. And we invite you to partner with us in ministry. Here's Nancy to tell us more.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: It is a great joy for me to watch and see how God chooses to provide to meet the financial needs of Revive Our Hearts. Each month we don't know where those funds are going to come from but God prompts the hearts of His people to give and the needs are met.

So I just want to say thank you for your financial partnership with us in this ministry. I want you to know that not a dime of what comes into Revive Our Hearts goes toward my salary.

Any contribution that you make to this ministry is an investment in lives, the lives of women and their families who are listening to this program day after day and who are being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ as they're hearing the teaching from God's Word.

So if God prompts you this month to send a gift and be a partner of seeing those needs met, let me encourage you to do that. And when you do, make sure and let us know what station you listen to Revive Our Hearts on because we want to know that this program is really making a difference in your area. Thank you for your part in this ministry. That means so much to me and to our whole team here at Revive Our Hearts.

Leslie Basham: You can send your donation to Revive Our Hearts. We hope you enjoy this holiday as we remember the sacrifice others have made for our freedom.

And we hope you can join us tomorrow. We'll address this question, "Does the Bible have anything to say about how we should dress?" We'll talk about it on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.