The Power of the Truth

Leslie Basham: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth received a letter from a woman whose husband—a pastor—took his own life. But this woman has found hope in Christ! Nancy reads from that letter.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth:

I’d love to shout it from the mountaintops that, "Yes! The truth sets us free!" I’ve lived a fruitful life since that day, but I can take absolutely no credit for it! It’s all been God, and how He taught me to stop believing Satan’s lies and instead believe biblical truth, even in the face of great tragedy and loss.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Lies Women Believe, for Monday, February 19, 2018.

Nancy: Here at Revive Our Hearts we’re celebrating the “birth” of a “new baby!”—it’s actually two “babies.” Two weeks ago we introduced you to the updated Lies Young Women Believe that I’ve written with my sweet friend, Dannah Gresh.

That book for young women originally released ten years ago, so this is a whole new generation of women—and a lot of new things happening in the teenage girl/young women world. So we’ve updated that book, we’ve told you about that. It’s available with its study guide.

Today, we’re excited to announce the official release of the updated, expanded Lies Women Believe, which originally released in 2001. That’s seventeen years ago! Some of you weren’t even alive back then; I was, very much. We’re very excited about this updated expanded version.

We’re going to tell you a lot more about that throughout this week. We’re going to have a week-long birthday celebration and let you know more about what you can expect from that message.

There’s also an updated study guide that goes with Lies Women Believe. These study guides will be a great resource if you want to go deeper in the message of the book or if you want to do this with a group—small group, a larger group, Sunday school class. That’s all available through our ministry.

Ever since my first book was published in the year 2000 . . . (Does anybody remember what that book was called? A Place of Quiet Rest. Thank you.) From the time we wrote that first book, we’ve taken time when each book was released (we’ve done this in different ways) to just dedicate the book to the Lord and ask Him to use it.

This expanded version of Lies Women Believe represents my twentieth book, and we want to take time this week to officially dedicate it to the Lord. I hope you’ll join us in asking Him to multiply this message to reach a whole new generation of women—and to use it for His kingdom purposes in the hearts and homes of women around the world.

Throughout this week, I want to give you a glimpse into this new resource, and we’ll be looking at some specific areas where believing lies impacts our lives . . . and how believing the truth can set us free!

I also want to say—and I’ll be sharing some of this throughout the week—how grateful I am for the incredible way that the Lord has used the original version of Lies Women Believe. I’ll be sharing some testimonies, stories, that we’ve received from some women whose lives were deeply touched by that original version.

I actually just saw yesterday on Facebook or somewhere on social media, a new group of women at some church saying, “We’re starting Lies Women Believe.” They didn’t even have the new version; they’re using the seventeen-year-old one.

I hope they’re listening, and maybe they’ll want to switch over to the new one. But women are still using this original book—with a lot of its outdated stuff in it—but still being blessed by it. That’s thanks to the fact that the message, the truth, of God’s Word is timeless!

Now, from a marketing perspective, there probably would have been a better title for this book. It’s a little awkward to hand a woman a book with Lies Women Believe in large print on the front cover and say, “You really need to read this.”

But the Lord has been pleased to give this message a warmer and broader reception than I would have ever dreamed possible when I wrote it back in . . .  It released in 2001; I wrote it in 2000.

The original book has now sold over one million copies! That means those copies are in women’s hands! The original book has been translated into dozens of languages, including: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Karakalpak (Did you know that was a language? I don’t know where they speak it . . . maybe in Karakalpak, I don’t know.), Kazakh, Korean, Mongolian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Tadzhik, Turkish, etc.

This is not a testimony to what a great writer I am. It’s a testimony to the longing in the hearts of women around the world to experience the freedom of walking in the truth.

One woman wrote and said to us,

I believe this is the only Christian book for women in the country of Bosnia. Because the people are poor, each book sold is getting read many times!

How sweet is that?

Another woman said,

I live and work in a country that is considered closed to the gospel. This week the country is hosting an international book fair, and for the first time in many years, Christian books are being sold. One of the books for sale is a translation in the local language of Lies Women Believe. I’m so excited that this book is available. I’m planning on buying many copies for the ladies in our church.

Another woman who’s a retired schoolteacher shared the message of Lies Women Believe with a group of pastors’ wives in Egypt. She said,

About 200 Egyptian women, standing room only, attended the workshop on Lies Women Believe. These women will go back to their homes and share these truths with the women that they are discipling.

And this book, the original Lies Women Believe, has reached all kinds of women in all kinds of life circumstances with all kinds of needs. And many of us in this room would say that’s your testimony.

We received a handwritten letter from a woman who said,

I came across Lies Women Believe in jail. Every night I would read this book to the three other women in my cell. Thank you for reviving my heart! 

Another woman said,

I’m teaching Lies Women Believe and using the companion study guide. The response has been terrific. The insights in this book are revolutionary to today’s Christian women—me included!

Actually, she wrote a long letter sharing many areas of her life that had been impacted, but let me just excerpt this brief part. She said,

My relationship with my husband is better than ever, mostly because of a change in my attitude and because I’m learning to shut my mouth instead of whining or nagging!

Now, I don’t think I said in that book, “Shut your mouth instead of whining or nagging!” But somehow, that’s how the Lord applied some part of that book to her. She said,

I look forward to seeing how the Lord will work out His plan for each of my children, one of whom is handicapped. My addiction to food—call it what it is, gluttony—is coming under the Lord’s control, and I am experiencing freedom through obedience to His Word.

You notice? She’s not experiencing freedom because she read my book. She’s experiencing freedom through obedience to His Book, which we tried to point women to in this book.

Another woman, a pastor’s wife, wrote to us about a Lies Women Believe study that was getting ready to start in her church. She said,

After giving the book to one of our women two weeks ago, God has put an unsaved girl in her life—a single mom with a five-year-old daughter.

The woman told this young mom that she needed to read Lies Women Believe. She bought the book and gave it to her, and the girl read it in one day and said it was written for her! She’s not saved yet, but God is truly working! This girl is a stripper in a strip club.

Now, who would have thought that Lies Women Believe—a book with that title—could get into the heart of that woman? I don’t know how that story has ended. God’s still writing stories in lots of women’s lives.

So just a little bit about the new Lies Women Believe. At first we thought this was going to be just a simple, light refresh—a touch-up. Well, it turned into a lot bigger project than we ever anticipated! My sweet husband, Robert, and I spent all of last summer sitting out on our deck—here in southwestern Michigan—writing lies!

We were writing lies. I was writing Lies Women Believe and Robert was writing Lies Men Believe, which, Lord willing, will be available in August. We are very excited about that!

Now, how many here in this room have read the original Lies Women Believe? Lots of hands . . . most hands in the room. You may wonder, if you’ve already read that book, why you would want to read this new version?

Let me let you know that approximately a third of the new Lies Women Believe is new content! That’s the equivalent of a whole new book within this original book. And the rest of the book—all of the rest of the book—has been heavily edited.

I use fresh and updated illustrations and insights, and that’s why we think that you will find it worthwhile to get the new one and read that as you have opportunity. I have to tell you this little inside glimpse that was kind of fun. . .

We were in the process (it was a long, crazy process) of designing the cover, and the words “updated and expanded” were originally on the bottom of the cover—one of the original designs we saw.

So what it looked like, when I looked at it was: “Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, updated and expanded!” I said, “Okay, my name’s been updated . . . but . . . Let’s move that to the top!” So, it’s at the top: “updated and expanded.”

So why this new edition? Let me give you several reasons:

• First, our world has experienced huge cultural changes since Lies was first released in 2001. For example, social media, as we know it today, did not exist back in 2001.

• And then, there were certain sexual issues and themes that were not front-and-center twenty years ago, that now touch most of our lives in very personal ways.
  
  We’ve added an entire new chapter to this book on lies women believe about sexuality. It’s written by my good friend, Dannah Gresh, who coauthored with me Lies Young Women Believe. Dannah and her husband, Bob, have a powerful ministry on biblical teaching about sexuality.
  
  I went to Dannah and I said, “You’ve been a part of this message—a part of helping share this truth about lies women believe. Would you help me with this chapter, a new chapter about lies women believe about sexuality?” It’s an important chapter, and I’m so glad we were able to add that!

• And then, when I first wrote Lies, I was in my early forties. Today, I’m really close to the sixty-year marker. I’m experiencing the beauty and the power of the truth in some fresh, new ways. So in this new edition, I’ve added insights from my vantage point as an older woman.
  
  I was also single when I wrote the original Lies Women Believe, and now (wonder of wonders!) I’m in in my third year of marriage. I’ve added some illustrations and thoughts from my perspective as a married woman . . . although I want to say, I haven’t forgotten my single sisters. I was single for fifty-seven years, and I still have such a heart for what my single sisters are experiencing. So there’s lots in Lies Women Believe that you’ll find practical and helpful as well.

• And then, over these past seventeen/eighteen years, by God’s grace, I’ve grown! I’ve grown in my walk with the Lord—as I hope you have—and my understanding of His Word. And this is really important: I’ve grown in my appreciation, my understanding of how the gospel intersects with all of life. And so, as I reviewed the original Lies Women Believe, I felt like there were some things that I wanted to say differently, or that I needed to say differently, than I was able to do back in 2001.

• Then, hundreds (maybe thousands) of women have given feedback on the message of the original book. A lot of them have been really encouraging. I’ve had conversations women; there have been emails and letters and online reviews.
  
  And there have been some (let me say it, quite a few along the way) who have expressed concern or disagreement about particular points in the book. Some of them have expressed it in really sweet and gracious ways, and some of the not so much. I’ve heard probably more than once about a copy of the book getting thrown across the room! But, you know what? That input has been so valuable!
  
  We had a team, actually, on our editorial team for this new book that went through and read all the critical reviews we could find. They summarized them for me and said, “Here’s what tripping people up. Do you really believe what you said about this? Did you say it the way you want to say it? Does it need to be clarified?”
  
  So I’m so thankful for even the harshest critics. I’ve tried to listen really carefully and to respond humbly. I’m not God, and my writing is not the inspired Word of God, so even the criticisms helped me to clarify and to fine-tune my message, and I think you’ll see that reflected. That doesn’t mean everybody is going to agree with everything in the new one. If everybody agreed with all of it, probably the book wouldn’t be necessary!
  
  We’re trying to challenge our thinking, and there are things that are not “politically correct.” There are things that are different than the way the culture is going, but at least I hope that some of these things have been said in a way that’s more careful, that’s consistent with God’s Word and that is sensitive to the lives and realities that so many women face who have backgrounds, maybe, that are different than my own.
• And then, I’ve had the joy over the years of meeting many women who first read this book years ago, and they’ve shared how this message—the concepts in this book—opened their eyes, and the sweet fruit that they’re enjoying now, years later, as a result of learning to build their lives on the foundation of truth.
• And now as I’m heading into my sixties, I can’t think of a better way to invest my life than to encourage a new generation of women to experience for themselves the power of the truth to set them free!

I’ve been motivated, in what turned into a long, arduous, painstaking year . . . there are probably other words I could use to describe this year. My husband could describe what some of it was like. It’s like, “Oh, this is hard! But I want to get it the best that I can!”

I’ve been motivated and spurred-on by many of the stories that I’ve heard from women who discovered through reading the original book that they were believing things that weren’t true.

They’ve shared about the bondage, the consequences they experienced as a result—broken relationships, guilt, fear, anger, resentment. Their stories have demonstrated the power that embracing the truth has had to set them free from those areas of bondage, from habits and sins that they couldn’t get victory over.

Only the truth—not my book but this Book, the truth of God’s Word, and the Christ Jesus Who is the truth—has the power to set us free!

One woman said, for example,

To say that this book has been eye-opening is an understatement. There are so many lies that have controlled me and kept me in bondage my entire life. Now with the help of my precious Jesus, I am breaking the ties that bind me and finding freedom in the truth!

That story could be repeated over and over and over again, thanks be to God! Another woman said,

I believe God had me in mind when you wrote Lies Women Believe. He used that book to build a solid foundation for my life as my husband (a pastor) went through recurring seasons of depression.

And He sovereignly used it to prepare me for that game-changing day when my husband ended up taking his life inside our church building, and I became a widow and a single mom of four.

In the days ahead, God’s Word would sustain me and give me confidence that I could trust Him completely in what He was doing. Every time Satan would throw a lie at me (and there were many), I would recite Scripture.

I’d love to shout it from the mountain tops that "Yes, the truth sets us free!" I’ve lived a fruitful life since that day, but I can take absolutely no credit for it. It’s all been God and how He taught me to stop believing Satan’s lies and instead believe biblical truth, even in the face of great tragedy and loss.

I think of another woman who had a horrendous background (she shared much of it with me)—sins that had been committed against her, and then sinful, foolish choices of her own. All of these combined and almost destroyed her life over a period of many years.

She closed by saying, as she had read this book,

Thank you for your willingness to step on my toes so I could hear the truth God wanted me to hear. My marriage was saved and my little boy will be raised with mommy and daddy together.

How precious is that!

And again, all the glory and the credit goes to the Lord—who is the truth and has given us His truth and His Word.

Now she said, “You were willing to step on my toes,” and that’s just a reminder that truth is not always popular or easy. It’s definitely not popular or easy to confront people in our lives—maybe your kids, maybe a friend, maybe a colleague—to confront others with ways of thinking or living that are contrary to the truth.

It’s not easy to challenge them to repent and to return to the truth. That’s hard! It takes courage, it takes faith that God’s going to do the work in their lives. It takes compassion. We’ve got to be careful how we do this!

In fact, Galatians 6:1 says when you see somebody overtaken in a fault tell him about it, confront him about it, but do it with a spirit of meekness—humility—lest you become tempted by the very same sin and you get dragged down, too. So we need to do this carefully and humbly, and I’ve tried to do that in this book.

I want to share with you a couple of verses in the last chapter of the book of James, James chapter 5, verses 19 and 20. As I was putting the finishing touches on the original Lies Women Believe, I was out walking one day, and I’d been memorizing a portion of James 5.

I was reciting and meditating on these verses, and all of a sudden I realized, This is why I’ve written this book! The verses came back to me as I thought about the launch, the release, of this updated and expanded Lies Women Believe.

Here’s what James 5 says:

My brothers [we could add sisters in there], if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

We have an enemy who hates God’s people! He hates the men and women made in the image of God. He’s a deceiver, a destroyer, a defiler. He wants to kill; he wants to destroy, but God has given us the truth that sets us free from those lies.

My prayer is that God will use this book—as He has the original one—to unmask the Deceiver and the lies that he tells us; to strip that mask off of him; to strip the covering off of some of these lies that look so good, feel so good, seem so right . . . even as that fruit did to Eve there in the Garden of Eden.

They look so appealing, but they’re lies; they’re things that aren’t true, and they end up leading us to the ways of death!

But I don’t want to just uncover the lies. What I really want to do is to lift up the truth, to point women to Jesus and to His Word so that they can return from their wandering—from believing the lies—so that they can return to the truth and they can be set free!

Now, we’d like to send you a copy of this brand-new edition, the updated, expanded edition of Lies Women Believe when you support Revive Our Hearts with a gift of any amount this week.

As you request your copy, I hope that you’ll join us in praying that the Lord will take this new version—that He will take the truth, the message that’s in its pages—and He will send it to the hearts of women in this country and around the world, that they will come face-to-face with the truth in fresh new ways and that God will use it to set many thousands of women free in the days ahead by the power of His truth!

Leslie: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth inviting you to explore the truth that will set you free. Let me tell you how to take Nancy up on the offer she just made: when you make a donation of any amount to support Revive Our Hearts, we’d like to send you this new version of Lies Women Believe. Ask for it when you call 1–800–569–5959, or visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

Do you believe any lies about God? Lies like, “God is just like my father.” Nancy will help us embrace the truth about God tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.

On this release date of the revised and expanded Lies Women Believe, we’re going to have a time of prayer for the book. Some women in our audience today are going to lead us.

Woman 1: Heavenly Father, we come before You today, and we give You thanks and praise for Your truth—Your truth that sets us free! We thank you for Your Word, and for just Your presence in our life. As they launch this new book, we just pray, Lord, over the lives and the hearts of women that it will touch. We pray that it will permeate through our culture and through other cultures and that women will come to know You in a more intimate and personal way, and through that we would strive to bring glory to You in all that we do. We just ask for that in Your precious name, amen.

Woman 2: Oh, Lord, I do thank You for Your Word—which is the truth. I pray that this book will bring many women to that truth; that they will see the lies; that they will recognize it in themselves, and that they will be freed from their bondage. I thank You that we have this opportunity today to learn and to grow, and I’m so thankful for Your forgiveness and that we can continue to walk in relationship with You.

Woman 3: Our precious heavenly Father, we just thank You that we can come to You today. We thank You for putting this upon Nancy’s heart to rewrite this book to make it more up-to-date, Lord Jesus, so that more people would understand. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would work in each heart and life that reads this book and studies Your Word. And, Lord, just make them new creatures in Christ Jesus and set them free. In Jesus’ name . . .

Nancy: Amen!

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants you to know the truth that will set you free. 

All Scripture is teaken from the ESV.

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