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Is it ever too early to begin teaching children about God's good design for men and women? Absolutely not and thankfully, our dear friends at Desiring God agree. On Aug. 15, Children Desiring God will release its brand-new curriculum for youth on God's design for men and women.

The youth in the church which I pastor in Birmingham, Alabama (Philadelphia Baptist Church) are excited about undertaking this 28-week study during Sunday school this fall and as their shepherd, I am overjoyed to see this study available from Desiring God. I want our students to know that Scripture teaches that they are made in the image of God, that God has made males and females equal in value and essence and that He has called them to call different but complementary roles. In our gender-confused culture, I don't want any biblical detail spared and this curriculum will cover it all from creation to femininity.

            From the Children Desiring God website:   The goal of this study is to help students to understand and rejoice in God's good design in creating men and women fully equal in His image, yet with different roles. By showing students that male-female differences are rooted in God's created design, students are led to acknowledge that the only way we can understand who we are as men and women is to come to terms with the Creator and what He tells us about ourselves in Scripture.

Students will be encouraged to value the members of the opposite gender, as they learn how God has uniquely designed and gifted each gender to fulfill distinct callings. It is our prayer that God uses this material to give the next generation a vision for becoming mature Christian men and women as they navigate their way through life amid the gender confusion and distorted messages they are receiving from the world

To view a sample of the curriculum and for more information click here:

http://www.childrendesiringgod.org/documents/samples/rggd_lesson_book_sample.pdf

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Here's an excerpt from Kevin DeYoung's message "Who Am I? Humanity in the Eyes of the World and the Christian" from the 2011 Next conference. Here's the first excerpt, on gender roles, personal identity, and why husbands must not be dictators or doormats:

The world says you are free to create yourself. God says, "You are created to reflect my image."

What does it mean to be in God's image? It means we have a certain resemblance to God with our intelligence, our appreciation for beauty, our rationality, and in our capacity for worship and language. It means we represent God, that we have dominion over creation as rulers, as stewards, as those called to cultivate. It means that we are relational beings, interacting with God and with each other so that the image of God consists in these relational virtues of knowledge and righteousness and holiness.

Listen to Colossians 3:9-10: "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." Likewise, Ephesians 4:24 says, "put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." So the restored image of God shows us what sort of image bearers we are. We are those who have the righteousness and holiness that is characteristic of God himself.

Now the world says, "You are not created for divine exaltation. You are here for self-exploration. You are not made to be stamped with a divine impression, but you are here to spend your life on self-expression."

So we have all these commercials.

Cingular at least used to say, "Express yourself."

Dr. Pepper, "Be you."

I am thankful for the Army, but the Army got in on it with, "An army of one." I don't know a lot, but what I learned from playing Risk is that even if you have your army of one Kamchatka-you're gone. You need more.

Our world tells us you are a blank slate. Whatever you choose to paint on the canvas of your life will be beautiful because you painted it. That is what the world says.

Now common sense tells us this does not work in any other area of life. Try it when you have a job selling refrigerators and you don't sell a single one, and you get fired and you tell your boss, "But I believe in myself." And he is going to tell you, "Believe in yourself and get somebody else to pay you for it."

One of the most dangerous areas where we see this self-exploration and self-creation is in the area of gender. In the world's eyes there is no male/female, masculine/feminine gender. Gender is just cultural, social constructs, antiquated concepts better to be just disregarded, relics of an oppressive, less enlightened past.

But I hope you see how patently unbiblical this is.

"From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female'" (Mark 10:6).

And we see already in Genesis before the fall that there were distinct, yet complimentary, roles for men and women. Man was given as the name of the human race and he was the one to whom God gave the command. He was the one to be accountable.

Have you ever noticed that after Eve sins by taking a bite of the fruit, who does God first address? Adam. He was to be responsible. And yet he abdicated the very authority that he was supposed to lovingly exercise. And Eve, contrary to design, usurped her husband's authority.

When you come to Ephesians 5:25 you find the overarching command for the husband to love his wife. The women may think, "Well, that is lame. The husband just gets kind of a freebie. I mean, we have all got to love. I have got to respect and submit."

No, there is a reason that the husband is told to love in this unique way as the head of his household. It is because the male propensity to sin is to either be a dictator or a doormat. And both are abdications of our responsibility to love. And the woman, her overarching command is to submit to her husband or to respect her husband because, twisted by the fall, her point of sinful inclination is to usurp her husband's authority.

God has designed us male and female and it is not simply God's design as his image bearers, but it is actually the way in which the world works best....

I must stop, but Kevin continues to develop this point in his message, which you can listen to here.

[Note: This post was originally published in C.J.'s blog, A View from the Cheap Seats]

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Each U.S. presidential election cycle brings its own set ofun expected issues, and the 2012 race already offers one topic of controversy that truly sets it apart - a debate over forms of therapy that attempt to change an individual's sexual orientation.

Known as reparative therapy or sexual orientation conversion therapy, these approaches seek to assist individuals in changing their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. The cultural and political debate over reparative therapy emerged when a clinic run by Marcus Bachmann, husband of Republican candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, was accused of offering treatment and counseling intended to change sexual orientation.

Virtually all of the secular professions that deal with sexual orientation are stalwartly opposed to reparative therapy, or to any attempt to change one's pattern of sexual attraction. Indeed, these groups hold to an inflexible ideology that insists that there is absolutely nothing wrong with homosexuality. These groups include, for example, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Association of Social Workers, among many others.

In 2008, a number of these groups released a statement on sexual orientation and youth that began with the stated premise that "both heterosexuality and homosexuality are normal expressions of human sexuality." Thus, the groups argue that any attempt to change an individual's sexual orientation is likely to be harmful. The "Just the Facts Coalition" also included groups such as the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. A statement adopted in 2000 by the American Psychiatric Association declares that the APA "opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as reparative or conversion therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that the patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation."

This controversy will inevitably demonstrate the basic worldview divide that separates the secular therapeutic community and evangelical Christians. The politicians, the mental health industry, and the media will have their own debate on the matter, but Christians now face the urgent challenge of thinking about these issues in a way that is fully biblical and theological - and thus faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

First, we face the fact that the Bible clearly, repeatedly, consistently, and comprehensively reveals the sinfulness of all homosexual behaviors. This truth is set within the larger context of the Bible's revelation concerning the Creator's plan and purpose for human sexuality - a context that is centered in the marital union of a man and a woman as the exclusive arena for human sexual activity. This flies in the face of the contemporary demand for the full normalization of homosexuality. As the joint statement of the "Just the Facts Coalition" declares, "both heterosexuality and homosexuality are normal expressions of human sexuality."

The normalization of homosexuality simply cannot be accepted by anyone committed to biblical Christianity. The new secular orthodoxy demands that Christians abandon the clear teachings of Scripture, and Christians must understand that the sinfulness of all homosexual behaviors is not only a matter of biblical authority, but also of the Gospel. To deny that sin is sin is to deny our need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians cannot accept any teaching that minimizes sin, for it is the knowledge of our sin that points us to our need for atonement, salvation, and the forgiveness of that sin through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Second, we must recognize that every human being is a sinner and that every sinner's pattern of sexual attraction falls short of the glory of God. There is no sinner of physical maturity who will be able to say that he or she has never had a sinful thought related to sex or sexuality. Taking the Bible's teachings about sin and sexuality with full force, we understand that every sinful human being is in need of redemption, and that includes the redemption of our sexual selves.

Actually, the Bible speaks rather directly to the sinfulness of the homosexual orientation - defined as a pattern of sexual attraction to a person of the same sex. In Romans 1:24-27, Paul writes of "the lusts of their hearts to impurity," of "dishonorable passions," of women who "exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature," and of men who "gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another." A close look at this passage reveals that Paul identifies the sinful sexual passion as a major concern - not just the behavior.

At this point, the chasm between the biblical and secular worldview looms ever larger. The modern secular consensus is that an individual's pattern of sexual attraction, whether heterosexual or homosexual, is just a given and is to be considered normal. More than that, the secular view demands that this pattern of sexual orientation be accepted as integral to an individual's identity. According to the secular consensus, any effort to change an individual's sexual orientation is essentially wrong and harmful. The contemporary therapeutic worldview is virtually unanimous in this verdict, but nothing could be more directly at odds with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament reveals that a homosexual sexual orientation, whatever its shape or causation, is essentially wrong, contrary to the Creator's purpose, and deeply sinful. Everyone, whatever his or her sexual orientation, is a sinner in need of redemption. Every sinner who comes by faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved knows the need for the redemption of our bodies - including our sexual selves. But those whose sexual orientation is homosexual face the fact that they also need a fundamental reordering of their sexual attractions. About this, the Bible is clear. At this point, once again, the essential contradiction between the Christian worldview and the modern secular worldview is clear.

Third, Christians understand that sinners are simultaneously completely responsible for their sin and completely unable to redeem themselves from their sin. Sinners may improve themselves morally, but they cannot mitigate to any degree their need for redemption. Indeed, moralism is a false gospel that suggests that we can please God by moral improvement. As Isaiah warns, the only righteousness of which we are capable amounts to "filthy rags." [Isaiah 64:6] The law reveals what is good for us and what is sinful, but the law is powerless to save us. [Romans 8:3]

The law of God reveals our sin, and our sin reveals our need for a Savior. Paul's own testimony about the law, his knowledge of his own sin, and the redemption that was his in Christ is clear when he writes to the Romans: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" [Romans 7:24-25] This is every Christian's testimony.

Thus, we recognize that, without redemption, there is no eternal hope for the sinner. Even in terms of moral improvement in this earthly life, the non-Christian lacks union with Christ, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the means of grace that alone can conform the believer to the image of Christ. Thus, for the non-Christian, the most that can be hoped for is a responsible determination to cease practicing an immoral behavior. The Bible holds no hope for the sinner's ability to change his or her heart.

In other words, a biblical Christian will have no fundamental confidence in any secular therapy's ability to change a sinner's fundamental disposition and heart, and this includes every aspect of the sinner's life, including sexuality.

This is where the Gospel-centeredness of the Christian worldview points us to the cross of Christ and to the sinner's fundamental need for redemption, not mere moral improvement. The Bible offers no hope for any human ability to change our sinful desires. As the modern secular worldview generally acknowledges, the alcoholic who stops drinking remains an alcoholic. The secular world affirms that this is so. The Bible explains why it is so.

Fourth, the Christian cannot accept any argument that denies what the Bible reveals about the sanctification of believers - including the sanctification of our sexuality. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ receives the forgiveness of sins, the gift of eternal life, and the righteousness of Christ imputed by faith. But the redeemed Christian is also united with Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and given means of grace through, for example, the preaching of the Word of God. The Bible reveals that God conforms believers to the image of Christ, doing that work within the human heart that the sinful human himself or herself cannot perform. The Bible reveals that believers are to grow into Christlikeness, knowing that this is a progressive process that will be completed only with our eventual glorification at the end of the age. In this life, we know a process of growing more holy, more sanctified, and more obedient to Christ. In the life to come, we will know perfection as Christ glorifies his Church.

This means that Christians cannot accept any argument that suggests that a fundamental reorientation of the believer's desires in a way that increasingly pleases God and is increasingly obedient to Christ is impossible. To the contrary, we must argue that this process is exactly what the Christian life is to demonstrate. As Paul writes, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." [2 Corinthians 5:17]

The Bible is also honest about the struggle to overcome sin and sinful desires. Paul writes about this in Romans 7, but the exhortations of the entire New Testament also make this clear. Christians with same-sex sexual desires must know that these desires are sinful. Thus, faithful Christians who struggle with these desires must know that God both desires and commands that they desire what He wills for them to desire. All Christians struggle with their own pattern of sinful desires, sexual and otherwise. Our responsibility as Christians is to be obedient to Christ, knowing that only He can save us from ourselves.

Christians cannot avoid the debate over reparative therapy, nor can we enter the debate on secular terms. We must bring to this conversation everything we know from God's Word about our sin and God's provision for sinners in Christ. We will hold no hope for any sinner's ability to change his or her own heart, and we will hold little hope for any secular therapy to offer more than marginal improvement in a sinner's life.

At the same time, we gladly point all sinners to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, knowing that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. [Romans 10:13] We hold full confidence in the power of the Gospel and of the reign of Christ within the life of the believer. We know that something as deeply entrenched as a pattern of sexual attraction is not easily changed, but we know that with Christ all things are possible.

And, even as Christians know that believers among us struggle to bring their sexual desires into obedience to Christ, this is not something true only of those whose desires have been homosexual. It is true of all Christians. We will know that those believers who are struggling to overcome homosexual desires have a special struggle - one that requires the full conviction and support of the body of Christ. We will see the glory of God in the growing obedience of Christ's redeemed people. And, along with the Apostle Paul and all the redeemed, we will await the glory that is yet to be revealed to us.

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Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will host a one-day conference on biblical manhood early this fall.

            The conference will be held on Sept. 13 at the Riley Center on Southwestern's campus in Fort Worth, Texas. Featured speakers will include Russell D. Moore, Paige Patterson and Randy Stinson. To register for the conference or for more information, please visit http://www.swbts.edu/cbmw.

            Moore serves as Senior Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Moore is author of numerous books, including Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches. He also serves as Senior Editor for Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity.  

            Patterson serves as President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is author of numerous books, including A Pilgrim Priesthood: An Exposition of First Peter. He formerly served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention and is a member of CBMW's Board of Reference.

            Stinson serves as President of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and is Dean of the School of Church Ministries at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is co-editor of Trained in the Fear of God: Family Ministry in Theological, Historical and Practical Perspective and co-author of A Guide to Biblical Manhood.  

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For many years, I have pondered the thought, "Someone should write a history of women in the church." Diana Lynn Severance has done precisely that and the result should be on the summer reading list (or spring, fall or winter reading list, for that matter) of every woman in the evangelical church. Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History (Christian Focus) provides an excellent overview of women in church history, profiling many well-known names as well as many who are obscure.

The study begins with women in the early church, many of whom appear in Scripture, and proceeds in chronological order to set forth the contributions of women throughout each epoch in the church from biblical times, through the Middle Ages, the Reformation, through our modern day. Readers will meet such women as Marcella and Demetrius, women of late antiquity, to the wives of Henry VIII, Anna Zingli, Idelette Calvin, Anna Bullinger, Puritan Anne Bradstreet to Edith Shaeffer, Corrie ten Boom and Ruth Graham.

The book highlights the contributions, both positive and negative, that individual women and movements involving women (ranging from benevolence societies to feminism) throughout church history. Best of all, Severance, who holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is an historian with broad teaching experience in universities and seminaries, makes her methodology clear up front and operates out of the Reformation standard of sola Scriptura:

"This book does not follow the methodology of the feminists. Rather, it is a traditional, narrative history based upon reasonable consideration of the evidence. The Bible has been recognized as the authoritative Word of God and the standard, or canon, of the Church. In its pages are the earliest accounts of Christian women as well as guidelines for the role of women in the Christian community."

The new work should serve as strong encouragement for women who love God's Word and His church and who want to make an impact in both church and home for the glory of God. The book is available at: http://www.amazon.com/Feminine-Threads-Tapestry-Christian-History/dp/1845506405/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311034416&sr=1-1