[Andrew Case is a second-year master of divinity student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who has written a book of prayers — Water of the Word: Intercession for Her — that a husband may pray for his wife. Case is single, but is praying these prayers already for his future wife. Water of the Word presently is available through the CBMW webstore. Case also writes and records Christ-centered, God-exalting songs and has been leading worship for the past 8 years. His songs are available for free download at www.hismagnificence.com. Case is a member of Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville.]

Gender Blog interviewed Andrew about his book:

Gender Blog: You are a single man, so what made you desire to write a book encouraging men to pray for their wives?

Andrew Case: First of all, I believe that, if I'm to be married someday, God has already ordained from before the foundations of the earth who my wife will be.  I can pray with confidence because I know that He knows who I'm praying for even though I don't.  Second, the Bible teaches that Christ intercedes for His Bride (Heb 7:25, Rom 8:34), even before she meets Him face to face (I Pet 1:8; Rev 22:4).  Since His elect are the Bride, He is praying continually even for people who have not yet come to know Him.  So if Jesus prays for His future Bride, then why shouldn't I?  If I want to show Christ to the world and follow His perfect example, one of the inevitable conclusions is that I should pray for my future wife.  I think this is obedience to Ephesians 5:25 for the single man.  It isn't always obvious, and it's definitely not always easy.  But I think every man who wishes to be married should diligently pursue such prayer.  It's glorifying to Christ.  It's sanctifying for the soul.  It's romantic.  And it certainly is a better use of the energy of a guy who's "burning with passion" than fretting or moping or worse.  So, in a nutshell, that's the theology behind me praying for my wife as a single man. 

God has also used many other means — big and small factors in my life — to bring about this joyful discipline. For example, I've learned through watching numerous friends and acquaintances through college and post college, that falling away and proving oneself to be an unbeliever happens all too often.  There have also been many who have settled comfortably into mediocrity.  Perseverance on the narrow road is a miracle of grace.  I don't want "the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things" to enter in and choke the Word in my wife before or after I meet her (Mark 4:19).  God must keep her in the love of Christ (Jude 1:1), and I am confident that He uses prayer as a means to that end.  I am keenly aware of the propensity within my own heart that Robert Robinson described in song: "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it — prone to leave the God I love."  Why not pray for her, as I pray for myself, that He would bind her wandering heart to Himself? 

GB: How did the creative process work itself out?

Case: I didn't really sit down one night and decide that I was going to write a book of prayers like this.  It was a slow, organic process.  To make a long story short, when I was just out of college, I came up with a great idea (in my opinion at least).  I bought one of those pretty cranberry, filigree ESV compact Bibles and began spending an hour every Thursday praying through Scripture for her.  When I prayed, I used that Bible and highlighted the passages that I chose to turn into prayer for her.  I thought this would be a good gift to be able to give her whenever she came along, to show her what I had been praying for her before we even met.  This I did for a while, until I had gone through two Bibles.  Then I decided to start writing them down, so I could reuse them. 

Around that time a friend told me that he had been struggling to pray for and with his wife consistently.  I wanted to help.  So I thought, "If I compile these prayers that I've been writing, he might be able to use them, and hopefully gain some benefit."  The number of prayers kept growing and growing, and when some other friends were about to be married, I thought that if I put the prayers in the form of a booklet like The Valley of Vision, it would make a practical, meaningful wedding gift.  That's more or less how the book version got started. 

GB: Are you praying some of these things for a possible future wife of your own?

Case: Yes.  I'm praying these things for a possible future wife of my own because God clearly has not granted me any so-called gift of singleness.  On the contrary, He has given me the same good desire He gave to Adam — for a helper, as it says in the Hebrew, "like opposite him."  Of course, God has every right to give me such a desire and never fulfill it... for my good (Rom 8:28).  But that possibility doesn't worry me, because praying Scripture is never a waste of time.  I'm a Christian hedonist, and praying the Word of God brings me great pleasure.  Moreover, it changes me because I get to commune with Him.  If He were never to grant me a wife, I would thank Him still for leading me to compile these prayers not only because they've helped many married men, but mainly because I've met with Him sweetly through them.  He's used them to conform me a little more to the image of His Son, and for that I am grateful.   

This week I read one of the more disconcerting pieces of news in recent memory.

It seems that a seven-year-old boy in Douglas County, Colo., wants to start dressing as a girl and be addressed with a girl's name. And the adults in his life (who should be guiding and teaching him) are apparently putting their unreserved imprimatur on his newfound identity.

"As a public school system, our calling is to educate kids no matter where they come from, what their background is, beliefs, values, it doesn't matter," said Whei Wong, Douglas County Schools spokesman.

According to one news report, Wong says the staff at this child's school is preparing to accommodate the student and, in what would seem to be a gross understatement, said the school is ready "to answer questions other students might have." These are, after all, omni-curious seven year olds.

Wong says teachers are planning to address the student by name instead of using gender-specific pronouns. The child will use the school's two unisex bathrooms.

Not surprisingly, a socio-political organization called "TransYouth Family Advocates" is intimately involved in this boy's life, "educating" both his family and Douglas County schools on the particulars of "gender transitioning" among children. Kim Pearson, executive director of TransYouth Family Advocates, said children as young as five years old are "realizing their true gender identity," and her group wants "to help parents who may be resisting it."

Parents should be-must be- resisting such utterly foolish and destructive counsel. God gives children parents, who ostensibly possess maturity and wisdom, and he calls parents to point their children to transcendent truth in times of confusion. He also calls them to protect their children from the wicked agenda of groups such as TransYouth Family Advocates, whose behavior in this case seems nothing less than predatory.

This is the latest, and perhaps most egregious example, of what theologian David Wells, in his latest book The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World, calls the exchange of nature for self. For nearly 1,800 years, humanity was spoken of as possessing "human nature," and Christians understood that nature as being created by God in His own image. But in the post-Enlightenment world, Wells argues (correctly, I think) that self has emerged to eclipse the traditional understanding of nature.

"The self is our interior world, made up of our own thoughts, private intuitions, desire, yearnings, springs of creativity, particularities, all that makes us distinct from every other person. My self is what in fact is unique about me," he writes. "I have a body like that of others, the same legs and arms, but my self is unlike what anyone else has." An accomplice to the emergence of self, Wells argues, has been the newly perceived "right" to define one's own existence. Therefore, I may be born a male biologically, but I say that I am a female or something in between, and so, I am whatever I define myself to be; there is no such thing as intrinsic nature. As illustrated in this tragic case that is unfolding in Colorado, anything is possible in this brave new world.

Sadly, a young boy in Colorado is being led down this insidious and deadly path, making Wells' great exchange (which is of course nothing more than the great exchange of Romans 1)  by adults who are foolishly calling on him (a seven-year-old no less!) to embrace his inner self, which may in fact be a her. This case is also illustrative on a deeper level, for this exchange, this will to self-definition is surely driving much of the contemporary transgender, gay, lesbian and bisexual agenda.

The effects of the Fall are profound and we must admit that the first Adam left in his wake a tsunami of existential confusion, broken relationships and self idolatry.

But thankfully, sin will not have the final word, for the Second Adam has come and has brought wisdom to the confusion, healing to the fractured relationships and is Himself a righteous King whose justifying grace smashes self idolatry to dust. Let us pray for this child in Colorado and for his family, that the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ would break in and bring light to their darkness.

How does the Bible define submission and headship? Does the Bible teach that husbands and wives are to submit to each other in the home? Are both husband and wife to serve as head of the home?

In his new book Headship, Submission and the Bible: Gender Roles in the Home (College Press), Jack Cottrell gives definitive biblical answers to those questions. Cottrell focuses on three biblical texts that exist at the center of the contemporary debate over gender roles in the home: 1 Corinthians 11:3-16, Ephesians 5:21-33 and 1 Peter 3:1-7. 

A veteran scholar, Cottrell provides an expert defense of the church's historic teaching on complementary gender roles in the home and shines clear light on the exegetical fallacies of the feminist/egalitarian interpretation of biblical texts on submission and headship.

"Since these terms (headship and submission) give every appearance of establishing a hierarchical or complementarian approach to gender roles, and since they have traditionally been interpreted this way, it has been very important for feminists to provide an alternative way of interpreting these biblical concepts," Cottrell writes.

"Thus over the last few decades they have labored to develop a new, revisionist paradigm for headship and submission, one that is consistent with their basic philosophy of egalitarianism."

Cottrell serves as professor of Theology at Cincinnati Christian University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW).

This work is the third volume in Cottrell's ongoing series evaluating egalitarian hermeneutics. The first, Feminism and the Bible, serves as a general introduction to feminism and its overall hermeneutic. The second work, Gender Roles and the Bible, examines the theological framework of biblical feminism, and unpacks the effects of creation, the Fall and redemption on gender roles.

The argument of Cottrell's latest work is divided into two main sections, one dealing biblically with submission, the other looking at headship. Within each sections, Cottrell writes on key topics such as the egalitarian concept of "mutual submission" (an exegetical novelty peculiar to post-feminist Christianity, he argues), the meaning of hupotasso (Greek for ‘submit') in light of egalitarian claims of mutual submission and kephale (‘head') in light of the egalitarian attempts to redefine the biblical term "head."

In the latter chapters Cottrell unpacks the purpose of Christ's headship (salvation) as well as the manner of the Lord's headship (love). Cottrell interacts with egalitarian scholars throughout the work and concludes with a chapter on practicing headship in the home. Husbands are to love their wives in a way that is faithful to the Gospel and the infinite love of Christ for His church, he writes, because, Christ Himself serves as the model for authentic headship in the home.

"Nothing is more important in the husband-wife relationship than the husband's learning to use his headship in a loving, serving, Christlike manner," he writes. "Wives are commanded to submit (Eph 5:22, 33), but it is very difficult for them to do this when the husbands set themselves up as selfish, oppressive, domineering, all-controlling dictators. Some husbands mistakenly think that such ‘macho' masculinity is a sign of strength, but in fact it is more a sign of weakness, insecurity, fear, and lack of self-confidence.

"Christ is the one who established the pattern for true headship, and Christ through His Holy Spirit can equip every husband with the strength to conform to this pattern. Let us not forget that ‘Christ is the head of every man' (1 Cor 11:3). As such, He wants to encourage and empower every husband to develop his own innate potential for true headship. When a husband accepts this responsibility and follows in the footsteps of his own Head, he will then be the kind of husband to whom a wife can submit with relief, confidence, and pleasure."

Headship, Submission and the Bible is available at the CBMW web store.

As a Christian reader of Gender Blog, our prayer is that you are committed to a solid local church and that your charitable giving primarily supports the congregation.  Perhaps you are one of the many readers who have been blessed by God with additional resources to devote to further kingdom ministry.  What should you consider in supporting a ministry outside of your local church?  Or in other words, why should you prayerfully consider becoming a financial supporter of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood before July 1^st?  Consider the following seven reasons:

1. CBMW is committed to the centrality of the gospel. The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of salvation history, and the cross is central all that we do in ministry. Only through the blood of Jesus can men and women turn from sin and accurately display the glorious image of God. In Christian marriage, a man and a woman have the privilege of portraying the relationship of Jesus Christ to the church.

2. CBMW is positioned to serve local churches. We draw upon thousands of hours of research from some of the best scholars in the world to help local pastors teach sound doctrine about biblical manhood and womanhood. Throughout history, local churches have been served in specialized ways by Bible translators, mission agencies, seminaries, and organizations like CBMW.

3. CBMW takes seriously its stewardship of a treasury of biblical teaching on gender. We have made available for free untold thousands of books and articles over the past 20 years. Our goal in the coming year is to better organize the amazing resources on our website so that more scholars, pastors, husbands, wives and single men and women can benefit.

4. CBMW has a worldwide reach in the gender debate. Whether it is an orphanage in India teaching about biblical womanhood, a journal for scholars in Slovakia, or Anglican churches wrestling over doctrine in Australia, we are continually hearing about how CBMW resources on gender are being used around the world. People from more than 100 countries continue to access the CBMW website every month.

5. CBMW serves as a voice for timeless truth in a culture of change. Every day, readers of Gender Blog receive updates on ways to think biblically about men who receive alimony payments, women who rent their wombs, denominational developments in the gender debate, and even the goofiest of distortions of manhood and womanhood.

6. CBMW is currently limited in its ministry by financial constraints. We have more opportunities to serve Christian men and women through scholarship, conferences and literature distribution than we have resources for this coming fall. We could be more effective over the next six months if more people would partner financially with this ministry.

7. The impact of your gift on the gender debate will be doubled for a limited time. A generous and anonymous donor has pledged to match every donation up to $30,000 made to CBMW before July 1, 2008.

We would like to ask you to take advantage of this strategic opportunity and join the team of financial donors who help CBMW serve the church.  If you would like any additional information about this ministry please use the "feedback" link below or call our offices at 502-897-4065.  Thank you for reading Gender Blog and for your commitment to biblical manhood and womanhood.

"Same-sex couples could create children" reads a recent headline in the London Telegraph online, and it could not be more serious. The article reports that last month international leaders in embryology research asked the British government for permission to allow babies to be conceived using "artificial" sperm and eggs.  They are developing a technique which uses embryonic cells from an adult man or woman to grow artificial sperm in a laboratory.  These manufactured gametes could then be used to create a human pregnancy through in vitro fertilization.  This scientific procedure has been used to create pregnancies in mice, and is expected to take only 10 years of refinement to prepare for human use.  Whether it takes more or less than a decade, the scientists are confident that this will be a reality.

In short, this would allow two women to produce a child without any intervention whatsoever from a man.  One of the women would donate a cell which would be transformed into an artificial sperm and used to fertilize an egg from the other woman.  Either could carry the baby to term.  The child would be their biological descendent with no male contribution required at any level. For the first time in history, fathers would be completely optional in procreation.  For some, the realization of utopian dreams seems to be in sight, and the experts "called on ministers not to restrict such ‘important' research."

The process would be only slightly less convenient for two men to create a biological child of their own.  In that case, they would need to hire a "gestational carrier" and rent her womb to carry their baby to term.  Women in the United States, India and other countries around the world are increasingly willing to provide this feminine service.

Where does this research stop?  The answer is it will never stop.  Human beings, with a sinful nature and driven by pride, will continue to take on the prerogatives in procreation reserved for God himself.  Just because a scientific technique is possible, does not in itself require that it be performed.  Even if society makes it legal, Christians must never take part. 

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward" (Psalm 127:3).  It is not an accident of creation that a father and mother are both required for procreation and raising children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).  Unless we hold to biblical authority as a solid rock, there is no end in sight for scientific research.