Patsy Cameneti - Engendered: What Was God Thinking? Gender Roles & Relationships

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ENGENDERED

Gender Roles & Relationships

What Was God Thinking?

Copyright 2018 Patsy Cameneti

ISBN 978-1-68031-216-4

eISBN: 978-1-6803-1243-0

Published by Harrison House Publishers

Tulsa, OK 74145

www.harrisonhouse.com

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

engendered

/n-jndrd/

Engendered is the past tense of engender, meaning to bring about, to give rise to, or in its earliest form, to propagate or to beget. Simply put, to engender means to make it happen.

Right from the beginning, God had a plan for mankind. He engendered the course of human families not simply by suggestion or even direction but by His operation in the creation of humansmale and female.

From the same root word, genus, we get gender. In its simplest definition, gender means a type, a class of things that share certain traits.
Only in recent times has the term gender been used to describe attributes pertaining to sexuality.

On the issue of marriagemale and femaleJesus referred people not to the law or what Moses had said. He referred them to creation
The Genesiswhere God engendered gender. God generated or brought about two genders based on how He created mankindmale and female created He them.

The fall of Adams race fractured and confused Gods plan for male and female.

In the pages to follow, we explore just what happened to Gods original purpose and design. We come to terms with how it was fractured in the fall and how Jesus redeemed humankind, not simply from the curse of the law but back to what He had engendered from the beginning.

Acknowledgements

This book would have never come to be without these wonderful people:

The students of Rhema Bible College, where Ive had the privilege of teaching the subject of Christian marriage and family. You have inspired me to study, pray, and learn.

Madonna Clark, you gave me material to start on with the many hours of lessons you cheerfully transcribed.

Jenny Eddison, Im deeply grateful for all the many things you have done to help get this message from my heart into a book.

Bill and Carol Cooper; Trina Hankins; friends in France, John and Laura Madan and Marie-Hlne Moulin; Michelle Vandusen; and my prayer group of many years, Edith Szilveszter, Diana Ryan, and Jenny Eddison. Your encouragement and prayers for me helped me begin and finish this book.

John McAllan, Mitch Robinson, and Chelsea Perry thank you for reading and giving feedback.

Tony, you helped protect my time, even if it meant the way you saw me was primarily on the other side of my computer.

Dedicated to

The CreatorI am so grateful to Him for giving me a constant desire to know Him. Everything about Him amazes me.

My wonderful husband, TonyYou loved me first, consistently and faithfully, very much like Christ loves the Church. I love being your wife.

My parentsThe characteristics that I adore and cherish in God have been consistently visible and tangible in you. You helped me know God, and I am eternally grateful.

To my beautiful daughters, Liliana and AnnalisaYou have given me the opportunity to be a mother and to know a type of love I never could have imagined. You are Gods most precious gifts to me.

To my sisters and brothersLoving the family of God unconditionally began for me with experiencing family love with you. I love us. Forever.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1: 1

I absolutely believe this. However, Im fully aware there are many who do not and for a variety of reasons. There are brilliant apologists who address these reasons intelligently, historically, and scientifically. I recommend their study and presentation on vital subjects, such as the existence of God, God as Creator of heaven and earth, and the veracity of the Scriptures. These resources are helpful to people searching for answers in these areas.

However, this book has been written for people searching for more specific answers about man and woman, gender roles and relationships, and marriage and family. Its been written with the following people in mind:

Those who are convinced or, at least, open to believe God exists and is the Creator of all things, including humans.

Those who believe the Bible reveals Gods thoughts, will, and ways.

Those who want clarity of Gods creative intention when it came to making man and woman and the roles they fill.

Those who are willing for God and the Bible to address with final authority the subject of male and female gender identity, marriage, and family.

Those who are curious to know more of what the Bible says about Gods creative intention for man and woman, marriage, and family.

After all, if you believe Genesis 1:1, you will have no problem believing the rest of Gods Word and what it says about man and woman, marriage, and family.

For many years, Ive had the privilege of teaching the subject of marriage and family, a topic I believe is very close to the heart of God. The Bible schools where I taught were in different countries with different traditions and cultures regarding the subject, so I prayerfully asked the Lord to help me represent His thoughts and ways and not just the culture I was most familiar with or my personal experience. The answer to this prayer is ongoing, but up to now the Holy Spirit has kindly, yet purposefully, led me to take away the trappings of culture and look away from negativeeven positivepersonal experience. Hes encouraged me to look completely at Gods idea of man and woman. What was God thinking when He made man? What was God thinking when He made woman? And what do His intentions have to do with the roles they play? What did the Creator want marriage to look like? What did He want family to look like?