Several years ago, there was a movie that women could not wait to see. It was considered to be one of the most romantic films of our times. It contained the usual beautiful people, gorgeous costumes, enchanting dialogue, and wonderfully romantic musical accompaniments. However, when you took all of that away, you were left with this basic story line:
Irresponsible, uneducated aspiring artist practices his “art” by painting nude prostitutes. He secures tickets to another country by unseemly means. He meets a beautiful young woman, but she has agreed to marry a man that she does not love because he is wealthy. The young duo discovers lustful feelings. He paints a nude picture of her and they commit adultery all within the span of three days. A freakish event occurs. He drowns the next day, unrepentant and unsaved. She barely escapes death, continues the journey, marries another man she does not love, and grows old spending a lifetime yearning for the dead boy. The movie ends as she drops an extremely valuable necklace that she stole from her first fiancé into the ocean to commemorate the site of the boy's death.

The AMAZING thing is that Christian women flocked to see this movie and thought that it was a story of love!!! What had happened to their thinking? How were they persuaded? Why are we so easily swept away by the world's view of life, that sometimes we don't even see the waves coming?

What does this have to do with evaluating Bible Study material? We must realize that we are daily assaulted with the perversions of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and there is but one recourse.

For Christian women, the daily challenge is to THINK BIBLICALLY!

We are thinking Biblically when no matter what else the world is saying, we are hearing God's perspective!

We are thinking Biblically when we are alert to the real messages being conveyed to us, and we are not being swept along by another person's agenda or even Christian jargon. We are thinking Biblically when we are evaluating each statement or event by the Word of God alone.

When it comes to evaluating material for our local women's ministries we must be very careful for a number of reasons. FIRST, of course, is the Scriptural injunction in James 3:1 that those who teach are held to a higher standard. When we stand before women and say, “thus says the Lord,” we had better be sure that we are conveying truth. The church is called to be “the pillar and support” of the truth. That's our first concern. Is it truth?

But SECONDLY, we must look at what is important and USEFUL for our women. In our local church Bible study, we have only one opportunity per week for eleven to twelve weeks to convey truth. The material that we use must treat that time as a trust given to us by these women. Time is valuable, and we need to consider the specific long-term and short-term goals of our study. Our women's ministry purpose statement directs the goals for everything we do. We often have a yearly theme, and if possible we coordinate with a sermon series or Sunday School focus. The material that we choose cannot be simply accurate, it must be purposeful.

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