Valley of vision: Thou Great I AM

Thou great I Am,

Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at the thought of a Being…
with whom one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day,
A mighty God, who, amidst the lapse of worlds,
and the revolutions of empires,
feels no variableness,
but is glorious in immortality.

May I rejoice that, while men die, the Lord lives;
that, while all creatures are broken reeds…
empty cisterns,
fading flowers,
withering grass,
he is the Rock of Ages, the Fountain
of living waters.

Turn my heart from vanity…
from dissatisfactions,
from uncertainties of the present state,
to an eternal interest in Christ.

Let me remember that life is short and…
unforeseen,
and is only an opportunity for usefulness;

Give me a holy avarice to redeem the time…
to awake at every call to charity and piety,
so that I may feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
instruct the ignorant,
reclaim the vicious,
forgive the offender,
diffuse the gospel,
show neighbourly love to all.

Let me live a life of self-distrust…
dependence on Thyself,
mortification,
crucifixion,
prayer.

FROM THE VALLEY OF VISION—A COLLECTION OF PURITAN PRAYERS & DEVOTIONS.

Photo by Ricky Esquivel: https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-hand-1654698/

Please consider helping my son Tristan as he prepares for pastoral studies

Readers and friends, please consider helping my son Tristan:

https://www.gofundme.com/manage/help-tristan-with-his-move-for-pastoral-studies

Hey y’all, I’m Anna, also known as AnnaGrace online. Most of y’all know me whether from this blog, my other blog Femina Sola Gratia, or from FB, Gab, and Twitter. Tristan is my oldest son and this fundraiser is for him.

Tristan has an opportunity to move to Kentucky to begin a pastoral mentorship under three Elders in a Reformed church. Tristan has long hoped and prayed for the day that he could pursue studies towards being a pastor. He has spent many years studying on his own through the reading of Scripture, commentaries, solid theological works, catechisms, creeds, listening to sermons, doing online studies, and working under an elder as he had a chance to. The reason he never went to college and seminary is because he was helping me and my younger children.

My husband and Tristan’s father was unfaithful to me and abusive towards us, his family. He destroyed our finances through multiple job losses, three bankruptcies, having our house foreclosed, repetitively taking out title loans and payday loans, and various other means. I don’t say that to be unkind or to dishonor him; it is simply true. My husband moved us sometimes as often as once a year. Through it all, Tristan stood by me and my younger children and worked to care for us. Many times we wouldn’t have made it without him. Eventually when things got worse, he moved me and my younger children in with him and he’s cared for us for the last several years even as he himself had two back surgeries.

My son is a kind and godly man who wants to serve his Lord and the church. He is devoted to sound doctrine, believes that Scripture is true (including such doctrines as creation, the flood, creation order, and everything else). He has proven his devotion to me and his siblings. Truly he has treated me with honor.

Because my son spent so much time, money, and effort caring for us, he didn’t get to go to college and seminary. As I have already stated, that didn’t mean he didn’t study or seek to prepare himself as best as he could. He also, in paying for us, meant that he had to deal with the financial duress my husband had me under. I was left with bills, health problems, and a deep financial hole. It is something that I, and Tristan, have long worked to climb out of and establish some stability.

Now the Lord has presented him with the opportunity to move to a small town in Kentucky to begin a three year study under these Reformed elders. For the past seven months, he and the pastor have talked multiple times through texts, over the phone, and over Zoom. A couple of weeks ago, he traveled north and spent the weekend with them. After thoroughly interviewing him individually, they offered him the chance to study under them. I want him to have it. We believe that the Lord has brought him to this opportunity and will provide a way. Because of our belief that the Lord’s hand is in this, Tristan has told them he will come.

2 Timothy 2:15 – Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

That’s the purpose of this GoFundMe. I’m trying to raise the funds to help him to get to Kentucky so he can get established.

My daughter and I are still with Tristan; my younger sons are now in college. So we, my daughter and I, will moving with him if the Lord is pleased to provide a way for us to do so.

The funds will be used by Tristan to pay for the expenses related to moving.

Please pray for Tristan, even if you cannot contribute. He has a burden for truth and longs to honor the Lord through all of this. Please consider sharing his fundraiser. He’s hoping to be moved by no later than February 1st, though he hopes for some point in January.

Soli Deo Gloria!

When the Frost is On the Punkin by James Whitcomb Riley

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock, And you hear the kyouck and the gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock, And the clackin’ of the guineys and the cluckin’ of the hens And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence; O it’s then the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best, With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest, As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock They’s somethin kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here – Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees; But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze Of a crisp and sunny monring of the airly autumn days Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock – When the frost is on the punkin and fodder’s in the shock. The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn, And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn; The stubble in the furries – kindo’ lonesome-like, but still A preachin’ sermons to us of the barns they growed to fill; The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed; The hosses in theyr stalls below – the clover overhead! – O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock! Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps; And your cider-makin’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage, too! I don’t know how to tell it – but if sich a thing could be As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me – I’d want to ‘commodate ’em – all the whole-indurin’ flock – When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock! Photo by James Wheeler on Unsplash

Sisters, will you be an influence for good or evil?

Titus 2: 3-5, The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

As an older woman in the church, I have been blessed to pray for, mentor, and counsel my younger sisters. It’s important to me to do so because God commands us to. When I was a young Christian and I had no one in my life to mentor or guide me, I sought to find a Titus 2 “older woman” who was willing to do so. I asked. I pleaded. I begged. I explained my need. No one would.

I ended up having to turn to books to learn the things that my older sisters ought to have been willing to explain to me. I observed, learned, and applied. Between lives well lived seen from a distance and godly books, much prayer and Bible study, God guided me.

Ladies, our life is observed, our profession to Christ is measured, our devotion either questioned, or applauded, by the way we live.

Everything about us is a reflection of what we believe about Christ. We have the chance, the ability, and the blessing, to be able to influence younger women and those ladies who might be older physically but who are young in the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s a thing of beauty and honor to be an older woman who is serving the Lord. Sisters, to be one whom the younger women feel comfortable turning to for guidance, prayers, advice, and example is a blessing both to us and to them.

It’s a reflection of evil to be a woman who is masquerading as a godly woman, who leads younger women astray. It’s an unwise woman who knows the truth and refuses to share it.

A woman who exemplifies biblical womanhood is a treasure. God’s Word says such a woman is more valuable than rubies. Everything we do, everything we say, matters. Every single day we live out what we believe about Christ. We should be able to say, as the Apostle Paul did, follow me as I follow Christ. We don’t have to be perfect to do that; none of us are. But we do have to be a woman whose devotion to God is known and observable and who does all things for God’s glory.

What do others think of when they think of us? What do they see as being important to us? What do our lives speak of?

Do they see us seek after wisdom or riches? Do they see our love for our family or would it be obvious that a career at the center of our lives? Do they see us honor, respect, and obey our husband or see us disrespect him or run him down with our words?

Is it obvious that we value our role as a keeper at home or do we malign such ideas as old-fashioned? Do we love our children and value them above our own comfort or supposed successes?

Do we believe that the Word of God is our basis for truth or has feminism or any other false teaching or evil idea invaded our ideas and changed the truth of God’s Word into lies? (As a side note: If you are married to a man who is abusive, that changes the dynamics in the home. It’s not always possible to obey such a man because he might lead us astray; what then is important is where our heart is. Do we want to be able to obey him? Do we long to honor God through our relationship with our husband? Are we seeking to honor God even if he doesn’t?)

In short, do others know that we love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind? Spurgeon explained: “‘With all your heart’ means intensely. ‘With all your soul’ means sincerely, most lovingly. ‘And with all your strength’ means with all our energy, with every faculty, with every possibility of our nature.” To love Him with all of our mind means to not rely on our own understanding, to let His truth be the guideline for our thoughts. It involves having the right dispositions and attitudes (Ligonier)

Here’s a few heart checks for all of us, me included:

We must always remember that the way we speak, the things we talk about, either leads our sisters to Christ or away from Him. Are our words wholesome? Do they reflect holiness? Do we magnify God with our words? Do we praise Him? Do we speak of our trust in Him? Do we engage in gossip? Do we complain when things don’t go our way? Is Christ the One we long to speak of, the One whose praises are continually on our lips? Or do we talk mostly of things that are fleeting: fashion, entertainment, fun, etc?

The things that we love, the things we give our time to, the things we spend our money on, either influences younger women to be in the world but not of the world, or it influences them to be in the world and of the world.

What do we love most of all (based on how much we think about it? how much time we spend on it? how much money we spend on it? how much of our life we devote to it?)? Where do our devotions lie? Is Christ magnified by these things? Do we seek after wisdom, knowledge, and understanding or do we seek after success, fashion, fun, popularity, and such?

Do we seek to be holy as God is holy? Do we love our Lord? Is Jesus magnified or marginalized by our beliefs about and our obedience (or lack there of) to Him? Do we base our understanding of who God is on what His Word reveals or on what our experiences seem to reveal to us? Is our faith Christ-centered or is our faith centered on what God can do for us? What would others believe about God if our faith and belief was their example?

Our devotion or lack thereof to the Word of God, to studying it, obeying it, memorizing it, will either point the way to the Lord or point the way to hell. Are we skillful in handling Scripture? Do we let Scripture interpret Scripture or do we base what we believe on culture, what others say, or on what we feel, i.e. do we practice exegesis (finding out what the text says) or eisegesis (reading into the text what we want to be there) in our studies?

The time spent in prayer, interceding for our family, for ourselves, for others, and time spent spent praising God in prayer, either makes others hungry for His presence or makes prayer seem all the more boring. Are our prayers Christ-centered or me-centered? Are our prayers biblical, effective, fervent, and constant? Or is prayer a burden?

The respect we show our husband and the love we show our children says much to the younger generation. Do we value our marriage? Do we have a biblical understanding of marriage and family? Do we see children as a blessing? Are we obedient to our husbands? Do we support his mission and his vision? Is God glorified by our beliefs about marriage and family or is our understanding of this based more on culture or the entertainment industry?

Do we show our love for the local church? Do we seek to serve our brothers and sisters? Are we praying for them (seriously, are we, ourselves, offering the prayers we so often promise to pray for others)? Do we respect, honor, love, and obey our church leadership? Do we pray for the efforts of the church, for the leaders, for further devotion to God’s glory? Or do we show a flippant attitude towards these things?

As it is in everything else, so it is in our manner of dress. Are we modest? Is our clothing pleasing to God? Does it reflect His truth–not just in church but in our daily lives? Do we always seek to dress appropriately and encourage our younger sisters to do so, also?

Our Lord says, Colossians 3:17, KJV: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

Are we actively striving towards godly womanhood? Are we seeking after holiness? Are we preparing so that, when we are presented with the opportunity to serve our sisters, or to teach them, we are ready and able?

I pray we are.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Photo by Brayan Guzman Cortez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/elderly-woman-in-floral-dress-standing-in-the-field-14183652/

A Woman Who Fears the Lord

First, you get the women, then you’ve got the children, so follow the men. ~Adolph Hitler 

Adolph Hitler was not a good man or a wise man but in making this observation, he showed himself an astute man. Change, good or bad, often starts with women. If something is important, look for women to be involved, or even in the forefront, promoting the cause, pushing for change, and making things much better or far worse than they would be otherwise. 

Satan knows this and has been involved in “Getting the women” from the moment he got the first woman, Eve, to do his bidding. He’s been involved in turning women from their God-designed purpose, and drawing them away from being a force for good, ever since.

As John MacArthur says in Different by Design, “Feminism began in the Garden when Eve, who we could call the first feminist, listened to Satan’s lies, stepped out from under Adam’s authority, acted independently, and led the human race into sin.”

Today, feminism is more prevalent in the church than ever, and we, as God’s women, have a choice to make. Do we follow “the old path” of staying true to God’s Word, no matter how much the world and much of the so-called church might attack it, and risk being ridiculed, or do we follow Satan to do his bidding, forge our own path, and become a further force for evil?

John Angell James: “Every woman whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm. Every woman, by her virtue or her vice, by her folly or her wisdom, by her levity or her dignity, is adding something to our national elevation or degradation. A community is not likely to be overthrown where woman fulfills her mission, for by the power of her noble heart over the hearts of others, she will raise that community from its ruins and restore it again to prosperity and joy.” 

You’ll hear people tell you that the earliest feminists were often Christian women who saw some evils in society that needed to be fixed and rose up as a force for good. Much of this is true. However, feminism, as it is today, is anything but a force for good, and it hasn’t been for a very long time. 

Let’s compare what the Lord says His purpose for women is, to what the world calls women to be.

God’s design for women can be seen in these verses (ESV):

Titus 2: 3-5, Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Proverbs 31: 26-30, She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

1 Peter 3: 1-6, Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, …

The world’s design for women, and their view of God, can be seen in these quotes:

Vivian Gornick: “Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession. The choice to serve and to be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn’t be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that.”

Sheila Cronam: “Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women’s movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage.”

Declaration of Feminism (1971):“The end of the institution of marriage is necessary for the liberation of women; therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not live individually with men. All of history must be rewritten in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft.”

Ann Lori-Gaylor: “Let’s forget about the mythical Jesus and look for encouragement, solace and inspiration from real women. 2,000 years of patriarchal rule under the shadow of the cross ought to be enough to turn women toward the feminist salvation of the world.”

Now consider these thoughts on how a good woman, a godly woman, can make an impact on her world and those around her:

Elisabeth Elliot: “The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, But the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.”

Carolyn Mahaney: “Our conduct has a direct influence on how people think about the gospel. The world doesn’t judge us by our theology; the world judges us by our behavior. People don’t necessarily want to know what we believe about the Bible. They want to see if what we believe makes a difference in our lives. Our actions either bring glory to God or misrepresent His truth.”

Barbara Hughes: “All the disciplines of a godly woman are about submitting your will to God’s loving rule in daily life.  Reject the popular voices that entice you to put your needs first, to protect your self-interest and rights, to push at God-given boundaries.”

One only has to look around to see the damage done by women who no longer care to follow the ways God has set before them. Slutwalks, promiscuity, and out of control out-of-wedlock births (and the accompanying abortion rates) are a testimony to what happens when women push the rules and then keep on pushing. Once the source of Truth is ignored and then removed as the final arbiter, there is no logical stopping place.

Many of our churches have abandoned Truth. Biblical literacy is at an all-time low. Our church services are, in general, far more people-centered than Christ-centered. Our pastors are often men (and sometimes women, homosexuals or lesbians) who lead the church according to culture’s ways, not the Lord’s. Our sermons often come from, and center around, news stories, popular theories, and entertainment.

The failure of those who claim to follow the Lord to actually follow Him has led to a downward spiral in our society. When those who have the light refuse to shine it, there is no light for anyone to follow. In all of this, women have been at the forefront pushing limits, challenging truth, and changing mores.

It doesn’t matter what the world says, what you want, or even what you think God might be leading you to do or to become. It matters only what God has actually said. It is very easy to twist the Lord’s Word and ask, as Satan did to Eve “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3: 1, ESV). In His Word, He has clearly said what His design for women is. It is up to us to obey it or to reject it. Only remember this…your decision to obey God or to surrender to self, world, and Satan, will have an impact far beyond your own years.

My questions to you today are these:

Who or what are you living for? God? Yourself? Success? Popularity? Something else?

Who are you listening to? What forms your understanding of truth?

What kind of woman are you? If you are young, what kind of woman are you becoming? 

What sort of legacy are you leaving? 

Are you, through your words and by your example, teaching your children to love the Lord, and to obey Him, or are you teaching them to follow their heart (a heart that the Lord, in Jeremiah 17: 9, describes in this way “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”)?

Are you seeking to understand the kind of woman the Lord commands you to be? Or, are you far more influenced by the world than you might have realized?

Are you impacting your family and this and following generations for good or for evil?

We must each stand before the Lord one day and answer for the way we have lived. Our words, our actions, and our decisions must all be accounted for (Matthew 12: 36). While we are here, we have an opportunity to make a difference for the Lord, so that when we face Him in Judgement we will hear those most wonderful of words, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25: 34 ESV)

I’ll leave you with this quote by the Presbyterian preacher and former Senate chaplain Peter Marshall:

“The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct.” 

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