Author: elizabethprata

Christian writer and Georgia teacher's aide who loves Jesus, a quiet life, art, beauty, and children.
Posted in theology

Don’t worry, the tiger can’t escape…

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Ocelot. Photo by Pamela Newton on Unsplash

I discovered the series of children’s books by The Millers. I found “Missionary Stories with the Millers” which is aimed at 6-10 year olds. The stories are about missionaries and are intended to be inspiring and interesting for kids. Here is the blurb:

“Experience thrilling adventure as the Christian missionaries on these pages meet witch doctors, disease, drought, hate-filled guerillas, a Bible thief, and killer cats. Each story is based on actual happenings from the lives of real people.”

I was inspired and entertained myself by this story in the book, one of many. It’s called “The Tiger Can’t Escape” featuring pilot missionary Jack McGuckin. Colonel Jack served 4 years as a pilot in Peru with Wycliffe Bible Translators before going on to be a global evangelist for 30 years. Before all that, Col. Jack was a Marine Corps fighter pilot who served in WWII and the Korean Conflict. Col. McGuckin had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Bronze Star and the Presidential Citation. Born in 1921, he died in 2007. Here is the adapted anecdote from the book Missionary Stories, called “The Tiger Can’t Escape!”

“The tiger cannot possibly escape from the basket,” said the sergeant. “Are you sure?” Jack the missionary pilot stood beside his small plane pushing back his cap as he wiped a trail of sweat from his forehead and looked doubtfully at the huge wicker basket.

Inside the basket, which had been made from reeds and strips of bark, crouched a fierce looking spotted cat. The tiger was really an ocelot, a tiny South American panther.

“Oh, si Señor,” the Peruvian soldier assured Jack. His white teeth flashed in his face as he grinned. “The tiger cat will be quite safe in your plane. My basket is very strong.” Jack was not enthusiastic about having a wild ocelot aboard the plane. He looked pretty mean. He was flying alone on this trip with a cargo of supplies for different missionary stations.

“I’m already carrying four live chickens and two turtles in a box,” Jack mused. “This plane is turning into Noah’s ark.” But Jack remembered the missionary director’s rule always cooperate with the government people whenever possible we are in their country by permission to preach the gospel, so be courteous.

“Yes, I will take your tiger along and deliver her to your friend,” Jack agreed. The two men loaded the big basket behind the back seat. The plane skimmed lightly over the river on its pontoons and rose into the air. Jack was flying one of the small fleet of mission planes which soared daily over the most savage dangerous jungles of South America. Any mistake on his part could bring his plane crashing down to vanish in the trackless expanse of jungle where death waited in many forms; from poisonous snakes… poisonous plants…and man-eating fish with sharp razor-sharp teeth… or head hunting Indians.

Not the actual plane and not Peru. Photo by Brandon Pierson on Unsplash

They all lurked in the thick green rain forest before airplanes came to the South American missions. The missionaries and the Bible translators had needed to travel on foot through the treacherous jungle trails or by small boats on the rivers. A trip to the nearest town or doctor might take days of dangerous travel. But now pilots like Jack took the same trip in an hour.

This made things so much easier for the brave missionaries who were risking their lives to bring the gospel to the Indians.

Jack whistled happily thinking about this as his hand skillfully held the controls. He peered through the plexiglass windows of the cockpit. Feet below were the lush jungles of the northern Peru with the strangely black waters of the Nanay River churning through them.

Suddenly a flurry of squawking noises erupted from the seat behind Jack. It sounded just like the noise of chickens that had made on his father’s farm the time a fox had crept into their hen house late at night. Whirling around in his seat, Jack saw that the ocelot had escaped! She was climbing over the seat yellow eyes gleaming as she hungrily looked at the chickens. Grabbing his canteen, Jack threw water at the big cat. Snarling, she slunk back into the luggage compartment. In just a few moments though, she started over the seat again. Frantic, the chickens flopped their wings and fought to free their feet from the vines that tied them together. Jack hurriedly hurled his empty canteen at the cat. He missed and the ocelot pounced, landing in the seat beside the chickens. Snapping the weed vines around their feet, the panicked chickens exploded in all directions. Their wings beat against the windows and in Jack’s face as the ocelot stood up on her hind legs.

Photo by Cecilia Rodríguez Suárez on Unsplash

Sharp claws swinging for a drumstick, feathers flew everywhere. Jack forgot all about flying the airplane and began grabbing for chickens. But it was no use. The ocelot soon had a chicken trapped on the floor under Jack’s seat and he could hear its sharp teeth crunching on flesh and bones.

The plane was three thousand feet up in the air and no help was near. What could Jack do? Would the ocelot be satisfied after a chicken dinner and sleep for a while, or would she decide to hunt for more meat?

Slash! One tiny foreleg tipped with steely claws shot out from under the seat toward Jack. For an instant the ocelot’s claws hooked into the pilot’s pants and then tore free. Jack’s pounding heart seemed to be squeezing the breath from his lungs. The tiger was hunting him with all of his might!

Jack kicked back at his enemy she held a blood-curdling cry of rage that filled the small plane. “Lord what shall I do? Help me find a place to land!” Jack prayed desperately looking out the window he spotted a small settlement by the river below. Jack rolled down the flaps of his plane and began to circle around for a landing. Kicking the cat with his heels every time she reached for his leg, he finally got the plane down to the water.

EPrata photo

A crowd of men appeared as Jack taxied the plane up to the bank. “Help!” he shouted out the window. “I have a loose tiger cat in here!” A dozen men jumped onto the pontoons at the same time all trying to see into the plane which began to sink.

“No!” cried Jack, “Not all at once!” The men jumped off again and their leader sent for a coil of rope. Soon the angry ocelot had been lassoed and safely tied up. Sighing with relief Jack thanked the Peruvians.

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

“Oh, it is nothing,” the leader smilingly told Jack. “We are just so glad you landed here. One of my men had a heart attack this morning, and may die if we cannot get him to the hospital. Will you take him along to the city?”

“Of course I will take him,” Jack agreed.

“So the Lord had a purpose in allowing the tiger cat to break loose,” Jack mused as he helped lift the sick man into the airplane. “God used a snarling ocelot and a scared pilot to get his plane to the right place and save this man’s life.”

Less than two hours later the sick man was safely in the hospital at Iquitos. The army officer had his ocelot and Jack was on his way back to the mission station.

This loose ocelot incident occurred in the 1960s on almost one of Jack’s first missionary flights. Jack was fairly new pilot with Wycliffe then.

When people complain about God’s election of individuals to salvation, they say ‘Well what about the native in the deep jungle who never heard of the Gospel or of Jesus?’

First of all, because God is wholly in charge of a person’s salvation, when the appointed time for them to be saved comes, God is perfectly capable of sending a missionary to them, or bringing that person to a pastor, or having the word go out in some way.

Secondly, He made the entire world, nothing is too far for the Lord to reach His intended sheep. Nothing is too difficult for Him to bring the spirit of repentance on a person, whether they live in London apartment or a Mongolian hut or a Peruvian jungle.

God’s work is pure, holy, and always perfect. He is powerful and delights to bring people to salvation. He must have had plans for the man whose heart attack necessitated a trip to the city hospital. So God arranged for the ocelot’s escape on a plane than landed out of nowhere! God is amazing!

Posted in theology

You never know where your words will go, or who will be impacted

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’ve written before about how, when I was not saved yet but the Spirit was strongly drawing me, that there was a pastor of a Bible believing Baptist church in my town. I used to work at the Post Office putting up the post office box mail. The wall didn’t go all the way to the ceiling and of course the boxes were open at my end and with a door at the customer’s end.

So, I could hear all conversations in the lobby. When the pastor came in he would always mention blessing, or Jesus, or the Savior, or something that was like acid on my soul. I used to shove the mail into the boxes while grinding my teeth, thinking, “Why does he always talk of Jesus? How foolish! Doesn’t he know that no one’s listening!”

Of course, I was listening. The Lord used throwaway words, not even aimed at me, to grab me at the scruff of the neck and force me to look at my sin like a bad puppy.

I’ve also mentioned before how John Bunyan heard conversations from three or four ladies at their doorstep, and how Bunyan marveled at how they seemed to ‘know’ the savior, who to Bunyan at that point, was a remote God. Their grace-filled words words carried to his heart and eventually were used to bring him to Christ.

Famously, Augustine heard a child’s song in the next-door walled garden, of a child singing a song Augustine had never heard before (or since) including the words “Tolle lege!” which means ‘pick up and read’. He felt a compulsion to do so, and he did pick up the Bible and read. He was convicted by what he read in Romans. We know the rest from there.

Wholesome words are never wasted even if they seem throwaway. God’s word never returns void. It always makes its intentions sure and profitable, and this includes words in conversation. (It’s why we mustn’t gossip or slander, because those words have an equally negative impact as much as wholesome words have their positive effect).

Charles Spurgeon never knew the following anecdote until the end of his life, though the incident occurred at the beginning of his pastorate. The following are his own words from “The Autobiography of Charles Haddon Spurgeon“.

THE FAST-DAY SERVICE AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

During the time of our sojourn at the Surrey Gardens, it was my privilege to conduct one service which deserves special mention, for it was the occasion on which I addressed the largest congregation to which I ever preached in any building. This was on Wednesday, October 7, 1857, when 23,654 persons assembled in the Crystal Palace to join in the observance of the day appointed by proclamation “for a solemn fast, humiliation, and prayer before Almighty God: in order to obtain pardon of our sins, and for imploring His blessing and assistance on our arms for the restoration of tranquillity in India”.

[link to Spurgeon’s Fast-Day Service at the Crystal Palace]

About a month previously, in my sermon at the Music Hall on “India’s Ills and England’s Sorrows”, I had referred at length to the Mutiny, and its terrible consequences to our fellow-countrymen and women in the East. The Fast-day had not been proclaimed, but when it was announced, I was glad to accept the offer of the Crystal Palace directors to hold a service in the centre transept of the building, and to make a collection on behalf of the national fund for the sufferers through the Mutiny.

The Lord set His seal upon the effort even before the great crowd gathered, though I did not know of that instance of blessing until long afterwards. It was arranged that I should use the Surrey Gardens pulpit, so, a day or two before preaching at the Palace, I went to decide where it should be fixed; and; in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In one of the galleries, a workman, who knew nothing of what was being done, heard the words, and they came like message from Heaven to his soul. He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God. Years after, he told this story to one who visited him on his death-bed.

 It was a service I was not likely ever to forget, and one result upon my physical frame was certainly very remarkable. I was not conscious, at the close of the service, of any extraordinary exhaustion, yet I must have been very weary, for after I went to sleep that Wednesday night, I did not wake again until the Friday morning. All through the Thursday, my dear wife came at intervals to look at me, and every time she found me sleeping peacefully, so she just let me slumber on until–“Tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep,”

I was greatly surprised, on waking, to find that it was Friday morning; but it was the only time in my life that I had such an experience. Eternity alone will reveal the full results of the Fast-day service at the Crystal Palace.

We never know the effect of words spoken from His word either to the direct listeners in the pew or behind the radio or TV, nor do we know the effect of His word on those we have no idea are listening nearby, or even unseen within in hearing distance, like that workman. Spurgeon didn’t even know the workman was there, the Bible believing pastor didn’t know I was behind the wall, nor did the child in the garden know there was a spiritually agonized sinner named Augustine behind the garden wall.

God is great and His purposes ALWAYS accomplish exactly what He intends. He is worthy of so much praise.

Posted in theology

Jewels #3: Rubies

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Photo by Jason D on Unsplash

The Bible makes mention of many precious and semi-precious stones. I mean, who isn’t curious about the giant pearl as a gate to the heavenly city, said to be over 200 feet high? (Revelation 21:21). Or the foundation of the heavenly city studded with these:

The foundation stones of the city wall were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. (Revelation 21:19-20).

It’s glorious to try and imagine. The things we considered precious and sought after on earth, will simply be construction materials of the heavenly city! The REAL jewel of surpassing value is Jesus. Rubies are nothing compared to Him.

But in earthly economy, we do love jewels. They are beautiful and charming, and we seek after them. How often does the Bible talk about rubies, and in what manner?

In Exodus, the High Priest’s breastplate is studded with rows of gems. The top row is described as having a ruby. The gems were engraved with the names of the 12 tribes. Each gem represented a tribe. (Exodus 28:21, 39:14).

Breastplate reproduction, circa 1900AD. Source

Did you know that before his fall, Lucifer was covered with every gemstone, including the ruby?

“You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared.” (Ezekiel 28:13).

No gemstone can make the corrupt and the evil look any better. For God knows the heart. It is too bad the gems were wasted on Lucifer, his ugliness showed through soon after when he defied God.

The Bible describes “agates” which can be transparent, and “carbuncles”, which literally means sparking gem. If a carbuncle is held up to the sunlight, it glows like a burning coal. The Bible also mentions jewel-like items such as coral and pearls. As for rubies,

“A comparison is made between the value of wisdom and rubies (Job 28:18; Prov. 3:15; 8:11). The price of a virtuous woman is said to be “far above rubies” (Prov. 31:10).” Easton, M. G. (1893). In Illustrated Bible Dictionary

The King James Version & NIV mention that wisdom obtained is more precious than rubies, though other translations use pearls for the jewel, or just the word jewel.

EPrata photo

She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. (Proverbs 3:15)

The same with Proverbs 31:10, describing an excellent wife-

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels (rubies)

The Hebrew and Greek use different words for the various jewels, including ruby. And the words change meaning so it’s hard to get a handle on which verse exactly mans ruby and which doesn’t.

“The exact meaning of the Hebrew word for ruby is uncertain. Some render it “red coral;” others, “pearl” or “mother-of-pearl” says Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature.

As symbols used to compare various concepts, though, using jewels for the comparison is something to which we can all relate. We know that rubies are expensive, rare, and beautiful. To compare wisdom to it is a notion we can intuitively understand.

Do we seek wisdom as much or as cunningly as we seek a ruby for Christmas?

And the idea that gold will be street pavement and rubies are just one of many jewels studding the walls of new Jerusalem, is remarkable. Earth’s economy isn’t heaven’s economy. What is precious here will not be precious there. And why would it? Jesus is the MOST precious in the universe. His beauty the most astonishing. His rarity, the rarest.

Other essays in the series-

Jewels #2: Gold
Jewels #1: Pearls

Posted in theology

Creation Grace: Some beauty to rest your eyes on

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Today just some lighthearted creation grace and beauty.

God made all this in 6 days!! Just think on that!

https://twitter.com/i/status/1518960077385969664

God’s creation is amazing!

“The Indonesian Ayam Cemani chicken, with its unrelenting darkness, is one of the world’s most fascinating chicken breeds. Its feathers are black, but so is its skin, muscles, bones, and organs!” Source in caption.

Source: @BeachDog15

God is amazing. His creation is beautiful and even more amazing, it’s temporary. He will burn it up in a fervent heat, and make all things anew. I wonder what the NEXT world will be like! Paul said even glimpsing the current third heaven was inexpressible. Isaiah saw gems and jewels and creatures up there he could barely comprehend. John too! God’s intellect is bigger than the universe and His mind’s depths are unfathomable. I am grateful that He was mindful of me! And saved my polluted, sinful soul and is transforming it into a thing of beauty.

Have a great day everyone!

Posted in end time, nanotechnology, prophecy

Jewel Series #2: When gold becomes transparent

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

EPrata photo. Goldenrod

Recently I wrote about pearls, and today I’m writing about gold. Many precious and semi-precious gems mentioned in the Bible, and I’m interested in all of them! Next in my Jewels series I’ll write about rubies.

But first, some science. I haven’t written a science essay in a while.

Quantum dots are the new big thing in science, particularly chemistry. Last month two guys just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of and manipulation of “quantum dots.”

“Quantum dots are tiny particles or nanocrystals of a semiconducting material with diameters in the range of 2-10 nanometers (10-50 atoms). They were first discovered in 1980. They display unique electronic properties” Source, Millipore Sigma

“The discovery of quantum dots, and the ability to synthesize such materials with high accuracy but relatively simple chemical methods, is an important step in the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology.” More on the Nobel Prize here.

The ability to construct machines at the sub-atomic level is Nanotechnology. It is engineering at the molecular scale. Molecule by molecule you can build something from the bottom up. Nano-technology is already being applied in medicine and environmental technologies. Nanotechnology is also known as molecular manufacturing.

A mechanical white blood cell attacks bacteria. The bacteria cannot develop immunity to mechanical devices as it would towards a drug

Renowned physics professor Richard Feynman proposed the capability of nanotechnology in 1959, and in every decade since then, advances have been made in the field. That brings us up to last month:

In September 2023, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to “Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov for being pioneers of the nanoworld. The new laureates discovered and developed quantum dots, semiconductors made of particles squeezed so small that their electrons barely have room to breathe. Semiconductors are crystals that help power our electronics. But while traditional crystals may be quite large at the molecular level, a quantum dot consists of just a few thousand atoms squished into a space just a few nanometers across. The difference in size between a quantum dot and a soccer ball is about the same as the difference between a soccer ball and the Earth, the Nobel Foundation said.” Source NY Times.

Targeted drug delivery through nanotechnology

Nano-tech is is a hot topic. Within that field, nano-gold is even hotter. Scientists have discovered that as the gold particle size is decreased, there are many intriguing phenomena which occur.

On the nanoscale, gold becomes transparent! Remind you of any particular verses?

And now, scientists are discovering the uses of matching quantum dots with nano-gold and there are even further discoveries to be made that they say will benefit humankind.

This pdf explains nanogold in laymen’s terms: it’s really interesting and easy to read. Exploring Materials—Nano Gold

If you shrink gold down to a nanoparticle, its properties change dramatically. Its color changes, it becomes a very good conductor. It is no longer a metal – instead it turns into a semiconductor.

Even today, ultra-thin gold is being used on buildings and aircraft windows – thin film of gold display some unusual characteristics. When processed with ultra-thin sheets gold becomes transparent. Windows coated with gold admit light but reflects heat. Therefore, the cockpit windows of modern aircraft are coated with gold, as well as the windows of many new office buildings. (BBC).

Here are the biblical implications of nano-gold!

Have you ever been intrigued by the verse in Revelation 21:21,

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

Or Revelation 21:18,

And the material of the wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold, like pure glass.

How can gold be transparent, you ask? Well, at the nano-level, gold becomes transparent! We didn’t know this until a new millennium, but God always knew this, since He is the author and architect of creation!

Perhaps the references to ‘gold pure as glass’ in those Revelation verses, the only places in the Bible where that combination is mentioned by the way, is meant symbolically. The older Commentary writers struggled with this and most explained the clear gold as the purity of the heavenly dwelling, using the pure gold as reference to New Jerusalem’s cleanness (absence of dirt or sin). And maybe it is.

Or maybe … now that we know of nano-gold’s properties, that it becomes transparent at the sub-molecular level, maybe the verse is meant literally.

Isn’t it interesting that God knows the properties of every single molecule on earth and in heaven. He made the sun, the moon, and the stars. He makes the Aurora Borealis. He makes gold, and He knows that gold can become transparent.

Will man go too far with nano-technology? Will the new advances in “quantum dots” give man the capability of creating a new and unique life forms? Will the nano-universe become man’s Tower of Babel? Time will tell. God will not allow man to intrude into His sphere. He shared Earth with man, putting man on the earth to work the garden and keep it. But it is His earth, His domain to give life and take it away. His domain to create beauty.

As for me, I can’t wait to have a sinless mind. When we ‘get there’ we will be cleansed of sin. I’ll think clearly- not just about difficult subjects like quantum physics or nano-technology, but able to think clearly and sinlessly about God. To SEE our Jesus, to live in His dwelling place, to experience the giant pearl gates and the street of gold, to be with His redeemed forever. What a day that will be!

Further Resources

Pearls in the New Testament

Does heaven literally have streets of gold?

Posted in encouragement, testimony, Uncategorized

Sipping wine in the place where the grape is grown

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In the late 1980s I was inspired by the movie Shirley Valentine, a film that depicted a middle-aged London wife unhappy with her boring husband and her dreary life. “I want to sip wine in the place where the grape is grown” Shirley had said. So she chucked her husband and her life and jetted off to sunny Greece, swam topless, had an affair, and decided to stay. I guess she liked the wine better than her husband.

grapes
Vineyard, Chiusi, Tuscany. EPrata photo

I was very much taken with the notion of changing one’s life. I was entranced by Shirley’s life mantra, of ‘sipping wine in the place where the grape is grown’. I had tried a conventional life, but my husband had chucked me, I was saddled with a house in a dreary climate and three jobs to pay for it. I wanted more. Sipping wine in places where it’s grown was certainly not the dying mill city of snowy Maine. It bespoke of gentle Tuscan hillsides, green California dreams, or Greek whitewashed stucco. What a goal, Shirley, what a goal.

I went to wine places. California, Tuscany, South of France, rolling hills and grape vines abounding. But wine was just wine and the problem was the same. I met my goal. It was empty.

I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. … Ecclesiastes 2:3

What was the meaning of life? Where was permanence, solidity, something that would not disappear in a breath? Something that would give lasting joy, meaning, and purpose? What is man’s chief end??

Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:2-4, 11).

Question. 1. What is the chief end of man?
Answer. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Westminster Shorter Catechism

The Puritan Thomas Watson preached on this in his sermon, Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God

Here are two ends of life specified. 1. The glorifying of God. 2. The enjoying of God.

First. The glorifying of God, 1 Pet. 4:11. “That God in all things may be glorified.” The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. l Cor. 10:31. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living.

The great truth asserted is that the end of every man’s living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.

Q. What is it to glorify God?
A. Glorifying God consists in four things: 1. Appreciation, 2. Adoration, 3. Affection, 4. Subjection. This is the yearly rent we pay to the crown of heaven.

Watson continued in his sermon to explain what and how to appreciate, adore, love, and submit to God.

King Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes concludes with the eternal wisdom:

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of every human being. (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Wine is vanity, travel is vanity. All we do when we relocate is bring our depravity with us. We are the problem. Godless, we are adrift in a sea of evil, wafting from one vain flurry to another. Drifting as dust motes upon an acid air, we leave evil, bring evil, and expire as evil. We believe ourselves to be maidens of rosy blush and coy innocence, when we are simply mud mounds cast upon miry shores. Godless, we are drenched with corruption.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. (Genesis 6:5,12).

When we are saved by His grace through faith, we are cleansed, our sin nature is given a Helper. We are dressed in white robes and stood on our feet, no longer to crawl in the dust like the serpent. We are given a will and testament that promises eternal peace, treasures, crowns, and dwellings in glory with the Savior. Our goal shifts to one of giving Him glory and enjoying Him forever.

What a goal, what a goal.

Posted in theology

How does the Bible describe Weak Women? Strong Women? Part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

By Elizabeth Prata

Yesterday I wrote about what the Bible calls weak women, though the world insists these are in fact strong ladies. They are not. Tune in or read here to see what is really a weak woman in God’s economy.

To summarize: weak women are the ones described in 2 Timothy 3:6, women made weak by their sin and vulnerable to false teachers or false doctrine, led away by their various lusts. When women fall for false teaching, whole households are upset. (Titus 1:11). Weak women are the ones who preach, because women preaching or pastoring in a church is a sin. Strong women kill their sin. Weak women indulge it. They then play the victim.

These women, you notice, focus on their wounds, their offenses, their hurts. They are dissatisfied with their life experiences, and use that as a platform for their ministry. They focus on their gender, and what they can’t have because of their gender, setting aside that God knows best. Jen Wilkin, Beth Moore, Aimee Byrd, Rachel Green Miller, women like that, who preach and teach men, are weakly cooing doves instead of victorious women busy mortifying their sin and exulting in the work Jesus gave them to do for His name.

Who is a strong woman?

Strong women are applauded in the Bible. These women are not strong because they bucked the denominational system and broke their church’s glass ceiling, elbowing the men aside in order to preach or teach. No, these women are strong because they dwell inside the strength of Jesus, content to work for His name in HIS strength and within the sphere He gave them.

Proverbs 31:17, She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong.

Proverbs 31:25: Strength and majesty are her clothing, And she smiles at the future.

Gill’s on Proverbs 31:25, “Strength, not of body, but of mind. … for though she is the weaker vessel, and weak in herself, yet is strong in him; and is able to bear and do all things, with a fortitude of mind to withstand every enemy, and persevere in well doing“

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Power? What power is this we are given? Barnes’ Notes: But of power – Power to encounter foes and dangers; power to bear up under trials; power to triumph in persecutions. That is, it is the nature of the gospel to inspire the mind with holy courage

So let’s take a look at some of these women who labor for her Lord without complaint. They don’t nurture wounds and complain. They get on with things, setting aside their sin and circumstances, to focus totally on Jesus and the work He has set before them.

Who is a strong, wise, faithful, courageous woman in the Bible?

The Proverbs 31 Woman

This woman is strong. She’s strong because she is strong in the Lord. She remains faithful to her sphere, which is the home. Everything she does is at the home or for the home. She is wise, industrious, hard working and above all, gentle and kind. She has earned the respect of her husband and her family (Proverbs 31:28-29), and also her community and beyond (Proverbs 31:31). She is strong because she fears the LORD. (Proverbs 31:30).

ANNA. She is mentioned in Luke 2:36-38.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She did not leave the temple grounds, serving night and day with fasts and prayers. And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak about Him to all those who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Anna saw her widowhood as an opportunity. She chose to dedicate her unexpected and likely unwanted sudden singlehood to the LORD. Despite that era being of high apostasy in the people, and religious hypocrisy in the leaders, Anna retained a strong faith. She overcame her dire circumstances (as widowhood was in those days), trusting totally in the Lord. She proclaimed Him constantly, and taught the women around her faithfully.

Susan Heck is doing the same in these days. She is a modern Anna.

The Woman with a Blood Issue. She is mentioned in Luke 8:43-48, Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34.

In Palestine during Bible times, a woman who bleeds is considered unclean. She must separate from all people, for anything she touches is then considered unclean. She was in a precarious position- separated for 12 years, likely prime childbearing years…either she had a husband and children and could not be with them, (sad!) or she was seeing her potential for marriage and kids dwindle away (also sad!). She was also broke- she spent all her money on doctors and nothing helped. In fact, her bleeding got worse.

Yet she was faithful in waiting for her Messiah. She had heard of Jesus and followed him in the crowds that day. Not even wanting to confront him face to face, she thought, ‘If I just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed”. And she was.

Jesus told her that her faith had made her well. He tenderly called her “Daughter”, something no other woman was called in the New testament by Jesus.

She hadn’t given up despite her infirmity, and despite the fact that doctors had let her down and she might have even felt seemingly God had let her down. She didn’t complain, but had faith to pursue her Messiah, and humility to just touch His hem. She was strong.

In modern days, Helen Howarth Lemmel was born in 1863. She showed a talent for music and singing and her parents had means to nurture this talent. In her adulthood, Helen toured with Gospel musicians, then became a vo­cal mu­sic teach­er at the Moody Bi­ble In­st­itute in Chi­ca­go. She married a wealthy European, but then Helen’s charmed life took a tragic turn. She became afflicted with blindness. And, her husband abandoned her as a result.

It is here that Helen’s strength in the Lord showed through.

Retiring from Moody she settled in Seattle. She then became a hymnologist, writing over 400 hymns. She was full of life and hope and love for the Lord, and this reflected in her music. If you ever sing, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth shall grow strangely dim, In the light of his glory and grace”, that was Helen’s lyric. Far from settling into maudlin moaning about abuse or not being acknowledged in a car (as Beth Moore wrote), Helen surmounted her circumstances in His strength, and wrote hymn after hymn extolling her savior Jesus. She died in 1961, just before her 98th birthday. Her earthly life might not have turned out the way she had wanted, but she pivoted and praised the Lord as long as she had voice.

Joni Eareckson Tada is infirm, in a wheelchair and battling bouts of recurring cancer, but uncomplaining and praising her Lord with all her strength and soul. So was DebbieLynne Kespert, who is in glory now, but persevered through her severe infirmities to praise the Lord constantly. She was strong in the Lord. They were not victims of their disease nor victims of their life circumstances. They are/were strong women in the Lord.

Marie Durand: Arrested in 1730 (unknown specifically why, but for a religious reason) and placed in the Tower of Constance, Marie Durand stayed jailed for 38 years. Every day the jailers came in to her cell and asked her to abjure (renounce her faith) and every day she said NO. She scratched RESISTER on the stone wall of her cell with her knitting needles. Marie ministered to other ladies in jail, helping them write letters home, and encouraging them in the faith. Marie was eventually released in 1776, and given a 200 livre pension- which she shared with a neighbor. She resisted claiming victimhood, resisted caving in to another Gospel, resisted complaining about her surroundings. She stayed strong in the Lord to the end.

There are so many women who are Godly-strong in the Lord. Mary mother of Jesus, Phoebe, Dorcas…Gladys Aylward, Corrie ten Boom, Elisabeth Elliot. And Erin Coates.

In the winter of 2021 when the alleged “pandemic” hit in Canada, churches were ordered to enforce masking procedures and place attendance limits. Pastor James Coates refused and was jailed for 35 days. The church was fenced by police and locked. Members of GraceLife church simply met in another, secret location.

Meanwhile James’ wife Erin, became The Persistent Widow. (Luke 18:1-8). She stood on a truck bed outside the jail, and with a megaphone, spoke of Jesus, urged people to open their churches, and advocated for the Gospel.

It was a tense time. Nobody knew how the tyrants would react- would they jail her too? Would they fine her for lots of money? How would the news outlets portray her? None of that mattered. Erin Coates stood on that truck bed with a megaphone calling for justice. Calling for people to know her Savior. She wanted the Gospel to go out in open churches. She was no victim, no wounded bird moaning about being oppressed or belittled. She was a lioness, strong in the Lord.

CONCLUSION

Take heart, sister. We are already strong in the Lord. We have His indwelling Spirit, His power, His Bible. We have the mechanism of prayer, honed discernment, and an eagerly awaited place in heaven at the Banquet. Our strength comes from Jesus, and our efforts in His strength for His name.

None of the women mentioned in this essay woke up one day thinking they would be mentioned in the annals of the Bible or Church History. They simply took one step at a time, obeying His commands and working within their sphere, doing the next thing.

A strong women in the Lord kills her sin, is diligent in her spiritual disciplines, and stays in her lane. Jesus gave us everything in totality, because He gave us Himself.

Part 1-

How does the Bible describe Weak Women? Strong Women?

Posted in theology

How does the Bible describe Weak Women? Strong Women?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We need godly examples of women who are strong in godly ways. These women who are strong in the right ways aren’t seen by many. This is either because the culture tries to hide them from us, or because they are truly godly, and thus are doing their work in humble, background ways and don’t seek promotion or limelight.

There are many weak women in Christianity too, and many of these ARE seen.

Weakness: A lack of strength, whether physical or spiritual. Scripture attributes weakness to human sin and foolishness and urges believers to find their true strength in God alone. ~Dictionary of Bible Themes

The weak women I am referring to we see raised up on influential platforms are paper tigers, these are not the actual strong women of God. They are in fact weak women. They use their influence to publicly nurse wounds and have navel-gazing psychology sessions they call Bible lessons. They have confounded the sisterhood with an errant notion of what “strong” means.

But how to tell the difference? Let’s have some biblical clarity on what these terms mean in God’s economy.

These are not strong Christian women. These women are what the world says is a strong woman.

“But I do want to say that I have always been strong-willed.” Beth Moore

Weak women give in to what they want, whether God wants it for them or not. Weak women give in to sin. In many of the cases, these weak women want to preach- which is sin.

The Bible declares one type of weak woman:

For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, (2 Timothy 3:6).

The context here is that Paul is writing to Timothy that in the last days difficult times will come. Then Paul lists an astonishing array of sins which will come to characterize the era, including false teachers who insinuate themselves into the church and capture weak women. The false teachers do this because it is a help to satan to have weak women doing his evil bidding. These women are easy to capture.

Different translations of the verse verse also use the words gullible, vulnerable, idle, or silly. What makes these women weak, idle, silly, vulnerable or gullible? SIN.

Silly women led away in their sin.

Titus 1:11 says the same, these false teachers aim directly for these women. In the Titus verse, they do so successfully and “disrupt whole households”.

Warning for Christian women: Sin makes us silly, weak, and vulnerable to false teaching. Repent often!

Barnes’ Notes explains about these weak women who are ‘laden with sins’ – “With so many sins that they seem to be “burdened” with them. The idea is, that they are under the influence of sinful desires and propensities, and hence, are better adapted to the purposes of deceivers“. … Led away with diverse lusts – “With various kinds of passions or desires – epithumias – such as pride, vanity, the love of novelty, or a susceptibility to flattery, so as to make them an easy prey to deceivers.”

Their sin has made their mind weak and their morals corrupt. These weak women have given in to pride, ambition, flattery. I liked Barnes’ note that these weak women are also ensnared by “novelty“. How many religious trends do we see women jumping onto? Blue bracelets, Prayer rugs, Contemplative prayer, Promise Keepers, Purpose Driven, Daniel fasting, Lectio Divina, direct revelation … anything new comes along and these weak women leap onto it as if it’s the Second Coming.

Before I move on to describing a Godly strong woman, I would like to mention that the weak women, especially those in the preaching pack, do two things that are offensive. The first is that rather than ensure their behavior or their worldview is not borne out of sin, these women co-opt God Himself into their sin and assign Him as the cause of it. I am highly offended by this.

Here is one example: Beth Moore said of the early days of her preaching to men, back when she had two young children at home by the way, “I didn’t have some big plan,” Moore said. “I just knew God was calling me to take one step of obedience, and that’s all I’ve been doing ever since.”

Strong women stay in their lane, content with their God-given roles. Weak women stray from their lane, then complain about the wreck in the road hindering their progress.

Weak women put the onus for their sin onto God. They are so weak they can’t or won’t take responsibility for their choices. They deflect, saying, “oh lil me was content stayin’ at home but God called me into this, who am I to disobey?’ I have seen this excuse from Jennie Allen, Beth Moore, Christine Caine (‘it’s a calling‘), and lots of other women in the pack. They don’t say what’s really going on: “I wanted to preach, so I did.” Weak women give in to their sinful desires. (Genesis 2:18; Genesis 3:16b). Weak women blame and deflect. (Genesis 3:13).

The second offensive thing to me that weak women do is harp on **”abuse”. Abuse would be anything to these weak women, from truly awful sexual abuse, domestic violence, to being ignored in a car (a complaint Beth Moore actually wrote about). Or of not being thanked for wearing flats so the men around her would feel taller. (Another one from Moore).

The **abuse focus is truly a grief to me. It’s awful how these weak women have twisted abuse to their own corrupt ends.

For example, have you noticed a lot of these women claiming to be ‘strong’ are in what’s known as the “Survivor Camp”? They constantly refer to men as abusers or oppressors, and constantly bring up their own abuse or others’. These women who preach & teach sinfully, insinuate that every man sitting in a pew is an abuser just waiting for his moment to become a violent oppressor against innocent women who unhappily meander into his proximity. Sometimes they accuse whole denominations! Beth Moore did.

And Aimee Byrd-

“She admits over and over in writing and interview that her impetus for writing has often been situations in which she feels offended as a woman, slighted, or personally neglected”… her teaching is ungodly: it does not arise from unreserved faith in God’s Word, but from dissatisfaction with her experiences.” By Shane D. Anderson

Rachel Green Miller worries about women who are “belittled…” Oy.

I hope and pray that if any of these Survivor type preaching platformed weak women reading this who are supposedly advocating for the “abused,” that tomorrow when I post what a TRULY strong Christian woman is, they would be embarrassed for their ridiculous and petty complaints.

They are weak females whose basis for ministry rests on a wounded dove cooing weakly in the dirt, or is saturated with nursing old wounds they love to pick over. These women do not base their ministry on the foundation of the transcendent Rock who endured all the abuse, pain, loneliness, neglect, rejection, hatred and reviling there ever was or will be.

These weak women laden with sins are just snowflakes, ready to melt at the tiniest offense

No one knows more than Jesus how it feels to experience all those things. Yet packs of women trade on their feelings as wounded snowflakes and exploit their hurts, for what? Attention, fame, power, and/or money.

Weak women are “led away”. It’s easy to give in to sin. It’s hard to subdue one’s sin, mortify it. It’s difficult to keep in the prescribed roles and bounds Jesus has for us. It takes a strong women to resist sin. A weak woman succumbs to them.

Tomorrow: What is a strong woman according to the Bible?

Further Resources:

Owen Strachan: Are Godly Men Weak or Strong?

**RE ‘abuse’: I am aware that true abuse exists. I am quite familiar myself with various kinds of abuse. Quite. I am sensitive to the hurts that various kinds of abuse cause. I know the impacts of true abuse are wide-ranging and long-lasting. I am not dismissing true abuse. I am offended by the USE of abuse as a cover for sin, as an excuse for behavior, or as a merchandising of a ministry.

The reason I don’t speak of the various kinds of abuse I personally have endured, is because it DOESN’T MATTER. It is of no consequence. It doesn’t figure in.

Why? First of all, Jesus took the wrath for anyone who abuses but later comes to faith. Abusers are usually not saved people, who can’t help their lusts. If they are saved people, we need to forgive, and remember that Jesus took ALL the abuse on the cross, including separation from the Father who turned His face away. How does my experience of abuse compare to that?

Secondly, these snowflake ladies turn any little bump in the road into abuse. They have abused the word abuse so that anything that offends them, they claim is abuse. It’s not.

Thirdly, others have suffered much more than me, and not because of another’s sin, which is to be expected in the world, but for the Name. Paul, for example, experienced abuse; physical and spiritual. Stephen was martyred. Silas went to jail with Paul. Mary mother of Jesus endured it. And many others in history. You will see some of them in tomorrow’s post.

So, ladies, let it go. Yes, you were hurt, so are MOST PEOPLE. You’re not special with your pet abuse you carry around. Lay it down at the cross. As Jimmy Buffett said, ‘Breathe in, breathe out, move on’.

Posted in encouragement, theology

Why didn’t God stop Eve from eating the fruit?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I was listening to a Grace Community Church Question and Answer session. I always appreciate how John MacArthur can sum up complex theological thoughts and issues so succinctly. I also enjoy the variety of questions. There came a question from what sounded like a very young boy.

Q. [W]why didn’t Jesus stop Eve at the garden of Eden when she ate the fruit? Like, I mean, pow, He can just stop it like that. Why didn’t He?

The audience laughed in delight at the boy’s voice, obviously filled with pique and awe, and the profundity of his query. The answer was equally profound. Follow the link above to listen or read.

I got to thinking more about that moment. We often field a question such as that one. We also tend to ask why didn’t God erase Adam and Eve and start humankind over again? But it occurred to me that this next question isn’t always asked, ‘After the Fall, why did God continue to reveal Himself?’

After the Fall He could have turned His back on humans, and returned to His perfect communion within the Trinity. He could have shrugged, left us to our own devices on earth all our lives and then pow, when we die we wake up in hell, not knowing it even existed.

God didn’t do that.

We often field the question, ‘If God is so loving why does he send people to hell?’ He does that so that His power and holiness and justice and righteousness can be magnified. But He doesn’t do so as a bait and switch or a trick. He has revealed Himself to us in His word, in His creation, in His Son, and in His elect through the Spirit. They know hell exists. They know they deserve to go there. (Romans 1:21-23).

Our God, your God whether you believe He exists or not, loves His world and continues to work His sovereign plan of salvation in it upon those whom He has foreknown. He will be glorified. (Isaiah 49:3, Ezekiel 28:22, Haggai 1:8, John 12:28).

He will be glorified. And He chose to do it starting with a snake, a piece of fruit, and a woman.

Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea. (Isaiah 24:15).

Further Reading:

Sermon related to this issue: From Dust to Glory

Posted in theology

Aimee Byrd should be in your rear view mirror by now

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I wrote 2 weeks ago that @aimeebyrdPYW seems to be apostatizing. You can read it here: We say Goodbye to Aimee Byrd

More bad news confirming Aimee’s drift has emerged. In her newest essay published October 10, Aimee lauds Catholic mystic Teresa of Avila. According to the Roman Catholic Church, Teresa was a bridal mystic; this is a woman who so intensely desires God she has bodily ecstatic experiences she later writes about, using language of erotic passion.

THE ECSTASY OF SAINT TERESA. RENAISSANCE: ITALY, this is a description of a sculpture from the artist Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini done in 1645-1652 AD.
“Saint Teresa’s love of God and her desire for spiritual union with him found expression in a vision in which an angel pierced her heart with a golden spear and sent her into a trance. The erotic intensity of her vision is vividly suggested in this image by Teresa’s swooning expression and languid pose, and by the deep folds of drapery, which convey her agitation.”

If that kind of language makes you uncomfortable, as it should, then by all means refrain from reading any of Teresa of Avila’s actual writing because the descriptions of her mystical and ecstatic unions with her Groom get more obvious.

Teresa was a female ascetic, and a female version of a monk, and a mystic bride. This means not only does she swoon with erotic passion for her god, but also has constant visions and visitations from ‘him’.

That Aimee Byrd is reading one of Teresa of Avila’s books and is entranced with the notion of this heretic’s outlook on religion is more proof that this once solid Bible teacher is apostatizing.

In her essay, Aimee promotes Teresa of Avila, says she is enjoying reading Teresa’s book, then Aimee talks of our ‘souls’ deepest longing’. No. Avoid Aimee!

Tim Challies wrote a series on the False Teachers, and included Teresa of Avila as one of the more famous false teachers of history. You can read his essay here. And let us not believe that the influence of these female mystics has waned. Challies noted, “We can also spot her direct or indirect influence in the works of bestselling authors like Sarah Young (Jesus Calling) and Ann Voskamp (One Thousand Gifts).”

I wrote about Bridal Mysticism here: What is bridal mysticism?

And I did a 4-part series on some of these mystics, not Teresa, but others, including-

Introduction
Julian of Norwich (1343 – after 1416) Book: The Showings of Divine Love
Catherine of Siena (1347 – 1380). Book: The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena
Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179). Book: Scivias
Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303 – 1373) Book: Celestial Revelations

As for Aimee, I read in her writings a longing, one that she herself claims to possess. That she longs for the One True God is obvious, and also obvious is that she does not have Him. If you feel led, please pray for Aimee, that her soul’s deepest longing will be satisfied by having been given the gift of repentance, that her soul will be saved, and that Jesus would get the glory.