encouragement – Page 63

It was an ordinary day, and the woman was thirsty

Posted on June 27, 2016June 27, 2016 by elizabethprata

The woman was a harlot. There was a moral code and the woman fell far below it. So far below that she couldn’t even see the underside of it anymore. Jumping from husband to husband, bed to bed, with or without benefit of divorce, man after man. She was a slut. Her sins were monumental, public, known to all, and she was regarded with disgust and hatred. She knew it. She didn’t care. She did care.

She was loathed, and also lonely, marginalized, and excluded. The other women in town didn’t talk to her, so that her taint wouldn’t infect them. There were cliques, all right, and she was definitely not part of any of them. She wasn’t invited to baby showers or to weddings or to sewing circles. She wasn’t even welcome at the well, at dusk when the other women went to draw in the cool of the day. The looks…the turned backs… the whispers. Once, even that fight when they said those nasty things. She never went back.

Continue reading “It was an ordinary day, and the woman was thirsty” →

encouragement, Uncategorized

Truth is the inseparable ally of love

Posted on June 26, 2016June 26, 2016 by elizabethprata

Have you noticed that satan has co-opted another word from our Biblical culture and twisted it to suit his own ends. We lost gay, rainbow, hate, tolerance, judge, and now love.

Orlando vigils: ‘We will conquer that hate with love’
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch calls for ‘love’ in aftermath of Orlando massacre
Social media shows outpouring of love for Orlando massacre victims
Thousands Attend Orlando Vigil To Prove That Love Wins
After Orlando: Love Wins, But When?

The last one on the list is a ‘Religion Dispatch’ from Huffington Post, whereupon the author asks aloud how God could let such evil happen, and calls those who had been killed inside the homosexual nightclub martyrs of freedom. The inference is that they died for the cause of freedom, but it’s only the world’s definition of freedom… he meant freedom to live in sexual sin, which is abominable before the Lord.

Continue reading “Truth is the inseparable ally of love” →

encouragement, Uncategorized

Encouragement: How many will be in heaven?

Posted on June 24, 2016June 24, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’ve looked at the numbers and have been discouraged by the seeming few that will be in heaven. The proportions of saved to lost seems wide. All the world died in the flood…except for 8. All four cities of the plain were smote … only four people escaped … and one of them turned out to be false. The road is broad and many are on it, while the path is narrow and few find it.

I’ve written about that proportion here

I’m looking at the numbers and they don’t look good

and here

Many ‘Christians’ will be left out of heaven

I’ve also been discouraged by the lack of solid churches and the difficulty in finding them. Many of you have written to me about the same thing.

In listening to Justin Peters last night teach about child conversions, he said the encouraging regarding both topics. In his lesson he also named off a list of many solid churches he is personally familiar with.

It is easy to get discouraged when looking at the broad swathe of Christianity, and it is easy when we see so much heresy, so much compromise even from the supposedly good guys. It’s rampant. But there are good churches out there God does have His people everywhere. They’re not in the limelight, they’re not in the spotlight. … There are good churches, it’s just that they’re in small places. They’re hard to find, but they’re out there.

He said this about numbers in heaven. I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who gets discouraged. I’am also glad to know that I overlooked something. Children who have died will massively add to the number in heaven-

I believe that the best understanding of scripture holds that when a baby, toddler, young child dies, that little one goes to heaven. … Have you ever thought about this? have you ever been discouraged at how few people go to heaven? When you look around the world, there’s 7 billion people on this planet and I think it is safe to say that well under and only probably less than 1% of truly born again, there’s a lot of people who say they’re Christians but they’re not. It can get kind of discouraging can’t it? But you know what? Have you ever thought about how many hundreds of millions or billions of children have died? In a miscarriage, before they were even born? Or how many children have been killed in abortions? Or how many children have died at early ages? Do you know where all those young ones are? They’re in heaven. There’s going to be a lot of folks in heaven! It’s going to be a busy place, with a lot of people in it! (Source)

In the lesson, Peters had previously explained from scripture why he and most others believe that infants, toddlers, and children will be in heaven. There was a biblical context for his statement.

In the United states alone, there have been 60 million abortions in the last 40 years. All those aborted children are in heaven. The worldwide infant mortality rate due to natural causes is also very high. It always has been.

The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births. This rate is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country. The infant mortality rate of the world is 49.4 according to the United Nations and 42.09 according to the CIA World Factbook. The under-5 mortality rate of the world is 73.7 according to the United Nations. (Source)

Praise the Lord, the numbers of departed children I’d overlooked when thinking of heaven massively increases the number that will be there. Bless the Lord, and bless the children waiting for us there (whatever age they will be upon heavenly entry).

encouragement, Uncategorized

Sisters having a tough Father’s Day, you are not orphans

Posted on June 19, 2016June 19, 2016 by elizabethprata

It’s Father’s Day and Facebook is all aglow with well wishes for loving fathers and family photos vintage and current of dads with their happy families. I find this heartwarming. I love seeing pics of dads with daughters proclaiming their father’s virtues.

My experience was different. I didn’t have a loving father and he wasn’t traditionally involved in my life to any appreciable degree. He was a good worker, and intelligent. He created a business from scratch and made a successful go of it. I’m so proud of him for that. He was a raconteur, regaling dinner guests with humorous stories he told in entertaining fashion. But as a father…his virtues take a little longer to discover.

He did provide us a home, and a nice one, too. He paid for my college, no strings, the best gift he he ever gave me. He did keep his promise to financially support us after he and his wife divorced. He helped me financially at periods through my early adult life. He usually remembered my birthday and Christmas with a check, signed “Love, Dad.”

But in all his 81 years of life he never said the important words “I love you.” Not once.

Neither did he show through action any love hidden deeply and unspoken. Despite invitations to personally come to Parents’ Day at College, or the ribbon cutting of my new business or other celebratory things Facebook Fathers seem to enjoy, that was not my lot. Despite tragedies such as unwanted divorce or hospitalization, no father appeared by my bedside or at the lawyer’s to give support. There simply was a great, silent, empty vacuum on the Interstate corridor between his home and mine.

It was kind of a blessing to learn late what kind of relationship other girls had with their dad. I was unaware for a long time of what I had been missing. For example, I had not known that dads and daughters spent time alone together, like having a picnic or going to the movies. I was shocked to learn this. I was never alone with my father, for any reason at any time, casual or scheduled. I literally would not know what to say to him if we ever had been.

He was a man full of laughter during dinner parties but with the family that was another matter. He had a low tolerance for many things, such as noise, questions, failing an unspoken standard, moving his remote control, sitting in his chair, and lots of other stuff. Anger eruptions would occur at any time and send us fleeing to separate quarters to escape the wrath.

As an adult things eased. There was a period of time we were socially friendly. Me and my husband and he and his live-in, long term girlfriend would go out to dinner, sail on his boat, swim in the pool. It was like we were his young friends, not family. I remember one time he was telling a story about kids and we were laughing and laughing at the foibles of this kid he was recalling and the story picked up steam and the laughter got more hilarious and unthinkingly at the end he wiped his eyes and blurted, “I’m glad I never had kids.”

That was how far we were from his heart, so far that we weren’t his children at all. When we were little, we were noisy inconveniences not usually tolerated. As young adults we were a financial obligation. As older adults we were a built-in social network to ease his loneliness. And as a senior, he completed his life-long rejection thus- with disownment.

He not only wrote us off but specifically made note that this was intentional. The last act of Mr Prata regarding his children is an act of bitterness. He wrote an ending to a relationship that wasn’t over yet, but punctuated it anyway with a stroke of a pen.

I’m not writing this out of anger, just sadness. Sadness for him and of what he missed, and what he is missing now. I believe he died outside of the grace of Jesus, and that means he will remember for a punishing eternity the things written here and all the rest of his acts during his 81 years of life, forever. Nothing I could say or do about him is worse than that.

I hope that the silent daughters who are sad on this day looking online or in real life at all the happy dads and daughters would take heart. Coming up is an encouragement.

Daughters of Jesus, we know that the sweetness of a Father that will not reject us nor cast us out of His hand is a balm for the soul where the dad’s love should have been. Sisters who are watching the Facebook wall scroll by with happy cries of well-wishes for dads alive and dads gone on to glory, if that had not been your experience, just remember that we have a Father in Heaven. He has said we cry Abba! Father! for all our needs and upon whom to pour out all our love as he pours out His upon us. He is perfect, having formed us and known us from heart to soul to mind to strength. He is a Dad who sees us, El Roi, whose eyes roam to and fro over the earth “to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9a).

We are His children-

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, (John 1:12)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1).

We are heirs to our Abba-

To redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:5-7)

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:14-19)

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18)

If you have lost your family due to the faith-

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29)

All these promises and more are for us and in us and about us, those who believe. There is much to take heart over. There is everything to be encouraged by in our relationship with the heavenly Father.

If you are not saved by grace of Jesus, and you’re feeling alone on Father’s Day with no father in your life, my deepest empathy goes out to you. I don’t know how you cope with the loss and not have the comfort of Jesus – the true Father – to turn to. If you would like to know something of this sweetness, comfort, and joy, email me. My email is in the “About this blog” tab up top.

With his seething pen, my father sought to obliterate the memory of his children from his heart and to puncture us with a long lasting wound. The irony is, the Lord causes those who reject Him to remember each and every sin of their earthly life, forever, while we, children of God, will not remember sorrows nor shall these things come to mind. (Isaiah 65:17). He will remember forever and lay in an eternal bed of anger and bitterness, while I will forget him and go on in joy and peace with my heavenly Father.

The former sorrows of the earth, under the fall, shall be so far from recurring, that their very remembrance shall be obliterated by the many mercies I will bestow on the new earth (Re 21:4-27). Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on Is 65:17.

So take heart, sad or mourning or grieving daughters! I am happy to say that it has become my joy to rely on the love of my real Father and it will remain so all through eternity. I have a Father, and every day is Happy Father’s Day. You do too.

encouragement, Uncategorized

Having trouble slaying sin? Being unduly tempted lately? Check out these resources

Posted on June 18, 2016June 18, 2016 by elizabethprata

Slaying sin is the daily responsibility of the Christian, in submission to the Holy Spirit, Who is the mechanism for its effectual execution.

John MacArthur said that if you are comfortable with your spiritual growth, that is a very dangerous place to be. Dear Sister, if you’ve grown lax or complacent, as I tend to be from time to time, here are some resources for you to help you revive the urgency in our daily endeavor to kill the sin within us and to resist the temptations that come with it. And as Dr Barnhouse reminded us, when you flee sin, make sure that you’re running toward Christ.

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How To Slay Sin (Part 3) Essay by John MacArthur

Let’s take a look at step three in slaying sin: Fill your mind with Scripture.

John Bunyan, author of the classic Pilgrim’s Progress, wrote in the cover of his Bible, “Either this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” Bunyan understood what many in the war against sin don’t—the Word of God is the weapon you simply cannot neglect.

Have you ever considered some of the symbols the Bible uses to describe itself? Scripture is called a light, hammer, fire, rock, mirror, milk, seed and water. Each highlights a unique characteristic of God’s Word, but by far the most memorable metaphor of the Bible is a sword (Ephesians 6:17). Any idea why?

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Temptation and How to Meet It, Sermon by Dr Donald Grey Barnhouse. In this teaching, Dr Barnhouse gives three ways to defeat temptation. The Youtube review of the sermon states,

At the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship conference in Urbana 1957. Brilliantly useful teaching of a caliber seldom found in modern sermons.

You can listen to the full sermon below, or read it as a summary at Christianity.com

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Spurgeon on slaying sin, from his sermon The Old Man Crucified, #882:

if you will not have death to sin, you shall have sin to death. There is no alternative, if you do not die to sin you shall die for sin; and if you do not slay sin, sin will slay you.

More here:
The Old Man Crucified, extended quote from Spurgeon’s sermon #882

Even more here:
Full sermon The Old Man Crucified, Spurgeon #882

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JC Ryle’s book titled Holiness is generally acknowledged to be one of the faith’s top books on the subject. Buy it from this excellent publisher, Banner of Truth.

‘…this book is simply the best of Ryle the Puritan-type pastor. Real Christians will find it a gold mine, a feast, a spur and a heart-warmer, food, drink, medicine, and a course of vitamins, all in one.’ — J.I. PACKER

BOOK DESCRIPTION-
Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots is perhaps J. C. Ryle’s best-known and, arguably, best-loved book. Although many things have changed since 1877, when this book was first published, one thing remains the same: ‘real practical holiness does not receive the attention it deserves.’ It was to remedy this attention deficit, and to counter false teaching on this most important subject, that Ryle took up his pen.

The sword is only good if your hand wields it, and we don’t wield it with accuracy and precision if we are not studying it first.

encouragement, Uncategorized

The Joy of Knowing the Lord

Posted on June 17, 2016June 19, 2016 by elizabethprata

I was a craven sinner

a persistent sinner
a long-time sinner
a depraved sinner
a mocking sinner
an unrepentant sinner

and yet you, Most High God, condescended to enter this world of sin to save us. Lord, you broke my heart. You broke my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh, soft, beating in love for Abba and Your ways. (Ezekiel 11:19).

You are a Friend to Sinners, compassionate in all your paths, the beloved Groom. The Woman at the Well said, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.” (John 4:29a). All I ever did was evil. (Genesis 6:5). And yet You loved me while I was still a sinner. (Romans 5:8)

You have set around me a sacred circle, outside of which are cares and burdens, worries and problems. Inside is your throne of peace, love, and Fatherly care. Let me always to come to You boldly humble, timorously brave, to the Father of Lights and the Ancient of Days. Inside this circle is all, because You are there.

I recall my worldly days outside the circle, wandering and unhappy, yet sinning all the more, never seeing your circle of color, the rainbow of covenant, as shining gloriously bright. (Revelation 4:3). My eyes were dim and blind. It is You, Lord Most High, Abba, who brought me in, washed me with Your blood, and saved me from the penalties of all my evil deeds. You gave me Your righteousness, a soft heart longing for purity, and a mind of transformation.

You gave me grace.

Spurgeon said:

The other evening I was riding home after a heavy day’s work. I felt very wearied, and sore depressed, when swiftly, and suddenly as a lightning flash, that text came to me, “MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE.” (2 Cor. 12:9). I reached home and looked it up in the original, and at last it came to me in this way, “MY grace is sufficient for thee”; and I said, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst our laughing! I never fully understood what the holy laughter of Abraham was until then. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.

It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and Father Thames [River, London] said, “Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee.

Or, it seemed after the seven years of plenty, a mouse feared it might die of famine; and Joseph might say, “Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee.”

Again, I imagined a man away up yonder, in a lofty mountain, saying to himself, “I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year, I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere,” but the earth might say, “Breathe away, O man, and fill the lungs ever, my atmosphere is sufficient for thee.”

Oh, brethren, be great believers! Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your souls!

Let this little fish never say, I have drunk enough.
Let this little mouse never say, I have eaten my fill.
Let this man never say, I do not need this air any more.

How foolish! Breathe deeply the Words of Life, for where else would I go? (John 6:68). I am in the circle of Your love and the days of wrath have ceased for me. Where else would I go? Let me not wander. This circle of grace is enough.

conception, encouragement, jesus, life, science

Flash of light announces life

Posted on May 2, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5)

This actually happened. It happened the way the Bible records it happening. God created everything. With HIS VOICE!

Awesome.

Anyway, we read in 1 John 1:5, This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

God is light. He is unapproachable light. (1 Timothy 6:16).

I read a cute story in the Science section this week. You might have read it as well. It’s this:

Human life begins with ‘flash of light,’ claim scientists

A “flash of light” marks the beginning of life in humans, according to a study conducted by researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago. Scientists were able to capture in video the light or “fireworks” that break out when a human egg is activated by sperm, which mimics the process of conception. During fertilization, the amount of calcium in the egg increases, and the egg releases zinc. As the zinc is released, it bursts into light. This happens every time conception occurs.

It makes sense that light accompanies life, as we read in John 1:1-3

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

God is life. God is Light. God ordains all life, creates it, sustains it, numbers it, and calls it home.

Human life begins with a flash of Light. God is good.

encouragement, ephesians, martyn lloyd-jones, preaching, predestination

The greatest sentence in the entire Bible?

Posted on April 30, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

“It is always a foolish thing to say that anyone thing in scripture that one sentence is greater than anything else. But I think we can safely say this; that this is certainly the greatest sentence in the whole Bible.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that quite possibly the opening sentence of Ephesians 1 is the most important in the entire Bible.

“Once more, we are looking at this great sentence, which starts as you remember, at the beginning of verse 3, and runs right on until the end of verse 14.”

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:3-14).

Find out why Dr. MLJ believes this, here in his great sermon from Ephesians 1:11-14, “We…Ye Also“

advice, encouragement, ministry, women

Advice for online Christian ministry women

Posted on April 27, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I try to maintain a social media presence only to the extent that it serves me posting things about Jesus. That’s my main focus. Occasionally I become aware that there are other venues out there besides Facebook, Blogger and Twitter for social media engagement, There’s LinkedIn, which I haven’t used, new things like Snapchat, Periscope, and Meerkat, but those platforms have content expiration dates, which defeats the purpose of having a long-term stable platform onto which a person can find my material years later. There’s Instagram, but I don’t have a mobile phone. There’s Peach, Kik, YikYak, Bebo and lots of new, trendy platforms coming along now. The wheel is getting bigger all the time, even as they claim the world is getting smaller.

Just as you do when starting a business, I think that incorporated Christian bloggers or even lone Christian bloggers with a particular mission in focus need to have at least a mental “business plan.” Personally I am gearing up to incorporate simply because I want to sell an eBook or two and being incorporated is the safest way to go when it comes to tax time.

However, I only investigate using a new social media to the extent that it prayerfully seems to serve my two purposes, which are, make Christ and His glories known; and to offer credible resources that connect new Christians, mature Christian women, and seekers, to quality content that will help them grow. That’s my ‘business plan’. Those two. Every once in a while I reassess to make sure those are still two viable goals and if I am still tracking in them. It’s easy to drift in ministry, even online ministry. Especially online ministry!

It is so easy to wander into a Jen Hatmaker or Glennon Melton or She Reads Truth blog and think one is reading about Christ, and thus the new Christian babe gets confused from the start. I’ll always be grateful that after a false walk with Joel Osteen my first months out of the gate after the cross, I landed at John MacArthur’s Grace To You radio program and there I am still. Who MacArthur quoted, I read. Who he mentioned, I followed up with. And so it expanded from there to Phil Johnson, Don Green, Justin Peters, Boice, Barnhouse, Shepherds Conference speakers like Mohler, Lawson, Begg, Pennington, Sproul, etc, and you see how the circle expands from there.

Get lumped in to a Voskamp blog or study and you wind up with Angie Smith, Shauna Niequist, Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer and the rest. The circle goes both ways. It is wise not to get drawn-in to a bad one. Those kinds of circles shrink around you like a boa constrictor, attempting to squeeze the life from you.

It is also very easy to become distracted from whatever is the main, online goal you have set before you. The Lord has allowed me to organize my life in a way that I have a stable, fulfilling job which salary sustains me in a reasonably frugal way yet not left wanting, and leaves me energy afterward to do my real work, which is write. I employ the gift of the Spirit of edification and discernment in my writing and this serves me in my local church, in and among the women with whom I work, and in online-only relationships. Those are my three spheres. I look at my life as one of service where my 9-5 job is not my real job but only the vehicle that allows me to study, worship, attend church, charitably support, and minister. Like Paul’s tentmaking. (Acts 18:3-4).

It is good for a Christian woman who maintains an online presence occasionally to ask herself some questions. Just as we are to test ourselves occasionally to see if we are in the faith, (2 Corinthians 13:5), so too, like careful stewards of the “Father’s Business Plan” we need to make sure we are still on His point.

1. Am I still in the center line of His will? Years ago if you’ve started a blog, or an online endeavor of some kind, like a newsletter, or an online course etc, if it does not seem to be working any more it is OK to reassess. We usually maintain the same gifts throughout our lives but sometimes He might want you to concentrate on one of your other gifts entirely, or use the same gift in a different way. See below regarding Benziger and Lesley.

2. Am I still effective at this? I am not thinking of results. Results are the Lord’s. I’m thinking, it is still a joy to perform the online ministry? Do you approach it with dread? Prayerlessness? Bitterness? Habit? Or does it still fulfill you spiritually? Bring tears to your eyes for the small mercies and quiet triumphs? For even one lost or questioning soul connected? Do you still have an awe or fear of the Lord when you perform it?

3. Does it seem like the Lord is moving to allow time for your online endeavor, or is it taking away from the family? Have the number of family complaints increased lately? Have other more important or more local things suffered as you’ve devoted time to the online world? When you’re on the online world, do you drift away from the ministry and become unfocused and waste time? Are you staying up late to hurriedly finish because you’ve wasted time online during the day instead? Do you feel the quality of the work is still good enough to lay at the Lord’s feet?

4. Have I compromised? Have I succumbed to neediness or wanting acceptance so I have linked to blogs that are not as edifying, or quoted a few popular females in the dazzling Christian celebrity world, simply to get attention or hits? It’s easy to do that. Compromise is always incremental. you don’t wake up one day with a blogroll full of Raechel Myers’ or Jen Hatmaker links, it happens slowly, then all at once. Have I avoided hard topics because I don’t ant controversy or am I still writing or ministering without fear of favor, throughout the entire Bible?

These are just a bare few ideas about us women maintaining an online ministry. Tim Challies wrote a while back about conservative women’s blogs that have gone cold. It might be worth a re-read. Several male bloggers, podcasters, and other online presences have recently announced they are taking time off, or redirecting their energies elsewhere for a while. Sometimes that happens. As I said, when one becomes unfocused and “diversifies” in one’s ministries too quickly. Sometimes it happens because other life events simply come along. It is OK to let it go, as the overused saying, well, goes. It is OK to reassess and prayerfully decide to take a step back.

Or perhaps the Lord is moving you in a direction that will stretch you and magnify Him even more!

Sometimes even more joyfully, reassessment means to take a step forward! Blogger Erin Benziger announced she was starting Equipping Eve, and twice monthly radio show under the auspices of No Compromise Radio/Pastor Mike Abendroth. That led to an opportunity to lead a discernment talk at the Answers for Women: Discern Conference. Michelle D. Lesley announced in January of this year a slow-down in daily blog writing and a restructuring of the blog’s content in order to focus on a book project. Recently she also announced she was organizing a conference for women. She also began to solicit guest bloggers. Even a bit further back Tim Challies allowed for sponsorship of his blog and the guest posts that come with it, in order to aid him in a restructuring of content and his own daily tasks.

Our lives in service are fluid and at His behest. If you’re a woman reading this, your first point of service is your own devotion to Jesus in reading the Word, prayer, and home. Then faithful worship and service at church, and to the saints there. And then online activity/ministry.

Stay prayerful and intentional with your online ministry. Try not to diversity too fast. A while back an offer came along but I humbly declined it because I felt I was not up to the task. And that is the crux of it. We don’t do this for ourselves.We don’t do this even for the sisters. We do this for Jesus. I want this to be my best work, all the time. Because He is worth my best efforts.

bible, bunch of everlastings, encouragement, frank boreham, living, scripture

The text that enlivened Luther, and you should know of the man who wrote about it, Frank W. Boreham

Posted on April 26, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A remarkable book called A bunch of everlasting; or, Texts that Made History was written by
by Frank Boreham, who lived from 1871-1959. He published this remarkable book in 1920. The reason it is called ‘texts that made history’ is because Boreham is exploring the scripture that the recipient identifies as the one that broke through his dead soul to revive it to regeneracy. Conversion stories are always wonderful to read, and his book is full of them. He delves into how the verse woke up a dead heart and it’s a joy to read over and over how sometimes just a snippet of God’s word regenerated a soul.

In Martin Luther’s case, the Light dawned with the sudden understanding of the just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17,Galatians 3:11,Hebrews 10:38)

Before we get to the everlasting text, here is about the author of the book, a short bio from the Frank Boreham Tribute site, regarding this Christian Preacher and prolific writer you should know. He died on May 18, 1959, in Melbourne, Australia.

Source

Dr. Frank William Boreham (FWB) was born March 3rd 1871 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Although being raised in a Christian home, it wasn’t until he left home to take up employment in London that he shortly afterward became a Christian. His conversion was so dramatic that he quickly sensed a call to be a preacher. But he realised that his ability to preach would be greatly enhanced by improving his ability to write. He also reckoned that a preacher’s reach could be dramatically improved by writing. This resulted in him being published at quite a young age and gaining a profile that many preachers with much more experience had not yet attained. He was given a scholarship by the great Charles Haddon Spurgeon to Pastors College where his four year program was cut short when the College asked him to go to New Zealand and join the growing band of Baptist pioneers in a small town outside of Dunedin called Mosgiel. This town was largely the making of F.W. Boreham. It became the backdrop to many of his 55 best selling books that would go on to attain sales and re-sales of what is estimated conservatively to be around 20 million copies. Toward the end of his life, FWB was honoured by Queen Elizabeth with an OBE for Services to Preaching and Literature. He is regarded by Banner of Truth Trust as one of the 20 greatest preachers of all time.

One of the 20 greatest preachers of all time? Why didn’t I know this sooner! As Warren Wiersbe said, “I trust that a generation ignorant of Frank W. Boreham has not arisen.” I will do my best to commend to you this writer, preacher, and Christian of excellent quality so as the Body, or even one of us, might become edified.

Now here is the excerpt from Boreham’s book, A Bunch of Everlasting and the text that awoke Martin Luther-

It was the unveiling of the Face of God! Until this great transforming text flashed its light into the soul of Luther, his thought of God was a pagan thought. And the pagan thought is an unjust thought, an unworthy thought, a cruel thought.

Look at this Indian devotee! From head to foot he bears the marks of the torture that he has inflicted upon his body in his frantic efforts to give pleasure to his god. His back is a tangle of scars. The flesh has been lacerated by the pitiless hooks Martin Luther’s by which he has swung himself on the terrible churuka. Iron spears have been repeatedly run through his tongue. His ears are torn to ribbons. What does it mean? It can only mean that he worships a fiend! His god loves to see him in anguish! His cries of pain are music in the ears of the deity whom he adores! This ceaseless orgy of torture is his futile endeavour to satisfy the idol’s lust for blood.

Luther made precisely the same mistake. To his sensitive mind, every thought of God was a thing of terror. ‘When I was young,’ he tells us, it happened that at Eisleben, on Corpus Christi day, I was walking with the procession, when, suddenly, the sight of the Holy Sacrament which was carried by Doctor Staupitz, so terrified me that a cold sweat covered my body and I believed myself dying of terror.’ All through his convent days he proceeds upon the assumption that God gloats over his misery. His life is a long drawn out agony. He creeps like a shadow along the galleries of the cloister, the walls echoing with his dismal moanings. His body wastes to a skeleton; his strength ebbs away : on more than one occasion his brother monks find him prostrate on the convent floor and pick him up for dead. And all the time he thinks of God as One who can find delight in these continuous torments! The just shall live, he says to himself, by penance and by pain. The just shall live by fasting: the just shall live by fear.

‘The just shall live by fear!’ Luther mutters to himself every day of his life.
‘The just shall live by faith!’ says the text that breaks upon him like a light from heaven.

‘By fear! By fear!’
‘By faith! By faith!’

With the coming of the text, Luther passes from the realm of fear into the realm of faith. It is like passing from the rigours of an arctic night into the sunshine of a summer day; it is like passing from a crowded city slum into the fields where the daffodils dance and the linnets sing; it is like passing into a new world; it is like entering Paradise!

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