Women Of The Word Order Printed Copy

Author: Marilyn Hickey
Size: 178KB | 14 pages
|

Download Read Online

Continue with

Google Twitter

Email Register

Others like women of the word Features >>

Women Of Influence And Distinction

About the Book

"Women of the Word" by Marilyn Hickey is a guidebook for women seeking to deepen their understanding and application of the Bible. Hickey provides practical tips and tools for studying scripture, along with personal stories and insights to help women grow in their faith and knowledge of God's Word. This book empowers women to become more confident and effective in living out their Christian faith.

Lilias Trotter

Long before the concept of the 10-40 window was invented or became a popular term in missions circles, a thirty-four-year-old promising artist named Isabella Lilias Trotter (1853–1928) landed in North Africa in 1888 along with two of her friends. They had neither mission agency support nor training but immediately began studying the Arabic language with the intention of sharing the gospel as widely as they could for as long as they could. For the next forty years, this creative, dynamic woman poured out her life, her artistic abilities, and her linguistic skills to make the gospel known amid many difficulties. Her journals tell of her daily experience of desperately depending on the divine resources of the Holy Spirit.[1] “The life of Lilias Trotter challenges the world’s meaning of success, potential, and fulfillment.” The life of Lilias Trotter challenges the world’s meaning of success, potential, and fulfillment. Through Trotter’s art, writings, and life story come glimpses of Christ’s power in the prayers of his child and faithful witness. Her day-by-day, decade-by-decade journals reveal a life characterized by trust in her Savior and inward rest in his power for victory over sin and darkness. Her success should not be measured numerically, but rather in the fact that Lilias succeeded in learning about prayer and love for Muslims. Her life attests to the exceeding value of knowing and preferring Christ above all else. Her personal devotion to Jesus Christ is exemplary and instructive not only for aspiring missionaries but for all who desire to live wholeheartedly for the glory of God. Laying down Her Life Lilias was born into a wealthy Victorian family, and they considered the value of walking humbly before God to be of first importance. A talented artist, she attracted the attention of John Ruskin, the noted Victorian art critic and Oxford lecturer. Some of her paintings and leaves from her sketchbook can be found in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. In 1874, Lilias attended a six-day convention that emphasized the importance of the daily application of Scripture in her quest for deeper intimacy with God. She experienced a renewed vitality in personal and corporate worship. Her call to wholeheartedly follow Christ in obedience came during a call to prayer. She wrote of this in her journal: “To bear His name with all that is wrapped up in it of fragrance and healing and power, to enter into His eternal purpose, is the calling for which it is well worth counting all things as loss.” [2] From then on, rather than invest her extraordinary life in the things of this world, Lilias was compelled by a strong yearning for her Savior and the world he loves. In radical obedience, she left the promising artistic career that Ruskin offered her and the comforts of England for a life of missionary service in Algeria. “In radical obedience, she left a promising artistic career and the comforts of England for a life of missionary service in Algeria.” Praying with Passion Trotter’s intercession for Algerians provides inspiration to those who desire to see all peoples worship God. She spent lengthy, frequent sessions of retreat in the hills overlooking the city of Algiers. She prayed and turned her eyes on Jesus, his Word, and his revelation in creation. As she watched the broken waves pushed by the heart of the ocean crashing on the shore of the bay, she waited with faith to see “God’s high tide” sweep across the Muslim world. Lilias was a contemporary of the great missionary to Muslims, Samuel Zwemer. She learned much from him about the power of prayer to pierce the veil of darkness shrouding the Muslim hearts and to engage in the spiritual battle for souls of those held captive by the adversary. Her example of perseverance in prayer is an encouragement for those today who are interceding for God’s high tide to fill the earth and sweep away the veil of darkness. The writings of Lilias Trotter recognize the work of the adversary to hold nonbelievers captive through their unbelief and his power to keep the life-giving truth from reaching them. She pled for Christians to ask God to do a new work among “hard-bound peoples and to generate a fire of the Holy Spirit to melt away though icy barriers and set a host free!” [3] Proclaiming God’s Word in Power Courageous and innovative in her witness to the Algerians, Lilias observed and learned to witness effectively to her neighbors. In 1919, Trotter began writing tracts for Nile Mission Press. She assisted a Swedish missionary in translation and editing the gospels of Luke and John in colloquial Arabic, “into a language that the Arab mother could read to her child.”[4] She also wrote stories in parable form that appealed to her audience, and she creatively illustrated them in Eastern style, the results of which gained wide circulation. The story of Lilias Trotter continues to inspire and mobilize those who long to worship around the throne of Christ with all peoples. She laid down her life and talents and allowed Christ to use her in creative and innovative ways. Her life was one of passionate prayer, dependence on God’s overcoming power, and confidence in proclaiming the life-giving Word of God. Her story encourages others to follow in her footsteps and consecrate their life to the “hardest work and the darkest sinners.” [5] Paula Hemphill and her husband, Ken, have shared fifty years of ministry together. The stories of missionary pioneers in North Africa captured Paula’s heart as a young pastor’s wife, calling her to a lifetime of prayer for Muslim peoples. The Hemphills have three married daughters and twelve grandchildren. Endnotes: For more on Lilias Trotter, see Many Beautiful Things: the Life and Vision of Lilias Trotter (Oxvision Films, 2016) or read the excellent biography by Miriam Huffman Rockness, A Passion for the Impossible (Discovery House, 2003). [1] One journal entry later became the inspiration for “Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus,” a popular hymn written by Helen H. Lemmel: “Turn your soul’s full vision on Jesus and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him and the divine attributes by which God’s saints are made, even in the twentieth century, will lay hold of you.” (I.R. Stewart, The Love that Was Stronger: Lilias Trotter of Algiers (London: Lutterworth Press, 1958), 54.)

jesus is coming again

Reader, do you know that Jesus is coming again? He said, "I will come again" (John 14:3) and His word endureth forever (1 Pet. 1:25), for He is the truth (John 14:6). The angels said He would come again. "This same Jesus," and "in like manner" (Acts 1:11), and they were not mistaken when they announced His first coming (Luke 1:26-33; see also Luke 2:8-18). The Holy Spirit, by the mouth of the apostles, hath repeatedly said He would come again (1 Thess. 4:16; Heb. 9:28, Heb. 10:37). Is not such an event, stated upon such authority, of vital importance to us? At His first coming, the world rejected Him. He was the despised Nazarene. But when He comes again, He will appear as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (1 Tim. 6:13-15). He is coming to sit upon the throne of His glory (Matt. 25:31), and to be admired in all them that believed (2 Thess. 1:10), and to rule, in judgment and equity, all the nations of the earth (Psa. 2:9; Isa. 9:6-7; Rev. 2:25-27). How glorious it will be to see the King in His beauty (Isa. 33:17). Perhaps you are not a Christian, and say— "I Don't Care Anything About It." Then, dear friend, we point you to the crucified Savior as the only hope of salvation. We beg of you to "kiss the Son," lest ye perish from the way. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him (Psalm 2:12). What shall it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? (Matt. 16:26-27) He is coming, and we know neither the day, nor the hour, when He may come (Matt. 25:13). What if He should come now? Would you be found of Him in peace (2 Pet. 3:14), or would you be left behind to endure the terrible things which shall come upon the world (Luke 21:25-26), while the church is with Christ in the air (Luke 21:36; 1 Thess. 4:17), and be made at His appearing (2 Thess. 1:7-10) to mourn (Matt. 24:30) and pray to the mountains and rocks to hide you from His face? (Rev. 6:16). "Prepare to meet thy God," was the solemn injunction to Israel (Amos 4:12), and every one of us, both Jew and Gentile, must meet Him, either in grace or in judgment. We, then, as ambassadors for Christ, beseech you: be ye reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20), now, in the accepted time, in the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2; Luke 14:31-33). Do let us entreat you to repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out (Acts 10:42-43; Acts 17:30-31), and that you may turn "to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from Heaven" (1 Thess. 1:9-10), and be unblamable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 3:13). But if you are a Christian, then we point you to His coming again, as The True Incentive to a Holy Life.(1 John 3:2-3) Jesus is coming, therefore mortify your members which are upon the earth, that you may appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4-5). Strive and pray for purity of heart, that you may be like Him and see Him as He is (Matt. 5:18; 1 John 3:2-3). Search the Word, that you may be sanctified and cleansed thereby (Eph. 5:26), and that your whole spirit, and soul, and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23). But possibly you say, with contempt, "Oh, That's Second Adventism." Beloved, have you considered that Moses (Deut. 33:2), so David (Psa. 102:16), Isaiah (Isa. 59:20; Isa. 60:1), Jeremiah (Jer. 23:5-6), Daniel (Dan. 7:13), Zechariah (Zech. 14:4-5), all the prophets and apostles (Acts 15:15-17), were believers in the second advent of Christ? And because some, by setting dates, and other errors, have brought disrepute upon this doctrine, shall we cast it aside altogether? But it may be you say (as we have been pained to hear from so many even earnest Christians): "Well, I Don't Think It Concerns Me Much, Anyway: I've always thought that in most cases it meant death, and if I'm prepared for death, that's enough; and there is too much speculation about it to suit me; and I don't believe it's a practical doctrine; and, more than that, I think it's a mistake to pay so much attention to it." Yes, even thus do many Christians, — who profess to be members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), and who have been espoused unto one husband, that they may be presented to Him (2 Cor. 11:2) — summarily dispose of this precious truth, that Jesus is coming, to take unto Himself His bride (John 14:3; Eph. 5:23, 32). O, beloved, do not thus deprive yourself of this comforting truth. Please take your pencil and mark in your Bible the passages that pertain to it; and see How Large a Portion of the Word Is Devoted to It. If the Holy Ghost has deemed it so important, is it not worthy of our attention? The Word exhorts us (1 Thess. 4:18; 1 Cor. 1:7) to give attention to it (Rev. 1:3); and the danger of condemnation is to them who do not (Luke 12:45-46; Luke 21:34-36; 1 Thess. 5:1-7). Again, please examine the passages cited under the heading, A Practical Doctrine, and see how Jesus and the apostles used this doctrine to incite us to watchfulness, repentance, patience, ministerial faithfulness, brotherly love, etc., and then decide whether anything could be more practical. Surely no doctrine, in the Word of God, presents a deeper motive for crucifying the flesh, and for separation unto God, and to work for souls, as our hope and joy and crown of rejoicing (1 Thess. 2:19; Dan. 12:3) than this does. For the whole teaching of it is, that our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:20-21). It awakens groaning for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23; Luke 21:28). It gives us a view of the world, as a wrecked vessel (Matt. 7:13-14; 1 Thess. 5:3; 2 Pet. 2:3-9; 2 Pet. 3:5-12), and stimulates us to work with all our might that we may save some (1 Cor. 9:22). Most, if not all, of the evangelists of our day are animated by this doctrine, and surely their work is practical. Again, Peter says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:" (2 Pet. 1:19); and he exhorts us to be mindful of these words (2 Pet. 3:1-2). Therefore we are not speculating when we prayerfully study prophecy. From Jesus is Coming by W. E. B. 3rd. rev. New York: Fleming H. Revell, ©1908. Chapter 1.