Character Study

“As our society has changed, so have the challenges facing women raising families. Many American women are raising children at home while caring for an elderly parent, holding down two jobs, serving as the sole parent in a family, or defending our country overseas as a service member. Our Nation’s mothers not only look after our needs and teach us to be compassionate and responsible, but also manage households, build careers, and improve our neighborhoods and communities.

Psalms are poems. Poems are elegies of thought. Poems, often written by artistic personalities, vent emotion, thought, feeling or motive. Word pictures and couplet phrases deep in the soul spring out expressed as ideas, prayers or truth—sometimes in rhythmic meter—sometimes syncopated.

A compilation of Hebrew poems appear in the canon of scripture. David, the shepherd-king who mirrored God’s heart, wrote many of these.

In the Scripture, we have some of the most remarkable events of all history. The things we want to notice are happenings of Noah’s day before the time of universal deluge. There are some things the Lord speaks of in the society of Noah’s day that should help us to take warning for the days in which we are living. The Lord said, “as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt 24:37).

The Israelite nation was in great distress. God had allowed the Midianites to dominate Israel for seven years. But now they had come upon them at the time of sowing with numbers like those of a swarm of grasshoppers and the Israelites knew all too well what they were after. Judges 6:5 says that “they entered into the land to destroy it.” Thievery of seed was very common in those days, and the Israelites knew that their chances of getting the all important harvest had just been sharply reduced. In response, they cried out to the Lord and God raised up Gideon.

The question is sometimes asked, “Can people who have faith in God have this faith tested?” We are confident from Scripture and know by experience that the answer to this question is yes.

The areas of testing will vary with every individual who endeavors to live by faith in God. Victory is realized when an individual demonstrates self-commitment to God. In this commitment, he must possess an unwavering trust in and obedience to a God that is greater than any obstacle or allurement that would work to deter or weaken that commitment.

“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num 12:3). This is a very strong statement awarded to a man; to be one who wholly relies on God rather than his own strength. Two questions that come to us are, firstly, “What can we learn from this patriarch,” and secondly, “How did he receive this blessing?” To help us better understand Moses, we need to reflect upon several things. Where did Moses come from, and what things affected his life? Was he meek, or did something impact his life to bring about this result?

The Martyr’s Mirror as we have it is a history book first published in the Dutch language. The book contains chronicles, memorials and testimonies of Christians persecuted for their faith in Jesus. The aim of the book was to preserve in writing, accounts of Christians who were faithful to death. The book was not an attempt to glorify these men. It was written and complied as encouragement to faithfulness. It is the story of suffering people who esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in “Egypt” and who held respect unto the recompense of the reward of Christ.

No other story of Anabaptist martyrs seems to capture more notice in Mennonite minds than the account of Dirk Willems. Dirk was born at Asperen, Rotterdam, (The Netherlands). Historians record that Dirk was re-baptized upon confession of faith at the age of fifteen at the house of Peter Willems.

Trials. Tribulations. Temptations. Disappointments. Heartaches. Grief. Valleys. We are all acquainted with these things. We cannot avoid them. They come to all ages and groups of people. If you are a parent, chances are good that you have already experienced a circumstance that includes all the above difficulties. It is what God in His Word, refers to as “an untimely birth.” Many couples know very well the keen disappointment of such an event. The death of an unborn baby is real. It breaks the heart. The grief is overwhelming.