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Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God
- 02/10/07
- 11
My mother is one of several people I know who eschews all of the Christian Living type of books that dominate the Christian publishing industry. Apart from her Bible (the most beat-up, ink-covered, personalized Bible you'll ever see) and a few commentaries, she reads only biographies. She feels that by reading about the lives of great Christians of the past, she will learn far more than what most of the Christian Living books can teach her. As much as I love reading books in a variety of genres, I can't help but think that mom might just be right.
Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God is Noel Piper's second solo effort that is targetted at an adult audience (she has previously authored Treasuring God in Our Traditions and has written the children's book Most Of All, Jesus Loves You.). The book contains five short biographies of five faithful women: Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim and Helen Roseveare.
I particularly enjoy short biographies of this type as they provide only a glimpse of a person. If one of the people particularly intrigues me, I can seek out a more exhaustive biography. This book serves as an introduction to five particularly fascinating servants of the Lord - women who have in some way had a significant impact on the author. While the women are bound by a common thread, their zeal in serving the Lord, they represent several countries and hundreds of years of Christian history. Sarah Edwards lived in the New World during the mid-1700's and was best-known for selflessly supporting and extending the ministry of her husband, Jonathan Edwards; Lilias Trotter grew up in Victorian England but served God as a missionary in North Africa; Gladys Alward left her native England in 1932 so she could serve the Lord in China; Esther Ahn Kim stood strong among the persecuted ranks of believers during the Japanese occupation of Korea; Helen Roseveare became a doctor to the native population of the Congo, remaining there through years of war and bloodshed. Each of these women suffered in their own way, but did so joyfully, knowing that they suffered for the Lord.
A great deal of the value of this book lies in the author's closing comments for each of the sections. Piper adds a personal touch to each biography, describing what it is about the person that has so touched her. She ends each of the chapters with a dedication to a person whose life and faith exhibits the same qualities as the woman just described. For example, at the end of the first chapter she writes, "Just as Sarah Edwards had little idea of the ongoing generations she would influence through her interaction with Samuel Hopkins, there are two women who probably have little notion of their impact on me and therefore also on my husband, children, friends, and church. Long before my husband was called to a pulpit ministry, I admired our pastors' wives, one in California, one in Minnesota. God used them to help prepare me for my future role that none of us yet expected. And so this story of Sarah Edwards is dedicated to Deloris Hoeldtke and Ann Ortlund."
I was transfixed as I read of these faithful women, and in some ways was also transformed. As I came to understand the faith of these Christians who gave so much, I came to see where I have been giving less than everything; less than what God asks of me. I came to understand that the religious freedom we enjoy as North Americans sometimes allows us to have a lazy faith. As I came to understand these women, I came to understand God just a little bit better. And if that is the ultimate purpose of any Christian biography, which I believe it ought to be, Noel Piper has done well with Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God. I am glad to recommend this book to you and trust that you'll enjoy it as much as I have.
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Comments (11)
There's something I've noticed in scripture, yet never hear addressed; All the traveling missionarries were men, (except for Acquilla and Prisilla, which we don't know were missionarries.) and I wonder where women find a biblical mandate when they want to be "sent out".
Is this author related to John Piper?
Noel Piper is John Piper's wife
I agree with your mom that reading Christian biographies can be very instructive. Story is so powerful--I guess that's why the Bible is made up of narratives more than laws.
Would your mom consider one day presenting an annotated list of the Christian biographies she most treasures?
I read this book as soon as it was printed, and sent copies to my sisters. I love biographies of people who have served God with their whole hearts and who challenge me to do the same. It's a great book; thanks for featuring it.
Michelle said Would your mom consider one day presenting an annotated list of the Christian biographies she most treasures?
I second that... Thanks for the review, Tim.
Michele (Comment #1)...
I have the same question (not about Noel's relationship to John). I know there are only five comments so far, but your important question seems to have been ignored.
I think it's worthy of a debate.
For those who favor sending out single women to the mission field... where is your Biblical justification for doing so?
As the father of daughters, this is asked in all seriousness because I don't see it, but want to guide my daughters as best I can.
Charley
GetSerious Blog
HomeDisciplingDad Blog
Hey Tim,
Glad to see you enjoyed this book as much as I did.
I have all of Noel's books and I highly recommend them all.
As for a list of great biographies from your mom, I'd like to see that too!
A biblical justification is that the whole of God's Word applies to me, single or married. (I'm a single woman and have served as a missionary overseas. I'm in the process to return.) As a follower of Christ, my first responsiblity is to know Him and make Him known. You're right, we don't see examples in the Bible of single women traveling to spread the Gospel. We do see many examples of single women opening their homes to spread the Gospel. We don't know if those all of those women lived in the same town their entire lives or lived with their parents. There are single women missionaries all over the world today faithfully living out Christian lives, taking seriously God's mandate. Their consistent witness is a light in many dark corners of the world.
I do want to make a plea to the single men reading this blog - you are needed among the unreached people groups of the world. You can do things and go places where married men and women and single women are limited. Where are you?
Michele and Charley,
I'm another single woman serving cross-culturally. :-)
First, I'll admit that I'm not entirely clear on the question. I can see three possible questions based on what you wrote:
- Is there Biblical mandate for any women (single or married) to be sent to the mission field?
- Is there Biblical mandate for single women to be sent to the mission field?
- Is there Biblical mandate for women (single or married) to be travelling (itinerant) missionaries?
What constitutes a Biblical mandate? Biblical precedent? Biblical teaching? Either, or must there be both?
On precedent: It is notoriously difficult to base a case on this (as with credo- vs. paedo-baptism...). However, let's see what we can find (take it as you may):
Michele, when you say that we don't know that Priscilla and Aquila were missionaries, do you mean that we don't know that they were specifically commissioned by a church? We do know that they travelled (at least Rome to Corinth, to Ephesus, and back to Rome), that they discipled at least one believer, that they had a church in their home, and that Paul calls them "my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well." (Romans 16:3-4)
In Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well." (Romans 16:1-2) Phoebe is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, but it appears here as though she ministered to many, and would be arriving in Rome from Cenchreae without a husband accompanying her. (Maybe she was single?) John Piper suggested that Paul had sent her with his letter to Rome (sermon, September 25, 2006).
What of travelling ministry before Paul, and even before Peter and Philip? Jesus said of himself that he had nowhere to rest his head. Luke wrote that "he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means." (Luke 8:1-3) These women and many others, both single and married by my estimation, accompanied Christ and ministered to him. Interestingly, the IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, by Craig S. Keener, says that "for these women to travel with the group would have been viewed as scandalous."
With regards to Scriptural teaching, we find that Paul wrote, “Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” (1Corinthians 9:5) Paul makes it clear that at least married women can be sent out with their missionary husbands, even for travelling ministry.
There are many forms of ministry which all will agree are appropriate for women. Discipling other women would be one obvious example that may not even be open to men. Jesus commissioned us, his people, to make disciples of all nations. I work in a nation where men have little or no interaction with women who are not related to them, and where even men who have come to faith treat the women in their families as though they could never understand such things. Who will tell the women, if not other women? O that God would give me the opportunity to teach a Lois and a Eunice, who would raise up a man like Timothy (though his father was an unbeliever).
Paul also writes about the freedoms and benefits that singleness affords both men and women in their concern for "the Lord's affairs." (1 Corinthians 7:7,32-35) Single people apparently have a unique opportunity to be devoted to Christ and to ministry. Are single women disqualified from doing any ministry that takes them away from their home-town? Our can we, in (or perhaps because of) our singleness, live and minister cross-culturally among women who previously had no opportunity to hear the good news of the kingdom of God?
In Him,
Hope
B and Hope,
Thank you for your gracious replies.
B- Yes, you do have a responsibility to know and make known Christ. But does that mean going out alone in cross-cultural ministry? And the argument that there are many single women on the mission field still doesn't answer the question about Biblical authority to do so.
Hope- You are absolutely correct about societies that won't allow men to minister to the women. But why does it have to be a single woman doing the ministry? Why not the wife or adult daughter of a missionary couple? A couple brings BOTH sexes to the lost, and then B's plea for single men to come out wouldn't be necessary.
My biggest concern is that single women are completely out from under any protective covering, either of their father or of their husbands (who they obviously don't have yet). Where is the line of authority in their lives? They aren't to be subject to just any man...only their father or their husband.
So yes, my question involves discovering if there is a Biblical mandate for a single woman to be sent out on her own. That mandate can come in the form of actual command, principle, or normative pattern.
Although this may feel like I'm challenging you, I still appreciate your heart for the lost. Thank you.
Charley
GetSerious Blog
HomeDisciplingDad Blog
Charley - I appreciate your questions and wanting to lead your daughters appropriately. First, my organization does not send single women out by themselves in the sense that a single woman lives by herself in a city with no other missionaries.
I think we can see from Scripture that singleness affords opportunities that marriage does not. On the field (as well as in her country of origin), a married woman's primary responsibility is to her husband and children. Living in another culture exponentially expands that responsibility. Many missionaries home school. We must prepare food from scratch much of the time. Washers, if they are available, are much smaller than in the West. Just doing the daily business of life takes twice as long. (I have spent many hours in the post office simply trying to mail a letter and pick up my mail.) A married woman has less discretionary time than a single woman does. I am flexible to have tea morning, afternoon, or evening with other women.
Charley, I very much value the guidance and direction of my father and mother. They are followers of Christ. It is not dishonoring to them for me to live in a cross-cultural setting in obedience to God.