Hester Ann Rogers: A Woman Above Rubies.

If it is difficult for Christian men to find godly role models in the church today, surely it is even more difficult for women; Paula White? Victoria Osteen? Hardly the epitome of Christian modesty and meekness! Just like the men, ladies find themselves looking to godly women of the past, who knew what it was to serve the Lord with holiness and personal sacrifice. One such woman was Hester Ann Rogers.



"Hetty" was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire on January 31, 1756. She said that even as a child, she "was early drawn out to secret prayer: I believed God was the author of all good, of all happiness; and sin the cause of all misery and pain. If therefore I wished for anything I had not, I asked God in secret to grant it to me."

After the death of her Father, she was troubled with grief and she tells of how her Mother sought to "raise my spirits" by encouraging her to dance and to engage with non-Christian friends and relations. This produced within her a lighter mood, however she began to grieve the loss of the presence of God."It paved the way to lightness, trifling, love of pleasure, and various evils," she writes. "I now aimed to excel my companions, not in piety, but in fashionable dress" and "what the world calls innocent amusement. I also obtained all the novels and romances I possibly could...in short I fell into all the vain customs and pleasures of a delusive world...Thus was my precious time misspent and my foolish heart wandering far from happiness and God." Convicted of sin, she vowed to get right with God, yet it was not long after that she was gripped by "a malignant fever." Gradually, the Lord brought a growing conviction on Hester and she found herself under the preaching of one Mr Simpson. She began to cry out, as if in agony at the thought of her own sinfulness and "made a solemn vow to renounce and forsake all my sinful pleasures and trifling companions." She must have took the vow seriously, because in the morning, she took all her "finery, high dressed caps etc. etc. and ripped them all up, so that I could wear them no more..."


Methodism

Hester was drawn to the preaching of the new "Methodists." She reports, "Mr Wesley's sermon on Justification was a great encouragement to me, on those words, To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is imputed to him for righteousness."
After much inner turmoil and wrestling, Hester Ann Rogers gave her heart to the Lord and was wonderfully born again. She writes, "In that moment my fetters were broken, my bands were loosed, and my soul set at liberty. The love of God was shed abroad in my heart; and I rejoiced with joy unspeakable."


Marriage

When itinerant Methodist Preacher James Rogers came to Macclesfield in 1782, after the death of his first wife, Hester married him. The two of them embarked as Missionaries to Ireland, ministering in Cork and Dublin. Hester ended up being John Wesley's housekeeper and one of the few people at his bedside when he died in 1791. Thomas Coke wrote of her:


"her maternal care and affection shone equally bright. Though she devoted much of her time to religious duties in public and private, yet nothing seemed to be left undone which could maker her children comfortable and happy. She even prevented all their wants; and was equally, nay, if it were possible, more attentive to Mr. Roger’s children by his former wife, than to her own."


In a letter to a friend, simply called "Miss D." she writes, "Go on, my dear sister: it is a blessed path: the goodly land is before-the land of sacred liberty, and glorious rest from all sin. Oh that that you may soon prove, by happy experience, "perfect love casteth out all (slavish) fear!"


Death

On the 10th October 1794, after giving birth to a son, at the age of 39, she went to be with the Lord. She remains one of the great women of evangelical Methodism.

"Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies." (Proverbs 31:10)

(Quotations taken primarily from "Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hester Ann Rogers.")

An appeal to ex-JW’s who are now atheists or agnostics by Jason Wright

A great article by ex-JW, turned Pastor, Jason Wright. Click on following link: http://watchtowerinvestigated.co.uk/2015/03/21/an-appeal-to-ex-jws-who-are-now-atheists-or-agnostics-by-jason-wright/

We Are The People Of The Cross

I felt moved to write these few words after the beheading of 21 Christians by the terrorist group ISIS.

We are the people of the cross

We do not fear to count the cost

Our eye is single, fixed on Him

Who died to pay the price for sin. 

To live is Christ, to die is gain

By grace through faith we own His name

We suffer all indignities

And yet we love our enemies. 

We do not doubt the power of Christ

In Him we have eternal life

Yet you who kill, what do you gain?

Blood on your hands

Your guilt remains. 

We are free and with the LORD

You are slaves of sin and sword

Angels minister to our needs

The Son has set us free indeed.

We are the people of the cross

We rejoice to suffer loss

If that loss is all for Christ

Truly we “confound the wise!” 

“Vengeance is mine,” saith the LORD

Heed the warnings of His word

Repent, believe and follow Him

And Christ will heal you of your sin.

(Paul Jennings)



Is Dawkins Losing It?



After building a following of devoted disciples (who for some reason seem to be largely white and male) it appears that the once revered Scientist is beginning to drift off into some rather odd orbits! In fact, not to put too finer point on it, some are starting to whisper the nom humiliante the "Nutty Professor" with regard to his latest strange ideas.
Oh dear, where did it all go wrong? Well, I guess it could have been with a rather thoughtless and embarrassing "tweet," rushed off in an attempt to be amusing/clever.
On January 1, 2015, The Telegraph reported:

"Richard Dawkins’ insanity has now become an English institution – like warm beer and rain. On Saturday morning, a tweet from his account asked why we don’t send lots of "erotic videos" to theocracies, adding that it should be “loving, gentle, woman-respecting...” If we’re going down this road, I also hear that Islamists aren’t very keen on bacon, so perhaps we should bombard the Iranian countryside with pig carcasses?"  The tweet was deleted after a few minutes, perhaps on the advice of concerned followers. But herein lies the problem of surrounding oneself with sycophants. One starts to believe one's own publicity! In some ways Christians should be thankful to the New Atheists. They may have had a winnowing effect on pulpit preaching. There is something of a renaissance taking place in many evangelical churches. The anecdotal, "funny story" preachers are having to shape up, or ship out. Congregations (some at least) are starting to look for a more robust and apologetic style of delivery, in order to have answers for "that annoying atheist at work!" How beautifully logical, articulate and oozing with wisdom, do the Epistles of Paul, Peter and John appear; how timeless and insightful are the words of the Lord Jesus, when contrasted with the self aggrandizing dogma of Richard Dawkins and his ilk.   Here are our top five "Nuttitudes" earning the prof his title, "The Nutty Professor" [in no particular order]! Saying "I'm busy" when challenged to a debate on the existence of God by one of the world's most eminent Christian Apologists, Dr William Lane Craig. Pretending to have never heard of Dr William Lane Craig. Introducing the world to "the Flying Spaghetti Monster!" Claiming that couples that have Downs Syndrome babies are "immoral." Urging people to call atheists "Brights!"

Review 2014

 2014 has in many ways been quite a difficult year for us as a church. We have had people leave and faced  unexpected challenges. But the Lord has been faithful through it all.

One of the great success stories of this last year has been our monthly Teaching and Apologetics sessions. Matthew and I have taught on subjects as diverse as Understanding Atheism, and Reaching Out to JWs. But we have also enjoyed the ministry of some wonderful teachers.

Our old friend Pastor Ian Moulton taught on the errors of the Word of Faith movement...



 

Bobby Gilpin of UK Partnerships for Christ covered Mormonism...

 

 

 And Vincent McCann gave a fascinating talk on Occultism in the media.

 

Attacked

 

My injuries a day or so after the attack.

 This was a difficult year for me, as in February I was assaulted for preaching the Gospel in our local town centre. I have been open air preaching for quite a few years now and whilst threats are common, this was the first time I had been violently attacked. But the Lord's a great healer and I am please to say I am back on the streets again!

 

 In March we stood outside the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall Memorial celebration. We wanted to be a witness of the true gospel of Jesus Christ...

 

 

   ...not everyone was delighted to have us there!

 

Get Right



 

In summer we held a leafleting campaign called "Get Right with God in 2014." I produced a free give-away DVD with a short gospel message on it and we finished off by preaching the gospel in Stockport Town Centre.

 

We continued with our monthly Bring-and-Share meals, enjoying a good time of fellowship with others. 

 

 

Summertime

In July we had a stall at Stockport Carnival giving away free Bibles, tracts, DVDs etc.

 

 

The weather has been great, which has given us an opportunity to really get out on the streets and talk to people about their salvation.

 

 

 

In October we held our Reformation Sunday celebration. It was great fun getting the children involved and teaching them about the sacrifices made by Christians during the Reformation. 

 

 

Our ladies have built good relationships with one another and have provided support, both practical and spiritual.

 

This year saw the start of Sunday Club, our new children's work. The children learn to pray, listen to a Bible story and sing songs of praise. They also play a fun game and have a Bible memory verse to learn each Sunday. 

 

 

 

Christmas

We finished off the year with a combined Carole Service and Nativity drama. It was well attended and the children loved being involved. It is a great way of bringing mums and dads and grandparents into the church to hear the truth. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone that has helped, attended, worked, preached, taught and cooked this year. We couldn't do it without you!

 In some ways I think this year has been a "wintertime" for us as a church. It has been a year of labouring, without much increase and yet it has also been a time in which some have returned to the church, for which we are thankful to God.

We have seen our Open Air Team has grown in number and in zeal. It has also been a year in which we have started our HelpBank; giving food, nappies and such like to families in need. It was a blessing to be able to send out food hampers this Christmas as an expression of basic Christian kindness.

 

May I remind you all of the verse the Lord gave to us as a church:

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Galatians 6:9)

Let's hold fast to God's word until we reap!

Paul.

 

Biblical Womanhood

A Christian Home-Educating mum told me a story about how she had taken her little daughter to the Doctor's. In the course of the examination, the female GP asked the little girl what she wanted to be when she grew up; the little girl thought for a moment and then said, "a mother!" In that instant, two very different worlds collided. 



Young Christian women today, suffer immensely from the pressures of our society, to conform to an ideal that God never intended them to endure. They are sexualised by the media and the fashion industry at an early age (and many Christian writers have spoken intelligently and with justified condemnation about this) and yet there is another danger that is perhaps not as explicit as the first. They are encouraged in the pursuit of a confusingly androgynous identity; a hybrid of masculine and feminine characteristics and the idea that to be truly independent and happy, they need to emulate men.

Today, young women are encouraged to be "empowered" into acting, thinking, working, drinking (or even dressing) like men. The government is doing all they can to get mothers "back to work." They are horrified by the idea that some mothers may actually want to stay at home and bring up their children themselves. What! Bring up young children without professional help and guidance! And who would want the terrible drudgery, nay slavery of being a Housewife!

A culture that sees children, not as a blessing, but as an economic inconvenience, is at odds with the word of God. 

These days, the aging spectre of feminism is still attempting to groom young women to feel dissatisfied with marriage and motherhood. What is surprising is that those attitudes have even started to make their way into the church, to the extent that some Christian women (and men) are identifying themselves today as "Christian (or Jesus) feminists," despite feminism representing the antithesis of everything the Bible teaches about the role of women; particularly married women and mothers.





The antithesis to Biblical womanhood.

 



Here are some extraordinary, and revealing, feminist quotes:

• “Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women’s movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage." Sheila Cronam, feminist Leader.
 

 

• “The end of the institution of marriage is necessary for the liberation of women; therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not live individually with men. All of history must be rewritten in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft." Declaration of feminism 1971

• “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Article, "Women in the New Race", Margaret Sanger, feminist and founder of Planned Parenthood, USA's largest abortion clinic business.

If there was ever a time that Christian women needed to find their identity, it is now.

Proverbs 31: 10 says, "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."  A virtuous woman is truly a woman of strength, though not as the feminists define strength.

Matthew Henry comments, "the weaker vessel, made strong by wisdom and grace, and the fear of God...who has command of her own spirit...a woman of resolution, who, having espoused good principles, is firm and steady to them." This is strength indeed.

 

A Christian woman does not need to marry in order to have worth. There are remarkable women whom God called to serve as missionaries and to live celibate lives; women like Gladys Aylward and Amy Carmichael. They expressed their strength in inherently feminine ways; such as being effectively mothers to the children whom God had entrusted to their care and confounding violent and dangerous men, with "a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."

Amy Carmichael with some of he girls she saved from temple prostitution.

 Also, women like Hester Ann Rogers, of whom it was said,

"Though she devoted much of her time to religious duties in public and private, yet nothing seemed to be left undone which could make her children comfortable and happy. She even prevented all their wants; and was equally, nay, if it were possible, more attentive to Mr. Roger’s children by his former wife, than to her own." (The Character and Death of Mrs Hester Ann Rogers - Reverend Thomas Coke.)

 

The challenge for Christian women today, particularly young Christian women, is to find themselves in the Scriptures.

One thinks of the great women of the Old Testament: Esther, Ruth, Hannah and Sarah; the self-sacrificing lives they lived. They put their people, their families and yes; even their husbands, before themselves and were commended for doing so. They gave all for God.

It is absurd for Christian women to attempt to identify with politically and socially driven, non-Christian movements, like the Suffragettes. Today's politically correct history books often gloss over the fact that the Suffragettes, at times, behaved outrageously and unlawfully. Historian and Journalist Andrew Marr reminds us, that at the height of the Suffragette's protests, "The Prime Minister, Asquith was punched, had an axe flung at him and had slates thrown at his car. Winston Churchill was attacked at Bristol railway station by a riding-crop-wielding woman who hit him on the face." (The Making of Modern Britain.) Hardly the epitome of Christ-likeness!

It takes much boldness to be a Christian woman today. Particularly in a society that sees meekness as weakness, home-keeping as slavery and "modest apparel" as just plain weird! Once again, Christians have to choose between following the world, or following the love of Christ. As Amy Carmichael once observed:

“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”   

Paul Jennings.

Standing Up to the School Bullies



A successful Christian school could face closure for failing to uphold “British values”. The Telegraph reported that the small independent Christian school was told by Ofsted that it was not in step with new rules intended to teach “British values," because it was not trying to promote other faiths. Trinity Christian School, a small independent school in Reading, was rated “excellent” for its provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development in November last year. However, following an inspection this month it was deemed not to be meeting the revised Department for Education requirements introduced in late September. (Source: The Christian Institute.)

So let's see, last year the school was deemed excellent for meeting a whole variety of pupils' needs, this year it faces closure for not being British enough. Is it un-British to be a Christian?

Take an independent Christian school, the foundation of which, amongst other things (quite obviously) is to preserve and teach children the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith; salvation in Christ alone, the inerrancy of the Scriptures, love thy neighbour etc. and Ofsted's observation is, "you don't seem to be promoting other faiths." Ofsted's solution, by the way, is beyond absurd; they told the school to invite an Imam to lead assemblies! Genius!  What's next? How about advising Jewish schools to introduce pork-sausage making in their cookery class; or Muslim schools to offer bacon "butties" at break-time? Why not offer free contraception to Roman Catholic schools, or invite Marilyn Manson to open an assembly at your local C of E primary! There seems to be a gross ignorance here of what tolerance actually is. Tolerance is "the ability or willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behaviour that one dislikes or disagrees with." That does not eliminate our right to criticize ideology, or object to practises we find repugnant; but it does mean that people are entitled to be different. This government seems to think that "tolerance" means manipulating minorities through legislation and coercion until everybody thinks the same... and then we can tolerate them!


 And what exactly are "British Values?"  Shouldn't that be for Britons to decide, not the government? The whole thing smacks of McCarthy's "Un-American activities." But this is nothing new for Christians in Britain. Attacks against Christian values and the marginalisation of Christians themselves is becoming more and more prevalent in the sphere of education.

Here are a few examples.

Christian Values Under Attack
According to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Nurseries are at risk of being taken over by "religious extremists," (even though there is no evidence to suggest this is the case.) She announced that toddlers are to be taught “fundamental British values.” In the England, all three and four year olds, and some two year olds, can receive free part-time early education, which is mainly delivered by school-based nurseries or those run by private and voluntary sector organisations.  However nurseries that teach creationism as scientific fact will be ineligible for taxpayer funding, under the new rules.
Secular Marginalisation
The National Secular Society (NSS) said schools shouldn’t be allowed to admit pupils according to religion, and said schools should be stopped from holding assemblies “associated with a particular set of religious beliefs”.
Moral Marginalisation
Sex between 13-year-olds is “natural, healthy and a part of growing up”, claims a sex education resource funded by the Department for Education. The resource describes acceptable behaviour for 13 year olds as “having sexual or non-sexual relationships” with people of the same or the opposite sex (despite the legal age of consent being 16.)
The resource for teachers was created by pro-abortion sexual health charity Brook. I find this advice utterly outrageous, not just from a Christian moral point of view, but also because the government funded "resource" is telling teachers to endorse young people breaking the law!
Professor David Paton, an expert on teenage pregnancy rates, described the resource as “both misleading and potentially dangerous”.
Stonewall Attack
Ruth Hunt, the new head of homosexual pressure group Stonewall, says she wants to put pro-gay books into all preschools.
The pro-homosexual storybooks include titles like The Sissy Duckling and a book about two princes who fall in love and live happily ever after as King and King.
It also suggested that primary schoolchildren could act out such books as school plays.


No wonder many Christians in the UK are turning to Home Education as one of the few morally palatable alternatives left!