Visionary Monday: Husbandhood & Wifehood

Every husband of a Christian wife should walk with her in common love for Christ. There are some husbands, however, who fail in this. They love their wives very sincerely, and make many sacrifices for their sake. They carefully shelter them from life’s rude blasts. They bless them with all tenderness and affectionateness. They honor them very highly, bringing many a noble achievement to lay at their feet, and showing them all homage and respect. They do everything that love can suggest to make their earthly happiness full and complete. They share every burden and walk close beside them in every way of trial. But when they come to the matter of personal religion they draw back and leave them to go alone. While the wife goes into the sanctuary to worship the husbands waits without. At the very point where his interest in her life should be deepest it fails altogether.

Surely it is a great wrong to a woman, tender and dependent, to leave her to walk alone through this world in her deepest life, receiving no sympathy, no companionship, no support, from him who is her dearest friend. She must be silent to him concerning the experiences of her soul in its spiritual struggles, aspirations, yearnings, hopes. She must bear alone the responsibility of the children’s religious nurture and training. Alone she must bow in prayer before God. Alone she must sit at the Lord’s table.

It cannot be right that a husband should leave his wife to live such a large part of her life without his companionship and sympathy. His love should seek to enter with her into every sacred experience. In no other way could he give her such joy as by taking his place beside her as a fellow-heir of the same grace. It would lighten every burden, since he would now share it with her. It would bring new radiance to her face, new peace to her heart, new zest to all life for her. It would make their marriage more perfect and unite their hearts in a closer union, since only those realize the full sweetness of wedded life who are one at every point and in every feeling, purpose and hope, and whose souls blend in their higher, spiritual part as well as in their lower nature and experiences. Then it would also introduce the husband himself to sources of blessing and strength of which he has never known before; for the religion of Christ is a reality and brings the soul into communication with God and with infinite springs of comfort, help, and blessing. In sharing her life of faith and prayer he would find his own life linked to heaven. United, then, on earth in a common faith in Christ, their mutual love mingling and blending in the love of God, they shall be united also in heaven in eternal fellowship. Why should hearts spend years on earth in growing into one, knitting life to life, blending soul in soul, for a union that is not to reach beyond the valley of shadows? Why not weave for eternity?



A true wife makes a man's life nobler, stronger, grander, by the omnipotence of her love 'turning all the forces of manhood upward and heavenward.' While she clings to him in holy confidence and loving dependence she brings out in him whatever is nobles and richest in his being. She inspires him him courage and earnestness. She beautifies his life. She softens whatever is rude and harsh in his habits or his spirit. She clothes him with the gentler graces of refined and cultured manhood. While she yields to him and never disregards his lightest wish, she is really his queen, ruling his whole life and leading him onward and upward in every proper path.

But there are wives also like the vines which cling only to blight. Their dependence weak, indolent helplessness. They lean but impart no strength. They cling but they sap the life. They put forth no hand to help. The loll on sofas or promenade the streets; they dream over sentimental novels; they gossip in drawing-rooms. They are utterly useless, and being useless they become burdens even to manliest, tenderest love. Instead of making a man's life stronger, happier, richer, they absorb his strength, impair his usefulness, hinder his success and cause him to be a failure among men. To themselves also the result is wretchedness.

Dependence is beautiful when it does not become weakness and inefficiency. The true wife clings and leans; but she also helps and inspires. Her husband feels the mighty inspiration of her love in all his life.. Toil is easier, burdens are lighter, battles are less fierce, because of the face that waits in the quiet of the home, because of the heart that beats in loving sympathy whatever the experience, because of the voice that speaks its words of cheer and encouragement when the day's work is done. No wife knows how much she can do to make her husband honored among men, and his life a power and a success, by her loyal faithfulness, by the active inspiration of her own sweet life.


~ Selections from J.R. Miller's The Family


These were some of the first excerpts I ever read from J.R. Miller and it was transforming to my view of wifehood. Now, I appreciate and admire the glories of Biblical wifehood and what it must entail.

Discipline, preparation, and worship!

I wish words came easily to me. And I wish I knew how to organize my thoughts. I would probably blog more regularly if I had the discipline to organize my many threads of thought. I usually have an assortment of ideas running through my head for blog posts throughout the day. However, I rarely ever make note of them. *sigh* At times, I truly love to write and it has been a secret ambition of mine for the past several years to write Christian non-fiction - writings along similiar lines of Amy Carmichael and Lilias Trotter. For the present, I'm still improving myself in journaling, which, I consider, to be the most important area of writing for a disciple. Documenting life's struggles, blessings, and the Lord's faithful providence, wisdom and teaching, and grace is, I think, a large part of sharing your 'testimony' to others. It's an accumulation of all the wisdom you receive from the hand of God over the years and those souls that He appoints in your life to be an outpouring of His grace and instruction in the Way. I pray that the Lord really grounds me in solid discipline at Ellerslie, that it will be something I remain faithful to, by His grace, even when I return home.

Preparation for Ellerslie has been going well. After many tiring days of shopping, I think I have all the necessities. I ordered the books that were recommended for Ellerslie students. I received Reese Howells, Intercessor (Norman Grubb) today, but I'm anxiously awaiting the others:

- The Scottish Chiefs - Jane Porter

- any biography of C.T. Studd by Norman Grubb

- Gold Cord - Amy Carmichael

- Biography of Amy Carmichael - Elisabeth Elliot

- E. M. Bounds - Power Through Prayer (or the Complete Works of E. M. Bounds)

To my suprise, I have had the opportunity to make some extra cash before I leave to Ellerslie. The Lord granted me an occasion to babysit and then assist my audio-instructors (from my college) in a mobile recording gig (something I never thought I'd be asked again to do outside of my internship this past semester). Two very unexpected opportunities to make extra $$ = totally God faithfully providing! In the words of a Newsboys' song - "How do I show gratitude to one as glorious as You - I don't know, I'll just praise You!"

My favorite songs to praise the Lord with are, usually, by a Messianic-family group called Zemer Levav (Songs of the Heart). I highly encourage everyone I meet to listen to their music. You can listen to their music on their website and read all their latest updates. Who doesn't love Israeli-styled worship music?

Have I mentioned how much I long to do what they do? Traveling minstrel-missionaries, leading people into the presence of God. My heart for missionaries and ethnic-worship longs for such a life - to reach the afflicted and the hungry souls and share with them the Gospel and bring them into deep intimacy with the Lord through music.

In the midst of all this preparation, family/friend gatherings, college graduation, and getting my driver's license (woohoo!! Finally!), I have one regret. I haven't picked up my guitar(s) in quite awhile. I haven't really played anything, nor I have I truly written anything for months. I long to be faithful to the musical gifts that the Lord has so graciously given me. Although I hope to do some playing while at Ellerslie, I pray that I might be able to seriously take up my guitar (and my mandolin and ukulele!) and songwriting again in the fall. Although I have had to make other things a priority over music, I know that I cannot let these skills fall to the wayside. Thus another area in which I need discipline! I haven't any idea where the Lord might call me to use music for His glory and His kingdom, but I know that He desires me to cultivate and nurture what He has given me in my music education these past 9 years.

No one else will ever let me live

This life I live in You

And no one else will ever take the place

That I have made for You

And no one else could ever fit the mold

That You have cast for me

You are my God I will bow down before You

You are my God I will lift up Your Name

~ Kerah Hanes, Zemer Levav

I'll blog some more before I leave...

Visionary Monday: Wedded Life

An important element in married life is unity of interest. There is danger that wedded lives drift apart because their employments are nearly always different. The husband is absorbed in business, in his profession, in severe daily toil; the wife has her home duties, her social life, her friends and friendships, her children; and the two touch at no point. Unless care is taken this separation of duties and engagements will lead to actual separation in heart and life. To prevent this each should keep up a constant living interest in whatever the other does. The husband may listen every evening to the story of the home life of the day, its incidents, its pleasures, its perplexities, its trials, the children’s sayings and doings, what the neighbors said who dropped in, the bits of news that have been heard, and may enter with zest and sympathy into everything that is told him. Nothing that concerns the wife of his heart should be too small for even the gigantic intellect of the greatest of husbands. In personal biography few things are more charming and fascinating than the glimpses into the homes of some of the greatest men of the earth, when we see them, having laid aside the cares and honors of the world, enter their own doors to romp with the children, to listen to their prattle, and to talk over with loving interest all the events and incidents of the day’s home history.

In like manner, every wise and true-hearted wife will desire to keep up an interest in all her husband’s affairs. She will want to know every burden, every struggle, every plan, every new ambition. She will wish to learn what undertaking has succeeded and what has failed, and to keep herself thoroughly familiar and in full sympathy with all his daily, personal life.

No marriage is complete which does not unite and blend the wedded lives at every point. This can be secured only by making every interest common to both. Let both hearts throb with the same joy and share each pang of sorrow. Let the same burdens rest on the shoulders of both. Let the whole life be made common.

In another sense still should their lives blend. They should read and study together, having the same line of thoughts, helping each other toward a higher mental culture. They should worship together, praying side by side, communing on the holiest themes of life and hope, and together carrying to God’s feet the burdens of their hearts for their children and for every precious object. Why should they not talk together of their personal trials, their peculiar temptations, their infirmities, and help each other by sympathy, by brave word and by intercession, to be victorious in living?

Thus they should live one life as it were, not two. Every plan and hope of each should embrace the other.

Between husband and wife there should be maintained without break or pause, the most perfect courtesy, the gentlest attention, the most unselfish amiability, the utmost affectionateness. Coleridge says, "The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions, the little soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling." These may seem trifles, and the omission of them may be deemed unworthy of thought; but they are the daily bread of love, and hearts go hungry when they are omitted. It may be only carelessness at first in a busy husband or a weary wife that fails in these small, sweet courtesies, and it may seem a little matter, but in the end the result may be a growing far apart of two lives which have been for ever very happy in each other had their early love but been cherished and nourished.

"For love will starve if it is not fed,

And true hearts pray for their daily bread."

~ J.R. Miller, The Family

Visionary Monday

Lastnight, I thought to myself that I should begin a thread of posts on my blog dedicated to Biblical home/family life of the roles that the Lord has assigned to husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children, etc. Every Monday I shall post some visionary quotations on these topics. I think it will be an inspiring way to begin every week as it will be an encouragement to think on the Lord's purpose for each of these family roles and the home-life.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
~ Phil 4:8

One of the main sources that I shall quote from is The Family by J.R. Miller. When I first began my pursuit of Biblical womanhood, I found that the Lord was taking me into an area in which I had abandoned for quite some time: family and home-life. My womanhood and how it relates to family and home took on a whole new meaning! I found that my womanhood was not separate from but intimately tied to family/home life. I spent years through high school dreaming of my college days and hoping to one day be independent. Although I have had desires to be married, I cannot say I grew up with them. In addition, I never really desired to have children. Even to this day, I'll admit, I'm not particularly desirious of having children. I adore and love children, but to have my own? I've always seen having my own as a huge task. After all, there's no way I'd ever send my children to public school to be raised by those who hate the Lord and His Word. Never for a moment would I consider anyone else raising my kids but my future husband and myself. They would be home-schooled just as I and my siblings have been raised. Certainly, having children of my own would mean an enormous amount of selfless dedication, discipline, and sacrifice (all of which I desire to be if the Lord so wills it). As a teen, I did not regard motherhood as a beautiful, noble, honorable role. And yet, I knew the Bible praised mothers. I just never learned to place my personal beliefs in submission to the Word until this past year. While I might still wrestle from time to time with the thought of having children (and all that would entail!), I have been deeply encouraged by many of the blogs that I follow (many of them wives and mothers!), the Vision Forum ministry, and books on this very topic. Through these, the Lord has shown me that wifehood and, especially, motherhood are not monotonous, dull, vision-less roles. They are glorious when done in daily dependence on Him and submission to the Bible. They are full of His splendor and beauty and, through them, we are brought into the depths of His grace. They teach self-abandonment, discipline, and sure reliance upon Him. They are roles that He ordained to make known Himself. They are roles that echo for an eternity through multi-generational faithfulness and blessings!
I hope my readers enjoy my Visionary Monday posts. I realize I have only three of these posts to make before I leave for the summer. But I shall certainly begin them again when I return home!
J.R. Miller was a husband, father, author, and pastor during the late 19th century.

The benediction that falls upon the homes of a country is like the gentle rain that descends among the hills. A thousand springs are fuller afterward, and along the banks of a thousand streamlets flowing through the valleys the grass is greener and the flowers pour out richer fragrance.
Homes are the springs among the hills, whose many streamlets, uniting, form like great rivers society, the community, the nation, the Church. If the springs run low the rivers waste; if they pour out bounteous currents the rivers are full. If the springs are pure the rivers are clear like crystal; if they are foul the rivers are defiled. A curse upon homes sends a poisoning blight everywhere; a blessing sends healing and new life into every channel.
Homes are the divinely ordaiend fountains of life. It is not by accident that men live in families rather than solitarily. The human race began in a famile, and Eden was a home. The divine blessing has ever rested upon nations and communities just in the measure in which they have added to these original institutions and have kept marriage and the home pure and holy; and blight and curse have come just in the measure in which they have departed from these divine models, dishonoring marriage and tearing down the sacred walls of home.

A writer closes a book on home-life with this earnest word: "The great care should be so as to live in the home that when it shall any way be lost there may be no accompanying sting of memory harder to bear than any will of God. A little constant thought, self-denial, fidelity, a true life each with each and each with God, will not only save all unavailing regret and ensure the purest peace under all experience, but make the thought of reunion and life again in the Home of God chief among incentives to his service."

In home-making each member of the family had a part, and the fullest happiness and blessedness of the home can be attained only when each one's part is faithfully fulfilled. If any one member of the family fails in love or duty, the failure mars the whole household life, just as one discordant voice in a company of singers spoils the music, though all the others sing in perfect accord.
One person alone cannot make a home what it ought to be, what it might be. One sweet psirit may spread through the home the odors of love, even though among the other members there are bitterness and strife, just as one fragrant flower may spread through a hedge of thorns a breath of perfume. The influence of one gentle and unselfish life may also in time soften rudeness and melt unselfishness, and pervade the home-life with the blessedness of love. Yet still it it true that no one member of a household can make the household life full and complete. Each must do a part.

As to the part, or the rule, of each member...that shall come with each week's post.

As I typed out these quotations, I thought about the resounding truth of each statement. Look at America - broken families, single parents, angry, rebellious children, abortions, teen pregnancies, the feminist movement, the feminizing of men, the masculinizing of woman, homosexuality, etc etc. The family is no longer the backbone of America. When we rejected God, we rejected God-ordained roles. As we look at the pitiful state of our country now, is it really a wonder that we have become such a wicked, perverse people? Sin is very subtle and it very easily ensares. America started slipping off the Rock a long, long time ago. And it began in the home. Fathers who stopped trusting in God to equip them with grace and wisdom to raise their families. Mothers who became idle, stopped nurturing and teaching their daughters, and lost sight of their purpose. Daughters who became selfish. Sons who became negligent. Families who replaced prayer and the Bible with social hour, popular trends, television, etc. Families who became separated, independent individuals instead of a solid unit, each individually dependent upon the grace of the Lord. Families who stripped the Gospel from their lives little by little, day by day until it suddenly lost all its meaning to them. Families whose focus became self instead of God and the other. That is how America has become what it is.

"For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children..."
~Deut. 4:7-9

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
~ Deut. 6:4-9

“There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained”

~ Winston Churchill

Of dried flowers, ceremonies, Ellerslie, and to-do lists!

Remember these flowers? There were the ones my dad and I planted at the beginning of the semester. I snapped some pictures of them last month and devoted a post to them. As nature would have it, they have been getting quite crispy in the heat of Arizona. I pulled all the dying flowers from their roots, hauled them to my backyard, and went through them all to make a dried-flower boquet. I hadn't planned to hang it from my curtain rod, but my mom gave me the idea. Doesn't it look nice next to my vintage poster?

I graduate with my AA next Friday evening. I shall miss Acapella Choir, my crazy-awesome Jazz combo instructor (so aptly named Pete PanCRAZI, haha!), and sitting in the practice hall and reading while the music majors fill the building with melodies and rhythms. I made some friends this semester (which is new for me, Miss Introvert! hehe), struggled through many discouragements and tough courses, conquered ProTools, and met many interesting, delightful people along my college-journey. This entire semester was filled to the brim with learning experiences. Although I am unbelievably relieved that the semester is over, I cannot say I'm looking forward to a graduation ceremony. I'm just not interested in those types of things. After all, I shall not be putting my degree to real use (long story). Feels like a big to-do over nothin'. I'm still continuing college for a couple more years to pursue an education in sewing/tailoring (another long story - one for a future blog post!). Sometimes, I have felt as if I am just blundering around in life with no clear direction. I think it's just living 'regular' days that quickly muddies life. How often we need some clear, spiritual, Gospel-drenched refreshment to keep us guided and rooted!

"My life is but a weaving/between my God and me/I do not choose the colors/He worketh steadily/Oftimes He weaveth sorrow/and I in foolish pride/Forget He sees the upper/And I the underside/The dark threads are as needful/in the skillful Weaver's hand/As the threads of gold and silver/in the pattern He has planned." ~ Anonymous

In three weeks I shall be on the road to Ellerslie. Maybe this sounds funny, but I'm looking forward to it as a bride looks forward to her honeymoon. I cannot say how many times I have longed to forget 'regular' life and get away to a beautiful place where I can pray to my Lord, study His Word, and think only of Him. Yes, I shall miss my family and dog. Yes, there are rules at Ellerslie that require discipline and giving up things that I'm so accustomed to in my daily life at home. But there is not a single thought within me that these 'sacrifices' will be too difficult. None at all. After all, a disciple never makes a sacrifice. A disciple, by the grace of God, is a vessel freely poured out and given. The Lord placed this path to Ellerslie before my feet during a time when I was on my knees, broken and repenting for how I had foolishly forsaken Him. He has provided me with all the necessary things to get me to Ellerslie up 'til now. Not for a moment am I afraid to leave home for my King! How could I be when He has proven His faithfulness and grace to me over and over again? Every day that I'm living is telling of His sustaining grace; what a glorious reality that is!

"The Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you-- your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything-- then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it!... True godliness leaves the world convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the explanation for you, is Jesus Christ." ~ Ian Thomas

Today was Day 2 of preparing for Ellerslie. I had forgotten that living in a dorm for ten weeks meant supplying a lot of your own living supplies. haha! Leave it to me to forget practical matters! ;-) I am glad that the majority of my wardrobe already fits Ellerslie's dress code/standards. That helps me to focus more on the practical items for bed/bath. I've also made sure to stock up on paper, journals, stationery for all the note-taking, thoughts, and letter-writing I shall be doing while I'm there. It will be fabulous! But, next to my preparations, I have a list of things 'to-do' before I leave AZ for ten weeks. That list includes (but is not limited by): getting my driver's license, two sewing projects, getting together with friends to say goodbye, and complete two books (A Sweet & Bitter Providence by John Piper and A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner). So, I need to get crackin'!

Goodnight, blog world of lovely friends. I wish you all rest underneath the shelter of His wings!

"…let the last thoughts before falling asleep be set on Him…" - Amy Carmichael

Women Who Fear the Lord

I just read a truly humbling post by one of my favorite bloggers, Vanessa of A Sweet Fragrance. Her post is called Be a Bathsheba. While that might sound odd at first, it is a very beautiful teaching on Biblical womanhood. It's exactly the kind of teaching that is missing in the majority of modern Christian women groups, studies, and books. Please read, my friends. :-)

Holy Darkness

There is an old song that Catholic singer/guitarist John Michael Talbot recorded called “Holy Darkness” by Daniel L. Schutte. I was raised on much of Talbot's music and heard this many times growing up. It's a beautiful, worshipful piece of music with meaningful, Biblical lyrics. I usually don't come across many song lyrics that capture Biblical suffering in the right light, but this one is filled with the Lord's holy purposes in the dark night of our souls.

Holy darkness, blessed night
Heaven’s answer hidden from our sight,
As we await You, O God of silence,
We embrace Your Holy night.
I have tried you in the fires of affliction;
I have taught your soul to grieve.
In the barren soil of your loneliness,
There I will plant my seed.
I have taught you the price of compassion;
you have stood before the grave.
Though my love can seem like a raging storm,
this is the love that saves.
Were you there when I raised up the mountains?
Can you guide the morning star?
Does the hawk take flight when you give command?
Why do you doubt my pow'r?
In the deepest hour of your darkness,
I will give you wealth untold,
When the silence stills your spirit,
Will my riches fill your soul.
As the watchman waits for morning,
and the bride awaits her groom,
so we wait to hear your footsteps
as we rest beneath your moon.

“I will give you treasures out of the darkness, and riches that have been hidden away, that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.” ~ Isaiah 45:3

Warrior Poet

For anyone who is interested in the meaning behind the name of my blog, Warrior Poet, or for the signifiance of the verses posted on my blog header/banner, I thought I should provide a post about it.

I first heard the term, Warrior Poet, used by Irish worship leader, Robin Mark, in Shiprock, NM several years ago. In fact, shortly after that time, he came out with a book called Warrior Poets of the 21st Century. The meaning behind it is very simple. It deals with why and for whom/what we were created; namely, the purpose for which we were formed is to worship God and enjoy Him forever. Our actions and words from day to day speak loudly of who/what we're worshipping and who/what we enjoy. Upon hearing Robin's teaching on the Biblical meaning of worship, I was overcome with joy. Yes, I knew my life was meant for God's holy purposes. But I had yet to understand what such a life entailed. My fanciful heart was taken away by momentary passion, wishing that my emotional, spiritual 'high' could last forever. The years following that time came with painful, shameful, humbling circumstances, disappointments, and betrayals. You see, I had not known that the Lord's purpose that day was to equip me with the words from Him that I would need in the coming years as I entered into my adulthood. He was preparing me for a time in which I would experience deep, painful, inward soul-hunger. The winds were coming, but He was going to prove in my life the divine reality of His word, that the joy of the Lord is truly my strength.

Since I was a young girl, I have had indescribable (I call them 'epic') longings for something so far and so vast beyond myself and this world. They have always been a part of my life. I have never known a life without them. They've been my world of insatiable waves and sighs. I'll be honest, although I should have known what that something was (being raised on the Word and prayer), I was too childish and stubborn to turn to the right Way. My longings, though dulled at times, have never ceased to find fulfillment in something that will take the whole of me and drown me in sweet, eternal glory. There have been one too many instances where I thought I knew exactly where that fulfillment might be found. Everything my heart saw as the Ultimate Good was, within short time, bitterly dissastifying. So many times I have looked upon every good thing in my life and in this world and seen nothing but vexation and emptiness. So many days I have wished that I had the power to bring a close to my life and collapse in defeat and weakness. So often have I grown weary of life; not weary because of continual, exhausting tragedies and pains, but days that bring nothing to my aching soul. Just days of normal living....days that become stripped of meaning underneath the weight of life's little matters. For me, every day has become an irritating weight of nothingness without something to uphold me, to give me a depth of meaning and purpose to live for. I need Someone glorious who will fill me, take care of me, love me, hold me, teach me, mold me, and purify me so that my life will be a pleasing aroma and a joy unto that One greater than I. Over the years of my life, that Someone has revealed Himself to me.

My Lord, my Lover, my King.

He is the very reason that I do or can do anything now. He brings meaning and purpose to each hour of every day with His very prescence.

The significance of my blog and its title ties my life and my heart (its struggles, and longings) to the life of David, who was very much a warrior and a poet. His training as the Lord's holy vessel began at a young age.

David was the youngest of Jesse's eight sons. As such, on him eventually fell the ignoble task of caring for the family's flock of sheep in the Judean wilds. Life in the wilderness was one of the most undesirable things that could be required of a man. While the rest of the family enjoyed hot meals, warm beds and joyous times of fellowship, the shepher was forced to endure the frigid nights and scorching days of the Negev, tedious hours of boredom, and constant threat of danger from wild animals or marauding gangs of heathens.
The wilderness -- where the character of godly men is forged -- would be home for the ruddy son of Jesse for much of his younger years. While most of us ave a difficult time imagining daily life without modern conveniences and titillating entertainment, David spent weeks at a time in desert isolation. With no television, Internet, or video games to distract him, the earnest adolescent spent many hours sitting in the presence of God. It's evident from his early writings, such as Psalm 23, that he was already 'rich toward God.'
~ Steve Gallagher

David was intimately acquainted with the wilderness all throughout his life. When Saul sought David's life, the Lord led him, once again, to the wilds, where David had nothing to lean upon but the might of the Lord Himself.
Before Samuel annointed David and led him into instruction, before David was led to the courts of the king to soothe Saul with music, before David slayed Goliath, before David killed his thousands, and before David himself became King over all of Israel, he was alone with God in the wilderness. All he had was a herd of sheep and his harp. Perhaps he spent hours playing melodies unto the Lord in adoration as the sheep stood by, calmed and quieted. When David found himself in the wilderness of Engedi fleeing from Saul, I'm sure he was overwhelmed with many emotions and fears. Even as he hid in the caves of Adullam, his heart was burdened. And yet, the wilderness was no stranger to him. In fact, it brought him closer to God. In the caves he penned Psalm 142.

I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."

Warrior poets are souls who live in daily dependence on the Lord. Warrior poets live in selfless abandonment to their King and do all things for the glory of God. Warrior poets are servants who care for the Lord's people. They are almost always the most unlikely persons to be in the service of the Almighty. And yet, for that very reason, being of little significance in the world and weak in the eyes of many, they are taken underneath the wings of the Lord and made unto His image. This is why I think the Lord's holy purposes in the life of David is worthy of special notice. It is the life I pray for - to be a woman after my Lord's heart, to live a life of continual worship to my King, no matter the circumstances, poured out like perfume onto His feet. I want to always be filled with zeal for my Lord's glory in every little part of who I am and every little thing that I do or say.

Another interesting note about David is that the Lord used him to introduce praise with music into the tabernacle or temple. Before that, there had been no worship there through the gift of song.

Below, I have placed information that I have found about Engedi and Adullam. Those places, their occurences in Scripture, and their significance to the life of a disciple are so fascinating to me.

Engedi

1 Samuel 23:29 And David went up from thence, and dwelt in strong holds at Engedi.
Song of Songs 1:14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Fountain of the kid, place in the wilderness of Judah (Joshua 15:62), on the western shore of the Dead Sea (Ezek. 47:10), and nearly equidistant from both extremities. To the wilderness near this town David fled for fear of Saul (Joshua 15:62; 1 Samuel 23:29). It was at first called Hazezon-tamar (Genesis 14:7), a city of the Amorites.
The vineyards of Engedi were celebrated in Solomon's time (Cant. 1:4). It is the modern `Ain Jidy. The "fountain" from which it derives its name rises on the mountain side about 600 feet above the sea, and in its rapid descent spreads luxuriance all around it. Along its banks the osher grows abundantly. That shrub is thus described by Porter: "The stem is stout, measuring sometimes nearly a foot in diameter, and the plant grows to the height of 15 feet or more. It has a grayish bark and long oval leaves, which when broken off discharge a milky fluid. The fruit resembles an apple, and hangs in clusters of two or three. When ripe it is of a rich yellow colour, but on being pressed it explodes like a puff-ball. It is chiefly filled with air...This is the so-called `apple of Sodom.'" Through Samaria, etc.

Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia
EN-GEDI
en'-ge-di, en-ge'-di (`en gedhi, "fountain of the kid"):Identical with the present Ain Jidi. According to 2 Chronicles 20:2 it is the same as Hazazon-tamar, mentioned in Genesis 14:7 as occupied by the Amorites and as having been attacked by Chedorlaomer after leaving Kadesh and El Paran on his way to the Vale of Siddim. The place is situated upon the West shore of the Dead Sea about midway between the North and the South ends, and was included in the territory of Judah (Joshua 15:62). The spot is rendered attractive by the verdure clothing it by reason of immense fountains of warm water, 80 degrees F., which pour out from beneath the limestone cliffs.In the time of Solomon (Songs 1:14) palms and vines were cultivated here. Josephus also mentions its beautiful palm groves.In the time of Eusebius it was still a place of importance, but since the Middle Ages it has been almost deserted, being occupied now only by a few Arabs. The oasis occupies a small area a few hundred feet above the Dead Sea marked by the 650 ft. sedimentary terrace heretofore described (see DEAD SEA). The limestone borders rise so abruptly to a height of 2,000 ft. immediately on the West, that the place can be approached only by a rock-cut path. Two streams, Wady Sugeir and Wady el-Areyeh, descend on either side through precipitous rocky gorges from the uninhabitable wilderness separating it from Bethlehem and Hebron. It was in the caves opening out from the sides of these gorges that David took refuge from Saul (1 Samuel 24:1). During the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:2), the children of Ammon, Moab and Mt. Seir attempted to invade Judah by way of En-gedi, but were easily defeated as they came up from the gorges to occupy the advantageous field of battle chosen by Jehoshaphat.

Adullam

Samuel 22:1 David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

Easton's Bible Dictionary
One of the royal cities of the Canaanites, now `Aid-el-ma (Joshua 12:15; 15:35). It stood on the old Roman road in the valley of Elah (q.v.), which was the scene of David's memorable victory over Goliath (1 Samuel 17:2), and not far from Gath. It was one of the towns which Rehoboam fortified against Egypt (2 Chronicles 11:7). It was called "the glory of Israel" (Micah 1:15).
The Cave of Adullam has been discovered about 2 miles south of the scene of David's triumph, and about 13 miles west from Bethlehem. At this place is a hill some 500 feet high pierced with numerous caverns, in one of which David gathered together "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented" (1 Samuel 22:2). Some of these caverns are large enough to hold 200 or 300 men. According to tradition this cave was at Wady Khureitun, between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, but this view cannot be well maintained.
Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia
ADULLAM
a-dul'-am (`adhullam):(1) A city, with dependencies, and in ancient times having a king, mentioned five times in the Old Testament, each time in a list with other cities (Joshua 12:15; Joshua 15:35 2 Chronicles 11:7 Micah 1:15 Nehemiah 11:30). In the list of 31 kings whom Joshua smote, Adullam follows Hormah, Arad, Libnah, and precedes Makkedah. Among the 14 Judahite cities of the first group in "the lowland" Adullam is mentioned between Jarmuth and Socoh. In the list of 15 cities fortified by Rehoboam it appears between Socoh and Gath. Micah gives what may be a list of cities concerned in some Assyrian approach to Jerusalem; it begins with Gath, includes Lachish, and ends with Mareshah and Adullam. And Adullam is still in the same company in the list in Nehemiah of the cities "and their villages" where the men of Judah then dwelt. In the time of the patriarchs it was a place to which men "went down" from the central mountain ridge (Genesis 38:1). Judas Maccabeus found it still existing as a city (2 Maccabees 12:38). Common opinion identifies Adullam with the ruin `Aid-el-Ma, 13 miles West-Southwest from Bethlehem (see HGHL, 229). This is in spite of the testimony of the Onomasticon, which, it is alleged, confuses Adullam with Eglon. Presumably the city gave its name to the cave of Adullam, the cave being near the city.(2) The cave of Adullam, David's headquarters during a part of the time when he was a fugitive from Saul (1 Samuel 22:1 2 Samuel 23:13 1 Chronicles 11:15). Sufficient care has not been exercised in reading the Bible statements on this subject. To begin with, Hebrew syntax permits of the use of the word "cave" collectively; it may denote a group or a region of caves; it is not shut up to the meaning that there was one immense cave in which David and his 400 men all found accommodations at once. All reasonings based on this notion are futile.Further, by the most natural syntax of 2 Samuel 23:13-17 (duplicated with unimportant variations in 1 Chronicles 11:15-19), that passage describes two different events, and does not connect the cave of Adullam with the second of these. "And three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem. And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water," etc. Concerning these three seniors among David's "mighty men" it is narrated, first, that they were David's comrades in a certain battle, a battle which the Chronicler identifies with Pas-dammim, where David slew Goliath; second, that they joined David at the cave of Adullam, presumably during the time when he was hiding from Saul; third, that at a later time, when the Philistines were in the valley of Rephaim (compare 2 Samuel 5:18), and David was "in the stronghold" (Josephus says "at Jerusalem," Ant, VII, xii, 4), these men broke through the Philistine lines and brought him water from the home well of Bethlehem.The cave of Adullam, like the city, was "down" from the central ridge (1 Samuel 22:1 2 Samuel 23:13). The city was in Judah; and David and his men were in Judah (1 Samuel 23:3) at a time when, apparently, the cave was their headquarters. Gad's advice to David to return to Judah (1 Samuel 22:3, 5) was given at a time when he had left the cave of Adullam. If the current identification of `Aid-el-Ma as Adullam is correct, the cave of Adullam is probably the cave region which has been found in that vicinity.It has been objected that this location is too far from Bethlehem for David's men to have brought the water from there. To this it is replied that thirteen or fourteen miles is not an excessive distance for three exceptionally vigorous men to go and return; and a yet stronger reply is found in the consideration just mentioned, that the place from which the men went for the water was not the cave of Adullam. The one argument for the tradition to the effect that Chariton's cave, a few miles Southeast of Bethlehem, is Adullam, is the larger size of this cave, as compared with those near `Aid-el-Ma We have already seen that this has no force. In our current speech "cave of Adullam" suggests an aggregation of ill-assorted and disreputable men. This is not justified by the Bible record. David's men included his numerous and respectable kinsmen, and the representative of the priesthood, and some of David's military companions, and some men who afterward held high office in Israel. Even those who are described as being in distress and debt and bitter of soul were doubtless, many of them, persons who had suffered at the hands of Saul on account of their friendship for David. Doubtless they included mere adventurers in their number; but the Scriptural details and the circumstances alike indicate that they were mainly homogeneous, and that most of them were worthy citizens.

Reading Too Much?

Here's a little something I received from the Desiring God blog last week. *smirk* Found it a good, convicting reminder after my previous post. haha! I admire John Newton.

Reading Too Much?

Posted: 18 Apr 2010 11:30 PM PDT

(Author: Tyler Kenney)

It is far from my intention to depreciate the value or deny the usefulness of books, without exception: a few well-chosen treatises, carefully perused and thoroughly digested, will deserve and reward our pains; but a multiplicity of reading is seldom attended with a good effect.

Besides the confusion it often brings upon the judgment and memory, it occasions a vast expense of time, indisposes for close thinking, and keeps us poor, in the midst of seeming plenty, by reducing us to live upon a foreign supply, instead of labouring to improve and increase the stock of our own reflections.

— John Newton in his letter "A Plan of a Compendious Christian Library" (Works of John Newton, Volume 1, 236). Paragraphing added.

Are you reserving sufficient time in your life to reflect on Scripture?