May 3, 2010

• Thank you, Noël Piper (Thank you, pastor's wives)

  After I finished writing my post Thank you, John Piper, I picked up in reading Iain Murray's "Revival and Revivalism" (Banner of Truth, 1994, reprinted 1996). Here Murray is describing some key factors in the movement of the gospel into Western Pennsylvania in the 18th and early 19th centuries (56-58).

  The overruling of God in history could be seen in the way this part of the country was opened for settlement. The opening came at a time when true religious experience had prepared men and women for the hardship and heroism that the advance westwards would require. Western Pennsylvania was to be the key to the occupation of the great valley of the Mississippi and to the movement towards the Pacific. Here churches were needed that would have deep and sure foundations and whose example would give guidance and inspiration to the many yet to be formed in the regions beyond...

  
  Blue Knob Mountain
  by Joe Calzarette (CC by SA/3.0)

  
  ...Another fact is too important to go unmentioned. It is that the wives of these men were no less in stature as Christians than their husbands. These were women not raised in the backwoods but educated and accustomed to the established communities in the East. We can well believe that it was only 'uncommon piety' that enabled them to survive the hardship and loneliness, the early death of children, the fear of the frontier, and all else that became a part of their daily lives. Indeed, all the indications are that they did more than survive. They prayed and fasted; they improvised coats from skins or blankets for winter and made summer clothes from linen which they coloured from the dye from new-mown hay; they relearned some of their cooking in kitchens which had to be shared, at times, with their husbands' school pupils. All in all, they presided over homes that were happy both in life and death. When the wife of Joseph Patterson was dying, such were her 'views of the glory she was advancing to, and, and hopes of being soon in it', that the edge of sorrow was so dulled that her 'scarcely felt its sharp cutting'. John McMillan wrote: 'My wife and I lived comfortably together more than forty-three years; and on the 24th of November, 1819, she departed triumphantly to take possession of her house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'
  
  On this same subject, Thomas Murphy directs attention to Catharine Kennedy, the wife of William Tennent (founder of the log-college), and asks whether that school would ever have been build without 'her counsel, cheer and self-sacrifice'. He goes on to express the opinion that 'on account of her position, usefulness and excellence, we consider that she deserves to stand highest of all . . . Unseen, unheralded, almost unknown, her influence was deeper, stronger, wider and more lasting than that of any other of the group.' Probably the same could be said of many of the early pioneer Christian women across the Alleghenies; without them the story would certainly have been very different.

  As I read about these pioneer women I realized I discounted the time I gave to Noël Piper in my recent post about John Piper. I confess I do not know as much about Noël, but today I would like to say thank you, Noël Piper (as well as thank you to all the pastor's/minister's/missionary's wives out there).

  Thank you, Noël Piper. As I read the above accounts of those pioneer wives and also having read a few accounts of other wives of Gospel ministers, I was convicted that I did not give you the due you deserve. Of course, once again, I know that all glory must go to God, yet we can acknowledge how others have ministered to us and have been used by God to bless us.

  You and all the wives of those who minister the Gospel in any way deserve our many thanks and are as much in need of our prayers as your husbands. I will confess I often pray for those who minister the Gospel but neglect to pray for their wives or I do not pray as much as I should for their wives. (Thank you, Lord, for this much-needed reminder.) I know you are not doing what you do for any earthly thanks but for the Lord Himself, nonetheless we are to encourage one another regularly as we serve the Lord, so I would like to send these words as an encouragement to you today to build you up in the faith and strengthen you to run the race ahead of you with perseverance and great joy.

  Thank you, Noël Piper for offering yourself up to serve God by being John Piper's help meet. The Lord Himself is described with the same Hebrew word, ezer, so we should never minimize the role of the wife...ever! The roles of wives are really downgraded in today's society, but I know your husband values all of us women as sisters in Christ, co-heirs with Jesus, all of us have gifts to be used to the glory of God in the building up of the Church, though women have different roles in that. One thing I forgot to mention in my other post is that your husband had the strong desire that Christian women would age into sages because older Christian women are a necessary part of the Church functioning as it ought, as the older women teach the younger women. I am trusting you are aging into a sage as you are remaining close to Christ and feeding on Him through His Word.

  Thank you, Noël Piper for your commitment to Christ and His Gospel which was shown in your obedience to God's call to be a pastor's wife, even though you once said you would never marry a pastor. How God's providence continues to surprise us all! I know He continues to surprise me almost daily! (What kind of God would He be if we were not surprised by Him? ) How our Bridegroom leads us so gently in our marriages, doesn't He? He doesn't slam it all in our faces, but only reveals to us what we can handle at any given time and give us sufficient grace for the day. As our days, so shall our strength be through the Lord's perfect provision. The Bread of Life never ceases. The spring of Living Water never runs dry.

  Thank you, Noël Piper for sharing your husband not only with Behtlehem Baptist for these past thirty years but with the Church at large as well. As I've written before, his teaching has had a huge impact on me, in no small part due to your faithfulness as his wife. I will sadly confess I don't know much about you. I've not read much of what you've written and have never heard you speak. (Note to self: put those things on my list...)

  Noel, as John Piper's wife, you are no less in stature as a Christian as your husband John. You are a child of God by grace through faith. Just because you do not have the degrees or the titles or the speaking engagements or the seemingly endless number of books makes you no less than him. You may be  unseen, unheralded, almost unknown ...yet all of us know you have had (and will continue to have) a deep, strong, wide and lasting influence. And we know that our God knows and has seen all those things you have done in secret and one day our Father in heaven will richly reward you. Thank you, Noël Piper for remaining for the most part unseen, unheralded, almost unknown. Only those who have the Spirit of Christ and are given an abundance of the grace of God can stand faithfully for so long and serve in such a place to support a public figure such as your husband. It is so hard for many of us to be a John the Baptist or a Barnabas or a footwasher (at least I know it is for me!). Thank you, Noël Piper for remaining faithful and true to your husband through these many years. Any marriage is difficult enough, but add on to that the pastorate, and then add onto that an international ministry. Thank you, Noël Piper for surrendering your life to God to be used in this way. May our Lord continue to knit you and John both closer to Him, and to one another. I will be praying for you and John these next months.

  
  Thank you, God, for Noël Piper!

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  Have you thanked God for your pastor's wife lately?
  Have you prayed for your pastor's wife lately?
  Have you let her know how much you appreciate her?

  • 4:54 PM
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