Exalting the name of Jesus through Christian essays

apostles, encouragement, jesus, nathanael, philip

“Can Anything Good Come from Nazareth?”

Posted on April 27, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:45-46a)

This verse is from chapter 1 of the Gospel of John. The context is that Jesus has begun calling His disciples, who would become the Apostles later. In the previous verses, He had called Andrew and his brother Simon (who shall be called Peter). Now, Philip who was from Bethsaida, went to Cana where Nathanael was from, to tell him the news.

Nathanael’s skepticism rested on the fact of Jesus’ origins, which were from Nazareth, a backwater. So Nathanael’s skepticism revolved around the location, not the Person. Though we often focus on the part of the verse that says “from Nazareth?!” let’s focus on the part before that. Note Nathanael said, “can anything GOOD…” This shows that Nathanael knew of the Messiah and was looking for Him. He knew His appearance would be GOOD. Nathanael believed.

Nathanael had a seeking heart because he truly studied the scriptures. As verse 45 shows, Philip and Nathanael studied the Law, Moses and the Prophets. As for Nathanael’s character, in verse 47 when Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, Jesus said there was no deceit in Nathanael and that he was a true Israelite.

Nathanael was a simple man, indeed from a similar backwater than Nazareth (Cana), in a backwater district, in a time of apostasy. Not many people around him believed the truth. The Samaritans believed a blended religion, the Pharisees believed a works religion, the Sadducees didn’t believe in supernatural resurrection or angels and were against the Pharisees who did, and most regular people were either unknowing, hypocrites, or apathetic. As a matter of fact, Luke 4:33-34 records Jesus at Capernaum teaching at the synagogue. A demon-possessed man in the synagogue cried out when Jesus taught, because of His authority in His proclamation of the truth of God. Jesus cast him out, His first exorcism. Can you imagine a synagogue so devoid of truth that before Jesus’ arrival, the demon inside the man felt so secure he had never cried out before? Demons should never feel comfortable in church!

It was a time of apostasy, God hadn’t spoken in 400 years. He had sent no prophet since Malachi (until John the Baptist). God had done no miracles. He had been silent.

Synagogues in the small towns had limped along, (with demons in them), the Temple in Jerusalem grew bloated with wares, graft, and hypocrisy thanks to the religious hierarchy.

And yet, among all this, there was faithful Simeon, and Anna, there was Zacharias and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, John the Baptist, and the men who would become the Apostles. And there was Nathanael, who was looking for something GOOD (just had a hard time believing it would come from Nazareth, lol).

In this current time of apostasy (when wasn’t the world apostasizing?!) we look at our leaders and sometimes we are greatly disappointed. Just as those regular people of Nathanael’s time were looking at the hypocritical Pharisees, the corrupt Annas or Caiaphas, the arrogant and zealous Saul (later, Paul), the ordinary people must have felt let down by those who were in charge of leading them in the truth just as we are let down by many of our leaders today. There has always been a shepherd problem.

“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:1)

Jesus and Nathanael
WEIGEL, Johann Christoph 1695, Woodcut. **Source**

Yet there were simple people in small towns, laboring diligently during the week and on Sabbaths, attending synagogue to learn about the promised Messiah. Who was the first person Philip went to tell the good news that Messiah had been found, the priest in their local synagogue? No! Philip went immediately to tell his friend, Nathanael. These first century men and women persevered, they believed with a child-like faith, simple and in which there was no deceit. There were no layers of corruption to the faith that Nathanael evidenced, no arrogance. With seeking heart he and his friend Philip must have gone to hear John the Baptist, and when Jesus arrived, and said ‘Follow Me,’ they did.

And we should do the same. We labor during the week, we worship on Sunday, we follow Jesus as He commanded. His word is in the Bible now, not spoken to us on a hillside at Bethsaida, but we believe. No matter what our leaders do, we trust the promises in His word just as Nathanael and Philip did in that long-ago apostate time. We follow, seek, trust. Nathanael was looking for something GOOD, and He came. We should also have seeking hearts. Are you looking for He who was written of in Moses and the Prophets? Like Nathanael during a time of low worship and little truth, we are also looking forward to something GOOD. He will come again

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality…(1 Corinthians 15:52-53)

encouragement, holy, Lamb

Be ye reconciled to God

Posted on April 26, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:7-8)

The Sacrifice of Isaac is a familiar chapter to most Christians. We study it in Sunday School, it’s taught in VBS, we read it familiarly as mature Christians, our eyes having passed over the verses many times.

But sometimes the gravity of the moment just grabs you and won’t let go. The Father DID provide the Lamb for the sacrifice. The grandest, most beautiful, most terrible moment in all of history or ever shall be, was the death of Jesus on the Cross at Calvary.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

Ambassadors have all the authority of the sending nation behind them. As Christ’s ambassadors, we have all the authority of heaven behind us!

Sometimes just thinking about how Jesus died for us and absorbed the wrath that was rightfully due me, is overwhelming. Sometimes thinking of how despite my craven sinful nature, God cleaned me and forgave me. Sometimes thinking of the fact that God uses me, a poor clay vessel, for His glory, is just too immense for my mind to absorb.

The Christian journey is sometimes not easy, and it is always demanding, but it is also the most joyous and entrancing life a person could ever imagine. If you have not turned to Jesus for forgiveness of your sins, sins that incur the wrath of a Holy God against you every minute of every day, please do it. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth split history. The event divided the world into two paths. One is narrow and leads to everlasting life. The other path is broad and many find it, and will descend to hell for everlasting wrath.

The Father did provide the Lamb. And He is exalted.

The Lamb Exalted
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” (Revelation 5:11-13)

theology

Fragments of Grace: Thoughts That Stayed With Me

Posted on April 24, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

This is not a one-thought essay on one topic. These are just some tidbits that moved me or stayed in my mind as I’ve studied this past month.

The Apostle Paul’s self-description progressed toward greater humility as he aged, moving from “least of the apostles” (1 Cor 15:9, c. AD 55) to “very least of all the saints” (Eph 3:8, c. AD 60), and finally to “foremost/chief of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15, c. AD 62-64), reflecting deep gratitude for grace. Source Jerry Bridges Blessing of Humility

Spurgeon on Humility “Micah’s Message for Today”, “I believe that when a man goes back he gets proud, and I am persuaded that when a man advances he gets humbler, and that it is a part of the advance to walk more and more and more humbly.”

Spurgeon ibid, on our progress toward humility: “Remember how Abraham, when he communed with God, and pleaded with him for Sodom, said, “I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes;” “dust” — that set forth the frailty of his nature, “ashes” — as if he was like the refuse of the altar, which could not be burnt up, which God would not have. He felt himself to be, by sin, like the sweeping of a furnace, the ashes, refuse of no value whatsoever; and that was not because he was away from God, but because he was near to God. You can get to be as big as you like if you get away from God; but coming near to the Lord you rightly sing,” —

“The more thy glories strike mine eyes,
The humbler I shall lie.” Isaac Watts.

The “Son of man” was Jesus’ favorite term for Himself. It is used 14X in the New Testament. We first read it in Daniel 7,

The Son of Man Presented

“I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a son of man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.”

The request of James and John to sit at Jesus’ right and left in the kingdom, is astounding. What they were really saying is that they should be exalted even higher than Elijah, Moses, or Joseph, for example. Even in their own thinking that they had ‘earned’ a spot of exaltation, even at that, James and John had only been serving and following Jesus for three years, whereas Moses dedicated his life to God. Joseph had been through something horrific, and Elijah was a diligent prophet all his life. Their request reminds me of the Pharisees who ‘loved the chief seats’. Obviously, the pride in their hearts nor the thinking in their heads had been smoothed out yet.

We first meet Barnabas in Acts 4, just before the dramatic slaying of Ananias and Sapphira. The verse gives us a succinct bio of the man: “Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus”... Did you remember that Barnabas was a nickname and not his actual name? The Bible shows us this quite often, people’s names are changed by God, or they have nicknames they are better known by.

Saul/Paul, Simon/Peter/nickname Cephas, Levi/Matthew, Priscilla/Prisca, Silvanus/Silas, Naomi/Mara, Jacob/Israel plus there are many more in the Bible I didn’t mention.

We will be receiving a new name when we get to heaven!

The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it. (Revelation 2:17).

Oh what a day that will be!

encouragement

Casting Our Cares Together

Posted on April 23, 2026April 23, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

To all my sisters who have lost a loved one and are facing the first holiday alone…

To all my sisters who have spoken up for the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ in bible study and have been kicked out because of it…

To all my sisters who have approached their pastor with concerns of false teaching and have been spiritually abused instead of comforted…or even heard…

To all my sisters who are struggling to be a good Christian wife with a non-believing husband…or an apathetic husband…

To all my sisters who have a spouse deployed overseas…

To my lonely and hurting and grief-stricken and saddened sisters. You’re not alone.

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Jesus is WITH you.

theology

Provision Beyond the Ordinary

Posted on April 22, 2026April 22, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. (Deuteronomy 8:4).

Did you ever think through the details of that little nugget of a scene? With all the wandering they did day after day for an entire generation, ‘their foot did not swell’. In other words, they did not have foot trouble. No blisters. No turned ankles. He made it so they could walk. This underscores His minute attention to their individual and personal care, which is a glorious aspect of the Lord’s miraculous preservation of His people.

Biblehub topical lexicon: “Swelling of tissue results from fluid imbalance and venous stress—an inevitable reality in a grueling march. By preventing it, the Lord demonstrated authority over ordinary biological functions, reinforcing His supremacy over creation (Psalm 103:19)”.

As for their clothes… as we read the we picture the people in linen type togas. Adults. But…children grow! When the Wandering began a child might have been 1 year old but when about when they were 6 or 9 or 12? How did God make it so “their clothes did not wear out”?

BibleHub Topical Lexicon:

By contrast, three wilderness texts celebrate a divine suspension of the normal process:

“Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years” (Deuteronomy 8:4; cf. 29:5).
“For forty years You sustained them in the desert; … their clothes did not wear out” (Nehemiah 9:21).

Israel’s garments should have fallen apart, yet the Lord sovereignly checked. The same Lord who ordains natural decay can overrule it to keep covenant promises.

Matthew Henry has some ideas. In one potential answer, he said the people could have traded clothes. As one person outgrew clothes, they gave them to another who would fit them. Makes sense. We donate and swap clothes today. But that doesn’t answer how God made it so that no matter which boy wore it, a boys’ size 4 stayed in good enough condition to wear for 40 years?!

Here is Matthew Henry’s Commentary on it:

By the method God took of providing food and raiment for them [1.] He humbled them. It was a mortification to them to be tied for forty years together to the same meat, without any varieties, and to the same clothes, in the same fashion. Thus he taught them that the good things he designed for them were figures of better things, and that the happiness of man consists not in being clothed in purple or fine linen, and in faring sumptuously every day, but in being taken into covenant and communion with God, and in learning his righteous judgements. God’s law, which was given to Israel in the wilderness, must be to them instead of food and raiment.

[2.] He proved them, whether they could trust him to provide for them when means and second causes failed. Thus he taught them to live in a dependence upon Providence, and not to perplex themselves with care what they should eat and drink, and wherewithal they should be clothed. Christ would have his disciples learn the same lesson (Mt. 6:25),

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 247). Hendrickson.

You trust God with your soul, which is eternal, so do trust Him to provide the temporary things, like clothes. He is faithful!

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matthew 6:25)

theology

Dying to self doesn’t mean obliteration

Posted on April 21, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We are told to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, strength and soul. We are told to serve with gusto, and not just when the boss is around, but all the time. We are told to die to self.

But how do we balance serving and dying to self, and avoiding burnout so we can keep serving? I mean, should we even avoid burnout? We must serve with excellence, but does that mean serve to the point of exhaustion, even death? Paul did. Charles Spurgeon did. Paul even said he is poured out like a drink offering, signaling his willingness to serve to the death of a martyr, Philippians 2:17, 2 Timothy 4:6.

Christian self-sacrifice does not mean burnout, nor does it require a continuous state of emotional, physical, or spiritual depletion. At most times, busy-ness does not even mean efficiency, productivity, or effectiveness. Exhaustion is NOT next to godliness.

It’s true that Christian love is sacrificial and modeled on Christ’s self-giving, but the Bible does not equate self-sacrifice with self-obliteration or a state of exhaustion that makes you unable to continue serving. Your energy levels are finite. Even Jesus’s was, He removed Himself frequently to pray or rest. He was tired in Samaria and sat down by the well to rest. (John 4:6). He enjoyed fellowship and dinners with Mary/Martha/Lazarus, or Zacchaeus, or Matthew (Levi), or the wedding at Cana. Everything He did was intentional but some of those times it was for fellowship or to simply celebrate (like Levi’s banquet to celebrate his conversion).

We need to find that sweet spot of serving sacrificially yet preserving enough energy so we can continue ministering. We need not obliterate ourselves. The key is to develop sustainable sacrifice, with boundaries. But HOW?

Saying ‘no’ is hard to do…

1.Learn to say ‘no’. For example, if you’ve agreed to serve at Sunday School, it is OK to preserve some time during the week set apart for study, preparation, and prayer, even it it means saying no to something good that would intrude on that time. You serve at work, plus you have responsibilities to an employer there, so it is OK to say no and guard some time to faithfully complete work tasks. Saying no to something, or deciding not to go somewhere or help someone during the times you’ve set apart, isn’t selfish. It just means you are striving for excellence in the ministrations where you ARE serving already.

Christopher Ash wrote a short book called Zeal without Burnout. Here is Ash with a short article at Challies’ site with some background and introductory explanations about how to be zealous for God without burning out-

The Difference Between Costly Sacrifice and Needless Burnout

Ash explains ‘sustainable sacrifice’, and what a ‘living sacrifice’ means. Here he is expounding in a video at his former church as a guest lecturing from his book if you don’t want to get the book.

His speech covers the following themes:

17:19, God Never Goes to Sleep
19:14, Allow Yourself Time for Sleep
20:01, How To Wind Down before Going to Sleep
25:43, The Sabbath Principle
26:49, We Need Friends

People-pleasing is easy to do

2.Are you a ‘people pleaser’? To some extent, we all are. We are told to love our neighbor as ourselves. However, if the motivation for our constant movement in serving is that you are aiming to please a person but Jesus doesn’t figure into your decision making, it’s the wrong motivation. There is a difference between mindful self-sacrifice as a duty to Jesus, and people-pleasing.

Here is an article from TGC on people-pleasing, which sometimes is the background of someone’s people-pleasing service if that applies to you.

Freedom from the Burden of People Pleasing–
Jesus came to give us life and life to the full (John 10:10). When we carry the burden of trying to keep everyone happy, that fullness starts to dissipate. We end up carrying a cross that is not ours to carry. We become embittered because, instead of glorifying God, we seek the world’s acceptance—a fickle and transient way to find significance.

As this Facebook random lady said, “You don’t have to set yourself on fire to keep everyone else warm.” Boundaries are not selfish, they are necessary tools for stewardship. Here is an article from Desiring God, “Die to Yourself Without Losing Yourself“-

Self-sacrifice can be exhausting. It can be painful, arduous, and largely thankless. Moreover, no shortage of people stand ready to take advantage of our willingness to serve. Nonetheless, few messages are more consistent in the New Testament than Christians being known for our sacrificial spirit (Romans 12:10).

A lot of ‘dying to self’ doesn’t mean DOING in the dying. It means mortifying ego, selfish ambition, wayward guilt, pride, and more. It’s working to choose forgiveness over a grudge, serving others without recognition and foregoing ego, managing anger, yielding our will to God’s purpose…etc. A lot of dying to self isn’t in visible external service to others, it is personal work on one’s own sin nature; it’s personal and internal. We are dying to our sin nature.

The gift of sleep

3. Spurgeon said, “Sleep is the gift of God, and not a man would close his eyes, did not God put his fingers on his eyelids”

I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustains me. (Proverbs 3:5)

When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. (Proverbs 3:24)

I know, I know, moms especially have a very hard time finding enough time to sleep. Little ones wake up in the night and what can you do? Except get up and tend to them. But if you can sleep when you can, without guilt, then prayerful, refreshing sleep prayed for and graciously given, we know it IS a gift.

Sleep and rest is God’s reminder to be humble.

There is no hard and fast ‘how-to’ in finding that balance. It’s personal and unique to every individual. As we grow, we tread a path of finding the sweet spot. It’s like any principle in life we discern from the Bible and apply to our lives as we go. As you learn to set boundaries, keep praying for the Spirit to help you realize if laziness or sloth is setting in, or alternately if you are still on a path to burnout. But remember, dying to self means our own work on sanctifying our holy nature and obliterating our sin nature.

THIS is dying to self- Galatians 5:24, Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

creation, creator, encouragement, fragrance, magnolia

Aroma of Christ: Lessons from a Magnolia Bloom

Posted on April 20, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Say “magnolia” and people automatically think of the South. I grew up in New England I know I certainly did. Never once did I think I’d live in the south, and with a magnolia tree across from my front door no less!

It is a stately tree, solid and aristocratic. Kenneth W. Outcalt wrote about the magnolia grandiflora tree, “Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), also called evergreen magnolia, bull-bay, big-laurel, or large-flower magnolia, has large fragrant white flowers and evergreen leaves that make it one of the most splendid of forest trees and a very popular ornamental that has been planted around the world.“

The magnolia flower of the grandiflora tree is just as grand as its host. The petals are enormous but velvety and have a rich ivory color. I don’t have a sense of smell so I can’t tell you directly. Locals say it smells great. Apparently the scent varies, it can smell like lemons, or violets, or vanilla.

Like the magnolia blossom’s physical scent, we humans emit a spiritual scent.

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2).

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15)

Magnolia blossoms are blooming now. The trees are so tall, and most of the blossoms are far above my head, making a close inspection difficult. However this year, there was one bloom that was at eye level. With the flowers being so large and beautiful and emblematic of an entire region of the south, and a blossom blooming literally before my eyes, I decided to photograph one blossom each day for its entire life cycle.

The blossom here as it appears initially is tightly wound, straight as an arrow, and contains no hints of the surprise inside.

It popped open! Revealing more layers! How pretty!

Each petal is larger than my entire hand. The color ranges from white to ivory and the entire blossom looks so stately.

The petals are revealing a surprise inside!

The petals are velvet-y.

Now the petals are turning brown, barely hanging on to the stem, speckled on the edge with more brown. The leaves immediately under the blossom are dead. Bugs were crawling over the petals, looking for a good place to stake a claim to start munching.

Four days, that is all it took for the bloom to appear in its final form, open, live, and die. I was so surprised. There are many blooms on the tree, and I just assumed that they lasted a while. I’d never tracked just one. Its life is so short, a mere breath.

I was pondering that for a while today. What seemed so strong and beautiful was only a few days later fodder for death, decay, and insects. In addition, what was presented so starkly to me in the story of the magnolia is something that is repeated in our human body and our short lives. Most of us live more than 4 days, but to God, our life is a mere vapor, a mist.

“yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)

“You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.” (Psalm 39:5)

So what are we going to do with the time afforded us on our short time on earth?

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16)

Once the petals fall away the seed inside is fully revealed. The magnolia fruit will continue to dry out, and eventually open, revealing tiny red seeds. These drop to the ground-

One botanist wrote that it hardly seems credible that such a large tree could come from such a small seed.

Paul wrote about how our body is a seed, a mere kernel.

The Resurrection Body

“35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.”

“42So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:35-49)

Dried out and used up, the small seeds inside the husk have all spilled out and are doing their job in planting themselves into the ground for the next cycle.

When the magnolia seed drops to the ground it is a bare kernel, it looks nothing like what it will become. It is red, the flower is white. It is small, the flower is large. It has no smell, the magnolia scent is lovely. The mature blossom lives a short time, bearing witness to the Creator, who is pleased with its beauty and scent, and then it dies. It endures decay and becomes bug-eaten and eventually, dust. (Ecclesiastes 3:20).

The parallel to people is the same. Our lives are short and ends in decay. While we are living we have a job to do, glorify the Creator and testify to His works. Will we redeem the time? Is our Lord pleased with our aroma? When we awaken to receive our final bodies, will it be to shame and contempt or to everlasting life? (Daniel 12:2).

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice.” (John 5:28)

I pray you are awakened to eternal life, saved by thegrace of our Lord, working to redeem the time on His behalf. Because, it bears repeating,

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)

puritans, theology

The Glory of Quiet Work: Lessons from Puritan Women

Posted on April 16, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

SYNOPSIS: In this essay I explore Puritan migration, beliefs, and society, highlighting overlooked women whose literacy, labor, and faith sustained households, shaped children, and quietly influenced early American development despite historical invisibility and significant hardship.

Continue reading →

theology

Today is Titanic sinking day

Posted on April 15, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

One hundred-and-fourteen years ago, the world awoke this day to the tragic and shocking news that the world’s most luxurious, biggest, and ‘unsinkable’ passenger ocean liner on its maiden voyage, had foundered, taking with it 1500 people down to the icy waters of the North Atlantic.

Initially, it was widely reported that all were safe. It was thought that the passengers and crew had been put off to other ships.

But that was soon to be corrected, with the enormity of the disaster soon impacting the world- and all the lives associated with the ship.

Here is the New York Times’ article:

The entire history surrounding Titanic is rich with lore, history, and melancholy, from its building, to the launch, to the rich appointments aboard, to its treatment of steerage passengers (good and bad), to its final plunge. The inquest itself was a massive part of its history, and also the results- changes in maritime safety which stand to this day.

There are many individual stories told which have been verified and remain carved into the memory of their families and Titanic-history- the Macy’s founders choosing to die together. Isidor refusing to get into a lifeboat and his wife Ida refusing to leave his side, saying, “Where you go, I go.” Benjamin Guggenheim famously chose to face the Titanic sinking with all the refinements of his class, in dignity, changing into evening wear and declaring, “We’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.” He was seen aiding women into the lifeboats, and in the end, drinking brandy with his valet in the first class smoking room.

Yet there is one man who stands out above the rest whose story is not as well known. He was a Scottish evangelist named John Harper. He ensured his daughter a spot on a lifeboat, then vigorously evangelized to those remaining on board as the ship went down. He is known to have said “Let the women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats!” Harper took seriously the verse that commanded our lives be dedicated to the Lord, putting others before self, and valuing souls above things. His life is recounted in the book “The Titanic’s Last Hero” which I own and plan to read this summer.

There have been many other maritime disasters, such as the famed ‘ship of gold’ USS Central America, sunk in a hurricane in 1857 taking with it 425 people and the loss of so much gold it sparked an economic panic in the US. The Lusitania, a British British luxury passenger liner torpedoed by a German U-boat in WWI taking with it nearly 1200 passengers, and more recently the Tall Ship HMS Bounty replica sinking off Cape Hatteras.

But the romanticism surrounding Titanic is still the number one capture for our attention and remembrance in maritime history. And for me, remembering John Harper. He was so famous as a speaker and evangelist he had been invited to preach at Moody Church in 1910. He was in fact, returning to Moody to peach again, this time with his sister and 6-year-old daughter. When knowledge of his last breath’s efforts became known, Moody Church memorialized him by naming one of the church rooms Harper Hall. Upon the occasion of the 100 year anniversary of Titanic’s sinking, in 2012 Erwin Lutzer wrote about “John Harper’s Last Convert“:

One report says Harper, knowing he could not survive long in the icy water, took off his life jacket and threw it to another person with the words, “You need this more than I do!” Moments later, Harper disappeared beneath the water. Four years later, when there was a reunion of the survivors of the Titanic, the man to whom Harper had witnessed told the story of his rescue and gave a testimony of his conversion recorded in a tract, I was John Harper’s Last Convert. …

This past April, Rebecca and I were invited to help commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic with the congregation at the Harper Memorial Baptist Church in Glasgow. To our delight we discovered that this church, founded by Harper, is still preaching the same Gospel that he preached on the Titanic a hundred years ago. We also learned that his daughter later married a pastor. She died in 1986, but her daughter and grandchildren were with us for the celebrations! A reminder that there is no substitute for the torch of faith being passed from one generation to another through the influence of godly families.

It is reported that only 6 people were rescued from the water alive, and one of those was George Henry Cavell, the last man to whom Harper spoke. God makes a way.

Perhaps I am captured by the Titanic because it took so long to sink, thus we have these testimonies from survivors that show us the tableau of responses to looming death. Some cried, some became paralyzed by fear, some became raving maniacs, some stood stoically…but John Harper was about his Father’s business, concerned for souls above his own life.

Only God knows how I would react if I was trapped in a situation where death is almost sure. I’d be praying, I know, but would I be praying for myself, or others? Let me pray now that the Lord would instill in me a concern for others that rises above my own doings.

Philippians 2:3-4, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Romans 12:10, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor,

1 Corinthians 10:24, No one is to seek his own advantage, but rather that of his neighbor.

Galatians 5:26, Let’s not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Further Reading

This Day in History: Titanic Sinks

theology

“Well behaved women seldom make history”

Posted on April 14, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

This was a bumper sticker adorning the car ahead of me at a red light. A long light. I had time to read it and think about it and then get steamed about it. Of course next to that bumper sticker there was a ‘coexist’ bumper sticker. How can those two be reconciled? If a women isn’t being well-behaved, she is being rebellious. And if she is being rebellious, she is not co-existing peacefully with those around her, is she? Illogical.

In any case, I thought that the bumper sticker’s premise was that for women to be recorded in history, they must have had to do something daring or against societal expectations, or had done something ‘out there’ in some way. This, I had mused, is illogical too, because there are plenty of women in history who were simply good at what they did, and that was why they got into the history books. Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Marie Curie, Queen Elizabeth II, Sally Ride… Would NASA have chosen a rebellious upstart to be part of their space program? Of course not.

Curious now, I looked into the origins behind the bumper sticker and I was surprised by what I found.

The phrase comes from Harvard Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Ulrich identifies herself both as a feminist and a Mormon. It was her 1976 little-known academic paper published in American Quarterly called “Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735” where the now famous bumper sticker phrase was first seen.

Massachusetts, where Harvard is located, was populated in the 1600s by deeply religions Puritans who had emigrated from England and the Netherlands to worship God freely, something they could not do on the Continent.

Ulrich looked into the lives of ‘ordinary’ Puritan women, especially midwives, through their own diaries. The ordinary, the mundane, the repetitive nature of the life, consisting of hard work mainly at home, drew Ulrich’s attention. She expanded her paper into into a 1990 book called, “A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812.” The staying power and viral nature of the adage she had coined back in 1976 led to Ulrich eventually write a book in 2007 called by the very phrase she had coined: “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.” Here is an excerpt from the 1976 paper:

Cotton Mather called them “The Hidden Ones.” They never preached or sat in a deacon’s bench. Nor did they vote or attend Harvard. Neither, because they were virtuous women, did they question God or the magistrates. They prayed secretly, read the Bible through at least once a year, and went to hear the minister preach even when it snowed. Hoping for an eternal crown, they never asked to be remembered on earth. And they haven’t been. Well-behaved women seldom make history; against Antinomians and witches, these pious matrons have had little chance at all.

It turns out, that Ulrich wanted to simply promote the lives of the Puritan and the 1800s women which history had forgot.

Ulrich noted that though women were nearly invisible in society, only recording when they were born, married, or died, their standing in spiritual realms was highly elevated.

…this circumscribed social position was not reflected in the spiritual sphere, that New England’s ministers continued to uphold the oneness of men and women before God, that in their understanding of the marriage relationship they moved far toward equality, that in all their writings they stressed the dignity, intelligence, strength, and rationality of women even as they acknowledged the physical limitations imposed by their reproductive role. … Source 1976 paper, “Vertuous Women Found”

Huh. Go figure. A Mormon Harvard feminist professor who got it right. As for the popularity of the phrase I’d seen on the bumper sticker, Ulrich said that its ambiguity (when taken out of its context) accounts for its appeal. In other words, you can interpret it any way you want. Which is exactly what I had done at the red light when I first read it.

My objective when I wrote those words was not to lament their oppression but to give them a history. … [T]he ambiguity of the slogan surely accounts for its appeal. To the public-spirited, it is a provocation to action, a less pedantic way of saying that if you want to make a difference in the world, you can’t worry too much about what people think. To a few it might say “Good girls get no credit.” To a lot more, “Bad girls have more fun.” … Source: “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” (Knopf, September 2007)

Well there you go.

There’s one more thing. The premise that ‘well behaved women seldom make history’ is supposed to spark a knee-jerk reaction that it’s a bad thing not to make history. Like, “Hey! I wanna get into history! Why can’t I be in the history books?! The biblical worldview would have a response to this in several respects. First, woman already are in the only history book that matters, the Bible. Well-behaved and rebellious women are both recorded throughout the pages of that holy Book. From Jezebel to Esther, from Mary to the Woman at the Well, women are recorded in biblical history doing what they do as humans.

Secondly, women already are recorded…in the Lamb’s Book of Life. There is NO OTHER book than that precious book one should aspire to have our names written.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12).

Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:27).

If you have repented and believed in the risen Christ, then us well behaved women are all set with names written in the Lamb’s book. All other books will fade away. But not Jesus’ words, those are the only words and the only history that matters.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. (Matthew 24:35).