Feature Article Archives

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=82 BGCOLOR="#0099CC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Woman of Grace Internet Magazine</B></FONT><B>     |   </B><B>  </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Woman of Grace Internet Magazine"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Feature Article Archives</I></div> <bR> <div> Noah's<FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Pickwick" > </FONT>Wife<FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Pickwick" > </FONT></div> <div> and The First Rainbow<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" >   </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" >-by Sherry Green</FONT></div> <div> <B>    From the time we were little girls we wondered what rainbows were made of.  Is there really a pot of gold at the end?</B>  </div> <bR> <div>      <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" >I learned as</FONT> a child that the rainbow is God's “neon”sign written in the sky.  I was told that God put it there within easy view to remind Himself and us of His promise never to flood the earth again.  To me, as a little girl rainbows were always the special evidence of God's existence, His handwriting or personal artwork, if you will,  -something about God that I could actually see.  And even now, as a grown woman with children of my own, whenever a rainbow appears I still pause in wonder.  Its a God sized post it note for me of good things to come.</div> <div>      Can you imagine the first rainbow? I have always thought the first rainbow must have been enormous, extremely vivid, and extraordinarily beautiful.  The first woman to see this rainbow was Noah's wife. What would Noah's wife tell us today of how she felt in that moment?   Overwhelming sensations and emotions must have been felt  when stepping off the Ark into a new world.  Can we imagine what kind of person she was and even more what kind of person she became through all her experiences?  Ah, that would be an amazing story full of insight. </div> <div>      I believe we can learn much from Noah's wife.  A second look at the scriptures surrounding her is revealing.  In the Book of Genesis we find her to be a classic example, not only a couragoues woman, but a woman of Grace.  How can we know that? The Bible says, “and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."  Noah`s wife also experienced that same “Grace.”  Surprisingly, even though she wasn't the focal point of the Genesis account -Noah's wife<I> is</I> <I>significant</I>.  Although, we have assumed her back-stage presence in scripture as an unimportant role, the scriptures provide us many clues and a compelling story for this hidden woman of the Bible. Lets' take a look and use a woman's imagination.  </div> <div>      </div> <div> <B>     First of all, she was Noah's wife.  </B>This speaks volumes.  “Noah was a just man… Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6: 9)    She was Noah's pick for a wife.  This indicates that she was someone like minded who had a heart for God.  Also, she and Noah had chosen each other.  There is no indication in this account of parents choosing the mates.  Noah must have loved her, because he doesn't choose to have any other wives which was happening incidentally at that time, something that God was not happy with; “And the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.” (Gen. 6:2)  It is apparent that Noah was a man of one wife, she was beautiful to him, and their marriage was a relationship of faithfulness and love.</div> <bR> <div>      <B>Noah's wife had faith.  </B>How can we know much about the faith of Noah's wife?  The Bible does not say one word about her other than she was Noah's wife and she was still with him after the flood.  However, this silence about her becomes significant when the Bible does mention in another story that Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.  Noah's wife certainly had similar opportunities to turn back or leave, but obviously she <I>chose to believe</I> that Noah had heard from God.  She endured to the end, and disembarked the ark with her husband.  It says in Genesis, “Then God spoke to Noah, saying, `Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you.”   She was a woman who believed to the end.  </div> <bR> <div>      <B>Noah's wife was faithful. </B>Look at the many responsibilities Noah's wife must have had.  At the beginning of Noah's assignment she had to defend her husband against the community's unbelief and ridicule for the entire one hundred years the ark was being built.  The ark wasn't built in a corner.  Noah is called “a preacher of righteousness!” (2 Peter 2:5)  Noah preached as he built.  It was a work of faith and a constant testimony to the people around them of the coming judgment; “the things not yet seen” as Hebrews puts it.  This was hard for her to watch.  No one believed in Noah but her and the kids.  The one she loved and respected was rejected by everyone.  She had to stand with her husband against a world of unbelief.  It is very clear that not one other person besides their family believed!  In 2 Peter it says that Noah was one of eight saved, that only accounts for Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives.  They must have felt alone and wondered at their own sanity at times, when the work seemed impossible.   </div> <bR> <div>      <B>Noah's wife didn't give up.  </B>She pressed on toward the mark.  She had plenty of chances to turn back and abandon helping her husband and sons with the ark.  She could have gone back to mom and dad who, by the way, didn't make it on the ark.  No, she didn't give up.  We can assume her actions were consistent with Noah's because the Bible never mentions Noah's faith becoming discouraged by his wife nagging him to quit.  But, it <I>is</I> mentioned later how Sarah, Abraham's wife, did not originally believe the promise made to them by God and they fell off track with God's perfect plan.  </div> <bR> <div>      <B>Noah's wife loved</B>.  She and Noah stuck together.  They lovingly brought up their family to know the Lord. The children's entire childhood was spent building the ark while being taught of mother and father's walk of faith.  The sons and their wives must have all been in agreement with the divine warning from God and participated in the readiness.  There could not have been any fence-riding.  You either joined in the faith and got to work or you got out. Someone had to help Noah with the family relationships. He could not have done it alone.  Her love helped keep the family together and get the job done.  </div> <bR> <div>      <B>Noah's wife was a hard working woman.  </B>She wasn't afraid to roll up her sleeves, haul pitch and hand Noah the saw.  Imagine one hundred years of sandwiches brought to the job site for lunch -she had to be an endurance runner!  Then the animals came.  This was the first great confirmation of their faith in the whole ark assignment!  But, after the thrill of faith and the fascination wore off of the miraculous parade, the chore of feeding animals continued.  Like a kid with a new puppy- its great at the beginning, but the responsibility is enlightening!  There were lions, and tigers, and bears, every kind of bird, reptiles to chase, elephants to push around, giraffes to fit in, and creeping things to handle.  She must not have been the squeamish kind, or she just got over it.  It didn't matter because it was always an eight people project and it had to get done.    </div> <bR> <div> <B>     Noah's wife was willing</B>.  She cooperated by faith with God's plan for her life.  Sometimes all it takes is willingness.  God leads us through the rest.  But, for Noah's wife, taking care of a family, the ark -a building project of a lifetime, the world's largest zoo in the front yard, and a husband/fiery preacher (who nobody believed in) was small in comparison to what was coming.  Letting go of home, the old neighborhood, and whatever world she'd known was just a matter of time.  In a violent storm of earthquakes, fountains, and undulant rains, it would all be washed away.  This was something that no one could know or understand until it happened.  </div> <div>      </div> <div> <B>     Noah's wife believed in her husband.  </B>Only enduring faith in God, and her love and belief in Noah's faith could bring her safely through.  The old saying behind every successful man is a woman?  This may have been the case with Noah.  For Noah is the first man of faith to be mentioned in the famous “Hall of Faith” chapter 11 in the book of Hebrews.  He was a success. “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith!"</div> <div>      </div> <div> <B>     Noah's wife was brave.  </B>“And the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Gen. 7:11-12)  Noah and his family witnessed the destruction of the world.  They were all that was left.  Through the terror of the forty day and night storm they may have felt like ants on a leaf.  Their ears were filled with the sounds of chaos that no movie production could simulate.  The Ark of Grace had been closed.  Escape was over for the unrepentant.  Every living thing was dying around them.  The earth was broken up until fountains burst upward spurting seas of water.  No one had ever heard such a thing.  The rains came pouring down like waves of tsunami from heaven.  No one had ever seen such a thing.  The Ark was baptized in relentless waters of judgment and death.  It was a colossal storm of condemnation on a guilty world.  Some may have thought they could survive on rafts of last minute efforts.  Weeping and wailing continued until a morbid silence took over.  Did they weep as they heard it all go -sorrowing for a lost world?  Were they terrified, praying for mercy for themselves?   They were a brave little family.  They knew they were safe in the hands of God.  Noah, his wife and children had prepared for this moment all their lives.  </div> <div>      </div> <div> <B>      Noah's wife experienced Grace.  </B>After the first 150 days of being shut in with the smell of animals, calming seasick daughters-in-law, organizing family meals, and praying for the sunshine to come again,  the Lord remembered Noah.  “And God made a wind blow over the land, and the waters sank down and abated.” (Gen. 8:1)  After a total of one year and ten days, finally, the earth was dry. </div> <div>      “Noah went forth, and his wife and his sons and their wives with him.” (Gen. 8:18)  What a exhilarating moment to stand on solid ground. This journey was all about “GRACE.”  The Ark had held firm!  And they were saved.  Noah's wife was part of this Grace experience, given new life, in a new world, with a God who was at peace with them.  And then it happened- the rainbow appeared  crowning the sky from end to end with radiant approval.  She was one of the first women to see the rainbow, God's promise of Grace.  It was a spectacular light show after a long dark and stormy night.  </div> <div>      God explained it to Noah's thankful family this way; “Thus, I establish My covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood ... I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth … and I will remember My covenant.”  </div> <div>      </div> <div> <B>     Noah's wife was rewarded.  </B>Without knowing it she saw Jesus. Not only did she experience Jesus as the Ark of God, she saw the rainbow which was God's own artistic rendering of Christ.  Jesus is the rainbow of the <I>New Covenant. </I> God sees Jesus and remembers His promise - to spare from destruction.  Its a new promise, a new earth, a new life, with a new sign stamped on it lest we forget -God's rainbow. </div> <div>      </div> <div>       What are rainbows made of?  Light coming through a prism of moisture, bent and divided into its inherent colors.  What was the first rainbow made of?  It was the Light of mercy on its way from heaven, diffused into a dark world still moist with God's tears of sorrow and judgment.  It was the prophecy of Jesus in living color.  It was the first sighting in the sky of the Savior on His way, a foretaste of His beauty.  “ He is the sole expression of the glory of God, the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine, and He (Jesus) is the perfect imprint and very image of God`s Nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power, when He had by one offering <I>Himself</I> accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high..” (Hebrews 1:3 amplified version)</div> <div>      </div> <div>      No wonder the rainbow is so beautiful.  It is a foreshadowing of God's covenant with us through Jesus Christ.  God looks at Jesus and says  “I will remember My covenant.”  Jesus brought God's greatest hope into fruition.. that the whole world could be saved.  The rainbow writes these words in the sky, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him has everlasting life.”  “<I>I will redeem</I><B>,”  </B>its colors glow exultant over the earth, drying the tears of God and man.  </div> <bR> <div>      God set an appointment with Grace for all mankind.  “I set My bow in the cloud ” was God's reminder to himself to send us the Savoir.  Let each rainbow <I>we see </I>remind us of Jesus.  Let us look up in wonder and praise like Noah's wife did, swept with relief that judgment has passed, and set out to live in an astonishing new world of Grace … filled with rainbows.</div> <div>      </div> <div> By Sherry Green</div> <bR> <bR> <div> The Young Girl and the Sea</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> "An interview with Amy Smith" by Sherry Green</div> <bR> <div> When you<FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Tw Cen MT" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Tw Cen MT" >grow up on a boat, like Amy Smith, the sea holds no fear.  It's a way of life. Swimming with dolphins, battening down hatches, and doing dishes on deck were a part of the daily routine.  The big storm during the El Nino year and growing up with seven brothers on a thirty foot sail boat were some of the challenges she survived.  </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Tw Cen MT" >Boat life could mean occasional danger, but mostly it was cramped quarters and few possessions …a sailor's life.  Fortunately, there were frequent periods of harbor life as well.  Docked for seven months off Catalina Island, Amy did laundry duty and helped her brothers wash dishes in bins on deck.  “If you didn't check the dish water good enough before you dumped it over board, the silverware would end up on the bottom.  But, the water was so clear you could see forks and spoons 20 feet down!”</FONT> </div> <bR> <div> Sa<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Tw Cen MT" >ilboat living for Amy and her family was one port to the next during the time she was ten to fourteen years old. “We bounced all over the coast,” Amy says.  “San Diego, California to Vancouver, Washington was the distance, with many docks in between, including the dock time at Santa Catalina, California.  Trying to keep up with so many different schools was difficult. “When my mother would become exhausted from being on the boat we would dock and rent a small apartment for awhile.  We would attend school wherever we docked and also did some home schooling.  It was hard to be uprooted constantly”</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Viewing life through ocean travel and sea port towns was a unique opportunity that Amy is thankful for today.  “The good thing was I got to see a lot.  I got to go places that most people will never see.  When you travel on a boat its different than being a tourist, you get to know the local people.  In reality you become a part of harbor life.”  When asked what was her impression of sea-faring folks was, Amy observed that people from marine life seem to be a hardier breed. “The ocean has 'more weather' than the land.  The weather is all around you on a boat, you're closer to it.  If a rain storm comes and you are living in a house you can look out the window, safe and dry inside.  But, on a sail boat everything gets wet, everything gets salty.  Some of your living surface is on deck so it has to be battened down.  Everything has to be closed up tight and packed away to keep from being blown off or drenched.  During rain storms we all just sat inside in the boat's tiny space together, bobbing back and forth, reading, playing board games, or watching TV on the small nine inch screen which also fit in a cubby when not in use!  The TV was a great luxury.”  Amy adds, “We waited a long time for that.   <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> In storms or fair weather, “Your life is in constant motion, gradual, but still constant, even the land is always moving when looking out through port holes.  You get sea legs.  You learn to walk differently on the boat.  When you make land you actually walk like you are drunk!  As kids we used to laugh and point at each other when we'd first get out of the boat!”  </div> <div>  </div> <div> “We were a mixed family - me, my mom, my brother, my step father,  his four sons, plus two more children that my mom and step-father had together.  It was a 'hers, his, and theirs' family.  These were the seven I grew up with. There were ten people all together on the boat.  It was us against the elements.  We had to survive together.  You build your own comradary that way.  Not having your own space, with only a bunk and locker is very tight quarters.  After sleeping everything has to be put away so that you will have space to sit.  Stuff was stored everywhere in cubbies.”</div> <bR> <div> A family of pre-teens in such a small space could be considered adverse circumstances in itself.  Fighting over space could have been constant conflict.  “My mother anticipated this and designated everyone's personal space, which was their locker and blanket.  Outside of that locker everything was shared!”  The kids had to learn that their space overlapped.  However, Amy was privileged to have her own bunk-- it was the couch during the day.  But Amy says, “Even though it was close quarters, I was surrounded by people who loved me.  We developed the closeness that comes from adversity.”</div> <bR> <div> Out on the ocean, with a boat full of people, you accept that you're never going to be alone at any point or time.  Surrounded by water, there is no place to go.  The only place of sorts to  “be alone” was an isolated zone at the front of the boat called the bow.  “At the bow is where the most bounce occurs and you went there only if you really needed to get away.  It was the place where nobody goes not only because it's the roughest spot, it's where you have to watch out for the mast coming round and the different sails.  You have to keep your head down constantly.” But, in nice weather when the water was calm it was Amy's favorite place. “I enjoyed looking down in the water.  If there were dolphins swimming along side I would just lay there and watch.”  </div> <bR> <div> There was one storm in which Amy remembers being afraid.  It was during El Nino when the waves were as tall as the mast on the sailboat.  The boat was tossed from side to side, with the mast laying down on the water. The storm went on all night.  When asked what it was like to be out on the ocean in a storm Amy recalls, “You don't see much in a storm.  Most of the time it's very dark, and the moon disappears behind the clouds, with only an occasional break through of moonlight reflecting on the white water of the waves.  Where we were located there was no land mass in sight and no lights of civilization anywhere to be seen.  We braced ourselves against the walls, and part of the time tried to go to bed, strapping ourselves in.  You don't sleep soundly -if any sleep at all.  It was a long night.  We had to ride it out."  </div> <bR> <div> The term 'Ride out the storm'  is exactly what it means. There is nothing you can do.  You try to stay dry, and brace yourself, to keep from getting slammed.  You can get nauseous, even though you are used to being on the boat.  Literally, you lash down the rudder to keep it from being broken, and let the boat go 'bobbing' in the storm.  If you're near a land mass then you have to stay awake, watch for the shore, and fight it.  But, if you are out in the ocean you can just float.  Once the storm is over then you determine your location"   After that storm, Amy says she would much prefer a sailboat than an ocean liner in a storm any day.  “A sailboat is made to right itself.  The weight of the keel counter weights the balance of the boat, bringing the boat upright bobbing like a ball in the waves.”  Thankfulness for being on a sailboat rather than an ocean liner in a storm reveals the character God was growing in Amy's life as a young girl.  </div> <bR> <div> “God had me grow up in that life style because of the life He had prepared ahead of me. I am proud to be the wife of an active duty member of the United States Air Force.  The wives of military personal call it being married to the military, and it is not exactly a predictable life style.  When you are married to the military you are told where you will live, and you don't know how long you will be at any one place.  You have to be prepared for changes.  That is something I've become good at.  The challenges of life lived on a boat, with the upheaval, and moving around prepared me for my life now.”</div> <div>   </div> <div> Amy is a survivor and a woman of Grace-- one who believes in God's love through Christ for her personally.  She is someone that God has given success to even though her life was filled with challenge.  Years before the boat life there was a different kind of storm in Amy's life that God alone could help her with.  This greatest crisis of her life came when she was very small.  It was an experience that she carried with her throughout childhood.  Amy was sexually abused.</div> <bR> <div> “This happened when I was three years of age,” says Amy.  “My mother had been married first to a man who was not my father.  Although a short lived marriage, during a time of separation when my mother sought employment and housing out of state, my first step-father was to take care of me and the new baby brother.  Instead my six-month old baby brother was left for days in his highchair, and at the tender age of three I was being sexually molested.  My brother and I were rescued from this situation and put in the care of this man's parents until my mother was able to come and remove us from that situation.”  </div> <bR> <div> “It affected all my relationships with `father figure males.'  I couldn't comfortably be hugged by a man.  I was afraid to be left alone with older adult males.”  Although she was raised with a Christian background, and knew what it meant to believe in Jesus Christ, Amy unknowingly carried a burden of fear and hatred.  “ It took time for my mother to recover from this failed marriage.  She met the man who would become my second step-father and was soon remarried.”  This was the change that eventually led to God's healing power for Amy's life and the sexual abuse she suffered as a child.   </div> <bR> <div> “I was five years old when they got married.  He was a good father and loved me.  The boat was his dream.  It was my mother's ingenuity and bravado that helped the dream come true. We sold all of our houses, and cars, and bought the sail boat by the time I was ten years old.  But after four years of boat life, we were four teenagers and two pre-teens who needed our own space, identity, school, and normalcy.  My brothers and I tell it like this-- we called 'mutiny' on my Dad and my mother agreed!"  Life changed from constant movement to a complete stop on the high desert.</div> <div>  </div> <div> “We dry docked at Victorville, California by the time I was fourteen.  Our boat was hauled on a semi to our new home.  I remember how strange to see the boat up on stilts by the side of our front yard  there in the Mohave desert!.  During that time we began attending Victorville Assembly of God.  I had been raised a Christian and its hard to pinpoint the time when I accepted Christ.  There were so many times at the alter.  But, I noticed that the other young people my age seemed to be prospering in their relationship with Christ, filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues.  I prayed many times for this to happen in my life, but it didn't come.  It was hard to understand why.  I knew I was a Christian but-- there was a difference I saw and wanted.”</div> <bR> <div> “The change came for me when going with a group of young people to check out the Christ for the Nations Bible School in San Antonio, Texas.  I was considering going to Bible college there.  I went forward to pray at the end of the evening meeting.  There was a large group of young people at the alter praying.   An older man ministering to the young people stopped to pray for me.  He had a word of knowledge* for me.  He said the Holy Spirit spoke to him that I needed to forgive someone who I hated.  I knew it was true, and as I knelt in prayer at that alter, forgiveness came.  I was filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues, and was “drunk”* in the spirit for quite some time.  From that day forward I was completely free from my past hurts.  I saw that person who had brought me pain not as a monster who had terrified me as a child, but as a pitiful tired old man.  I saw him as someone to be pitied, someone who just needed Christ.”</div> <bR> <div> Four years ago by a miracle of God, Amy was able to meet and develop a good relationship with her real father. “The two men that matter the most in my life are my husband and my real father.  Now I have a Dad that I can really call Daddy.  I now have the Dad I should have had.  And I have the husband that is perfect for me.  God has made up for all the lost time in my life.  I bypassed the idiosyncrasy of being an abused child, by God's Grace.  God has given me restored relationships.  Basically, the average person that goes through what I've been through ends up making wrong choices and living a dysfunctional lifestyle.  But, God overcame my past, it was not something I did for myself.  Todd and I have a loving, successful marriage of 16 years. We are enjoying our two children, our daughter Cynthia who is 12, and our son, Eric, now 9.  God is blessing me with His love, the love of my husband and my two children.  Because of God's Grace-- Life is good. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13).</div> <div>   </div> <div>        Amy's hope for the women who read her story is that they will take courage and believe that God can work in their life circumstances.  Amy adds, “My heart goes out especially right now for the women whose husbands are on the front lines in Iraq.  Six months ago my husband was the flight chief for the 524 fighter squadron 'Hounds of Heaven.' This squadron is currently deployed and my husband was scheduled to go, but by God's Grace he was transferred to a different squadron.  Although he could still be deployed at any time God gave us this special time to be together.  We are taking advantage of the time given us and cherishing every moment.  I don't know what's around the corner or what the future holds, but I know that God loves me.  He holds my past-- and my future.  I put my trust in Him. 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight' "<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Tw Cen MT" > (Proverbs 3: 5-6).</FONT></div> <bR> <div> * word of knowledge: "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit." (1 Cor. 12: 7-8)     </div> <bR> <div> *drunk in the spirit: see Acts 2: 12-18 </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Feature Article"><U>Back to Feature Article</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>