Live It!

Dannah Gresh: What does Kay Arthur do when she has a problem to solve?

Kay Arthur: Anytime that I have a need, I run to the Word of God. I ask God, “God, show me what I need to know. Show me what I need to do.” And then I wait upon the Lord.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Heaven Rules, for January 13, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

We live in a day when cultural values seem to be more and more hostile to the way of life shown in the Bible. But that doesn’t need to alarm us. 

Today we’re going to hear from a dear friend of Revive Our Hearts, Kay Arthur. Kay was one of our True Woman speakers back in 2010, and it was such a joy to have her return to the platform at True Woman '22, last fall in Indianapolis. 

Before Kay joined Nancy on the platform, she sat down with another friend of Revive Our Hearts, broadcasting veteran and advisory board member Bob Lepine. Let’s hear their conversation first.

Bob Lepine: Talk to me about Precept today. You're looking at the hand-off. Precept today will be active when you are not a part of it. What's your hope for the legacy of Precept twenty years from now?

Kay: I'm eighty-eight years old. I'm in the final thing of life, the final quarter if it was a ball game. I want you to see how precious life is and the brevity and bring you face to face with the reality that you and I have only so many days to live and they need to be lived for Jesus Christ. 

So where is our ministry going to be when I'm gone? I know this. God raises up. God has sustained us for over fifty years. I never dreamed that this would happen. We wanted to teach people how to discover truth for themselves, how to study the Bible for themselves, how to interpret the text, to study it, observe it, and find out what does it say and what does it mean and how am I do live in light of that?

We have an inductive study on every single book of the Bible. Many of the books that we have done in the Bible are in other languages so there is no barrier to you because you can't find what we want to teach you in the Word of God. It's all over the world. God's Word is the living Word. God has ordained it. If you read through the book of Acts. You take the baton of truth and you run and you pass it off well. We have passed it off well. It's not built on a personality. It's built on the fact that this [the Bible] is your life. This is the Bread of Life. You are to feast on it. You are to study to show yourself approved unto God. So, it's going to live.

The most popular book I've ever written is called, Lord, I Want to Know You. It's a study on the names of God. When you get to know God, you know He has ordained everything around His Word to be available to us. So, we have trained people. We have studies for children. We have studies that teach children how to read and write based on the book of Genesis.

We had a little boy once that was writing. He wrote the word "God." The person that was teaching him looked up at him because he started crying. Tears were coming down his face.  She says, "What's wrong?"

He said, "This is the first time that I written the name of God. And this is the first time I say His name because I read it."

So you pass it from one generation to another. You look for faithful men. You see what Paul did. Paul had a Timothy. We teach our people to live by the Word of God. Where's your Timothy? Where's your Timothia? That you are teaching the Word of God and then they will take it. Because they learn to know God, they learn to fear God. Because they fear God, they want to honor God.

Bob: You've been in the Word so much over the last fifty years personally—time in the Word every day. 

Kay: Not necessarily every day, but hopefully every day!

Bob: Is that still a regular discipline in your life? Are you still getting new insight?

Kay: Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, my ambition was before I die to have every book of the Bible in a Precept course—where you observe the text, you study it, and you know what it says. Scripture interprets Scripture. It was to have every book of the Bible done in a Precept course, and we have it done! We completed it this year. You know who completed it? I didn't teach the book. Normally I teach the book, also. It was our son, David.

When I got pregnant with him, I wanted him to be a girl. He turned out to be a boy. We named him David because we wanted a man after God's own heart. And he did it. He's not riding on his mother's laurels. He is a man of God—a tender heart, but all man. He has just had a grandson. He said, "I never thought I would feel this way." To this grandson, he's passing on the Word of God—one generation to another. God will keep that going. We have to be willing to be out on the frontlines.

Bob: What does your time in the Word look like. When you sit down and open the Bible, what do you do?

Kay: When I sit down and open the Bible, usually I'm going through the Bible book by book, verse by verse, so I'm in context all the time. When I open the Word, I have my colored pencils. I had a senator. He was a believer, and he got colored pencils. He said, "I can't believe I'm carrying colored pencils around in my shirt pocket." When we went to Wimbleton, I showed him color is also masculine. As we walked through the bowels of Wimbleton and went from one court to the other court, I stopped the guys that were with us and said, "What color is that?

"Yellow."

"Good. What color is that?"

"Red."

I said, "See, they color code." So coloring is not a woman's profession or just a womanly thing. It's a wise thing because then we can see if it is yellow it is this.

So I color every reference to God in yellow because He is the light of the world and He created light. Those who follow Him don't walk in darkness. They walk in light as He is the light of life. So I have my pencils. I'm doing this not for anybody else's benefit, but I'm doing it so I have a record of it.

For instance, I just opened up to Psalm 116. It says, "I love the Lord because he hears my voice and supplications" (v. 1). Next to this, I have this written in pencil in the margin. "In my early days of Christianity, this psalm gripped my heart. It was my testimony." Now it is shared worldwide, and in the presence of all His people. God laid this psalm on my heart this morning as seeking Him, His direction on IMB. IMB is some people are looking at it for a TV series. We don't know if that will happen. But anyway, it's called Israel My Beloved. It's the story of Israel in novel form according to the Word of God.

But this is it. That was 3.25.18. I have 7.16 on my mother's birthday. It's not just academics, it's life. There's another psalm in here that God gave to me. It just described what happened to me. Isn't that just neat? So it's like a diary, so to speak. It's a place of refuge. It's something you've woven or knit together so you stronger because of it. It can be a comfort to you. Also, you share it with other people. "Guess what I saw today!?" or "I'm so sorry, but you know what? I was just reading this psalm. The Psalms are there for when we are hurting and need counsel and need to be affirmed." So then we take them there.

Dannah: That’s Kay Arthur, reminding us that when we study God’s Word, not only does it comfort and encourage and counsel us, but it also equips us to comfort and encourage and counsel others.

Yesterday on Revive Our Hearts we heard the first part of a conversation our host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, had with Kay Arthur. Kay suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and she sometimes loses her train of thought. But you’ll notice there are some things she hasn’t lost at all: her sense of humor and her passion for God’s Word.

Here are Kay and Nancy, in part 2 of their conversation at True Woman, last fall.

Nancy: Kay, has there been a season of your life you look back to . . . I know the homegoing of your husband, the diagnosis of Parkinson’s, I know in your family there have been challenges. How in times of trouble has the Word of God and the character of God kept you steady?

Kay: His Word is a strong tower, so anytime that I have a need, I run to the Word of God. I ask God, “God, show me what I need to know. Show me what I need to do.” And then I wait upon the Lord. But the more you’ve studied the Word of God, the easier it is.

You know, I’ve been in the Word of God for all these years, and so it’s ready for me. It’s not necessarily that you know where to run, but we teach you how to go to the Word of God and how to discover the answers. 

There’s “everything that pertains to life and godliness.” (2 Peter 1:3) Everything is in this Book! So, depending on what you’re going through, if you know the books of the Bible. So, you’ve got to know the Book! Scripture interprets Scripture. If you will start and just make this—not a legalistic rule—but every day you get up, you eat food, eat the Word of God! Go through the Bible book by book. Mark the text. It will soon become your friend.

I have been here [a spot in her Bible] about when God called Jack home, and different things and events that happened just in answer to prayer. They’re next to Scripture that has to do with the situation. 

And so, the more you know God, the more you know His Word, the stronger you will be so that whatever comes your way, you can stand firm and take action and walk righteously.

Nancy: I know you’ve been through some circumstances in life and in your ministry where it didn’t seem like God was in control. There were hard things, things you would not have chosen. We have women here tonight who are going through some very dark valleys and deep waters. How can you trust God to be in control when it doesn't look like He is, when it looks like the government is in control or some ungodly husband or a prodigal child? When it looks like things are out of control how do you counsel your heart to trust that Heaven rules?

Kay: If He’s God, and if He is the One that spoke and brought the world into existence and said, “Let there be . . . and it was so . . . let there be . . . and it was so.” (Gen. 1) If He is God, He cannot fail! If He is God, He knows what’s coming. He’s omniscient. He’s omnipresent. He’s omnipotent. He is eternal. You go through the attributes of God.

And, honestly, it’s just plain stupidity and absolutely ridiculous for you not to believe Him and cling to Him as a waistband clings to the waist of man! (Jeremiah 13:11) We don’t always understand the horrific situations that people go through.

Precepts is working in all the countries of the world. We have it in their language, and this is the thing that heals them and gives them direction and gives them comfort and gives them assurance.

We just have to know that God will not give you anything you cannot bear, but in any given situation He will make a way of escape so that you can handle it whether it’s temptation or whether it is testing, God is the answer. (1 Cor. 10:13) Know God deeply and live differently. And you cannot know God deeply apart from the Word of God.

The problem today is that a lot of people are twisting it and distorting it, and they are not being challenged by those who know what God says. There’s going to be a warfare. You and I have to know that our warfare is not against flesh and blood. It’s against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph. 6:12)

That’s what we are seeing, and we’re just seeing what lawlessness is like when there’s no fear of God before their eyes. (Rom. 3:18) You’ve got to know it! You want to get Hosea chapter 4. Read it tonight before you go to bed, and look at what’s happening.

People are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge. And children are suffering because we have not been in the Word of God. (Hosea 4:6) We have not lived according to every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:3) We’ve got to start living it! Live it, live it, live it! 

Someday you and I, precious one, are going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ (this is for Christians), and we’re going to give an answer for the deeds done in our body, whether they be good or evil. (2 Cor. 5:10)

God is honest and fair and just. You and I have to know this. He cannot reward sin. He has to deal with it. He cannot honor you—or even has to answer to you—if you have not respected Him as God.

May the fear of God fall on the United States of America! May it fall on the church of Jesus Christ! May we put away and turn off and get free from a lot of this garbage and this talk and the way they’re doing things. May we go back to the Word of God, and may we be cleansed by the washing of the water of God’s Word (Eph. 5:26) so that we might be a vessel unto praise and honor and glory unto His appearing. (1 Peter 1:7) (applause)

We just had our partners in for the weekend, just before I came down here, and I got to tell them that I was honored to be speaking here. I said, “I’m going to be eighty-nine years old, and that’s going to happen very, very soon.” I saw some of you and I thought, Boy, you’re looking at me and you’re saying, “The ol’ gray mare, she ain’t what she used to be . . . many long years ago!” (laughter)

May we, may you and I, stay on target. May we not turn to the right, may we not turn to the left, may we observe to do according to all that He has commanded us, and may we hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord!” (Matt. 25:21)

The people who know their God are what? “But the people who know their God are able to stand firm.” (Dan. 11:32) But not just stand firm, to take action. May the results and the fruit of this time together and this ministry, may it be used mightily of God so that when we see Him, He’ll look at us and He’ll say, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter into (what?) the joy of the Lord.”

I love you, and I thank you so very much! (applause) Thank you.

I have one more thing to tell you. I’ve done it when I’ve spoken to large crowds, so you meet the qualifications. What I’ve prayed (I don’t think He’ll do it tonight) but I’ve prayed, “Lord, I pray that when I die, I’ll die on the platform!” (laughter)

I pray that I will be standing there, have taught the Word of God, and get a grand and glorious heart attack and that someone will come to the platform and tell them to repent and how to be saved.” (laughter) That would be a good way to go, wouldn’t it? (applause)

Absent from the body, present with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:8) and wanting to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Nancy: I believe Kay’s going to hear that, “Well done.” But there’s a challenge for us. Don’t miss the Word of God through His servant to us. “Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s Word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:7–8 CSB)

And oh, that God would raise up a host of younger “Kay Arthurs,” who love God’s Word, who know their God, who stand firm, and who take action.

Lord, thank You for this precious servant, for those who serve with her. Thank You for Precept ministry. Thank You for the many studies and resources they have taken around the world. Thank You for Kay’s faithfulness to You and Your faithfulness to her—because that’s where it all starts—over these many years. 

Lord, we don’t know how many days or months or years you may give her, but we know, for all of us, Heaven’s closer than it was yesterday. And so help us, and help her, with each day You give to be found faithful, knowing You, knowing Your Word, and telling others the wonders of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

So bless this servant, and in this season of trial and testing with the Parkinson’s and the weakness, may she find You to be her strength! Would you strengthen her, would You sustain her, would You continue to sanctify her, and would You satisfy her deeply with Your steadfast love? We love her, and we thank You for the gift that she is to us and to the body of Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Kay: Thank you. I love you.

Nancy: I love you, too. 

I'm glad God didn't answer her prayer tonight!

Kay: It would have been different!

Dannah: That’s the host of Revive Our Hearts, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, in a fun and motivating conversation she had with the much-loved Kay Arthur at True Woman '22. Kay helped start a Bible study ministry called Precept. You’ll find a link to their website in the transcript of today’s program at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Precept and Revive Our Hearts are both ministries that want to help you value and learn God’s Word better. One simple way we’re trying to do that here at Revive Our Hearts this month is by making available some Scripture cards. These are the size of standard playing cards, but they have fifty-two different Bible passages on them. So for example, here’s a card that says “Hope” on one side. When you flip it over, it says, “Romans 8:28. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” And that’s a card you could stick anywhere in your home or at work, or you could hand it to someone who needs that word of encouragement.

The fifty-two Scripture cards are a simple way for us to say “thank you” when you make a donation of any amount to support the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. Contact us today with your gift, request the Scripture cards, and we’ll send you a set. To make a donation, just visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959.

Next week we’ll head back to True Woman '22 and hear a powerful message from another woman who has hidden God’s Word in her heart, Joni Eareckson Tada. You’ll hear how quoting Scripture sustained her in a time of intense pain. I hope you’ll join us for that on Monday, here on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth challenges you to live out your freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture mentioned are paraphrases from NIV and NKJV unless otherwise noted.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.