I met Kay Arthur, but never face-to-face. She changed my life, but not because I sat near her or spoke with her. She called me “Beloved”, but never knew me personally.
Kay was an instrument in her Maker’s hands, a tool to reveal his mercy and faithfulness, a beacon shining for so many on behalf of the perfect Light. And countless women like me are more grateful recipients of God’s mercy, because through Kay’s work and training, we’ve grown in our understanding and love for our faithful, covenant-keeping God.
The Women Who Met Kay
It’s tempting to look at the pictures flooding my social media feeds right now of friends and acquaintances with Kay, to read their memories of her, and think how much better it would have been to meet her in person. Of course it would’ve been incredible to meet her, but I think there’s a better reality. I stand among the thousands of women who never met Kay or heard her speak in-person, who are the anonymous “Beloved” to whom she co-wrote throughout her studies, as she guided us through the process of observing, interpreting, and applying God’s word.
Kay didn’t know any of us, but she believed God, and like Peter, she staked her confidence in his intention to preserve his word for every generation. And for that reason, she made every effort to ensure we would know his word and promises, so that after her departure we would “be able at any time to recall these things” (2 Peter 1:12-15). She was passionate as she urged us to confirm our calling and election (2 Peter 1:10), to rest in the promises of the unchanging God who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:17-18, Titus 1:2). She believed deeply in the coherence and continuity of Scripture, and her greatest desire was not that we would think exactly like her, but that we would be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus.
Seeing Jesus
My first encounter with Kay was in September of 2009, when I showed up to a Bible study, shaking with nervousness and a brand new baby in tow. A friend had invited me to join the group as they began a new book, and I jumped at the chance. I was still new to Canada, painfully lonely and desperate for community. It seemed to me the safest place to make real, lasting connections with women who valued similar things might be at a Bible study.
What I didn’t know was that God would use my longing for friends to lead me to the place where he would open my eyes to his nearness and faithfulness. And not only would I build relationships with women who would grow and challenge me, I would find out that Jesus was actually the nearest and truest friend I had been longing for, the one who has pursued me and kept me. He would transform my hunger for connection into a hunger for the daily bread that could not and would not be satisfied anywhere but his word.
I had grown up in the church and had always known the Bible was God’s word, but the Lord used that first study – the Precepts “Covenant” study – to reveal Jesus on the pages of Scripture in a way I’d never seen him before. Jesus was there, from Genesis to Revelation, he was real to me, and I loved him more than I ever had before – all because I knew him better through his word.
Close to Home
Kay is a primary reason Women Encouraged exists. After years of gathering with women from nearly every church in our town, connecting over our love of God’s word and our commitment to walking with him, I couldn’t help but dream of a way to gather more women. I wanted every woman to know that God’s word was for them, it was accessible to them, and that he had made them for himself, to know him and love him. I wanted to share his character, his ways, his love.
So we put a little conference together, and invited our beloved Precepts teacher Angi and another Bible teacher friend, Pam, who had been similarly shaped by Kay’s ministry. They taught women some Bible study skills, showing them how to dig deeper into God’s word, and communicating how the word is designed to transform us. Before that little conference was over, women were asking when the next one would be. I didn’t think we’d ever have more than one event, but here we are, ten years later. Women Encouraged is a living testimony to God’s work through the life of Kay Arthur.
A Faithful Legacy
Christian women have been blessed and shaped by the wise and insightful teaching and ministries of faithful servants such as Corrie Ten Boom and Elisabeth Elliot. I count Kay Arthur among them as one who has impacted generations of believers, running alongside us, enduring to the end of her race with her eyes on her faithful Savior, and urging us to do the same – to imitate her as she imitated Christ.
It wasn’t hard to see that Kay’s passion was for the glory of God the Father, and the transformative power of the living and active word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers in Jesus Christ. That passion will live on in those of us who were privileged to meet her on the pages of her studies and books. She taught his precepts diligently to her children in the faith, and we will continue to pass on our love for Scripture to the next generations – because it tells us of the God who first loved us and gave us a way to know him.
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:7-14
