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Mother’s Day Special: To Live Is Christ

The Christian Worldview / David Wheaton
The Truth Network Radio
May 10, 2025 2:00 am

Mother’s Day Special: To Live Is Christ

The Christian Worldview / David Wheaton

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May 10, 2025 2:00 am

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GUEST: Mary Jane Wheaton, David’s Mom

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what He owes to a godly mother.”

I heartily concur with that sentiment, as God blessed my Dad with a godly wife and my siblings and I with a godly mother. All of us have been presently and eternally impacted by our mother, Mary Jane Wheaton, who was brought to saving faith in Christ in her 20s, and by God’s grace, has followed Him to today at age 91.

It has been an annual tradition on The Christian Worldview to interview my Mom and Dad in May and June over Mother’s Day and Father’s Day weekends. It’s always enriching to hear their perspective on matters of life and faith, as they both were Christ-followers and married for nearly 70 years. The Lord brought my Dad home to heaven in 2023 at the same age my mom is today.

My mom will be our guest this weekend on this Mother’s Day special program. She will recount how God saved her, who has influenced her, how society has changed its view of women, what a wife should pursue, and much more.

God’s Word describes in Proverbs 31 the character of an “excellent wife” and mother, which says in part:

“Strength and dignity are her clothing,
 And she smiles at the future.

She opens her mouth in wisdom,
 And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

She looks well to the ways of her household,
 And does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and bless her;
 Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:

“Many daughters have done nobly,
 But you excel them all.”

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
 But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”

May women listening today be encouraged to pursue God’s design for a woman, wife, and mother. And may young men be looking for this kind of woman to marry and may married men be cultivating this character in their wives.

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Mother's Day special, To Live is Christ. My mother joins us today right here on the Christian Worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

I'm David Wheaton, the host. The Christian Worldview is a non-profit, listener-supported radio ministry. Our website is thechristianworldview.org, and the rest of our contact information will be given throughout today's program. As always, thank you for your notes of encouragement, financial support, and lifting us up in prayer. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon said, Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother. I heartily concur with that sentiment, as God blessed my dad with a godly wife and my siblings and I with a godly mother. All of us have been presently and eternally impacted by our mother, Mary Jane Wheaton, who was brought to saving faith in Christ in her 20s and by God's grace has followed him to today at age 91. It has been an annual tradition on the Christian worldview to interview my mom and dad in May and June over Mother's Day and Father's Day weekends. It's always enriching to hear their perspective on matters of life and faith, as they both were Christ followers and married for nearly 70 years.

The Lord brought my dad home to heaven in 2023, at the same age my mom is today. My mom will be our guest this weekend on this Mother's Day special program. She will recount how God saved her, who has influenced her, how society has changed its view of women, what a wife should pursue, and much more. God's Word describes in Proverbs 31 the character of an excellent wife and mother, which says in part, Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her, her husband also, and he praises her saying, Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. May women listening today be encouraged to pursue God's design for a woman, wife, and mother.

And may young men be looking for this kind of woman to marry, and may married men be cultivating this character in their wives. Let's get to the interview with my mom. Let's start out today.

I'm sure I've asked you this in the past. Tell us how God brought you to saving faith. I think I was about 24, and my mother was listening to Christian radio and hearing the men from one of the colleges, Christian colleges, talk about the Bible and salvation, and she had not really heard that before.

She was listening in her kitchen and one day got down on her knees and repented of her sin and received Christ as her Savior and Lord. And then she told me and I didn't understand it at all. So then I listened for three days.

Dad was asking me, What is going on with you? And I couldn't explain it. I'd been born again, and then he was born again. And so we met a wonderful couple from Campus Crusade and learned how to explain the plan of salvation. We began to help many people to know Christ as their Savior and Lord.

It makes life so worthwhile. What was it in that radio broadcast, do you recall, that God used to convict you and show you your need to believe in Christ? It was really seeing my mother, the change in her life. She was very happy. I could see that she had a joy that she had never had before. And whatever it was that she had, I knew I wanted that.

And she'd say to me, Why don't you just listen to the radio? And so finally I did start listening. And when I listened, I heard that Christ had died from my sins on the cross, that I was a sinner, and that I needed to repent of my sin and trust in Him as my Savior and Lord. And I did that.

It took me three days to understand it. And when I finally did, I explained it to Dad, and then he was born again. And we started out a whole new life in Christ. Mom, I think a key question to ask anyone, if you want to know more about them, is who have been the greatest influences on your life and why? Who would you say have been the greatest influences on your life? Definitely my mother, because she was genuinely saved and lived out her faith in so many ways. She was just so loving and so sweet.

Everyone loved her. She was so kind. Dad was so kind. He was a major influence on my life. And we had a wonderful marriage, not because we were so wonderful, but because of Christ. And my father was a major influence on my life. He taught me to swim and play tennis, and he liked to play golf. And we did so many things when I was growing up that I taught to my children and handed on to all of you. And we had just a good life, and it was only because of Christ. Without Christ, it would have been a whole different life. How about outside of your family, pastors or friends or anyone else who's had a big influence on your life?

Definitely John MacArthur. I listened to him for many, many years. Every day I've listened to him. I'm still listening to him.

He's studied and taught the Bible for so many years, and he emphasizes sound doctrine, sound teaching. And now I'm afraid that he's going to be losing his life. And yet, even when people ask him, how are you doing, he'll always say, thankful, even though he's having many, many serious illnesses. I just love John. Yes, and he's just a few years younger than you. I think he's 85 and you're 91 now. And I know you've been listening to his preaching ministry at Grace to You since probably when they first came on the air in the late 70s, I believe it was.

And so you've been a longtime listener there. But there have been others as well. Tell us about some of the other preachers along the way that also made an influence on your life. Our first pastor, just after we were saved, his name was George Darby. And he was a wonderful man. He would pray for seven minutes before he'd even start his sermon. Dad used to time him when he'd pray because it was such a long prayer. And then he gave the most deep sermons.

I still have them printed out. There was no tape recorder back then. He left after seven years because he was very conservative. And he had a sign out in the front of the church, The Devil's Candidate for President.

That's when John Kennedy was running for president. And the people in the church didn't like that. And so they let him go. And Dad and I were really sad that he left. And the man who came was very much of an academic and intellectual.

And so we went to another church. I know Francis Schaeffer was one of the people, Christian leaders, that you were impacted by back in the day. What was it about him that made an impact on your and Dad's life? The problems that were coming into the culture at that time, he would say, it's a practical result of the death of absolutes.

And I listened to him a lot. The topic today, Mom, is about women, about wives and about mothers here on Mother's Day. This is a broad question, I know. But what are some things that come to mind from scripture that have shaped what you think as to the character, godly character of a woman, wife and mother and the role of a woman, wife and mother?

I've lived long enough to have seen it all come in and change. I was asked to be on the radio with two feminists and they were very tough. I took my Bible and they did not like me at all because I was just giving them Bible verses and they didn't like that.

But when feminism came in, the women became stronger than men. So many people today are not married. They're living together. They don't know that's sin. I tell them that it's sin and they'll say, I'm so glad you told me. Because living together before marriage is fornication and they don't know it's a sin. And the Bible says when you do that, you're going to go to hell.

But they always say, thank you for telling me, I wouldn't have known. So you mentioned some of the things that have happened in our society over your 91 years. You've seen the influx of feminism, which is an unbiblical approach to women. You've seen abortion come in, all the different waves of feminism as they've come in. What do you think were the contributing factors that led our society to largely turn away from the biblical standard of a Proverbs 31 woman who's saved and sanctified and a helpmate to her husband, raising children in the home, modest in dress, as you mentioned earlier?

What do you think led our society to turn away from that particular standard? I think it happened in the mid 60s. Woodstock. I watched all that. It was shocking to me because it was all rock music. The hymns were gone out of the church. The church took the rock music in and that's how I think Satan got into the church. And then there were drugs and sex.

And as you said, Francis Schaeffer would say, it's the practical result of the death of absolutes. We sort of stayed in our own family and didn't want to get into all of the changes in the culture. Although I had a woman say to me, aren't you going to adapt to the culture?

And I said, absolutely not. And it was at that time Marnie was in seventh grade and she was coming home and telling me about sex education in class and she didn't like it. So I had her bring papers home. I looked at the papers. I did not like it. I went up to the school, talked to the principal.

He had no interest in it. I went to the superintendent and he didn't understand what I was talking about. I went to the large meeting they had at the school. All the parents were there. The teachers were there.

The man who brought it in was from the Lutheran Social Services and Church. No one had a problem with it except for me and my best friend, Barbara Chambers. We did not like any of it and we ended up taking our children out of the public school and putting them into Christian school for, I think it was four years. So, having lived as long as you have, it must be jarring for you to see how much society has changed because you grew up in a very much more traditional America. It's not that it was a perfectly Christian America, but things are different in the 40s and 50s than I've heard you and dad talk about than they were in the 60s and 70s and of course since then. So what do you think when a society now, at least a certain part of it, not everyone of course, can't define what a woman actually is, like the Supreme Court justice when she was asked that. She couldn't define what a woman is.

She just didn't want to give a definition of a woman. Or a society that allows men to compete against women in women's sports and to dress in their bathrooms. What kind of jarring perspective must that be for you to be at your age and have seen all that come into our society? It's terrible. It's hitting rock bottom and John MacArthur made a CD on that very topic and he said this is Sodom and Gomorrah. That's where we are going.

When that first came out, I remember that message he gave and he was so right. The world is not our home. The world is so wicked. You just look at the news every night and you can see how wicked it is.

The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one. Let's talk about the relationship of a wife to her husband and her children. The marital relationship really should come first in scripture. Wives respect your husbands, husbands love your wives and then fathers are to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. There can be a tendency for a mother to prioritize children even above her own husband.

Why is that an unhealthy and poor idea to do that? I remember when the psychology of self-esteem came out and at the time I thought I don't think this is good. It seemed to me that it was promoting pride in a child and we all have enough problem with pride especially children and adults so I didn't like that idea at all. The wife is to submit to her husband and the husband is to love his wife.

It's just that simple. Children need to help and work. I think it's a mistake to make a child the center of attention. My mom joins us today here on the Christian worldview radio program. She is the mother of four adult children who are in their 50s.

That would be me and my older siblings in their 60s. She also has seven grandchildren as well. Being a wife and a mother mom is very consuming both with time, with energy. That can lead to a distraction from actually an even more important relationship than with her own husband, her relationship with Christ as a believer. That must be our first priority, first relationship for the Christian life.

What should a wife and mother who is very busy with marriage and family and other things going on in her life, local church, what should a wife and mother be doing to cultivate a close walk with the Lord? Well Peter wrote, Grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Dad, he'd sit on the couch every morning and read his Bible and he'd have tears in his eyes.

I'd say, Why are you crying? And he said, I'm thinking about heaven. We both loved just learning what the Bible said. We read it.

We loved it. We talked about it with each other. We were always talking to each other. And then we went to church together and we did everything together and we were so opposite.

He was a mechanical engineer and very technical and mechanical and I'm more of a thinker. I'm serious about what I believe and he was too in a different way. I can say from just observing you and Dad over all these years, the things that you were doing, the ordinary means of God's grace that he provides every Christian to grow closer to him, I see you two read the Word of God, sometimes together, sometimes alone. You and Dad are always listening to messages on Christian radio. I can say I'm probably involved in Christian radio today is because of that example that was on in the background of our home constantly, being engaged in your local church. And you went to a lot of different churches over the years, but that was a big part of it as well and fellowship. You'd have Christian fellowship. You've had Bible studies and different things going on in your lives over all those years. So all those ordinary things that Christians do to grow on their Christian faith is what I observed that you and Dad did an awful lot of over the years. It's only a testimony to Jesus Christ because without Christ, you have nothing.

Your life has no meaning, no purpose, and you can't even have a good marriage, you can't be a good parent, and you can't help anyone else. After listening to an interview with my mom this Mother's Day weekend on The Christian Worldview, I find it refreshing to hear someone speak in such clear, black-and-white terms without endless qualifying and nuance. Yes, it's possible for unbelievers to have a non-contentious marriage, but it's because they are abiding by Christian values of love and respect for one another. And still, a marriage without Christ at the center is missing the most important focus and purpose to become like Him, to worship Him, and to raise children to do and be the same. All right, short break for some ministry updates, including about the Overcomer Course for Young Adults, now just a month away on June 20th and 21st at Stonehouse Farm in Jordan, Minnesota.

It's not too late to register, so encourage the young adults in your life to come. More details in this break, and then we'll continue with my mom. I'm David Wheaton. You are listening to The Christian Worldview radio program. You see, ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. The culture of death that we're in today is not coincidental.

It's not an accident. It was intentionally created by a set of Marxist, socialist, totalitarian revolutionaries who were engaging in a proxy war attack against Christianity and the American family here in the States. That was Seth Gruber, executive producer of the 1916 Project film, which details how our culture of depravity and death arose from Margaret Sanger, Alfred Kinsey, and many more. The 1916 Project DVD is 76 minutes and retails for $20. You can order it for a donation of any amount to The Christian Worldview and it will be shipped to you in the month of May. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to box four zero one Excelsior, Minnesota five five three three one. The Overcomer Course is designed to help young adults gain clarity and conviction on the most foundational issues of life and the faith. Day one sessions address salvation, the authority of scripture, life purpose, and spiritual growth and discipleship. Day two sessions present God's design on time, work, and money, sex, singleness, and marriage, the local church, and overcoming temptation. Between sessions, enjoy fellowship, food, and fun at the farm, including activities and games, cookouts and espresso bar, trail walks, bonfires, and more. Tell the young adults in your life about The Overcomer Course Friday, Saturday, June 20th and 21st at Stonehouse Farm in Jordan, Minnesota.

To foster personal connection, the course is limited to 40 men and women age 18 to 28. Full details and registration at thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233. Welcome back to The Christian Real View.

I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to visit our website, thechristianrealview.org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. My mom is our guest today on this special Mother's Day edition of the program.

We are discussing issues related to being a godly woman, wife, and mother. Now, you raised your children, mom, in a time where there wasn't the omnipresence of the internet. There were no cell phones. There weren't the types of technologies there are today that are so consuming for adults, but especially for children. So if you had younger children today, let's say under 18, have you ever thought about how you would regulate their use of technology? Considering that technology is a major aspect of life and work and career now, and you yourself are on your little Apple laptop computer every day sending emails, you have an iPhone and so forth, so you, even at your age, are using technology, but it can become very addictive for anyone, but particularly for children as they're engaged in Instagram and Snapchat and TikTok, YouTube, these social media platforms, constantly looking down at a cell phone.

Video games is another one. So what advice would you give parents today about engaging with internet and technology for children, knowing that it's not really possible in our world nowadays to say, look, you can't engage in any of it unless you go off and live out of society. How do you think you and dad would regulate that today? I would have left that up to dad. I don't think I could, I wouldn't know what to do. I just don't like any of the type of tech. I know I'd use my computer. I have a phone, but I don't like any of it, but he would have handled it and he would handle something like that more than I would.

It was that book Slouching Toward Gomorrah by Robert Bork when he said, this was written in 1980s, he said, when technology comes in, everything's going to change and it's not going to be better. And it's not. I go to a doctor's office or anywhere you go, people are always, it's like their phone is an appendage. They can't put it away. They're just, they just are so consumed with looking at it and talking on it.

And I don't like it at all. They're incredibly powerful tools that the world operates on now today. But I think as for parents, children are at a stage of life where they haven't been able to have the capacity to develop the means of self-control, to resist so much of what goes on online. And so parents need to step in and teach them, obviously regulate the usage of it, observe them very carefully what impact it's having on their lives.

Is there an addiction developing to it and really regulate the use, monitor the use is really important as well. Ultimately, I think what's important is to be able to teach them to have self-control and to choose what's good and to resist as scripture says, what is evil and what is wrong and wise use of time, all of these different character issues that should be growing in a believer. And that's hard to do.

And that takes time. And it's a really challenging thing that we as parents now have to deal with that previous generations haven't dealt with. But I think you're right about what you said about dad would probably have thought of a very wise way to regulate the amount of internet time that we all had if we had been younger in the home with that going on. I wish I could have asked him about that because I don't think we ever had to face it.

Our children were older by the time all that came in, but I know I would not have liked it and he would not have liked it and he would have done something in the right way. Well, he was one of the first people that I knew that had actually had a computer. He had an Apple 2 Plus or Apple 2C, I think it was called back in the 1970s. Again, he was a mechanical engineer. And he loved computers his whole life. But I always noticed that he was doing something productive on a computer. He was never just scrolling and playing games and doing things that didn't have any value. He was either doing something with let's say his finances or writing an email or making a greeting card for someone, doing something that that wasn't just a waste of time. He was using it as a tool for something creative or productive.

And I think that that's a good start not to do things on a computer that are just a complete waste of time. Again, my mom joins us today here on The Christian Worldview in this special Mother's Day program. Now here's another loaded question here, mom, with regard to women, stay-at-home moms versus women in the workplace. A stay-at-home mom is mostly looked on negatively by much of society today as that that's really second class citizen almost like you're what are you doing all day in the home? Well, I know stay-at-home moms would kind of smile if they hear that they're doing a lot as opposed to a wife and a mother working outside the home and then putting their children and driving them to daycare and then picking them up in the afternoon every day. Why do you think a stay-at-home mom? Not that a woman can't work out of the home or do some kinds of work, especially in her internet age.

It's very possible today to work from home. But why is it important for a mother to be present with her children day after day after day in the home? The Bible says that a woman should be a keeper at home. I really love being home.

My mother was always home. And there's a presence when a woman is at home. I think there's a reason why the woman should be home. But there's plenty to do at home if you keep your house up and all the things you can do, cooking and cleaning, going for walks and handling all the things that come up in a home. Society has changed so much.

It all goes awry in time in very fast too. Well, I know that you and dad had a very traditional home. He went off every morning and went off to work. You stayed home and you obviously got us ready for school and took us to sports and activities.

And then dad would come home at night. We typically have dinner together. We were very busy though. There wasn't a lack of things going on. And you were doing some productive work as well too, even outside the home. I remember you used to teach cross country skiing and tennis and do other things. And I never looked at you as saying, well, my mom just sits at home and doesn't do much all day.

You've seemed like you were constantly on the go, taking us, picking us up from school, taking me personally a member to tennis practice all the time after school. So there are financial constraints today that are different. I think it's much harder for young couples to actually own a home now.

It's so expensive that there's a big burden to be able to let's say buy a home. But the big thing is when a woman has children, that needs to be a very high priority in a mother's life. Not higher than a relationship with her husband, as we talked about earlier. Not as high, of course, as the ultimate relationship, her walk with Christ, but it needs to be way up there in raising those kids. That is the blessing that God gives to a woman, a wife and a mother is to be able to have that deep influence on children.

Okay. Final two questions for you, mom. And this has to do with dad. Again, I mentioned that God brought dad home to heaven just about just a little more than two years ago.

It was actually on February 1st, 2023. I'm actually interviewing you in the same room where he went past to heaven and it was very sudden. It was unexpected. He was 91 years old and he died of some sort of heart attack, really is what it was.

It went into a very fast, irregular rhythm. He had had three open heart surgeries over the course of his life. So he was not shocking from that standpoint, but of course it was very shocking because he was mentally sharp.

We didn't know anything was wrong with him that was potentially going to take his life that quickly. And after 68 years of marriage and knowing him, I think well into this, you met when I think you were 15 and he was 17. So we knew each other for I think close to 70 some years and all of a sudden have him gone. It was hard for you to even process that for months after that took place. And you of course took a fall in the home after that and had to recover from a bad shoulder injury. Then you had knee surgery the same year.

That was a very traumatic year in 2023 for you. And we're so thankful that you've recovered from all those things. And of course, physically, you're not the same as you used to be, but we're so grateful for you that you're so sharp and we'd love to have these kind of conversations with you. Let's talk about your marriage to dad over 68 years.

As you look back, what are a few things that you would say to a younger couple, let's say in their 30s or 40s, what were some of the things that you think aided in having a long and healthy marriage? Christ. It's all Christ. It's just knowing Christ. Like Peter said, grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Just stay in the word of God, learn the word of God, apply it to your life daily, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding and all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.

It's just really simple, but maybe it's complicated to some people, but if you just do it the right way, it all turns out okay, as they say. I just am thankful that we were saved when I was 24 and dad was 26. The day after dad was saved, I remember we were living in an old house and we went outside and we were standing there just wondering what we were going to do now and we both decided we're going to do it right. We're going to do what the Bible says. We're not going to play games with this.

We're not going to do it halfway. We just decided this is it. In fact, I told a fellow that had actually been good friends of ours about our salvation and he never spoke to me again. I mean, that was the first time I'd ever had anyone do that to me, but Christ really changed our life. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature.

All things pass away. All things become new and we were brand new and we just met this nice couple from Bob Jones College and they helped us with learning how to give people the gospel and we did that and we met so many people, brought them into our family, helped them to know Christ and grow in Christ. I can't say enough about what Jesus Christ means to me and what he meant to dad and knowing that dad is with him now gives me such joy. I think he's better off than we are.

I'd rather be where he is than where we are. Your answer is very simple, but it's true. It is Christ that transformed your lives and if you have two people in a marriage, a husband and a wife who are focused on growing closer to Christ, Christ molds your character to love one another and then you have the byproduct of growing closer to Christ is a closer, better human relationships as well as you get along better and better as you grow deeper in your sanctification walk. So I think that was very accurate and what we noticed all those years and you're right, you really weren't working at marriage. You could give ten things that are going to have you better marriage and there are important things, but it does go back to those fundamentals that scripture talks about. If a husband focuses on loving his wife and a wife focuses on respecting your husband and they're both mutually going along in pursuit of Christ-likeness in their own lives, they're going to have a long and healthy marriage because they're going to be a sanctified believers living together. Okay, final question for you mom is about being a widow now.

It's been just over two years. One of us comes over to your house here every night and gives you dinner and we talk. I would say it's rare for any night without you saying just how much you miss dad and here it's been well over two years and I can understand that for how long you were married to him and how good of a marriage you had, but what are some of the challenges besides just the loneliness of even though you have your children and grandchildren around, you're not a substitute for what dad meant in your life. So what are some of the challenges of being a widow and what keeps you from getting discouraged and just to have hope at this late stage of life where I know you also mentioned you love to be able to get out for a walk every day and you're not able to do that.

You have to walk with one of us now. You've lost some of your independence. What are the challenges of being a widow and what keeps you having hope? You know what Ecclesiastes says in the last chapter, remember thy creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days come and then the description of old age. We all don't realize when you're your age how quickly life goes by, but it does and here I am at ninety-one, dad is gone. The pastor of the church you attend gave a very good message on 1 Timothy 5 on widowhood. I had never heard a pastor even talk about that topic.

It was so good. Some of the things he said were very helpful to me. I don't feel sorry for myself and I can't say that I'm depressed. I'm sad that dad is gone, but I guess just living in this house where we lived for fifty-two years and when you're older and you move away from everything you know, I think it's very difficult. You don't know where anything is, but I'm thankful that I'm here. People are coming to see me all the time and I'm still living a life that is meaningful. In fact, some of the people I've led to Christ will call me and thank me and I talk with them.

That always encourages me. I don't know what to say, David. It's just a good life with Jesus Christ.

That's all I can say. Without him, life has no meaning at all. I think that's a perfect way to conclude our conversation and that really is how I would characterize you is that your life, as you've already written on your tombstone, because you're going to share one with dad, it's for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

From Philippians chapter one. Mom, thank you for another edifying conversation and for you to look back over your life and what Christ has done in your life and to share these thoughts and things you've learned over your entire life with us. On behalf of your entire family, we all love you very much and are so appreciative to God that he chose to have us in your family and to be under your influence all these years.

So happy Mother's Day and Lord willing, we'll be able to do this again next year. Thank you, David. I would like to say something that I remember when John was about three.

I was pushing him along in a stroller and I memorized this and I still have it. I had walked life's way with an easy tread, had followed where comforts and treasures led, and then one day I met the master face to face. Met him and knew him and blushed to see that his eyes full of sorrow were fixed on me and I faltered and fell at his feet that day while my castles melted and vanished away. Melted and vanished and in their place, not else did I see but the master's face. And I cried aloud, O make me meet. Let me follow the steps of thy wounded feet.

My thought now is for the souls of men. I've lost my life to find it again. Ere since that day in a quiet place, I met the master face to face. Thank you again, Mom. Well, I hope you benefited from that conversation with my mom.

You've probably heard the saying, someone is a mile wide and an inch deep. My mom is definitely the opposite of that. God has used her to bring depth and sobriety to our family. She doesn't like small talk, but meaningful conversation.

Whenever our family is together, she requests one conversation at a time, please, instead of lots of separate conversations. Even those who don't know her sense an unusual depth with her like she's looking through them. She would say, as she did many times in the interview today, it's all because of Christ. And what she means by that is that Jesus Christ has completely transformed her life from the time when she was born again to repenting and believing in Him as Savior and Lord.

She would have been a career woman and perhaps a feminist if she hadn't been saved. She's a serious person, but she loved my dad's dry sense of humor. That's what first attracted her to him. She has a very active mind and likes to keep feeding herself spiritually through sermons on the radio and reading the word herself. She also keeps up with the news. She's not a people person, but always takes interest in other people. She's driven to take in the word and share it.

She likes to say, take it in, pass it out. Above all, my mom loves Christ. She mentioned him over and over in the interview. She concluded with, it's a good life with Jesus Christ. Without him, there is no meaning at all. And what she means is that knowing and drawing near to Jesus Christ is the highest purpose in life.

Every other pursuit pales in comparison. And I'm thankful for that constant reminder through her. Just one final note on the interview.

The poem she recited from memory is titled, I Met the Master Face to Face by an Unknown Author. We printed the poem and an interview with my mom in the May issue of the Christian Royal View Journal. If you're a Christian Royal View partner, you'll be receiving that this coming week. The journal was supposed to arrive before Mother's Day, but there was some kind of delay at the printer, so we apologize for that. All right, final segment next, where we will discuss the main operating principle in our fallen world. What God has designed, man rejects at every point, particularly with God's design for a woman, wife, and mother.

Stay tuned. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to the Christian Royal View Radio Program. The Christian Royal View Journal is our monthly 12-page full-color print publication designed to sharpen your biblical worldview on current events and issues of the faith. The journal is anchored each month with three columns, including one by Christian geopolitical and prophecy analyst Soren Kern.

You will also find details on radio programs, upcoming events, resources for adults and children, ministry updates, and more. The journal is mailed to all Christian Royal View partners who support the ministry at $10 or more per month, or $120 or more per year. Plus, when you become a Christian Royal View partner, you'll be sent a complimentary copy of my hardcover book, My Boy Ben, a Story of Love, Loss, and Grace.

To become a Christian Royal View partner and receive the journal, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. We need to remember that as our Savior hung upon that cross, extended His arms, and bore those stakes in His hands and His feet, that crown of thorns on His head, He was paying for our sin. Our sin put Christ on the cross. We need to pause before we indulge in sin. Look at the cross.

Look at what the Savior did to redeem us and say, I can't sin against the Savior who did that. That was Emile Zawane, President of Living Waters and author of our new featured resource, Fight Like a Man, a Bold Biblical Battle Plan for Personal Purity. This important book is softcover, 272 pages, and retails for $17.99. For a limited time, you can order it for a donation of any amount to the Christian Royal View. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Welcome back to the Christian Royal View.

I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to visit our website, thechristianworldview.org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Final segment on our special Mother's Day program. As we think about women, wives, and mothers today, we should be fully aware of the animating dynamic in our fallen world, which is this—what God designed for a woman, wife, and mother is relentlessly subverted and attacked.

So here are just several examples of that. God designed a woman to be a helper suitable for a man in the context of marriage. Genesis 2.18 says, Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make him a helper suitable for him. The world, and even many professing Christians influenced by the world, reject God's design as inferior or oppressive. They believe the woman should be co-leader in the relationship and the home, if not the leader, because men are lacking. Of course, every institution has one ultimate authority, whether it's the military or government or business, because someone has to make final decisions. Otherwise, there are two masters, and the house is divided against itself.

You have division, confusion, and chaos. So God's design on the role of a wife being a helper to her husband should not be confused as unequal worth of man versus woman, but on God-designed roles for the benefit of marriage and family and society. Here's another example of how God's design is undermined.

God designed women to carry, bear, and raise children. Genesis 1.27. God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them.

God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Now both a woman's body and her nurturing nature are perfectly designed by God to carry, bear, and raise children. Of course, not all women will bear and raise children, which is fine, but the design of a woman by God couldn't be more obvious. The world of course rejects this, saying men can bear children, and by that they mean a woman dressing as a man can bear children, that children are a burden that you can take a pill to keep from having children, or take a pill to abort the one you are carrying. Women should have quote-unquote reproductive freedom, after all. God designed women to dress modestly and discreetly.

1 Timothy 2. I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments. Well, the world rejects this by saying, if you've got it, flaunt it. Women should be able to dress however they want. Just this week in Minnesota, the Minnesota Supreme Court, according to this article from the American Experiment, headline is state justices cite, quote, binary approach to breasts in overturning women's indecent exposure conviction. Moving on with the article, Minnesota beaches may never be the same following a unanimous state Supreme Court ruling this week overturning a woman's indecent exposure misdemeanor conviction on the grounds that men, transgender individuals and breast cancer survivors are not held to the same standard. Quote, criminalizing the exposure of female but not male breasts does not provide Minnesotans with adequate notice as to the conduct the indecent exposure statute prohibits. Associate Justice Sarah Hennessey wrote of the court's decision, quote, because a binary approach to breasts, there's a rejection of the male-female dynamic, fails to recognize the more nuanced physical realities of human bodies, whether they are intersex, transgender, non-binary or breast cancer survivors. So when you read that, just remember the operating dynamic that takes place in this world. What God designed for the woman, the world relentlessly rejects.

Here's another example. God ordained women not to teach men in church and to remain quiet. First Timothy two, a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created and then Eve, and it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.

But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith in love and sanctity with self-restraint. The world completely rejects this, as do many evangelicals as well. It's, quote, unfair.

It's demeaning. It's smash the patriarchy, unquote. Women are capable and called to teach men. That's what Rick Warren was trying to convince the Southern Baptist Convention to change its bylaws to do. But it's God's design for His church. It's not culturally based, as in the time of the apostles versus now, but it's based on going all the way back to God's original creation design between men and women. Churches who sin against God in this respect do so to their own peril and compromise when they violate this.

Here's another example of the world's rejection of God's design. God designed wives to be keepers of home and subject to their husbands. Titus 2, older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the Word of God will not be dishonored. Getting a home, caring for a home, and nourishing the household is a challenging and all-important calling for a wife and mother. The world rejects this as an inferior calling, though, compared to going off to an office somewhere where a woman will spend 40 hours a week making money for the company. This is most insidious because a mother must leave her natural place in the home, and the caring of her children goes into the hands of strangers.

There is nothing more unnatural than a mother turning over children to daycare. Here is yet another point that the world rejects of God's design with regard to a woman, wife and mother. God designed a woman to be married to her husband for life. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 19, A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. The world rejects this as abusive and restrictive. Women should be able to marry a woman if they want, and leave a marriage whenever they want. The world completely rejects God's permanent design for marriage.

Here is just one more. God designed wives to be in subjection to their husbands. Ephesians 5, Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. The world rejects God's design here as demeaning, and says wives should be like co-regents of their husbands or, quote, partners.

What God designed for the woman, the wife, and the mother, man subverts and undermines at every point. So getting back to the interview with my mom, I was struck by what a simplistic, in a good way, and biblical view she has of being a woman, wife, and mother. She basically said, we were saved, we took it seriously, we shared the gospel with people, I kept the home, raised the children, and dad led the home. The irony is that my mom has a stronger personality than my dad, and could have easily taken the lead in the home. She didn't do that. She obeyed God's word.

She expressed her views, but relied on Him as the final authority in the home. My mom focused on her walk with Christ, her marriage to dad, her children, and telling others about Christ. She has lived a blessed life.

To God be the glory. If you missed any of the interview with my mom, you can hear it at thechristianworldview.org, or search for the program in your podcast app on your device. Christian World View Partners, the journal should be arriving in your mailbox this week, with an article on anti-Semitism by Soren Kern, an interview with my mom, and part two of my article on the mission to overcome. Again, the journal is sent to all Christian World View Partners, and you can become one by visiting thechristianworldview.org or by calling us. If you joined us late today, just a reminder that the Overcomer Course for Young Adults is just about a month away now. This two-day event is focused on grounding young adults on the most important issues of the faith and life. Next week, Mike Gendron, a former Roman Catholic, will join us to discuss the new pope. Thank you for joining us today on the Christian World View and for your support of this non-profit radio ministry.

May you have a blessed Mother's Day weekend, celebrating your own mother and God's amazing design for women, wives, and mothers. So until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. The mission of the Christian World View is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript, or find out what must I do to be saved, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll-free 1-888-646-2233. The Christian World View is a listener-supported, non-profit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation. To make a donation, order resources, become a Christian World View partner, sign up for our weekly email or the Christian World View Journal monthly print publication, or to contact us, go to thechristianworldview.org, call 1-888-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian World View.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-05-10 04:21:13 / 2025-05-10 04:40:48 / 20

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