Friday, January 30, 2009

Reformation: Love and Faith: Martyrs: Guido de Bres

Guido de Bres was a *snaps fingers* um... I can't think of it. He was born in Mons, a city in a Belgian province. His father had been a glass maker, and he started out in that profession too. He was only 14 when news of Tyndale's martyrism reached him. He became intrested in Protostantism, and since Mons was located on the border of France and the Lowlands (which is now Belgium) the Huegenots who were coming over from France influenced him greatly. Later in life, in his late twenties and early thirties, he studied at Geneva under John Calvin. After this he pastored a small town, but their true doctrine was kept secret. When the officials found out, they ransacked de Bres' house (he had escaped) and burned his papers including letters FROM JOHN CALVIN!!! (Wouldn't it be so great if those hadn't been destroyed?!) Later he was finally captured, and put to death by hanging. He was buried in a shallow grave, and dogs dug up his body and consumed it. He had a wife whom he had been married to for seven years, and five children. (He was also the author of the Belgian Confession.)

Much is known about John Calvin, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, (of course, not as much as we would LIKE to... but still). But not much is known about Guido de Bres. However, his character can be somewhat determined by this letter he wrote to his wife just before he died:

"My dear and well-beloved wife in our Lord Jesus.

Your grief and anguish are the cause of my writing you this letter. I most earnestly pray you not to be grieved beyond measure . . . . We knew when we married that we might not have many years together, and the Lord has graciously given us seven. If the Lord had wished us to live together longer, he could easily have caused it to be so. But such was not his pleasure. Let his good will be done . . . . Moreover, consider that I have not fallen into the hands of my enemies by chance, but by the providence of God . . . . All these considerations have made my heart glad and peaceful, and I pray you, my dear and faithful companion, to be glad with me, and to thank the good God for what he is doing, for he does nothing but what is altogether good and right . . . . I pray you then to be comforted in the Lord, to commit yourself and your affairs to him, he is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless, and he will never leave nor forsake you . . . .

Good-bye, Catherine, my well-beloved! I pray my God to comfort you, and give you resignation to his holy will. Your faithful husband, Guido de Brès."


Guido de Bres, 1522-1567

What faith he had in Christ! What trust and love he had to commit his wife and children to the Lord's care while he died for Christ!! I can't think of anything else to say, because I happen to be too overwhelmed by his example of faith and love.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Well? What Did You Expect From A Romantic Person?


I have always loved this painting ever since I can remember.... Probably the first time I saw it. The smirk on the guys face, the intentness of the girl on making everything perfect and exact, the tender look on the husband's (or soon to be) face as he watches her work, and the way she has to stand on tiptoe to reach the desk in order to sign, the single rose on the window sill, paints a very expressive, exact, sweet protrait of going to get a marriage license. :)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Just A Random Picture...




I guess I just got into a Lizzie Hall mood... :P Expect random posts from a random person!!

Girls an' Guns....



Isn't that just lovely?

But guys an' Guns...


Quite a different matter. :D

This was when we went to the Clarkes for Peter's 20th birthday. We took a friend, Luke Nuebecker, with us. Of course that was about one and a half years ago, but still, it was so much fun and worth posting about. 'Sides, I am unable to post new pictures because our camera is unfortunately broken. :P oh well! Praise the Lord! :D

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Not As Important But.....




Isn't it so beautiful!? "The heavens declare the glory of God! The skies proclaim the works of his hands!"

Patriotic Sentiments

I was just "reminiscing" as some people call it, on a time a few months back, when I was in the most beloved and honoured (by me) town (or not so town-ish) Hickville. I remember that around sunset, Rachel and I "took a walk through the wilderness" as we call it. As we were coming back, we got a rather patriotic feeling within us, or at least I did, and we decided to belt out America's National Anthem. Alright.... Please don't think I'm strange when I say what I was feeling at the time, because I feel like I've gotta tell somebody, but I don't know which somebody to tell, (so why not tell everybody?) and besides, I wouldn't be able to put it in these exact words that describe the feeling as I am about to do now.... Wow, that was a really wordy sentence!!

So, we belted out the National Anthem. We really sang it out, as there was no one to listen but God and the birds around us. We looked across the vast land around us, so desolate, maybe, but so free, and so beautiful in the setting sun. What made the song more astounding, the view around us more spectacular, and being in the place itself more wonderful was the knowledge we had that we have a God, a heavenly Father in heaven, who is supreme over everything, who is all-powerful and in complete control of any little thing that happens. And if he cares for the life of a sparrow, how much moreso the life of his children! And also this thought.... the hymn O Worship The King says in the last verse, "Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!" If he is all those things, then he certainly will care for us in times of trouble or should disaster strike! Malachi 4:2 says, "But for those who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings." I feel that "we the people" have been very blessed, and have felt God's grace and mercy in giving us, and allowing us to live and flourish, in this free country.

Some people say that we don't have a very free nation... A good friend went to England this past year. She said that a homeschooling mother there said to her, "The law of England states that a superviser must be within our home to watch how we treat and raise our children. They never warn us when they come. Don't let, like we have, the simple freedoms that you posess slip through your hands, because we look and depend on you." I don't know about you, but when I heard that my mind bounced... so to speak. I almost got up and slammed my hand on the table saying, "That's it! First I'm going to the American Government and then I'm going to Parliament to do something!" If only it were that simple! Many of you might have read a post I wrote a few months ago entitled "pray!" I was about to say that the only way we can help our country is by being some great person of state that has great influence on our government. However, I was promptly reminded that, again, we can, and we WILL pray. Prayer is the greatest thing that we can do for our country.

But may I be so bold (in a good way, of course) to urge my brothers and sisters in Christ to pray without ceasing, and to never, ever be complacent! I'm not saying you are, but remember how many thousands of people died for a freedom that they had not yet obtained in the late 1700's! Remember how many sacrifices they made, and how hard they worked, and how constantly the fought for a freedom and a liberty and a country that they could call their own! And just think, after all that they had suffered to make this, our nation America, and after the thousands upon thousands who had died (not even knowing the end result), just think how ungrateful it would be, how entirely careless and thoughtless and defiant it would be to take all those sacrifices for granted, and to stand complacently by while this our country, one Nation under God, reaches a crisis! How in the world can we do that? We must not, and we cannot, stand passively and complacently by and watch the show.

So pray! And watch! And never be passive! (I would greatly appreciate it if y'all would help sharpen me and remind me to do the same thing.)

I feel so much better after saying all this.... :D

Monday, January 12, 2009

Annabel Lee

This is awfully sad..... One of my favorite poems.

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.


I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.


And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.


The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason
(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.


But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.


For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In the sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

One of the Most Classic Poems Ever Written....

Sorry, I don't know the author... Rachel sent it to me about two years ago. :)

Mary had a little lamb
Her father killed it dead.
And now it goes to school with her
Between two hunks of bread.

:D

Luther Whitfield and Olivia Rose



Thursday, January 8, 2009

An Interesting Sequence

The chivalrous gentlemen.



Peter complacently stands by ready to attack, and Duncan stands defiantly unaware, it seems, that his last minutes on earth are inevitable. :P




But now Duncan has finally put a look of painful surprise on his face as the sword plunges, and Peter, still with little effort, still stands complacently.



"Don't you know, you fool, you never can win!"




Unfortunately we didn't get enough pictures! There should have been one of Duncan on the floor, but it was so spontaneous that we didn't plan far enough. :P These were actually taken in August of 2007, and the costumes were made for the Jamestown 400. And yes, Chloe did make them all. :D

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Lady Jane Grey

So, sobering down from the last post, I am here writing about one of my greatest role models, that of Lady Jane Grey, also known as the Nine Day Queen. Last year I had to write a paper about her for school, so obviously I had to do a bit of studying. I gained information from a book called Daughters of Destiny (Noel Wheeler), and another called The New World (Winston Churchill). Jane inspired me as a Christian young woman to be completely selfless... and... Well, just read it. She was indefatigable.


Here is a picture of Jane at the age of sixteen.



Lady Jane Grey

1537 — February 12th 1554

By Ruby Jean Hopkins

Lady Jane Grey was a young girl who lived during the reign of King Henry VIII and Edward VI. She was the daughter of Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk, and Lady Frances Brandon. She and her two younger sisters, Ladies Catherine and Mary, were the great-grand-daughters of Henry VII, and were thus members of the House of Tudor.

Jane was brought up a devout Protestant, and never knew any form of Catholic ritual. Her childhood was such that would not have brought pleasant memories to her in her later life, if she had had one. Her mother was cruel and abusive, and sought for perfection in her daughter, and even when it was gained in certain areas, it was never good enough. Jane was very intelligent. She learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic besides the contemporary languages (probably Spanish, Italian, French, German, etc.) Alfred Lord Tennyson said about her:
"Seventeen—in music
Peerless—her needle perfect, and her learning
Beyond the churchmen; yet so meek, so modest,
So wife-like humble to the trivial boy
Mismatched with her for policy! I have heard
She would not take a last farewell of him;
She feared it might unman him for his end.
She could not be unmanned—no, nor out-
woman'd.
Seventeen—a rose of grace! Girl never breathed to rival such a rose;
Rose never blew equaled such a bud!"



As Tennyson said, she was very meek, quiet, and humble. Her mother got it into her head to harden her child with regular beatings. Thus Jane lead the life of one persecuted. She said:
"For when I am in the presence of either Father or Mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it as it were in such weight, measure and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs and other ways ... that I think myself in hell."

However, Jane did have one pleasant part of her childhood when she went to live with Aunt Catherine, or Queen Catherine, wife of King Henry VIII. Jane was under ten years old. She became acquainted with her cousins Mary, Elizabeth and Edward. She took great delight in living at the castle as the queen's ward. Catherine loved her, and Jane most likely loved her better than her own mother, if she held any affection for that horrid woman. King Henry the VIII died in 1547, and after his death Catherine married Sir Thomas Seymour. However, she died shortly after giving birth to her only child, Mary. When Catherine died, Jane acted as chief mourner at her funeral.

Sir Thomas Seymour had proposed marriage between Jane and his nephew, King Edward VI. However, Thomas's brother, Edward Seymour, was already arranging a match between Edward VI and Princess Elisabeth of France (the daughter of King Henry II.) The brothers both had ideas that conflicted with each other, and thus a great power struggle ensued. The marriage between Jane and Edward never took place, and the Seymour brothers were both tried for treason and executed by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.

Next marriage was purposed between Jane and Lord Hertford, the eldest son of the late Duke of Somerset. But Lady Frances had been corresponding with John Dudley which led to another match for Jane and Lord Guilford Dudley, son of Lord Guilford Dudley. Jane, for the first time in her life, refused to submit. She seemed to have an almost fear, mixed with hatred for the Dudley's. And the prospect of marrying into their family caused great alarm and distress on her account. She had no explanation for this feeling. Her mother beat her until she consented. The marriage was performed on May 25th, 1553.


Jane's claim to the throne came through her mother, who was the daughter of Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VII. However, Edward excluded Lady Frances from his will and willed the Crown directly to Jane.

Edward VI, King of England, died on July 6th, 1553. After his death, Jane was proclaimed queen, although she would not be officially queen until her coronation. The Duke of Northumberland had planned to capture Mary to keep her from gaining support from the people of England and so endangering the reign of the Queen. But Mary, being warned of the intentions of the Duke, fled to Castle Framlingham in Suffolk. Within nine days Mary gained incredible support, and the Parliament declared her rightful queen, and denounced and revoked Jane's proclamation as coerced. Mary arrived in London in a grand procession. Jane and her husband were thrown into the apartments in the Tower of London, for high treason, although their lives were originally spared. The Duke of Northumberland was executed on August 21st, 1553.

On November 13th, a special trial took place at Guildhall in London. There, Guilford, Jane, and two of Guilford's brothers were charged with high treason. Jane was sentenced to being "Burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases." However, the imperial ambassador reported to Charles V that Jane's life was to be spared.

A rising, however, headed by Sir Thomas Wyatt sealed Jane's fate. Although Jane didn't have anything to do directly with the rising, Philip II of Spain and Mary's councilors advised her to put an end to Jane's life, as that would also end the rising. A group of Protestants, Jane's father being among them, had caused the uprising, demanding that Jane should be given back as their queen.


The dates for Guilford and Jane's execution was set, while the other two Dudley brothers were pardoned. Mary had considered having them executed together, but decided that it would move the public too much, who were already in her favor. The separation between Jane and Guilford had been six months, and it is said that Jane's husband carved "Jane" on his cell door, perhaps pining for his wife. Guilford had obtained permission to bid his wife one last farewell, but Jane refused to see him, saying that he would not be able to bear it manfully to the end. However, she sent him many loving messages, also reminding him how short their separation would be! On the morning of February 12th, 1554, Guilford's time had come. He caught Jane's eyes from her cell window, as he was going to his death bravely. He was beheaded at Tower Green, and it is said that as Jane saw from her window his remains being carried passed, she cried out, "O Guilford! Guilford!" Then fell on her knees to pray. After this she gave a speech to the crowd. She said:
"Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the queen's highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day."



According to Mary's orders, Jane was to be executed in her private apartments, Mary said, "out of respect for her cousin." Jane recited the fifty-first psalm. The executioner fell on his knees and asked her to forgive him; this she did, asking him if he would take her blindfold off before she lay herself down. "No, madam," he answered. She then blindfolded herself, and determined to go to her death with dignity. However, as she prepared to lay her head down, she groped to find the block, and began to panic, crying out, "Where is it? O, what shall I do?" An unknown hand helped her find her way, and retain her dignity at the end. Her last words were, "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit," and "O Grave, where is thine victory? O Death, where is thy sting?" With that, the blade descended, and Jane's short life came to an end. Another quote by Tennyson:
"Then knelt and said the Miserere Mel—
But all in English, mark you: rose again,
And when the headsman prayed to be forgiven
Said, “You will give me my true crown at last,
But do it quickly;” then all wept but she,
Who changed not color when she saw the clock,
But asked him, child-like, “Will you take it off
Before I lay me down?” “No, madam” he said,
Gasping, and when her innocent eyes were bound,
She with her poor blind hands feeling—“Where
is it?
Where is it?” —You must fancy that which fol-
lowed,
If you have the heart to do it!"
Jane was buried with her husband at the chapel St. Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green.


THE END

Afterward:

Henry Grey was executed one week after his daughter. Lady Frances Brandon surprised and shocked everybody by marrying her chamberlain, Adrian Stokes, three weeks after her husband's death, and barely a months after Jane's. She and her daughters were also fully pardoned by Queen Mary, and returned to court. She did not mention Jane ever again, and was as indifferent to her in death as she was in life.
Queen Mary lived only four years after executing her cousin. She died in the year 1558, and was succeeded by Elizabeth.



Lady Jane inspires me as a Christian young woman to do everything with beauty, truth, and excellence, and to do all unto the Lord. Her sweet submissive spirit is impeccable, and encourages me to be the same, although I know that I could never be her equal in anything.

The Tragedy of Rhoda Kelly


(Don't I look happy? :D) A few nights ago, Peter and Chloe were going home from somewhere (I can't tell where, because it's a secret *wink*) and there was a deer on the side of the road that had been hit 4 minutes ago earlier. The policemen were present, and when Peter stopped, they asked him if he wanted her (obviously being a doe.) Of course Peter wasn't going to just pass this by, so he stuck it in the back of Nana's car and drove it home... Now, since I've been wanting to hunt for the past three years, and it had never worked out, Daddy thought this would be the opportune moment for me to learn a few things about the sport. Firstly, how to field dress it.


Of course as I was not experienced in the art of field dressing, daddy had to tell me what to do and everything like that... I would go into detail, but I'll save some of you that experience. (Olivia would be one whom I know would not appreciate this. :P) But I will say that before I was open to the idea of maybe not liking hunting. I thought that maybe it would sound fun now, but then after I had experienced it I might be completely grossed out!! However, I actually loved the entire process, and enjoyed myself immensely. I told daddy that I was having quality girl time with the deer... Which he named Rhoda Kelly.

So, I'm sure you all didn't need to know that!! And I realize that it might have been inconsiderate of me to post these pictures of bloody me, so if any of you feel offended, then please know that I am really very sorry... Not sorry that I posted the pictures, but really sorry that I offended anyone by them. :D (Is that insensitive for me to say that? I am sorry if it was.) Oh, I suppose this is the apology paragraph. I guess I'm just feeling like I am having a conversation with someone. I think I talk too much, especially on my blog, so that ends this post. :P