I am an English woman living in England. I am a Calvinistic Christian and Covenanter. Things that are important to me include, My God and the Truths and doctrines enclosed in the canon of Scripture. My cat who I am absolutely crackers about! The history of the reformation and Puritan and Covenanter movements and the killing times and martyrdoms of those days for merely being a Christian and holding to the truth. We have a very safe and easy Christianity today by comparison. Sadly, I seem to share Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones' bleak outlook on the worth of the work (or lack of) of the Church as a whole in this age.
As another English Reformed Christian, Charles Spurgeon said:
"The old truths that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, is the truth that I preach today, or else I would be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. And that gospel which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."
I suffer chronic disability and illness from an condition that will at some point no doubt kill me. I have porphyria, a rare genetic blood disorder, that is most likened to living with full blown AIDS and leaves not an inch of my body internally or externally unaffected. This was the means however, that God used to save me, so I can say along with the Psalmist that it was good for me to afflicted. The illness though severe is not the biggest cross of it, but the fact that I live alone, are separated from the church I once loved, because when first ill and no longer able to attend, they forgot me, even after a letter of Repentance apologizing for their lack of care. So I resigned my membership, it being more painful and of no profit me staying and threw myself into God Alone's hands. I often don't see a human being though for days at a time, and with the degree of illness, continuous intractible pain, being so alone proves to be my biggest cross. But, God has taught me much through this trial. And it is part of why I have a great affinity with the suffering Martyrs of years ago. As my body is never not in agony, and faith has not always been easy, but God has been good. Most porphyrics will only have the symptom list below, when in an actual attack. A few like myself are always in acute stages of the illness and as if always in attack:
A
