John Macarthur Ministries

John MacArthur Tells How He Met His Wife

It was a question and answer session with the distinguished speakers of the 2011 Resolved Conference in Palm Springs, but the first query on discovering God’s will in choosing a life partner became the theme of the evening.

Soon after R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., advised Christian adolescents to hang around “where the right kind of people find each other within the communion and fellowship of the local church…,” MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., was asked to tell his story.

“I was looking for a woman who could be described in the way I described a godly woman … who came from a godly heritage … understanding my call for ministry, somebody who loved the Lord, who walked with the Lord,” he said.

Of course, “…who was also really cute and could cook, and have fun,” MacArthur added. “And I saw her (his wife Patricia); she kept coming to my house, because she was my sister’s friend.” But there was a problem. MacArthur called it a “small nuisance.”

“…It was a small nuisance to me that she was engaged … to somebody else … [But] I just saw in her … you know … I was looking for that …,” the 72-year-old said, as the Christian audience and other panelists, including Steve Lawson, senior pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church, Mobile, Ala., and Rick Holland, a pastor at MacArthur’s church, applauded and laughed.

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Once again, the hall filled with laughter when he said, “I took her home from church one night, because her fiancé was away, at school …” But…“wait a minute, I was her Bible teacher also.”

“I was at college … I was involved in playing football, I would come on Sundays to teach” and she was a student. “I really think that God used that. I became spiritual source to her.”

MacArthur took her home “one more night.” And this time, he asked, “Hey, I understand you are having some anxieties about that guy…”

“There was a preliminary reality,” MacArthur added. “She had all the wedding invitations addressed or stamped in the car and couldn’t mail them. So she was extremely vulnerable.

Book Review: John MacArthur Biography | MarkFuss.com

What an incredible combination: a biography of John MacArthur written by Iain Murray. A biography of my favorite contemporary Pastor-Teacher written by my favorite biographer-church historian. When I first heard of this project I was filled with excitement and eager anticipation. Having just finished reading the book, my expectations were not disappointed, except in one regard and that is that this work is an overview of MacArthur’s life rather than an exhaustive biographical account. That, however, is by design as author Murray states:

I accept and full understand that explanation and hasten to say that the relative brevity of the work in no way diminishes its great value. Iain Murray is an excellent writer and for those who are not familiar with his previous work, this present title furnishes a wonderful representation of the high quality of his productions. It is quite on par with his volumes on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Charles Spurgeon, Arthur W. Pink, and others. I have always found his writing style to be both highly informative and engaging. When I begin reading anything that he writes, I usually have a difficult time putting it down until I have read the work in its entirety. He is a great servant of the Lord and an asset to the community of believers.

John MacArthur has been the Pastor-Teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969. He is a prolific author in his own right as well as being the President of both The Master’s College and The Master’s Seminary. In addition, he is heard by millions each day on the radio and internet through the ministry of Grace To You. His influence and usefulness to God extends literally all across the globe. He is a faithful expositor of the Word of God and defender of the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. I say without shame that John MacArthur is one of my heroes in the ministry. He is a man of great integrity and passion in the handling of God’s Word.

Iain Murray gives us a wonderful, if concise, picture of the life of John MacArthur so far. From his birth in California in 1939 to his continuing ministry today, Murray relates various details of MacArthur’s life and ministry in order to set before his readers an accurate portrait of this man who is both lauded and loathed by so many. There are accounts of personal triumphs and tragedies that God has used to make this man what he is today. There is also related in the book a few of the controversies in which MacArthur has been drawn over the years and how God used him in those controversies to stand for the truth even if it made him an unpopular figure in certain circles. I especially appreciate the fact that Murray makes it quite clear that John MacArthur has never engaged in controversy for the sake of controversy but only for the purpose of defending the truth of God’s Word. There are those who picture MacArthur as a very mean-spirited and pugnacious man and in fact, that was how he was described to me by a fellow pastor in 1993. Prior to that time I had never heard of John MacArthur and he was preaching at an event I was attending and when I inquired about this man of whom I had never heard I was told he was ungracious and mean-spirited. I am so thankful that Murray’s book shows that this is a misconception and that John MacArthur is otherwise. On a related personal note, I had the incredible privilege of being in the home of John MacArthur in 2006 and I found him to be a very warm, humble, sincere and genuinely nice man.

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