That verse and note from Kay Arthur were on the front pages of my earliest Precept Bible study courses. Today Precept posted that this morning Kay went home to be with the Lord Jesus.

Kay and her husband, Jack, cofounded Precept Ministries, also known sometimes as the inductive Bible study people! For some 55 years Precept has been committed to teaching people how to study the Bible inductively that they might know the Lord Jesus and follow Him.

We shared the same born-again birthday. She became a Christian on July 16, 1963, when she was 29. I became a Christian on July 16, 1970 when I was 18. I will never forget the first time I heard her in one of her teaching videos. It was in Summer 1987 when my daughter was a toddler.

A week or so earlier, I’d been visiting one of the women in our church. We were in the backyard by her swimming pool, talking while our daughters played together. She listened as I told her about my difficulties of dealing with my hearing loss. She said she didn’t know what to say, but shared she was in a Bible study that she thought would help.

The study was one of Kay’s topical books, Lord, I Want to Know You, on the names of God. When I went for the first time the study had already started, and they were on week 5 discussing El Shaddai, the name of God that means the All Sufficient One. I still have my notes.

After a discussion on the homework for the week, we watched the video of Kay teaching. I cannot describe the impact on me of what she said. In that teaching video, she helped me feel like I was in solid ground again trusting God for the long awful scenario of unnecessary ear surgeries and hearing loss.

The Precept leader was out of books, so she went into their church office and proceeded to copy the entire book for me! I still have that copy, but I also own the book and redid some of the study in 2015.

I was able to tell Kay this story in Fall 2019. That was when we were on the same plane going from Atlanta to Chattanooga. She offered me a ride to the Precept campus, and on the way there I told her this story. It was clearly God’s plan that I was able to have that much time with her. I’d met her previously and thanked her, but hadn’t had a chance to give her the details.

That day I was supposed to have been in an earlier flight, but it was the one and only time that my husband and I overslept for a flight. When he dropped me at the airport, the plane had not yet left, but there wasn’t enough time to get from the airline counter, through security, and to the gate. The guy at the Delta counter was great. He rescheduled me for a flight leaving for Atlanta a couple of hours later, and a new connecting flight to Chattanooga.

I saw Kay when I got on the plane. She was seated a half dozen or so rows in front of me. She later told me she was returning from England after traveling there for a Precept anniversary.

Since she was seated in front of me she was able to get off the plane before I did. I wasn’t going to seek her out and bother her at the luggage carousel, but she came and stood beside me, and it was very natural for me to introduce myself and tell her I was there for the Precept study program.

She asked if I had a ride. I was going to have to get a taxi, and she offered me a ride with the woman who was picking her up and driving her home. The driveway to her house is on the Precept campus, and her home sits on a ridge above the flat bowl area where the grounds are. It was really incredible to have that one on one time with her. When I told her that study I did was Lord, I Want to Know You, she said it was their most republished study.

In addition to telling her about my hearing, I also shared with her what God’s Word had meant to me in the hardest times of my life. I said what I’ve written here, that in the storms of my life God kept me lashed and held tight to the mast of His Word so I wouldn’t be swept overboard into the sea.

Her reply typified her warmth and her desire to glorify God as she told me my story blessed her heart, and she was so glad to hear what God had done.

Kay frequently said, “If it pleases Thee, it pleases me.” In the face of increasing health problems, a Precept staff member said she remained the same, trusting God, and living out the beliefs she taught and professed.

Kay also frequently quoted this verse from Daniel.

The Precept site also has these words from Kay, “When you know what God says, what He means, and how to put His truths into practice, you will be equipped for every circumstance of life.”

She spent her life working to equip others to know and live by God’s Word. I and many, many others are grateful to God that she did.

Kay Arthur photograph: from the notice of her death from Precept: Remembering Kay Arthur.
Open Bible: Aaron Burden aaronburden. 2016-01-25 (Unsplash fgmf2Eyrwm4). (CC0 1.0).

Copyright ©2025 Iwana Carpenter