God allowed me to be one of the original signers of the Open Letter to Beth Moore a couple years ago, along with Amy Spreeman, Elizabeth Prata, Michelle Lesley and Susan Heck. I’d been familiar with Amy, Elizabeth and Michelle for a while, but I’d only heard about Susan a handful of times (probably through Michelle’s blog). At the time we circulated the Open Letter, I visited Susan’s With The Master website, hoping to find a blog. Disappointed that Susan isn’t a blogger, I didn’t have much interest in her. So I didn’t pursue her teaching.

I pretty much forgot about her for a couple years.

When I hurt my back this past December, I couldn’t read my Bible. For the first few months I watched YouTube sermons by R.C. Sproul. John MacArthur and others to get my Bible intake. But then I happened — by God’s providence — to catch Justin Peters’ April 12 interview with Susan Heck, in which he promoted her YouTube channel. What a wonderful blessing!

To begin with, Susan’s YouTube channel consists mainly of the women’s Bible Studies she teaches in her own church. In these studies, she takes ladies through books of the Bible verse-by-verse rather than doing topical studies catering to popular subject matters. This approach guarantees that she can’t avoid difficult or unpopular issues in her lessons. Verse-by-verse teaching through a book forces her to present the whole counsel of God instead of what is comfortable for her and/or pleasing to her audience.

In fact, she regularly says things that I don’t find pleasing to my flesh! She stands firmly against habitual sins, and most especially against the sin of anger. Since I struggle with that particular sin, I squirm a bit whenever this topic comes up in her studies.

Susan grew up as a pastor’s daughter, and married a young pastor early in her adult life. Very quickly after the wedding, her husband realized that she was a false convert because of her unrestrained anger and lack of repentance over it. It wasn’t until a serious illness when she was 30 that she came to true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repented of her habitual anger. Her experience causes her to question the salvation of anyone who has anger issues.

This questioning made me look at my own battles with anger, as well as battles with a few other recurring sins in my life. After discussing the matter with John, I am confident in my salvation, but now also confident that I don’t have to give in to my besetting sins. Susan’s studies have taught me that real repentance is more than telling the Lord I’m sorry all the time. The Holy Spirit has been using this woman to show me how to genuinely repent by teaching me more of His Word in context.

As a certified Biblical Counselor, Susan applies Scriptural principles to everyday situations that Christian women face. She doesn’t use psychology. God’s Word, she insists, is sufficient to deal with our sinful responses to problems. Verse-by-verse teaching often leads her to address these sinful responses, as well as showing godly responses befitting to Christian women.

Since all but one New Testament book include warnings against false teachers, Susan finds occasion to talk about them in the course of her studies. Sometimes she’ll name names, and she encourages others not to shy away from doing the same when necessary. Like many of us in Reformed circles, she’s particularly concerned about Beth Moore, joining us in stating that Moore is one of the most dangerous voices representing evangelicals today.

Ladies, if you hunger for solid teaching from a woman, you couldn’t do any better than Susan J. Heck! Tomorrow I’ll need to stay in bed to rest my back. There’s no question what YouTube channel I’ll watch.

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