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Serving Our Public Servants

DOMINIQUE MCKAY |GUEST Another election day has come and gone. Some are happy with the results and others are angry or confused. As church leaders, we can be overwhelmed by the expectations that congregations demand from us when it comes to politics. But what if there was a way to help them reset their perspectives and right-size the role of public service? Romans 13 teaches us that those who are in authority have been put there for our good — a force for administering justice against wrongdoing. This sets the stage for how we should approach our public servants. Not with suspicion or disdain, but instead with an open heart for how God will use them for his purposes, which are always good. In the book of 1 Timothy, Paul encourages Timothy to pray for all people, but he specifically calls out “kings and all who are in high positions” with a care for how they lead. This is the heart posture God is commanding us to have for our government leaders — compassionate and desiring their success. But how exactly do we practice that heart posture?...

Serving Our Public Servants2024-11-03T19:14:10+00:00

Daring to Hope

ALICE KIM | CONTRIBUTOR At the end of Mark chapter one (vv. 40-45), we are introduced to a man plagued with leprosy. He lived his life as a public service announcement warning people to keep their distance lest they become like him. His inescapable daily reminder of a scorned, forgotten, and marginalized existence would be humiliating and painful enough to make anyone cower. Nevertheless, as Jesus’ public ministry to the ill and demonically tormented was widespread, he found himself at a crossroad between deferring hope or desiring for something more (Pr. 13:12). He courageously chose the latter. Notably, the narrative seems to slow down as the man approaches Jesus and kneels before him. It’s as if Mark leans in and personally invites readers to do likewise. A hope long buried was suddenly resurrected. Although awakening hope would be risky, to the point of vulnerability to greater ridicule, isolation, and judgment, the cost of doing nothing could potentially haunt him with unrelenting regrets filled with what-if’s. His lowly posture embodies his desperate plea. It exudes the depth of anguish, indescribable affliction, and utter shame. His confession, “If you will, you can make me clean” carries the heaviness of helplessness and dependence...

Daring to Hope2024-10-31T18:09:11+00:00

The Object of Our Thanksgiving

KERRY ANDERSON | GUEST Thank you note season is here. Though a waning tradition, I’m still a sucker for nice stationery, cute note cards, and handwritten thank you’s. And while we didn’t always nail the follow through (more than once I’ve found one of those unstamped, unmailed letters months later), we really did try to have our kids and ourselves write thank you notes for the gifts received on birthdays and holidays. The content was rarely substantial or original. Most started with the expected, “Dear Grandma, Thank you for the….” But, they were something. They acknowledged receipt of the gift and expressed gratitude for it. With pressing, my children would expand a bit more about the gift and its utility or their enthusiasm for it. It was progress in gratitude, at least in practice. But something was missing As I reflect now, generating enthusiasm for the gift falls short of the goal. Maybe rather than piling up attributes toward the thing received, perhaps the first two words of a thank you note are the ones that really matter. It’s the “Dear Grandma (or whoever),” the person opening and reading that note that is critical. We could all write lengthy, detailed thank you notes for gifts we receive, but if we don’t address and give them to someone, and the giver never actually sees or hears our words of thanks, our gratitude is lacking, empty, and misplaced. It becomes merely an advertisement for a product.         The Object of our Thanks A sermon on this from years ago stuck with me (bringing in grammar concepts always perks my ears up) when my pastor explained that our thanks must have an object. There must be a receiver (God) of our expressions of thanks. We aren’t to be just thankful for something we’ve received. We’re to be thankful TO God for giving it to us. As believers, the object of our thanksgiving is not the gift; it is the giver...

The Object of Our Thanksgiving2024-10-27T21:25:05+00:00

Gethsemane Glasses

LAURA PATTERSON | GUEST I awoke that Friday morning in May to the same white walls and sterile smell for the twenty-second day in a row. The same dingy blinds covered the same window. The birthday cards I’d received the week prior were still taped up on the mirror on the far wall. The now familiar white blanket engulfed my legs and torso. The sense of familiarity I’d come to find in my surroundings was suddenly arrested that morning as feelings of shock, dread, and numbness flooded my body and left me wondering if I was truly awake. I’d just given birth during the wee hours of the morning and, after being returned to my antepartum room without my baby, I had somehow managed to sleep for an hour or two. Doctors, nurses, and a lactation consultant visited me in my haze, and I eventually got the news that I could go meet my child. My nurse assisted me into a wheelchair, and I took the longest ride of my life to the adjoining children’s hospital. I knew I was headed to meet my baby in the neonatal intensive care unit, but no amount of exposure or information could have prepared me for the shock of meeting my two-and-a-half-pound infant covered in tubes, lines, and bruises. The well-intentioned nurse assigned to my son that day noticed my tears, came to the bedside, and said gently, “it’s ok, mom.” “NO, IT’S NOT!” I yelled deep within my soul.  From Demanding to Entrusting My internal cry that morning was full of truth. My baby was not ‘ok’. The neonatologist sat my husband and I down in a private room only hours later  to help us understand that we should expect our son to die within a couple of days’ time. I felt the very visceral reality of life in a sin-sick, disease-laden, death-cursed world. Crying, ‘It’s not ok!’ wasn’t wrong. But it was incomplete...

Gethsemane Glasses2024-10-27T21:14:50+00:00

A Book for All Seasons

CHRISTINE GORDON | CONTRIBUTOR Everyone has a water bottle nowadays. They come in every size and color, with a variety of price points and mechanisms. You can find them in the hands of schoolchildren, construction workers, bank tellers, and everyone in between—and that’s a good thing. We’ve learned that an appropriate amount of water in specific body systems can make or break our health. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, proper hydration regulates body temperature, keeps joints lubricated, prevents infections, delivers nutrients to cells, helps organs function properly, improves sleep quality, helps cognition, and regulates mood.[1] While most of us forget to drink as much as we should, most Americans now understand at least some of hydration’s benefits and try to get their glasses in every day. We know water will help us to function and even thrive, so we make sure to have it with us, no matter what we’re doing.  What if we thought about Scripture like water? Oh, I know the messages that are out there. There are enough “shoulds” about Scripture reading in the Christian world to choke us, which is what they normally do. We’re told we should read the Bible for lots of reasons, many of which involve some sort of shame spiral if we don’t. They can sound like this: “How will your children learn to love the Bible if they don’t see you loving it?” “How will you know Jesus if you don’t read his Word?” “If you have time to watch TV, you have time to read the Word.” These may be true, but I don’t know that they’re the best motivators for a joyous occasion of intimacy with our Lord. What if you thought about the Bible like you do your water bottle—something your soul needs to survive and thrive, that can refresh and reset, regulate and help you to function, even prosper?  Believe it or not, this is what the Bible says about itself... 

A Book for All Seasons2024-10-23T13:14:36+00:00

The Assumptions We Make

LISA UPDIKE | GUEST We were getting pedicures—a splurge! Two women sat at our feet, trimming our nails, and chatting. One of them said something and they both began giggling. My daughter and I exchanged glances. We couldn’t speak their language and the first thing we assumed was that they were laughing at one of our feet.   Haven’t you made those types of assumptions? Conversation is flowing, you hear it down the hall…you walk in…things fall silent. “Were they talking about me?” Someone looks up and then away. “Are they trying to avoid me?” You send a text with cute emojis, get a one-word response, and immediately think, “Is she mad at me?”  The Danger with Assumptions  Ugh! Soon we’re enslaved by our assumptions. Our concern over what someone might be thinking robs us of freedom while our inner middle-school girl begins to run our life. We avoid relationships, assuming that others will judge us for our struggles. We might dodge the put-together woman at church because, juice on our blouse, we’re worried she’ll critique our disheveled appearance. Meanwhile, she is desperately lonely, and misses being with children. We move through our lives, thinking we know the hearts and minds of others, behaving as if our assumptions are actually facts. How careful we must be, for it is from the well of such assumptions that we are prone to draw insecurity—a poisonous drink...

The Assumptions We Make2024-10-19T12:45:43+00:00

God is Our Helper in Suffering

My Help Comes from the Lord A Song of Ascents. Psalm 121  1  I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?  2  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3  He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4  Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5  The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7  The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8  The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. A few weeks ago, my family and I joyfully approached the end of my husband’s nine-week assignment away from us. He was set to fly home from a base near Montgomery, Alabama, but as the day approached, we realized that Hurricane Helene was the last obstacle between us. As we watched the weather coverage, we recalled our own experience of Hurricane Ian when it came ashore in south Florida. As we remembered visiting our neighbors' soggy homes and apartments, washing their laundry, and sorting through their belongings hoping to find a starting place to rebuild, we now prayed for many friends whose lives would be impacted by another great storm. Encouragement from Psalm 121 Psalm 121, a song of ascents, played in the background of my thoughts as I texted and messaged our PCA family. These fifteen psalms are a familiar text that I use to ponder our pilgrim life lived in community. But these last difficult days, this psalm has been a prayer for our sisters, scattered throughout Florida and the southeast.  The psalmist knew his vulnerability as he scrambled up the hillside toward Jerusalem. He was not alone, but still, the pilgrims who ascended this trail were susceptible to falling, scorching sun in the day, bandits, flash floods, wild animals, dehydration, and sheer exhaustion. Without a GPS, map, or compass, there may have been moments on the path when one would wonder if they had lost the way. Something about this climb made the pilgrims’ vulnerability more obvious... 

God is Our Helper in Suffering2024-10-19T12:42:31+00:00

Pray for Your Pastor

BARBARANNE KELLY | CONTRIBUTOR “[Pray] also for me” —Ephesians 6:19 How do you pray for your pastor? Some of the most beautiful, personal, and instructive prayers in the New Testament are written by the Apostle Paul, expressing his own prayers for his beloved readers. But when he sprinkles prayer requests for himself into his letters, these too are instructive. Paul’s prayers are notable not only for what he requests, but also for what he doesn’t. When writing from prison, Paul doesn’t ask that his prayer warriors seek God for his release, personal comfort, or vengeance against his captors. These would have been merely temporary goals after all, and Paul’s eyes were fixed on a farther horizon. In one instance he does ask for a warm cloak and his books (2 Tim. 4:13), but as he closes his letter to the Ephesian churches, he asks for words and boldness to preach the gospel. Paul’s priorities for prayer are centered upon his calling as a minister of the Word. Taking our cue from Paul, what does your pastor need most? Words If anyone had words at his disposal, it was the Apostle Paul. Prior to his arrest and imprisonment, his ministry focused on the verbal proclamation—oftentimes spontaneously—of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He spoke before Jews and Gentiles, servants, philosophers, and kings. The words he wrote in letters to churches and his friends and proteges fill the New Testament, revealing the mystery of the gospel and the transcendent God of heaven. And yet he knew he needed Holy Spirit-inspired words with which to deliver his life-giving and Christ-centered message. He didn’t want his own words; he wanted God’s words. The reason Paul had words to communicate the message of salvation at all was because he had the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and a growing army of prayer warriors pleading for the gospel to flourish under his ministry (Phil. 1:19). Pray that your pastor would have Spirit-empowered words to preach the gospel in season and out....

Pray for Your Pastor2024-10-12T15:38:39+00:00

The Gift of Crisis

LYNNE RIENSTRA | GUEST I was at our denomination’s General Assembly when I received the call from my radiologist: “Mrs. Rienstra, your tests reveal that you have breast cancer.” Fast forward to six weeks later. As my husband was driving me home from the surgery that removed my cancer, a car ran a stop sign and slammed into us, right in front of where I was sitting. Within minutes I found myself in an ambulance on my way to yet another hospital.  Crisis. It’s the gift none of us wants. Because when crisis comes, it broadsides us. It reminds us that in spite of our best efforts, we are ultimately out of control. Crisis exposes us as those who are in deep need and unable to help ourselves. It causes us to cry out to God. But what if at that very point, crisis turned out to be a gift? Crisis Reveals More of God to Us When crisis hit the family of Mary and Martha of Bethany (John 11:1-44), they never dreamed that embedded in the sickness of their brother Lazarus was the extraordinary opportunity to experience Jesus in a whole new way. The sisters knew two things: Jesus loved them and their brother (vv. 3; 5), and Jesus had the power to heal. So, when their brother Lazarus fell ill, they did what any of us would have done: they asked Jesus for help. Having sent for Jesus, the sisters expected to see Him arrive quickly and save the day. Only He didn’t. One day passed, and Lazarus worsened. Another day passed, and their worst fears were realized. Lazarus died. Lazarus was buried. And still no sign of Jesus…. When Jesus finally did come, Martha ran out to meet Him, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21). With Lazarus’s body decaying in a nearby tomb, Jesus made the stunning revelation that He is “resurrection and the life” (v. 25). And in faith-filled response, Martha proclaimed, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God…” (v. 27). Here’s my question: Would this essential truth have been revealed to Martha apart from the wrenching loss of her brother? Let’s also consider her sister, Mary, still back at the house, suffering in deep grief. This is the Mary whom Jesus had invited to sit at His feet. She had chosen the better part. Mary knew Jesus loved her and her brother. But the crisis of Lazarus’s death may have caused her to wonder (as we often do in our own crises): “Why didn’t Jesus come? I thought I knew Him. I must have lost His love.”...

The Gift of Crisis2024-10-02T15:02:46+00:00

Christian Love in Times of Political Division

AMANDA DUVALL | GUEST Among the cute photos of babies, puppies, and family vacations on social media— you see it. A friend from church posts a political message, and you cannot believe they vote for that person. Or support that cause. Or believe that news story. Maybe you reach for the quick “unfollow” button so you don’t have to see their posts anymore. Now, what happens when we walk into church and run into that person? We want to do the real world equivalent of an “unfollow.” Remove that person from our lives— if not entirely, at least put some distance between us. On the outside, everything probably looks the same, but the communion once shared has shifted, maybe even broken. This is not to downplay the real hurt we can experience in our relationships as the world becomes more politicized. It’s not just the election—there is almost no part of our society, public or private, untouched by politics. Maybe because of this, we tend to think our divisiveness today is so uniquely difficult for the Church to navigate. But then we read the New Testament. The first Christians hailed from every walk of life, and so, it was not uncommon to find a rich and educated individual, who just last month was participating in pagan rituals, right alongside a poor Jew, who had no power or property and adhered to some very strict personal ethics. Imagine for a second with me, then, what these relationships might have looked like— so easily laced with misunderstanding and awkwardness, offense, hurt, and downright rudeness. There was no earthly reason for these people to share anything in common. But in telling the Colossians about their new community, Paul says this, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” (3:11)...

Christian Love in Times of Political Division2024-10-02T15:17:23+00:00
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