Encourage-[en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.
The enCourage Blog is weekly dose of encouragement in a world that is often filled with bad news. We offer life-giving entries each Monday and Thursday written by gifted women from across our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). You can subscribe below to have them delivered to your inbox. With hundreds of blog pieces, you can search on a variety of topics in the search bar above to read and share with friends. Christina Fox, a gifted author, serves as our enCourage General Editor. If you are interested in submitting a piece, you can contact her at cfox@pcanet.org.
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The Good Portion of Christmas
MEAGHAN MAY | CONTRIBUTOR As a child, I was fascinated by the tiny nativity set at my grandmother’s home. These little figures told me a big story. But as an adult, I ponder if these sets are realistic. Mary is fresh-faced, neatly pressed, and beautifully dressed. She doesn’t seem uncomfortable with her flapping stomach after her recent labor. The baby Jesus is giggling while placed in the animals’ snack bowl and dear Joseph doesn’t seem overwhelmed by the task of caring for his betrothed and new child. Does the pristine nativity scene set unrealistic expectations for our own celebrations? I have found that some of my own Christmases have been more of a mess than they have been merry. Each Christmas I have a list of key elements that I think, if I can just pull all this together, we will have a Merry Christmas. But I can tell a lot about what I long for at Christmas when I start to name what I am worried about. I am tempted to think that because things have gone awry, God is holding out on me. I fail to consider that God is offering me something more than what I am requesting....
Happy Thanksgiving
CHRISTINA FOX | EDITOR Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from all of us at enCourage! "...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:18).
Grief in this Holiday Season: Gospel Comfort for Every Loss
ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR Grief is as old as the Fall. Ever since Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, eating of the one tree denied them, loss has plagued the cosmos. This loss leads to grief. As the holidays arrive this year, grief will be fresh for many, raw for some. In the Middle East, Ukraine, Turkey, the Southeastern United States, and many other places throughout the world, disaster has struck, and the holiday season threatens to swallow its victims in a sea of grief. This year, your neighbor or friend, your co-worker or cousin, or perhaps you yourself, weep deeply and often as you mourn the loss of a loved one, a job, a relationship, a home, or a pet. How can we help? How can we grieve with hope if we are the ones who have suffered loss? By understanding grief and by looking to Christ, our grief may lead to the hope of restoration this holiday season. We can grieve all sorts of losses. As Christians we sometimes feel guilty for grieving something like a lost home or pet, a lost job, or even a lost relationship. Somehow, we got the idea that grief should be reserved for death. Somehow, we got the idea that when we grieve a loved one who died, we should be “happy” because the person is in heaven. That’s simply not the way grief works, not in life, and not in Scripture. As we look at Scripture, we see reasons to grieve all sorts of losses. Surely, we may grieve death, because our Lord himself grieved the death of his dear friend Lazarus, despite knowing he would soon raise him from the dead (see John 11:1-44). Because God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, and because he gave humans the responsibility of working the land and making it fruitful, it is natural to grieve the loss of land and work. Job, who lost everything — family, livestock, and land — to enemies and natural disasters (see Job 1:13-19), grieved deeply but was not rebuked for his grief. The Israelites wept for their homeland when they were in exile: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). Because the Lord cares for all creatures great and small, it is also appropriate to grieve the loss of a pet who brought us a taste of the Lord’s delight. All of creation has the potential to show us the goodness of the Lord; for this reason, we may grieve the loss of any good gift from God. Grief really is worse during the holiday season...
A Song of Thanksgiving
SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR Folk songs tell us stories in musical form. The Smithsonian offers a collection called “Classical Folk Songs for Kids.” The recordings are songs that I remember my parents singing, and now I sing them to my grandchildren (they are all too young to notice I cannot carry a tune!). Who does not remember the words to “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and “Puff the Magic Dragon?” Hymns tell us stories as well. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” based on Psalm 46, relates the attributes of God and records His mighty deeds. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” tells the story from 1 Samuel 7:12 where, after God gave the Philistines over to the Israelites, Samuel set up a stone called an Ebeneezer to commemorate the spot where “Till now the Lord has helped us.” The hymn hits the hearts of everyone who has ever felt God’s redeeming love. A Thanksgiving Song The first song recorded in the Bible is one of thanksgiving (Ex 15:1-21). Moses sang it when the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, with his host of warriors. After the final plague God brought on Pharaoh, the killing of the firstborn of Egypt including even Pharaoh’s own, Pharaoh reacted by finally relenting and letting the Israelites go. The Israelites’ firstborn were protected by the blood of the lambs painted on their doorposts. In anger, Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Israelites, intending to slaughter them before reaching the Red Sea. But God made a path through the Red Sea for His people, and when Pharaoh followed, the water surged around him and his chariots, destroying every last one. The Israelites witnessed the great power of the Lord and saw the Egyptians dead on the shore. With that, the Israelites “feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (Ex. 14:31). Moses’ response was to give God the glory and lead the people of Israel in a victory song. The Lord had demonstrated His faithfulness in a grand and glorious manner, saving the people of Israel. Selected verses from Moses’ song can provide a template for our own songs this Thanksgiving...