gospel

The Lamb of God

SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR Every year for Easter dessert my mother would use a special mold to create a cake shaped like a lamb lying down. The cake would be frosted with white icing and covered in coconut to resemble the lamb’s soft wool. This cake was eagerly anticipated by all of us kids, especially with hopes that one of us would get the head – it had the most frosting! The tradition that came from my father’s family was that the youngest child would be asked why we had a lamb cake for Easter dessert. One by one, each of us learned the proper answer, because “Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” I admit that early on, I did not make the connection between the lamb cake and Jesus. I knew the story from Exodus. God orchestrated the Jews’ escape from the Egyptians by sending plagues to change Pharaoh’s heart. The last plague was the death of all of the Egyptians’, and only the Egyptians’, first-born. The Jews marked their door posts with lamb’s blood so that Death would “pass over” their homes. The plague convinced Pharoah to free the Israelites. Later I came to understand that God did not let the destroyer kill any of His people who believed (Ex 12:23), foreshadowing a time when Christ would protect His own who believed in Him. Much detail was provided to the Israelites regarding the preparation of the lamb to be sacrificed. Exodus 12:1-6 explains that families were to get a lamb on the tenth day of a certain month, examine it, and sacrifice it on the fourteenth. The lamb was to be without blemish. The Jewish families were to assure their lamb was perfect, a picture of what God demanded of their sacrifice in grateful thanksgiving for their deliverance from Egypt and a foretaste of the sacrifice of His sinless son for believer’s deliverance from sin and death...

The Lamb of GodChristina Fox2025-04-03T15:54:01+00:00

Taking our Stress to the Lord

MEGAN JUNG|GUEST Take breaks…Be present…You can’t be all things to all people. Meet others where they are. Eliminate hurry. Don’t delay. Know your limits. Start exercising. Strength, not cardio. Stress makes you sick. Drink more water. Strive for connection. Make time for yourself. Get enough sleep to prevent “X.” Wake up early to do “X.” Good enough is good enough. Do your best. Take media breaks. Stay up to date. Say “no.” Do more. How did you feel as you read that list? I don’t know about you, but I felt stressed! A Stress-filled World The world invites us into its fear and its solutions to that fear constantly. We live in a particularly tense and defensive time. Fried nervous systems and dialed up threat responses crowd our communities, near and far. Well-meaning tips about stress management often invite more stress with additional tasks to incorporate into our packed lives. And if we’re honest, unhelpful messages about stress are not exclusively external. Most of us could single-handedly fill a small pond (or larger) with our own internal narratives, to-do lists, and strategies. We don’t need help from outside sources to react to stress with stress. It’s in us. Stress is a product of brokenness, many parts of it will remain until Jesus returns, and we all have it in common. And we all want relief, peace, and help. It's National Stress Awareness month, and I want to encourage you, not with psychoeducation about causes and symptoms of stress (which are beneficial!), but with what we can do with the reality of stress. Like our brother Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, we have thorns in our flesh...

Taking our Stress to the LordChristina Fox2025-03-26T14:20:02+00:00

Silencing the Inner Critic

KRISTINE SUNG As I stare at the computer screen, writing this blog, I hear the thoughts scroll through my brain. “What are you doing? You’re not a writer. Do you really have anything worthwhile to say? Wouldn’t it be better just to play on your phone?” This, my friends, is a glimpse of my inner critic. It can be so bossy. Critical. Impatient. It’s like a toddler. Perhaps you can relate. Scientists estimate humans have 6,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Many thoughts go unnoticed. Yet others we hyperfocus on. When we stop to listen to our thoughts, we don’t tend to hear a ton of ‘atta girl’ thoughts, nor do they naturally conform to truth of the gospel. Sadly, more often than we realize, our behavior marches to the beat of their drum. A Look at Psalm 103 Thankfully, this is not a modern problem. In the Psalms, David often reveals how he deals with his own inner critic. Take a look at Psalm 103. As you begin to read the psalm, you see right away David giving instruction to his own inner critic, which he refers to as “his soul.” He tells himself to “Bless the Lord, O my soul” and “not to forget all his benefits.” We don’t know what David was struggling with when he wrote these words. But when he tells himself not to forget, it is likely he is doing just that, forgetting. I know my toddler-like inner critic is often forgetful. While I know that I am not and will never be perfect, nor is there any hope in me to save myself, my inner thoughts easily forget that. And it doesn’t want to think about God and His benefits; rather, it often focuses on unrealistic expectations of myself. And it is quick to point out how often I don’t meet those expectations...

Silencing the Inner CriticChristina Fox2025-03-26T14:15:22+00:00

What I Learned From Sharing the Gospel with a Mormon

JANE STORY |GUEST I was two years post-college and alarmed to learn how hard it was to make nonbelieving friends. I struggled to find people to share the gospel with because my primary social outlet was church. I began asking God to bring non-Christians into my life. I could not have predicted the mission field that was about to open to me. Plopping into the gray cushioned chair at my new doctor’s office, my eyes fell on a Bible and a Book of Mormon. My heart began to race as I struggled to interpret what I was seeing. Either he was a Mormon, or he was religiously open, allowing people leave literature in his waiting room. Could this be an answer to my prayers? I tried casually bringing up faith at the end of the appointment: “Hey I noticed a Bible and a Book of Mormon in your waiting room. Can you tell me more about that?” His flustered response surprised me: “I… uh… well… I’m a Mormon!” he blurted, like a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar. He then revealed that he was the local bishop, which is the top Latter Day Saints (LDS) authority in a given area. I was intimidated, yet undeterred. That simple question spawned a friendship that lasted for years. Here are a few key lessons I learned about reaching Mormons:...

What I Learned From Sharing the Gospel with a MormonChristina Fox2025-02-17T19:56:57+00:00

Wrestling With God in Our Suffering

JULIANNE ATKINSON |GUEST As soon as I saw the area code of the phone call my husband was receiving, I knew something was off. I was pregnant with our first child and set to move for his job to Nashville, TN at the beginning of my third trimester. This was a city I had friends in, I knew there were good churches there, and it was a city we both liked. After a short conversation, my husband conveyed the news that there was a post they hadn’t accounted for in rural, northern New York state and he was now at the top of the list to take it. I was disappointed, but it wasn’t my first move and I hoped that God would have a good church and community there waiting when we arrived. Instead, I found a desolate place I never grew to love. I had left a large church in San Antonio where I was on staff and knew and loved each family and their kids by name. In New York, there were a handful of families hoping for a PCA pastor to come and pastor them. Church members brought meals when I had my son, but it felt more like they were checking off a box than done so out of friendship. I gathered the women of the church and started a Bible study in hopes of fostering fellowship as we studied God’s Word together. I ended up spending the study time preventing my son from climbing sky high, getting into people’s desks, and drinking bathroom chemicals. My husband worked long hours, weekends, and sometimes over an hour away. I was more lonely than I was during the Covid lockdown. It seemed like every hope I had for our move was dashed. The depths of disappointment I felt contrasted with the hope of change and led me to wrestle with God through it. Here my head-knowledge intersected with my very real and difficult circumstances. Were my toes digging into a sandy beach as the storm swirled around me or were they resting on the solid rock of the foundation of God’s promises? If everything around me fell down, I knew He would not. As believers, sometimes we suffer pain and loss so deep that we come to a crossroads in our relationship with God and who he is. Some might respond to that pain as though with a finger in his face saying, “How could GOD do this to ME?” Our hearts are hardened. We feel bitter. We struggle to forgive God. And we turn and run FROM him. Others might ask the same question, but with trust in God’s faithfulness to his promises—that he really is who he says he is. “How COULD God do this to me?” In that moment, we run TO Him and His Word. As we wrestle with his Word, we will find rest in the midst of our pain and rock under our feet...

Wrestling With God in Our SufferingChristina Fox2025-01-08T18:35:45+00:00

Don’t Hoard Peace

SUSAN BENNETT|GUEST "You can't keep this" are the last words someone who struggles with hoarding ever wants to hear. If you ever watched one of those reality shows about hoarding, you know that hoarders surround themselves with items, so much so, that they can’t maneuver around their homes. I once knew someone who tried to take control of their life with this activity to her own demise. It caused great ruin to both her physical home and her familial relationships. When God blesses us with material or spiritual gifts, it is always for the benefit of sharing them with others. God never intends for His children to hoard the blessings they receive, especially the gift of His peace. Biblical Peace Peace in Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, carries several ideas. Most importantly, completeness and wholeness are related to love and loyalty to God and others, which are at the core of the Gospel of Peace. The Hebrew word for Peace is shalom, which holds this same beautiful idea. This gift of peace comes to us per God's counsel from before the foundation of the world. (Eph. 1:11-12) As with all the good gifts God gives His children (James 1:17), they are as unchanging as He is. His peace is perfect and, therefore, constant and reliable even when our lives are anything but. We can trust God's peace when war rages out in the world or even at our front door! Perfect Peace "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusts in You" (Is. 26:3). Can you hear the hope in this verse? Notice the two actions of God in exchange for the two by man. First, God keeps him, and second, He provides for his peace. And not just any peace but "perfect peace." I like the ring of perfect peace, don't you? In this instance, to keep means to guard as with a garrison. God's keeping of us is serious business. God's perfect peace is His provision of protection, like a defensive weapon. Wow, a peace that guards like an army of soldiers!...

Don’t Hoard PeaceChristina Fox2024-12-26T19:38:33+00:00

His Blessings Flow

SARAH IVILL | CONTRIBUTOR I’m always glad when our church puts up Christmas decorations and we begin singing hymns about Jesus’s advent and birth. Many of those hymns haven’t been sung by the congregation since last Christmas, so though they are familiar, they are also fresh. One such hymn is Joy to the World! It’s one of my favorite hymns, so I want to share some reflections on the third stanza to assist us in preparing our hearts to worship the King this Christmas season. “No more let sins and sorrows grow” This phrase would be discouraging to anyone who is unaware of God’s amazing grace. There is not one person who has the ability to stop sinning. You likely know how difficult it is to be told to do something when you don’t have instructions, tools, or the capacity for doing it. It’s disheartening, to say the least. But thankfully, for those who trust in Christ alone for our salvation, we have been given everything we need to live a life of godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4). Because of God’s grace and power, we can “walk by the Spirit” so that “we will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). But what about sorrow? In this broken world you and I will have lots of sorrows. Broken relationships, dashed dreams, loved ones dying, infertility, financial ruin, depression, prodigal children, and things like these. How do we keep sorrow from ruining us? When the apostle Paul pleaded with the Lord to deliver him from a “thorn…in the flesh” He replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). And so it was. Paul could be content with sorrows “for the sake of Christ…for when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10)...

His Blessings FlowChristina Fox2024-12-05T15:12:34+00:00

Though and Yet

PATRICIA CURTISS | GUEST I’m a Florida native and have lived here most of my life. Recently our state—along with several others—was slammed by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. It has been devastating and burdensome for family and friends. Over the past several weeks, I’ve been reading through the Bible’s minor prophets. It has struck me how some of the literal events described, or the imagery used, refer to such devastations: “…the sea grew even wilder than before…” Jonah 1:13 “…The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope…” Micah 1:4 “…His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry…The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it…” Nahum 1:3b-5 And then, there’s the last stanza in Habakkuk. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields produce no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength, he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:17-19 Habakkuk’s Walk Writing is a challenge. When writing, you’re trying to communicate your thoughts to someone without using your voice’s tonal inflections, facial expressions, or body language to assist in meaning. What is written must fully carry the message. It’s even more problematic when writing poetry where every word’s letter, every word’s sound, and every mark of punctuation is crucial in translating the poet’s meaning. The Book of Habakkuk reflects the language of psalms (Hebrew poetry) in the expression of his complaints, reflections on God’s character, and response of obedience. He was really steamed that the kingdom of Judah had turned away from faith in God under the rule of two wicked kings, Manasseh and Amon. Habakkuk understood God needed to punish Judah for its sinful rebellion. He just didn’t understand why a good and just God would choose to use a more wicked nation (the Chaldeans, 1:8) to do the punishing—they deserved punishment, too. After Habakkuk goes through a question/answer period with God, he responds by trusting and rejoicing. His example encourages us to do the same when faced with debilitating circumstances....

Though and YetChristina Fox2024-12-05T14:54:13+00:00

From Bitterness to Forgiveness

JULIANNE ATKINSON |GUEST Seventeen years ago, someone who I thought highly of hid behind a computer and lied to me. I did mental gymnastics to attribute their best intentions to the lie. It was like talking to a piece of wood. I didn’t know at the time the price I would pay for the lie and it took me much longer to accept that I was the one to have to pay it. My closest relationships, parts of my reputation, and even some hopes and dreams I had for my life were damaged. It felt impossible to come back from. As image bearers, we have inside us a strong sense of both justice and mercy. It’s no accident that God makes it hard to let go of what we see as injustice. Our glorious God manages to uphold both justice and mercy perfectly. We are encouraged with verses not only asking us to forgive, but also requiring it (Matt. 18:21-35; Eph. 4:32). I love the tender words of Paul in Romans 12:19 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” We could think of the quote “vengeance is mine” with a tight, angry fist or even with bitterness that we can’t take revenge ourselves, but the command is actually an invitation. God calls us as His beloved to let the tears flow, let our laments be heard in heaven, and let our Savior walk alongside us in our grief. We do so, knowing that God will tread the winepress of wrath and personally wipe every tear from our eyes. There is peace and humility in our finitude. He knows every offender’s true motives, generational sins and brokenness, background of trauma, and pain that leads hurt people to hurt people. He alone knows what justice demands in every circumstance. Three Lessons in Forgiveness This doesn’t make forgiveness easy. Here are three things I wish I had known about forgiveness from the start. First, the road of healing is longer for some sins than others...

From Bitterness to ForgivenessChristina Fox2024-09-23T15:35:30+00:00

What Jesus Shows Us About Self-Control

SUE HARRIS | CONTRIBUTOR In 1978, Melissa Manchester famously, but tragically, sang, “Don’t cry out loud. Just keep it inside. Learn how to hide your feelings.” It’s a complicated song about learning to cope with pain. Melissa Manchester’s antidote to a broken heart is this: don’t show pain, be strong, and learn how to hide your feelings. Other than the pleasure of hearing Manchester’s amazing pipes belting out the chorus, I don’t recommend the song or the accompanying video with the creepy circus clown. I certainly don’t recommend the song’s posture toward love, pain, and suffering. Most importantly, I don’t think Jesus would, either. But in reading Titus 2, I noticed that Paul, when talking about teaching sound doctrine, repeats the idea of self-control four times in that chapter. Four times! People of all ages and stages are to be taught self-control. This is sound doctrine, according to Paul. I’ve considered the lost art of self-control in our express- yourself- and- find- your- voice world. I wonder if hiding or denying our feelings is a way of exhibiting self-control. Is Paul telling us to keep silent about our pain? Is that self-control? Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen any of the Inside Out movies, denying or hiding our feelings isn’t healthy. But more than healthy…is it biblical? I know there’s a difference between hiding or denying our feelings and exerting self-control, but how does this tension play out in everyday life? A Model of Self-Control When I think about perfect self-control, I think about Jesus when he was summoned by Herod. Remember, there was some triangulation going on between Jesus, Herod, and Pilate. Neither Herod nor Pilate wanted to take legal responsibility for Jesus. They didn’t seem to know what to do with this man, so they were sort of trading him back and forth, perhaps to see what the other would do. Eventually, Herod agreed to meet Jesus and was very glad because he wanted to see him perform miracles (Luke 23:8). But if you recall, Herod was also the ruler who ordered the killing of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, not long before this meeting. John’s death wasn’t simply a murder; it was a brutal, grotesque decapitation that was celebrated at a party Herod threw. This is where it gets explosive and unfathomable to me. This is the moment that the Lord Jesus exhibits a level of self-control that I can’t possibly understand. Can you imagine coming face-to-face with such a wicked man as Herod?...

What Jesus Shows Us About Self-ControlChristina Fox2024-08-14T13:36:01+00:00