I have a prayer letter to write. It’s been on my to-do list for the past three weeks now — each Saturday, I write it again in my planner for the following week. Our family has been very busy lately, with more church activities than usual and visiting family members (cue cheers and tears of joy!). While sometimes I sit down to write a prayer letter and struggle to fill it, right now our lives feel full enough to provide…
Read part two here. God is a God of encouragement. His encouragement takes many different forms: to Adam he encouraged him to turn and repent. To Cain he encourages him to do what is right and not let sin master him. To Hagar he encourages her that he sees her and knows her, and that she and her son are in his tender care. And to Elijah he encourages him by giving him good work to do, promising to judge…
Read part 1 here. The Gospel, then, is the truly encouraging message. Everything that encourages, to paraphrase pastor and author Sam Crabtree, everything truly encouraging originates from and is supremely found in Christ — whether that is recognized or not. Why is this? Simply because God is a God of encouragement. Let’s look at a few examples to see God’s character in action. We’ll start at the beginning, in Genesis. Genesis 3 finds us in the Garden — you know…
I had the privilege of giving a short talk at our women’s retreat last weekend. I’ve posted an edited version of what I said here, in three parts. When you hear the word “Gospel,” what do you think about? Most of us probably think about the message that Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead to give us life. It becomes a past event for us — something that we agreed with and believed at some…