Written by Jon Sampson
One word. It’s that simple.
There is one word, that if fully embraced and executed, can change the landscape of foster care and adoption in your area.
That word is relationship.
Relationship is the one word that describes how the Church can transform the foster care system and the lives of children and families involved. I said it was simple, not easy. Relationships can be uncomfortable and out of your comfort zone, but it’s how Jesus taught us to love others. He gave us an example of how important relationships can be in influencing people and speaking love into their lives. There are 4 primary groups that I think it’s important for the Church to build relationships with: DSS, foster families, bio parents, and young families.
DSS (or your local social services agency)
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus
Romans 15:5
Investigators, caseworkers, and everyone else at DSS seem to always have too much to do and too little time to do it. Building relationships with your local DSS staff is a great way to help them feel supported and encouraged. Getting to know them can help you learn how to best serve them. It could be bottled water and healthy snacks for them to eat in the car when they’re driving all day from visit to visit, it could be providing lunch for the office once a month, it could be intentional prayer for them and the work they do, it could be notes and cards so the staff feels seen and appreciated. It could be any number of things, but you won’t know what will be most helpful unless you have a relationship with them.
Foster and Adoptive Families
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
Do you know all the foster and adoptive families in your church? The church can be a difficult place for those parents. They can feel embarrassed and judged if they have a child who has an issue during the service. Having a relationship with foster and adoptive families in your church can help them feel more at home and comfortable, even if something happens during the service. If foster parents get to know the people working in the nursery and with the children, they can feel less anxious about leaving their children and can focus on getting more out of the service. Getting to know those in your congregation that are on the front lines of foster care and adoption can do a lot for your congregation. Not only will you be able to meet the needs of those families, but you’ll set an example for other families in your church who may be considering getting involved. They can see that if they take the leap into foster care or adoption, there will be a team of people to support them and love them through the good and bad that they will inevitably experience on their journey.
Bio Parents
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:18-19
Working with the biological parents of children in foster care can be scary for everyone involved. It can be easy to see the bio parents as the bad guys in this foster care world. It’s easy to say ‘they are bad people who did bad things to their children.’ While it’s often true that they made bad choices that harmed their kids, they are not the enemy. Many of those choices and struggles can be traced back to a lack of healthy and safe relationships when they were children. When you grow up without nurturing parents and no examples of healthy relationships – how can you be expected to be a loving, caring parent? Bio parents need examples of safe, loving, caring relationships. If their hurts happened in relationships, then their healing needs to happen in relationships. Again, simple but not easy. Many of these bio parents have either been hurt by the Church or feel strong shame and unworthiness that causes them to be fearful of the church. The Church must work with these parents from a place of humility and grace, showing them the perfect love of Jesus that casts out fear.
Young Families
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
The best way to make a difference in foster care is to prevent foster care from ever being needed. Children enter foster care when their parents don’t have the support and resources available to handle the stresses of life and parenting. Building relationships with young families in your church and community, especially if they don’t have a lot of support of their own, is huge. It takes a village to raise a child, so the Church can be the village for parents who don’t have one. Supporting new parents as they adjust to life with a new baby can be critical to the success and stability of that family. Many young parents did not have very good parental role models, so they are forced to figure out parenting as they go and they don’t always have the coping skills to deal with the stresses of parenting. Have a loving community surround and support them can help them give their children the best start possible and keep families together.
Everybody can’t do everything, but everyone can do something. If you want help figuring out your something, we’d love to talk to you about it!

Written by Jon Sampson
Foster care is a battlefield. It’s a fight between good and evil, light and dark, right and wrong. By nature it is reactionary – We didn’t throw the first punch. Foster care is a response to what is broken motivated by the desire to see healing and renewal prevail. It is a commitment to see the heart of God demonstrated and justice triumph over what is tragically flawed.
It’s easy to think that the enemy in foster care is whoever did the bad things to the kids. The person who abused or neglected the child is the bad guy, right? Wrong. The person (or people) who caused harm to a child is not the enemy, Satan is. He is the one who ‘seeks to steal, kill and destroy.’ (John 10:10) Satan’s goal is to wreck everything that God made to be good, and that includes families. Yes, the birth parents did bad things, but like Ephesians 6:12 says ‘we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.’ The hope is that the kids that come into our home are able to go back to their families, so we can’t have the mindset of us vs the birth parents. Everyone should be on the same side: The side of the child.
Just like the birth parents aren’t the enemy, foster parents aren’t the heroes. You aren’t saving or rescuing the kids that come into your home. You’re not ultimately responsible for them during or after when they are living with you. They are God’s kids. He’s the one who rescues them and is responsible for them. Your family has a very important role to play in these kids stories, but it should take some pressure off to know that there’s someone much bigger and more powerful in control of their lives. There are many stories in the bible of how God is in control of stories that are much bigger than the people involved. The story of Moses is a perfect example, but I’ll write a whole post about his story.
There are many places in scripture where we are told of the importance that God places on caring for orphans, but I want to focus on 3 really quick.

• He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow – Deuteronomy 10:18a (NLT)
• Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. – Isaiah 1:17 (NIV)
• Defend the weak and the fatherless – Psalm 82:3a (NIV)

Those verses have one word in common. Defend. Children and families in the foster care system are under attack and it’s the job of foster parents and anyone else who follows Christ to stand up for them and fight for them and alongside them.
There are a lot of ways you can be involved in doing that. Consider becoming a foster or adoptive parent. There are over 1000 new foster homes needed across the state, and hundreds of children awaiting adoption. It’s certainly not easy, but it is 100% worth it to be a part of changing the trajectory of a child’s life forever. If you can’t foster or adopt, you can support foster and adoptive parents. Heritage has a foster care resource closet that is available to foster parents in Laurens County. We also host the foster parent associations monthly training meetings. You can offer to help set up, tear down, or provide the meal for the foster parents that attend. We would love to begin a wrap around ministry, where a group of people supports a foster family through providing meals, babysitting, groceries, tutoring, lawn care, or anything else that can make life easier for them.
If you’re interested in any of those things, or you have another idea for how Heritage can fight alongside foster and adoptive families, please let us know!!

Written by Jon Sampson
 
Isaiah 1:17 is a pretty well-known verse: learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. Have you ever read that verse in context? Yikes. Be warned, it’s strong.
Starting in verse 10, it says “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Were you ever at a friends house when they got in trouble? That awkward feeling of just sitting there and watching someone else get yelled at – that’s how I feel reading that, but then I remembered that He’s talking to me too.
Is He saying that all of that stuff isn’t important? No. All of those sacrifices and offerings are things that God commanded the people to do. So if those aren’t bad things, why do they make God so upset? Because when those things are becoming the focus of our worship we miss a really important part of worship. In the book Becoming Home, author Krish Kandiah says “if we care about worship, we should worship by caring.”
So how can we do that? The answer is different for everyone. 1 Corinthians 12 talks through a variety of spiritual gifts, and says All these [gifts] are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. (v 11) That chapter goes on to talk about the importance of unity within the diversity of our spiritual gifts. Everyone has a different gift, but they are all equally valuable to the mission of Christ.
As Steven pointed out a few weeks ago, chapter 12 flows right into chapter 13. Groundbreaking, right? 1 Corinthians 13 is the famous love chapter. If we do anything with the best intentions but do it without love, it’s meaningless. We are called to use our unique gifts within the body of Christ to love those around us. Everyone has a different gift, but we all have the same call to love those around us. We can have the best music, super engaged children’s ministry, and most generous offerings – but if we’re not doing good, seeking justice, correcting oppression, bringing justice to the fatherless, and pleading the widow’s cause then we’re not really worshiping.
James 1:27 says Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. I’m obviously biased towards foster care and adoption, but this seems pretty clear. If we want to practice the type of religion that God finds pure and undefiled, we need to be doing something related to orphans and widows. As I said, I’m biased towards orphan care – there are many different ways to worship through service, but the important thing is that you find your way, and do that to the best of your abilities. We can help you figure out what spiritual gifts you have and how to use them. Let us know if we can help you out!

Written by Jon Sampson

God sets the lonely in families (Psalms 68:6a)
Great, then what?
Foster Care and adoption are amazing acts of obedience to God’s call. Often times though, the decision is the easy part. After all the background checks, paperwork, inspections, and interviews; the hard work begins. Caring for children who come into your life because of trauma can be more difficult than any home study process.
It’s important to be prepared for the realities of foster care, and understand that foster care is really hard. If you’re involved in foster care and you’re having a difficult time, you’re probably doing it right. Foster care is a system rooted in brokenness. The healing and redemption that foster care can create can’t happen without a child first experiencing something awful.
The ‘something awful’ that children in foster care experience sticks with them, and it can rear its ugly head through words, thoughts, and behaviors. When that happens, it’s easy to second guess your decision. It’s easy to feel frustrated and defeated. I know, because it’s happened to me.
Recently there has been a lot of ‘something awful’ behaviors in our house. All of the children in our home have experienced more than their fair share of ‘something awful’ times and it continues to affect their thought processes and actions, which in turn affects us. We remain secure in the call that God has placed on our lives, but that doesn’t always make the hard days easier.
Recently at church we sang the song Yes and Amen (Listen to it here) and it was a powerful reminder to me to look at the big picture. It’s easy for me to focus on myself and how difficult it is for me to parent kids from hard places. It’s hard for me to focus on anything other than the tantrums or the difficult behaviors. I can become overly reliant on myself, which only disappoints me because I feel like I fail more often than I succeed sometimes. (End of the selfish pity party)
The line in the song that really got to me was “my confidence is Your faithfulness.” Like I talked about in the last paragraph, I struggle to be confident sometimes when dealing with ‘something awful.’ Stepping back and looking at the big picture, it’s easy to see that God has been faithful throughout this whole foster care and adoption journey. The process of getting licensed was difficult, but He was faithful. The process of getting the boys into our home was difficult, but He was faithful. Their behaviors are difficult, but He will be faithful. The full bridge of the song is “I will rest in Your promises. My confidence is Your faithfulness”
Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine. When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end—because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:1-3)
I don’t know how to make the hard times easier, but I know that we can rest in His promises, and our confidence should be in His faithfulness. (Full disclosure: this is something that I’m working on, and frequently failing at) If you’re going through a hard time in foster care or adoption, keep going. If you’re considering foster care and are nervous about the hard times and the something awful’s, we would love to encourage you and support you as we all do this foster care life together.

Written by Ryan Miller
Sin calls.  It tempts.  It whispers.  Sometimes it roars.
But it’s all around.  Everyday.
As the apostle Paul says, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” (Romans 7 21)
And I can relate.  So much.  I know you can too, especially if you are following Jesus.  If you aren’t, I guess sin isn’t really tempting you.  It just has you.  But you feel it’s pull.  You just don’t care as much as those of us who have a continually Christ-refined conscience.
Point is, sin calls – it extends the promise of pleasure.  And, in actuality, it is pleasurable.  To paraphrase Matt Chandler, the problem with sin is that, just for a moment, it does indeed satisfy what it promises to satisfy.  It brings legitimate pleasure.
But then it’s gone.  And in place of the brokenness that preceded the sin is a slightly deeper and darker brokenness than before.  We roll down the hill, come back up in a rush for a moment – just a moment – of pure ecstasy, and then we go careening straight back into the darkness from which we came.  Only this time we go a little bit deeper.  And the next time deeper still, the darkness seeming darker and longer until we eventually succumb completely to the increasing comfort of the blackness.
So how do we combat this?  How do we possibly defeat sin?  Is it not somehow possible?  Do we, as Matt Chandler has said, “white-knuckle it, try harder and manipulate (our) environment”¹ until we finally, through the sweat and tears of agonizing personal anguish, put sin to death?  Can we?
If you’re a Christian, if you’re a human, you know this is impossible.  It simply cannot be done.  Yet look at the world around us friends!  You would think white-knuckled, whitewashed morality is the way to go.
But no.  There is a better way.
How?
Fight pleasure with pleasure.
What?
Let me explain.
To quote John Piper’s ministry statement, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  And when God is glorified in us, sin cannot be front and center in our lives.  There is no room for sin to be indulged when the Lord is actively being glorified.
So what do we do?  Simply, seek pleasure in the Lord.
We fight not by putting pleasure to death.  Rather, we redirect.  Or better yet, we direct our natural pleasure-seeking souls in the correct direction.  True north.  We win by allowing the Lord to direct our gaze, our emotions, feelings, and desires to him, the Lord of Heaven and earth.
Is this easy?  Heck no!  Remember (if you can bear it) that we are sinners.  Jesus had to die and bear the wrath of his Father to save us because of how broken and despicable we are.
Yet take heart brothers and sisters, even as I sit and write these words to my own heart: the Lord longs for his children to experience joy in him.  In relationship with him.  It’s what we were made for.  It’s what we are made for.  Not for the stifling of pleasure.
The Lord did not create us to have deadened souls.  He created us to have eternal joy and communion with him.  He sent Jesus to make new all things – to restore and redeem everything, emotions and pleasures included.
My prayer, dear friends – eternal siblings in the Lord, if indeed you have been called – is that we would make pleasure our aim.  God-glorifying, God-centered, pure, unadulterated pleasure.  Let’s love one another, communing with each other and our Creator as often as we possibly can, being restored, renewed, and refined in his glorious grace and all-consuming fire.
Love you all, imperfectly as I can.
¹https://www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/sermons/a-theology-of-struggle

Written By Ryan Miller
And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.  Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
John 6 2-3
Jesus is being followed by large crowds.
Why?
Because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
There are crowds following Jesus because they are hopeful; they are hopeful that Jesus might heal them of an ailment, that he might make their lives better in some way.
They want the incredible free gift of physical healing that he has to offer, not understanding their need for his incomparably greater free gift of eternal salvation.
As Jesus sees these crowds following him, he goes up onto a mountain with his disciples.  But the crowds don’t let him alone; they just keep on coming (John 6:5).
They are starved for a miracle.
And then, after Jesus gives them a miracle (John 6:5-14), the people are so excited that they want to forcefully make him king (John 6:15) so that they don’t have to deal with the oppression of the Roman government anymore!
But Jesus didn’t come to be a worldly king.  He came for much more than that.
So he withdraws himself somewhere in the mountains to get away from this worldly starved people.
When I read these verses a couple weeks back, I was kind of struck by the seeming contrast between the crowds following Jesus because of what he could do for them, versus Jesus’ interaction with his disciples.
When I see the crowds following Jesus because of what he’s doing for the sick, I feel this sense of desperation.  There’s this sense of group mentality, of a longing for meaning and purpose, of dissatisfaction.  There’s a lack of real commitment and a desire for immediate gratification.
 
And then when I see Jesus going up on the mountain and sitting with his disciples, I get the feeling that they are a team, that they are on a mission together, and that discipleship is about to happen in the best of ways.  It feels like a committed group – a group determined to live life with each other as growth takes place.
And I feel the contrast.
I hope you can feel it too.
I want you to be honest with yourself right now.
If you call yourself a Christian…

• Would you say you are part of the crowd of “Christians” who follow Jesus because your family and friends do and/or because you can get something out of it (i.e. feel good about yourself, feel like you’re doing “the right thing”, etc.)?

Or

• Are you part of the smaller crowd of Jesus’ disciples who follow him because he is Lord and Savior, because he has asked you to take up your cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24), because you love him with all your heart, and because he has the words of eternal life (John 6:68)?

Before I move on, I want to interject that it’s “okay”, in a manner of speaking, to not currently be in the place where Jesus has become your life treasure.  It’s “okay” to be a part of the crowd who just wants something from Jesus, and that’s it.  It’s “okay”, even, to not care at all about Jesus.  It’s even “okay” to hateJesus, or think he doesn’t exist.
What makes it not “okay” is if you think you are good where you are – if you think that nothing needs to change.  Then you’re not okay.  In fact, if that’s you, you’re probably headed to the wrong side of eternity.
Sanctification (the process of being made more like Jesus) takes time.  A lifetime, in fact.
Meaning: You’re not meant to be perfect in this life.
You can try as hard as you want, but you’ll never achieve it.  It is completely impossible to live a perfect life on this earth, as I think we all know.
And yet, we are called to pursue Jesus – the only perfect human being to ever walk this planet.  We are called to follow him and to increasingly allow him to take us to a place of surrender.
We will always have sins.  We will always have things we are holding onto that are apart from what the Lord desires of us.
But they are never okay.
We are called to constantly put these things to death, through the power of the Spirit, and to become increasingly more like Jesus.
Now, I don’t want you to read all that I just said and think that I don’t struggle with sin and with loving Jesus because I write a blog and I sound convincing.
I struggle.  A lot.  As some of you who might read this will certainly be able to attest.
I can’t genuinely say that I love Jesus with all my heart, and frankly I sometimes question if I can even say I love Jesus.
I struggle with the abstractness of what it means to have a relationship with him.  I struggle with sins that I can name, and sins that I can’t name, on an hourly basis.
Even today, I feel that I’ve already failed – and will continue to fail – in my struggle against my flesh and the powers of this dark world.  In my struggle against Satan.
He wants to kill me.  He wants to kill us.  He wants to take us to Hell.  He wants us to suffer eternally.  He promises us the world, yet leaves us short of eternity.
And we never find fulfillment in what he promises.
All we ever do is want more and more and more of the emptiness he offers that leaves us craving more.
Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t leave us in our sin.  He delivers us.  He has delivered those who profess faith in him, and he will continue to deliver us daily from our sins as we lean further and further on him.
In John 10 28, Jesus says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
No one will snatch them out of my hand. 
You can’t lose your salvation once you’ve gained it.  Jesus made sure of that.  He just promised it.
However, for those who have not professed faith in Jesus, you are stuck in your depravity and sinfulness – along with everyone else on this planet who hasn’t put their faith in Jesus – until Jesus comes and take you out of it…and then you are washed white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).
If you are his child, you are completely righteous before God.  OLord help me to believe that!
How I struggle to believe.
 
I want to share with you some song lyrics that I wrote a while back.
Perhaps you can resonate with them.
My heart is still so cold,
it’s like it’s still made out of stone,
God, why do I persist in trying to make myself known?
My brain knows what’s up,
but my heart just ain’t down,
to take up both my hands and throw away this worthless crown.
So I keep on fighting,
and I keep on striving,
and I keep on trying,
cause my heart won’t die,
and I need you now as much as ever before,
cause’ it’s a daily war to check myself at the door.
May we not have hearts of stone! But rather hearts that love the Lord with all we are, with hearts that are willing to follow him wherever he leads.
For more from Ryan: http://www.thriveintheword.com
 
Related Resources:

• David Platt: The Sinners Prayer
• Paul Washer: A Biblical Alternative to the Sinner's Prayer

Written by Kailynn Nelson 

"Behold, my servant who I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well please.
I will put my Spirit upon Him,
and He will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud;
nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets;
a bruised reed He will not break,
and a smoldering wick He will not quench,
until He brings justice to victory;
and in His name the Gentiles will hope." - Matt. 12:18-21
 
The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes
I first heard of The Bruised Reed by Puritan pastor Richard Sibbes almost a year ago. I was in a season of God exposing sin and idols in my life. It was also a season where I was dealing with some uncertainty about the future and some attacks from the enemy. I had many days where I felt defeated by my sin and many days where I was sure God was disappointed with me. I was frustrated with myself, and I was sure God was too. But during that season, God showed me so much sweet mercy. I had many times during that season where God would wrap His arms around me and show me how much He loved me, even in moments where I wasn’t very lovable. During that season, I was reminded constantly about the beautiful truth of the gospel and the grace of God in Jesus.
One specific morning I remember waking up feeling very spiritually weak. I was scrolling through Facebook when, by God's grace, I came across a podcast from David Platt (I highly recommend listening to it for yourself by clicking on the link provided here and at the bottom of the post). Platt specifically looks at Matthew 12:18-21, which I quoted above. He reminds listeners about Jesus being a merciful servant. In the podcast, Platt mentions a quote from The Bruised Reed: “Are you bruised? Be of good comfort, Christ calls you. Conceal not your wounds, open all before Him and…go to Christ ...There is more mercy in Him than sin in you.” As I listened, I remember feeling like Jesus was standing there in my room speaking right to me. I felt Him standing in front of me, taking my face in His hands and lifting my eyes up to Him. And most of all I could feel the deep, tender love He had for me in that moment. Jesus saw where I was and what I was. And He would not crush me. He would not quench me. I was pointed back to the Bible and the truth that even in my sin, Jesus loved me.
 
“Are you bruised? Be of good comfort, Christ calls you. Conceal not your wounds, open all before Him and…go to Christ ...There is more mercy in Him than sin in you.”
 
A few months later, I read The Bruised Reed for myself. This book is a beautiful reminder of the gospel. Rooted in Scripture, The Bruised Reed digs into the depths of God’s mercy and just how radical the gospel is. I want to share a bit of how he does this by looking here at what it means to be a bruised reed and how God loves us as bruised reeds.
 
What is a bruised reed?
Sibbes says that in Matthew 12 we see a description of Jesus as a servant. We see also the kind of people Jesus was sent to serve in Matthew 12. He was sent to serve bruised reeds and smoking flax. So, what does it mean to be a bruised reed? “By the bruised here is not meant those that are brought low only by crosses, but such as, by them, are brought to see their sin, which bruises most of all” (10). A bruised reed is someone who has been broken by their sin. God in some way or another has shown them their sin, and they grieve because of it. Being bruised is not necessarily God punishing us for sin, but it’s also something deeper than simply feeling bad about our sin. It may seem like a harsh way to say it at first, but being convicted of sin really, truly hurts. Speaking from my own experience, when God truly convicts you of your sin it feels like you’ve been bruised. During the season I wrote about in the beginning of this post, I felt bruised. I saw how dark my sin was and how quickly and constantly I found myself in it. Seeing my sin hurt. God let it hurt. He let it bring me to a place of confession (to Him and to another person) and to repentance.
There are many examples in the Bible of what it looks like to be bruised. We see this in many of the Psalms. Part of why I love the Psalms is because of how real and honest they are. In Psalm 51, David is writing about his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, which you can read about in detail in 2 Samuel 12. God confronts David about this sin and David grieves over it. He writes these words: “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have broken rejoice” (Psalm 51:8). When God convicted David of his sin it felt like David’s bones were being broken. Seeing the depth of his sin hurt. And ultimately what hurt was knowing his sin was against the God he loved. Again, in another Psalm, David writes that when he kept silent about his sin it felt like his bones were wasting away. He writes that God’s hand was on him until he finally confessed his sin. In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul talks about the difference between godly grief and worldly grief. He writes, “As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting” (2 Cor. 7:9). Godly grief leads to repentance. Godly grief, being bruised, turns us back to God because that is ultimately who our sin is against.
 
“Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have broken rejoice” (Psalm 51:8)
 
Sibbes says all of us are bruised reeds. He says bruising is “required before conversion so the Spirit may make way for Himself into the heart by leveling all proud, high thoughts, and that we may understand ourselves to be what indeed we are by nature” (4). The first awareness of our sin breaks down our human pride. Before we are bruised we think we don’t need God. We think we don’t need grace. God often let’s sin bruise us, so we can see what we are without Him. Even “after conversion we need bruising so that reeds may see themselves to be reeds and not oaks” (5). Even for those of us who grew up in the church and don’t have an initial “bruised reed” conversion moment, we still have moments where we are bruised because of sin. God still convicts us of our sin not to condemn us, but to humble us. Sibbes uses Peter as one example of this. Sibbes says, “Thus Peter was bruised when he wept bitterly (Matt. 26:75). This reed, till he met with this bruise had more wind in him than pith when he said, ‘though all forsake thee, I will not’ (Matt. 26:33).” Peter was full of his own pride when he told Jesus he would never leave Him. But when Peter denied Jesus in front of His face, he was humbled. In that moment, God showed Peter his own pride and that brought Peter to his knees.
 
Christ will not break the bruised reed
Being bruised is much more than just knowing sin is wrong and feeling bad about it. Being bruised, being convicted of sin hurts. When God shines His light on our hearts and exposes sin, it is not pleasant, at least not at first. It’s uncomfortable, to say the least. It may be tempting to hide when God exposes sin. It may be tempting to avoid conviction or to ignore it. It hurts, so it’s tempting to not deal with it. It may even be tempting to believe because we feel bruised, because we see how bad our sin is, God is done with us. We may think, as God bruises and convicts, He is going to break us.
But, I want to encourage you here because there is good news even in our bruising. There is light even in the darkness of our sin.
 
Because God through Jesus Christ will not crush the bruised reed.
 
God may bruise us for a season, let us feel conviction for a time, but He does not break us all the way. Neither does He leave us bruised. As Sibbes says, “Physicians, though they put their patients to much pain, will not destroy nature, but raise it up by degrees”(7). Sibbes points to the different descriptions of Jesus in the Bible. Jesus is our husband, shepherd, and brother. Sibbes encourages us to consider many aspects of who Jesus is. “Consider the names He has borrowed from the mildest creatures, such as lamb and hen, to show His tender care…Consider His office answerable to His name, which is that He should ‘bind up the broken-hearted’” (8). Sibbes points to many parts of the New Testament as examples of Jesus’ mercy:
“As a prophet, He came with blessing in His mouth, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ (Matt. 5:3)” (8).
“How did His heart yearn when He saw the people ‘as sheep having no shepherd’ (Matt. 9:36)” (8).
“He never turned any back again that came to Him, though some went away of themselves” (8).
“In the days of His flesh He dictated a form of prayer unto His disciples, and put petitions unto God into their mouths, and His Spirit to intercede in their hearts” (8). (Amazing that the ability to pray and for God to hear our prayers is an act of mercy from Jesus!).
Ultimately, of course, the cross is where this mercy shines the brightest. As Jesus was nailed to the cross, “He shed tears for those who shed His blood.” Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, when we are bruised we can turn to Him to find mercy. “He died that He might heal our souls with a plaster of His own blood, and by that death save us” (8). Jesus died to give us the grace we would need to be set free from our sins. He died to heal our bruises.
When I was bruised by my sin, Jesus saw me and did not crush me. He saw everything I was. He even saw everything I would be, because I still continue to sin, even sometimes in the same ways. And even though He saw me, all my sin, all my evil, and all my darkness, He would not crush me.
Because Jesus Christ will not crush the bruised reed.  
 
Resources used and suggested:

• The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes
• Radical.net: Christ Our Servant
• Desiring God: A Bruised Reed He Will Not Break

If you would like to listen to an audio version of The Bruised Reed you can find one on the Audiobook app. If you download the app onto your phone and go into the free books section there should be one under the Religion and Spirituality section.

Written by Jon Sampson

When I was in Sunday school as a kid there was a song that they taught us to help us learn the importance of obedience. I don’t remember the verses, but the chorus went like this: O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E, obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.
After I spoke last week, I was immediately flooded with things I wished I had included. One of the things I wanted to expound on more was the end of the Philippians passage I read, Philippians 2:5-8. The end of verse 8 says that ‘He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.’ I talked about this passage in regards to foster care, but I don’t think I did a good enough job highlighting Jesus’ example of choosing obedience over comfort.
When it comes to foster care, the phrase ‘obedient to death’ doesn’t mean literal death (hopefully). For Christ it did, but for us, I think it means something different. We should be obedient to death, even death of our own comfort and desires. Death to our traditional view of family and judgmental attitudes towards bio parents. Death to our own feelings of emotional safety and security.
That may sound reckless, but that’s exactly what God did for us. Earlier in Philippians 2, it reminds us that Christ ‘did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.’ He had an eternal seat with the ultimate comfort and security, but he chose to give that up out of obedience so that you and I could have the opportunity to experience the same comfort and security that he had. Even if we never chose to accept his gift, He was still willing to sacrifice so we could have the opportunity. If that’s what He did, then that’s what we should do. We should choose obedience over comfort so that a child might be able to experience the comfort and love that we often take for granted. Even if they never accept or seem to appreciate it, it’s still worth the sacrifice so a child can have the chance to experience a loving family.
Please contact me if you’re interested in learning more about this and how you can get involved in helping a child through foster care.

Written by Kailynn Nelson

Our next sermon series is going to be on the book of Philippians. As we dive into Philippians, I want to take some time here to give y’all an overview of the background of Philippians, as well as a short summary. Written by the Apostle Paul, the letter to the Philippian church is often known for being a letter about joy. Several times throughout the letter Paul encourages the Philippian church to rejoice and tells about his own joy as well. The joy Paul talks about in this letter is not just a positive feeling or being happy, however. The joy Paul expresses in Philippians is something that is much more solid than mere happiness. Happiness is simply a feeling, an emotion that comes and goes with our circumstances. Joy however, the joy Paul writes about is much different. Joy is something that lasts, that endures. As we go through this series, we will see more about what joy looks like and where Paul finds his joy. I want to walk through a few interesting and important things about the church in Philippi, as well as the situation Paul find himself in as he writes the letter. I think knowing what is happening to Paul as he writes is especially important for understanding joy and where his joy is rooted. I hope reading this post will help us engage with Philippians as a whole church, both on Sunday mornings and throughout the week.
Background/Context
The church in Philippi was one of the churches Paul started during his second missionary journey, which you can read about in Acts 16. In Philippi, Paul preached the gospel to a woman named Lydia, who eventually became an important member of the church. Paul and his partner, Silas, were also imprisoned in Philippi for exorcising a demon out of a slave girl. When God delivered them from the prison, they shared the gospel with the jailer there and he became a Christian.
The Philippian church was very supportive of Paul’s ministry. In fact, Paul’s main purpose for writing the letter was to thank them for a gift they had sent him (Phil. 4:18.) Toward the end of the letter Paul writes, “Yet it was kind of you to share in my partnership. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again” (Phil. 4:15-16).  Paul says he did not seek a gift from them, but he rejoiced in their desire to participate in the gospel with him.
Besides their financial support, the Philippian church also shared with Paul in persecution and suffering because of the gospel. In many ways, Philippi was a smaller version of Rome. During the time Paul was writing this letter, many retired Roman soldiers lived in Philippi and Emperor Augustus had turned the city into a military outpost. The ties to the emperor in this city ran deep. Because of their loyalty to Rome, while many citizens still worshipped pagan gods, emperor worship was incredibly important in Philippi. The Roman government demanded its citizens worship the emperor like a god as a show of loyalty. Because Christians refused to worship anyone above the one true God, they often faced opposition and persecution, especially in a city like Philippi. Knowing this, Paul encourages the Philippian church to hold fast to Jesus. He reminds them of the persecution he himself has faced and is still facing, “it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have” (Phil. 1:29). Paul actually wrote the letter to the Philippians while he was imprisoned in Rome for his faith in Christ. Paul knows the suffering the Philippians are experiencing, because he is facing it himself.
Summary/Overview
Paul starts Philippians the way he starts most of his letters, with a prayer of thanksgiving for the Philippian church. He thanks God with joy for the church because of their partnership with him in the gospel. In chapter 1, we see Paul explain where his joy lies, in Jesus. Even though he is in prison, he rejoices because the gospel is being advanced, and he knows no matter what happens to him, Jesus will be glorified. In his joy, Paul encourages the Philippians to hold fast to their faith in Jesus as well.
In chapter 2, Paul focuses primarily on the obedience of the Philippian church. He encourages them to obey God, just as they always have. As well as holding on to their faith, Paul wants the Philippians to be unified and have humility with one another. He uses Jesus as an example of the humility the Philippians should be walking in. He ends chapter 2 by telling them he is sending Timothy, who is one of Paul’s closest friends, and Epaphroditus, who brought Paul the Philippians’ gift.
In chapter 3, Paul reminds the Philippians of the gospel and where their confidence lies. Because they are in Christ, they do not put their confidence in their flesh but in the righteousness of Jesus. Paul says he has the most reason of anybody to boast in his flesh, to have confidence in his own “righteousness.” But he counts all of his righteousness and all he had before he met Jesus as nothing. His true desire now is to know Jesus more. Paul is not perfect, but he continues to pursue Jesus. He encourages the Philippians to do the same.
Paul ends the letter in chapter 4 by first encouraging unity in the church, specifically between two members of the church. He also encourages the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord. He encourages them to pray and seek God in everything. He tells them “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7). God will help the Philippians endure their suffering and stay strong in their faith. Paul ends by specifically thanking the Philippians for the gift they sent him. He did not seek a gift from him, but he thanks God for providing for him through their generosity.
Conclusion
As I said above, joy is the main theme throughout this letter. Paul constantly is encouraging the Philippians to rejoice and expressing his own joy. Paul’s imprisonment and the persecution the Philippians are facing may make his declarations of joy throughout the letter seem a bit radical. But, the joy Paul writes about is not just a positive feeling. The joy Paul writes about is rooted in something much more solid than his circumstances. His joy is rooted in Christ, in the gospel. Paul says his greatest desire is to get more of Jesus. Paul writes that if he lives he will be able to serve Jesus on earth more, and that would bring him joy. But if he dies, he gets to be in the direct presence of Jesus, and that will bring him more joy. No matter what happens to Paul, he gets more of Christ and experiences more joy in the gospel.
I hope that this summary and overview is helpful as we go through Philippians together as a family. I hope learning a little more about why Paul is writing and especially the situation Paul is in as he writes will help you to consider what it means to have joy, and especially what it means to have joy in the gospel.

Written by Jon Sampson

Foster care is often uncomfortable. Kids are uncomfortable when they first meet us because they are unsure who we are and where they are. We hear a lot of uncomfortable stories from kids about past traumas and current issues. We have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions and tell kids a lot of uncomfortable news. Foster care is an inherently uncomfortable thing. Children are removed from the only comfort they have ever known, if they’ve ever been comfortable, and are placed with you. Too many times they find real comfort with you in your house just to be moved to a different house or reunited with family and their concept of comfort shifts again.
Uncomfortable, as unpleasant and painful as it can be, isn’t always bad. If you are uncomfortable, that means you are aware that things are not as they should be. Feeling uncomfortable means you want something to change. The reason we got involved, the reason we are passionate about foster care, adoption, and orphan care is that the thought of children who aren’t being provided for made us uncomfortable. Just because we responded to that uncomfortable feeling doesn’t mean it went away though, if anything it made it worse. Every child that we interact with has an uncomfortable past, so we are surrounded by it and immersed in it. But the more we learn, the more uncomfortable we get, which makes us want to work harder to change whatever we can.
Even though it seems counterintuitive to do something that makes you more uncomfortable, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Those questions and conversations are just as difficult for us to answer as they are for the children to ask, but most of us experienced a safe environment when we were young where we were free to ask uncomfortable questions. Children in foster care need that same safety and freedom. They are asking questions about foster care and their family to themselves, and often they are forced to try and come up with answers on their own. If they feel safe enough to ask difficult questions, then they can get accurate answers and hopefully begin to heal and connect with their foster parents.
I know that not everybody can be a foster parent, but everyone can do something to help kids in foster care. My wife and I feel like we have been blessed with the empathy and energy that it takes to work directly with kids, and we are part of a community of like-minded people at Thornwell that do incredible work every day in the face of a mountain of uncomfortability (I don’t think that’s a word). We do it because we can, and we do it because we have access to the ultimate comfort.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-6 ESV)
What makes you uncomfortable? It’s not the same for everyone, but everyone has something. We were at an orphan care conference last weekend, and one of the speakers pointed out that every Christian is called to do something. If you follow Christ, you have a duty to better the kingdom in some way. Is the kingdom better because you’re a part of it? Orphan care, foster care, and adoption are close to our hearts, but for you, it could be something different. Figure out what that is and do something about it.

Written by Kailynn Nelson

As many of you know, this coming Sunday will be our last service in our current building. And this Sunday, after church, we’ll be moving over to the old Florida Street Elementary school building. The Florida Street building will now be where we meet for our Sunday gatherings. I’m excited to see how God will continue to shape us as part of the body of Christ through this transition.
The Florida Street Elementary School building is a historical building in Clinton. Recently, however, it has been sitting deserted. But, we believe it has the potential to be reclaimed and used as a tool to proclaim the gospel in Clinton. Of course, the building is simply a tool God has given us. The building itself will simply serve as a tool we can use to point others to Jesus. Of course, that will happen on Sunday mornings in our church gatherings, but God has also given the elders at Heritage another vision for this building. Along with using it for our church services, one of our primary goals is to turn Florida Street into a community center.
In this post, I’d like to share with you a little bit about that vision and the hope for the Florida Street Community Center. Ultimately, we believe God will use this community center as a way for us to point people to Jesus, so they can find their hope in Him. The Florida Street building will be an opportunity for us to live the gospel out in Clinton and see God transform the lives of the people who live here.
Isaiah 58: The Gospel Intertwined
Isaiah 58 is one part of the Bible that is driving the Florida Street Community Center. Isaiah 58 paints a beautiful picture of what happens when the gospel intertwines with the fabric of a community and then produces fruit. As we live out the gospel because of the spiritual freedom we have received from the cross, the physical needs of a city are met. The beginning of Isaiah 58 actually presents us with what it looks like when people practice religion for their own glory, while the end shows us God’s purpose for His people. The people say “Why have we fasted, and You see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You take no knowledge of it?” (Isaiah 58:3a). God answers, “Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers” (Isaiah 58:3b). The people fast but only for their own glory. And through their fasting they oppress other people. Their self-centered religion does not care about the needs of those around them. In verses 6-12, God describes what true fasting looks like and what it truly looks like to be His people. He says, “Is this not the fast I that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (58:6). God tells His people to “pour themselves out for the hungry.” He says that He will guide His people as they pour themselves out in their communities, as they shine His light in the darkness of the world. Verse 12 says this: “And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundation of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in” (ESV). The NLT Bible translates verse 12 like this: “Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.”
Rebuilding and Restoring
Rebuilding and restoring is what the gospel is about, it’s what being a Christian is about. The gospel is not something meant to be lived on Sunday mornings only. Christians are not meant to shut ourselves up in our churches once a week without ever stepping into the community around us. Yes, the gathering of believers is absolutely important. But if all we do is gather and never bring others to Jesus and never take Him to others, our gatherings are pointless. Our gatherings should serve to fuel us as we go out into the rest of the world. As crazy as it is, God’s plan to redeem the world is by working through the people He saves. He wants to work in and through His people in the communities they live and work in. He wants to rebuild people and cities by using other people.
Florida Street: Making the Gospel Tangible
We believe that the Florida Street building is one way we can bring the gospel into our community here in Clinton. We believe God has gifted us with this building for the purpose of reaching the people in our community with the gospel in practical ways. The hope and mission of the Florida Street Community Center is to make the gospel tangible through building relationships, providing opportunities for community members to develop life skills needed to break the cycle of poverty, and bringing our community together through the arts and recreational activities.
Throughout history the arts have been the lifeblood of all communities and societies. There are numerous studies that show exposure to the arts not only improves personal development but improves also the entire fabric of a community. We hope to use the Florida Street building to give people an opportunity to be exposed to the arts. This includes having after school programs, art galleries, concerts, as well as summer camps and day camps to give the children in our communities the opportunity to be creative. Through these events and other recreational activities, the Florida Street Community Center will give people in our community the opportunity to come together, to gather together and engage each other. As we gather, relationships will be built, and our city will be stronger.
The Florida Street Community Center will also provide opportunities for community members to build life skills and break the cycle of poverty. This includes mentoring students in our community, hosting speakers and classes to provide an education on topics such as money management, time management, parenting, etc. This is part of what God calls us to as Christians. We are called to pour ourselves out for the hungry, for those in poverty. But many times, when we try to help we end up enabling or making the problem worse. We provide short term solutions, but the cycle of poverty continues. Through the classes and programs, we will provide at the Florida Street Community Center, we will help people in our community break the chains of poverty in a way that will help them be successful in the long term. And as we mentor students and help people in Clinton, we will also be building those relationships. We will show them that we care about them, as whole people, and demonstrate how much Jesus cares for them as well.
The church is more than just a building. But God can certainly give us buildings that we can use to serve Him. The Florida Street building will be more than just a place for us to meet once a week. God has a bigger plan for Florida Street, Heritage, and Clinton than that. Our whole point as a church and the whole point of this Florida Street building is to bring God glory by sharing the gospel with the people in our city. All of the practical things we do with this building will ultimately serve as a way to point people back to God. He is ultimately the light the people of Clinton and of the whole world need. I am excited to see how much God is going to here.

Written by Jon Sampson

It's pretty simple really: If you love Jesus and strive to be like him, you should be be doing something to help children in need. As Tony Merida says in his book Ordinary: How to Turn the World Upside Down :
“If God is a father to the fatherless, and I am to reflect him in every way, then doesn't that mean I should be caring for the fatherless too? If "true religion" involves caring for orphans in their affliction, then what kind of religion am I practicing if it doesn't involve some measure of orphan care?”
Yikes, that's good. I wouldn't blame you if you stopped reading right now. He says in 2 sentences what I'm going to spend a whole page talking about.
The verse that Merida references is James 1:27, one of the most popular verses in the orphan care community. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Again, pretty simple. The terms pure and faultless don't leave much room for interpretation. There are many more examples of God's passion for the needy and his command that his people care for those who need it most.

• Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. - Isaiah 1:17
• “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” – Mark 9:37
• "May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!" – Psalm 72:4
• "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing" – Psalm 68:5-6
• The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' - Matthew 25:40
• "When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." – Mark 10:14-16

So it's clear that Jesus loves children and insists that they be made a priority. That's the why of orphan care, now the how. How do we take those verses and apply them to the orphans and fatherless within our own sphere of influence? It can be as simple as a change of mindset. Think about what you can do for others instead of what others can do for you. Love them like Jesus does. Show them the grace, mercy, and patience that Jesus shows you on a daily basis.
May is National Foster Care Month. You've probably heard the statistics - 430,000 kids in foster care, 108,000 of them waiting to be adopted. A child enters foster care every 2 minutes (Other stats here). Sounds like a lot, it seems overwhelming. Just looking at those numbers might scare you away from trying because you feel like you couldn't make a significant change. Another statistic you may not know, (and I just had to look up here.) There are anywhere between 320-350,000 churches in the United States. If each church surrounded 1-2 children or families the problem would be solved! Not really. It would most certainly change thousands of lives and help to ease the great burden felt by government organizations. But it won't eliminate the need for foster care. It won't ensure that all kids will be able to stay with their families.
I say all that to say there is something you can do. Numbers sound scary and huge, but you just need to focus on what's in front of you and who (Jesus) is behind you giving you strength and encouragement. Find a need in your area. Contact your local child welfare office and ask them where they could use help. Contact a foster family in your area and ask how you can support them. Find something you're already awesome at and figure out how to use that skill to change a child's life. It's going to be different for everybody, but there's something for all of us to contribute.

Written by Jon Sampson

Foster care can be a scary idea for people and families who are considering becoming foster parents. But it’s even scarier for the kids who make up the foster care system. 450,000+ kids (Over 4200 in South Carolina) that have been abused, neglected, experienced the death of a parent, or something equally horrible. Kids in foster care live every day with uncertainty and fear about their future. They struggle with daily disappointments, like parents not showing up for a visit or being away from their family for a holiday. They are often distrustful and angry at the system that is supposed to be helping them.
So, what can foster parents do? The answer is equally simple and challenging: Love others like Jesus loves them. 1 John 4 is my favorite passage on love. Verse 11 says Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Verse 18 says There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Kids often live in fear prior to entering foster care. Being taken from their families is a terrifying experience. They're scared of the uncertainty of where they're going to live or if they will ever see their families again. Every step of the foster care journey is frightening. They need to be loved like Jesus loves them. Kids in foster care are fearful. We need to respond with love. We know that perfect love drives out fear.
1 Corinthians 13 says If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. (v 1-3, NLT)
I don't know how to prevent fear in people, but I know how to love people. I know how to be patient and kind. I try not to envy or boast. I don't think I'm self-seeking. I try (unsuccessfully at times) to not be easily angered. I (usually) don't keep a record of wrongs. I don't delight in evil but I do delight in truth. I do my best to always protect, trust, hope, and persevere. Just because I know all of this doesn’t mean I do all of these all the time. I'm pretty far from perfect, but I know that love never fails. Love wins.
If you’re anything like me, imperfect but trying their best to love, you should consider foster care. Check out Thornwell's website or Facebook page for more information, or you can email me directly at Jonathon.Sampson@thornwell.org.

Written by Kailynn Nelson

I was reading my church history textbook from college a few weeks ago and I came across a description of church gatherings during the first two centuries written by Justin Martyr, who was a Christian philosopher and apologist during the second century. Justin wrote:
“The day that is commonly called Sunday all those who live in the cities or the fields gather, and in their meetings as much as time allows is read from the memoirs of the apostles or from the writings of the prophets. Then, once the reader is through, the one presiding offers a verbal exhortation, urging us to follow these beautiful examples. Immediately after this, we all stand as one and raise our prayers, after which- as I have already said- bread, wine, and water are offered, and the president, as he is able, also sends to God his prayers and thanksgiving, and all the people respond, ‘Amen.’ Now follows the distribution and partaking of the nourishment that has been consecrated by thanksgiving, and they are sent by means of the deacons to those who are not present. Those who can and will, freely give what seems best to them, and the offering is given to the president. With this he helps orphans and widows, those who are in need because of illness or any other reason, those who are in prison, sojourners, and, in short, the president provides for any who are in need. We hold this general gathering on Sunday, because it is the first day on which God, transforming darkness and matter, created the world, and also the day in which Jesus Christ, our Savior, rose from the dead.”* (The Story of Christianity, 109)
 
At first glance the description doesn’t seem very significant. When I first read it, I thought about how simple and normal it was. Much of what Justin describes is very similar to many church gatherings today. There may be a few differences here and there, but Justin could just as easily be describing a church gathering in the 21st century. However, as I read it a few more times, thinking about how basic and simple it is, I felt God starting to stir my heart a bit. Over and over, I kept coming back to the very last sentence: “We hold this general gathering on Sunday, because it is the first day on which God, transforming darkness and matter, created the world, and also the day in which Jesus Christ, our Savior, rose from the dead.” The reasons Justin gives for why the church started gathering on Sunday all those years ago don’t seem to be very significant at first glance. On the first day, God created the world. That’s what the Bible says. That’s what Christians believe. That’s normal. And, on the first day of the week, Jesus rose from the dead. Again, that’s what the Bible says. That’s what Christians believe. That’s normal. Both of those reasons just make sense. Both of those reasons are so essential to what Christianity is.
And that’s when God started to really work in my heart. I keep thinking back to something Jeremy said during the first sermon in our Gospel of John series. He was talking about reading the Bible and encouraging us to dig into it more for ourselves. He said the Bible is very simple, something any one of us can read on our own. But it is also not something we should take lightly. We shouldn’t treat the Bible cheaply. I’ve thought a lot about what he said since then and I think the concept he’s talking about applies to so many parts of the Christian life. There is so much I know I take for granted. I go to church on Sunday. I believe God created the world. I believe Jesus died and rose from the dead. They are such simple truths. I’ve heard them my whole life, and I do believe them. So, when I first read Justin’s words, his reasons for why Christians started to gather on Sunday, I thought, “Ok, so what?” That’s what it means to be a Christian. That’s just what we believe.
As God started to convict me in all of these thoughts I realized how easily I get caught up in the simplicity of the resurrection. And when I say simplicity, I’m just talking about how it’s such a simple thing to say out loud.  It’s so easy to just nod my head, and say, “Yes , Jesus rose from the dead, I believe that.” It’s an easy thing to write about in a blog post without really understanding the weight and beauty of it. But like Jeremy said with the Bible, the resurrection isn’t something that should be taken lightly. Even if you’re like me, and have heard about it your whole life, the resurrection is a big deal. In fact, when it comes to the Christian faith, I would say it’s probably the biggest deal.  In 1 Corinthians 15:14-15, the Apostle Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ... ” (ESV). Later in verses 17-19 he says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” If Jesus only died, but didn’t rise everything about our faith falls apart. Paul says here that everyone else should feel sorry for us if Jesus did not rise, because that’s what our faith depends on. Basically, if the resurrection didn’t happen, everything we do as Christians doesn’t really matter. If the resurrection didn’t happen, everything we do is pointless. If the resurrection didn't happen, we have no hope because we are still in our sins.
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20). And that fact means everything. The reality of the resurrection gives life to everything we do as the church. Because the resurrection did happen our faith in Jesus is not in vain. Because Jesus is alive our preaching is not in vain. Because God did raise Jesus from the dead we are no longer in our sins, if we believe in Him.
Knowing Jesus rose from the dead was the basis for everything in the early church. They realized how important the resurrection was to their faith and that realization turned every gathering into a celebration. According to Justo Gonzalez, author of The Story of Christianity, for a short time, early church gatherings included a feast to celebrate Jesus’ victory over death. The reality of the resurrection even shaped how early believers viewed communion, which was the central act of their gatherings. Gonzalez writes, “Those early communion services did not focus their attention on the events of Good Friday, but rather on those of Easter. A new reality had dawned, and Christians gathered to celebrate that dawning and to become participants in it” (The Story of Christianity, 108)*. Of course, remembering the events of Good Friday, remembering the reality of the cross, are what make the resurrection such a big deal. It’s important to remember the weight of our sin and the pain Jesus endured for us. But, if Jesus only died and did not rise we have no hope. Because Jesus did rise our hope in Him is secure.  And that is the greatest reason to celebrate.
I could honestly go on and on about how beautifully important the resurrection is, but for the sake of not making this post a million words long, I will try to bring it to a close.  The resurrection is something God is really helping me personally understand more. Back before Easter I had prayed for Him to deepen my understanding and joy over the resurrection. And I believe He is absolutely answering. Over the past few weeks He has exposed some apathy in my heart and is replacing it with a little fire. I know the resurrection is so very basic . I know it’s so simple. But that’s exactly why I want to study and write more about it. Because it is so basic it’s also something we can easily take for granted. If we start to take the gospel for granted, we'll easily forget why we're doing what we're doing as the church and as individual Christians. We'll easily fall into the trap of just going through the motions. We'll gather on Sunday only because it's what we're supposed to do. We'll do other "Christian things" because they're good things to do. And the gospel is so much better than that. It's so much more beautiful.
I would like to invite y’all to join me as I dig deeper into the reality of the resurrection. I’m not sure how many posts this will take. I’m kind of leaving it up to God to show me what He wants me to see and to lead me in what He wants me to share. But I’d like to continue to share and write about how beautiful the resurrection is, and ultimately why it's something we should celebrate. I would really love for this to be something we grow and share in as a community, so I definitely encourage y’all to dig into the resurrection for yourselves and send me anything God leads you in as well.
 
Resources used and Related Links:
* Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity (Vol.1). New York, NY; Harper Collins.
Desiring God: Five Truths About the Resurrection of Jesus
The Village Church: The Implications of the Resurrection
Our Family Legacy: An Invitation into Church History

Written by Ryan Miller
Christianity doesn’t really cost me anything.
Can you relate?
Paul was persecuted.  Killed.  So were all the apostles except John, who miraculously survived being boiled alive.
Jesus, of course, killed.  God poured his wrath upon his son.  Upon himself.  For me.
And what does my faith – this belief that I’ve been freely given through God’s incredibly sacrifice – cost me?
Not a whole lot.
Can you relate?
I was at Winter Jam a little over a week ago and it struck me that, at least in the south, Christianity is still popular.  It’s still cool to be a “Christian”.  It’s still cool to stand up on a stage and proclaim the gospel to a bunch of middle school kids in a way that is slightly humorous, but well scripted and well spoken.  It’s still cool to rock out in the name of Jesus.
No, these aren’t the quickest routes to fame.  But they’re not too shabby.  Added bonus, we get to feel good about ourselves.
We don’t have to sing about drugs or sex or money.  We can sing and talk about Jesus and make it all sound real good and we’ll still get a bunch of people patting us on the back and telling us how convicted they were by our sermons, or our blog posts, or how they cried because we sang, with only minimal backlash that doesn’t really hurt all that bad because of all the praise that drowns it out by the people around us who feel so much better because of what we’re doing.
Of course, so do we.
Otherwise why would we do it?
But what happens if we actually have to stand up for what we believe?  What would this country look like if every single so called “Christian” acted like the one’s we see in the Word?  What if we didn’t fluff our way through life?
What if following Jesus actually cost us something?
What if Christians got killed in this country for proclaiming the name of Jesus?  Would you still call yourself a Christian?
And so I question my own faith.  Not the existence, but rather the genuineness.  The trueness of it.
Why does my faith, my “Christianity”, look so different from what I see in the Bible?  Why do others?
Why is self-marketing mixed in with glorifying Jesus?
Why do the artists at Winter Jam have to tell us what booth they’re at and how much their t-shirts cost and how we can get a free CD if we buy one after their set?
What if that’s not really glorifying Jesus?
Sure, the money is probably being used for good things.  And sure, the gospel is being spread.  And I don’t want to deny that.  Because Jesus will use the good news no matter how it’s portrayed.  The Holy Spirit will change lives despite our weaknesses.
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.  The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.  What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.  Yes, and I will rejoice, | Philippians 1 15-18
But what if this isn’t all there is?
What if all our culture’s talk about gospel tracts and how to get people in our church doors and retain them isn’t what Jesus died for?  What if the music and preaching and service we do actually don’t mean a dang thing if there’s no love behind them?  If the Holy Spirit is not moving through us?
What if giving our bodies to be burned is actually meaningless if not for love?
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. | 1 Corinthians 131-3
Then it sounds like we would all be damned.
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. | from Romans 14:23
I don’t want to imply that we stop spreading the gospel.  That the artists are Winter Jam are all doing their self-promotion for the wrong reasons.  Because I don’t know their hearts.
All I’m saying is it didn’t sit well with me.
And yet I can point the finger at myself.
Even as I write this post, I’m being tempted with the thought of being popular.  It started out okay – I really felt like I was writing out of the Spirit – but now I’m not so sure.  Because I’m thinking and analyzing.
What if this offends people?  What if there’s something in here I shouldn’t say?  Doesn’t the Bible talk about getting good counsel?  Maybe I should have a bunch of people read this and comment before posting it…
But what if they don’t think I should post it?  What if their judgments are out of fear?  How do I know I can trust them?
More to the point of this post, why do I sit idly by as those around me continue in their sin?
Why am I not compelled to share the gospel and love deeply those around me who don’t profess the name of Jesus, even those who clearly are not following Jesus, though they claim his name?
Why does it seem that so much of what I say and do is about being liked rather than about being obedient?  Why don’t I radiate love for Christ?  Why doesn’t my life look radically different from the world around me?
Why don’t I feel a deep, passionate love for my Savior?  Why is it all so in my head?
Why am I such a hypocrite?
Popular Christianity is sitting less and less well with me with every passing day.  Including my own passivity and lukewarm-ness.
I don’t want to just fit in.  And I know there’s more to a relationship with Jesus than what I’m currently experiencing.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, | 2 Timothy 3 12
Yet we try to affirm persecution in our own lives to justify being a faithful disciple.  To justify being saved.  Since that’s what Christianity has become all about.  Personal salvation.
“Oh yeah, I’m persecuted for Jesus.  I got attacked on Facebook just the other day.”
Yet the “persecution” most of us experience for Jesus probably isn’t really persecution.  I can largely affirm this in my own life.  I don’t know if there’s a single thing in my life right now that I would say is persecution for the name of Jesus.
And maybe I’m just being an idealist.  Maybe – probably – some of the difficulty I go through mentally is persecution from Satan because he knows I’m striving to follow Christ.  I’m certain there’s an aspect of spiritual warfare that is being waged on my life.
But a lot of my struggles could just be my own sin.  My own stupidity.
Is there such a thing as “little versions” of persecution?  Is the world a bit of a different place than it was in Bible times?  Sure.
But really we’re probably just justifying what we really want to be persecution so it affirms that we are actual believers.  Most of us at least.
Forgive me if you’re one of the true who is persecuted because you’re actually following Jesus.  But of course you will forgive me.  Because the Holy Spirit is alive in you.
Should not our lives look radically different from those around us, my professing brothers and sisters!  I speak also to myself.
I just feel so inundated with the modern American version of Christianity around me that I’m a little confused on what it means to spot, or be, a genuine believer in this dark and depraved world.  Forgive me Father for being lukewarm.
Why is the line so thin between Christian and non?  What if most of the people around us are actually damned and we just can’t see it because of our own blindness?
What if there’s more to following Jesus?
I guess that’s all I’m really saying.  That I know there’s more.
Perhaps you can relate.
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. | John 15 18-20
Though persecution is promised, my desire is not to seek it out, nor should it be yours.  That would be sadistic.
Rather, I want to seek to live like Jesus.  Genuinely.
And persecution is promised to those who desire to live a godly life.
What will that look like?  I don’t know.
Intense hate speech?  Property damage?  Physical damage?  Martyrdom?  When did that become such a novel idea?
Probably when Christianity became lukewarm and popular.
Maybe it’s time for a change.  Maybe we should actually start following Jesus for real.
I don’t want to be afraid.  I don’t want to fear.  I’m tired of being afraid of what people think of me.
More importantly, I’m tired of being numb.  To the reality of the sacrifice of Christ.  To the incredibly beauty of the glory of the Father.  To the supernatural movement of the Holy Spirit.  Which, as one of my pastors spoke about last Sunday, is the only way we will ever truly see change.  It’s the only way we will ever see life.  Dying to self through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Because, as he said, if the Holy Spirit is not present, life will just be miserable.  It will just be a bunch of rule following for the sake of earning something that can’t be earned.
For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. | Ephesians 2 8-9
And maybe this post will do nothing.  Maybe everything will continue status quo.
But I doubt it.
Because God is real.  God is alive.  The Holy Spirit is alive.  Jesus is alive.
And I pray that we will all truly experience Him.

Written by Jon Sampson

As I’ve been thinking about how to share the message of foster care, I started to think about classic passages and stories from the Bible. It’s pretty easy to see that many popular passages can be used to encourage people who are considering or are in the middle of foster care. The fruit of the Spirit is a great example.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV)
Love: “That’s because love is never stationary. In the end, love doesn’t just keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does.” Bob Goff wrote that in his book aptly titled Love Does. It’s impossible to be passive in foster care. Love is an action, and foster care is a very active ministry.
Joy: Children have an inherent joy about how they live their lives. The same is true for kids in foster care. It’s incredible how much joy our kids still possess even after the trauma’s they have experienced. We can learn a lot from them. Worship band Rend Collective says “Seriousness is not a fruit of the Spirit, but joy is” (To hear more from them go here or here)
Peace: Peace can feel like a distant memory when you welcome a new child into your home, especially a child who has experienced trauma. John 16:33 says I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. You will undoubtedly face trials in foster care, but with the love and support of a strong foster care community (like Thornwell), you can find peace in the midst of the chaos.
Longsuffering: Most translations say patience, but the NKJV uses the word longsuffering, which I think is much more fitting when it comes to foster care. If you have kids, you know the truth to the saying that ‘patience is a virtue’. It can feel a lot like longsuffering.  Kids in foster care need you to be patient with them. They come from some pretty hard places and need time to adjust to their new normal. It’s also important to be patient with yourself. Parenting children from trauma is a different experience, and it can take time to get used to.
Kindness: Being kind to someone who isn’t being kind to you is a challenge. The children who you welcome into your home won’t always be kind. Sorry if I ruined that for anybody. Many times children express their past hurts through harsh words because they don’t know how to handle all of the new emotions they are experiencing. Understanding that those hurtful words are not a personal attack can help you respond with the kindness that those kids need.
Goodness: God is good. We know this, but when we hear about some of the injustices and horrors that kids in foster care have lived through, it’s important to be reminded of His goodness. His goodness is greater than any badness that our kids experience. One of the great things about having the Bible is that we know the end of the story. We know that good defeats evil. We know that love wins every time.
Faithfulness: Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12 NLT) Whenever I’m talking to someone who is frustrated in the licensing process, I encourage them to keep fighting. Foster care truly is the good fight. Fighting for love, safety, and justice for children is always the right thing to do.
Gentleness: Kids in foster care are usually used to living in harsh environments. They’re used to harsh responses and harsh punishments. Providing calm and gentle responses can play a huge role in building trust and attachment with our foster kids. If you don’t believe me, it says so in the Bible: A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. (Proverbs 15:1 NLT)
Self-Control:  In the Teaching-Family Model, this is called quality components. The ability to maintain your composure and remain kind and gentle in the face of a tantrum or hateful words from a child who is hurting, when all you want to do is yell back at them. Like many things, it’s a tough but invaluable skill when working with kids from hard places.
It’s easy to say “master these things and you’ll be perfect foster parents.” It’s true, but unattainable. The best we can do is to strive to be better than we were yesterday. As long as you’re trying, you’re headed in the right direction.

Written by Jon Sampson

This song has been stuck in my head for the past month, and we’ve sung it a few times on Sunday mornings. Somewhere around the 25th time I listened to the song on Spotify, I had a realization - foster care love is reckless love. The love that a foster parent has for a child in their home doesn’t make sense to many people. They don’t understand how we can so deeply love a child that may leave our lives forever. They say that they could never be a foster parent because they would get too attached and wouldn’t be able to say goodbye. They might feel like it’s unhealthy for our kids to be exposed to the trauma that kids in foster care have experienced. They don’t get it. Some people think that loving a child in foster care is dangerous, foolish, and reckless. Reckless literally means ‘without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action.’ Foster parents are fully aware of the consequences of their choice to help children from hard places. They know that heartbreak, difficulty, and loss are likely - but they are willing to take the risk.
Cory Asbury, who wrote the song, talks about his motivation for writing the song starting at 5:35 of the video. You can watch the video or read the transcript:
“When I use the phrase the reckless love of God, when we say it, we’re not saying that God himself is reckless – he’s not crazy. We are however saying that the way he loves is in many regards quite so. But what I mean is this: He’s utterly unconcerned with the consequences of his actions with regard to his own safety, comfort, and well-being. His love isn’t crafty or slick. It’s not cunning or shrewd. In fact all things considered it’s quite childlike and might I even suggest sometimes downright ridiculous. His love bankrupted heaven for you and for me. His love doesn’t consider himself first – it isn’t selfish or self-serving. He doesn’t wonder what he will gain or lose by putting himself on the line. He simply puts himself out there, on the off chance that you and I might look back at him and give him that love in return. His love leaves the 99 to find the one every time and to many practical adults, that’s a foolish concept. What if he loses the 99 in finding the one? What if? Finding that one lost sheep is and will always be supremely important. His love isn’t cautious – it’s the love that sent his own son to die a gruesome death on a cross. There’s no plan B with the love of God. He gives his heart so completely, so preposterously that if refused, we would think it irreparably broken, yet he gives himself away again and again and again and again time and time again. Make no mistake, our sins do pain His heart and 70 times 7 is a lot of times to get your heart broken yet he opens up and allows us back in every single time. His love saw you when you hated him and all logic said they’ll reject me. He said no, I don’t care what it costs - Me, I lay My life on the line as long as I get their hearts. To make it personal, His love saw me, a broken down kid with regret as deep as the ocean. My innocence and youth poured out like water, and he found me. He put me on his shoulders and he carried me home, because he’s just that good. He’s just that kind. He’s a father who never gives up.”
Foster parents demonstrate the love of Jesus to children who may have never experienced healthy love of any kind. They do so knowing full well that they may not be loved in return, and the day may come where the child is no longer a part of their lives. They don’t let the fear and uncertainty and pain affect the ferocious love that they have for children in their home. The best foster parents are ones who don’t regard their own feelings as important. They are the ones who understand that the goal of foster care is reunification, and that means that if it all goes according to plan they will experience the grief and loss of a child leaving their home. We would love to help you experience and share the reckless love of God with those around you. If that’s through foster care or something else, or if you aren’t sure how to do that – Contact us and we’d love to talk.

Written by Kailynn Nelson

Last Sunday we talked about John 5 where Jesus healed a man at a pool in Jerusalem. This healing led to a discussion with the Jews about Jesus being the Son of God. Jesus told the Jews that His authority comes from His Father and that He only does what His Father wills. John tells us that the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was healing people on the Sabbath and He was calling Himself the Son of God, which made Him equal with God.
As I was studying this chapter and as Jeremy talked about it on Sunday, God reminded me of something He convicted me of a few years ago. At one point in this story, Jesus says to the Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).
This statement by Jesus hit me hard a few years ago. I was frustrated with my Bible reading. I kept feeling empty in it. I would come to the Bible, or even to church, ready to hear from God. But I always came up with nothing, or at least what I thought was nothing. But the truth is I was coming to the Bible and church for the wrong thing. I was looking for some sort of application, some sort of practical advice for my life. What God showed me was that Jesus is ultimately the application of Scripture and why we should be going to church. Instead of being content with just being in the presence of God, I was looking for something else.
You see, the Jews in Jesus' day had a similar problem. They studied the Law of God and knew the Scriptures better than everyone else. They kept the Sabbath better than anyone else. But in their studying and in their Sabbath keeping they missed the whole point. They came away with a religious, moral code, but they missed what the Scriptures and even the Sabbath were all about. They missed Jesus. Jesus tells the Jews that both Moses and the Scriptures point to Him.
Back when God first convicted me of this, I wrote a blog post for a website called Brave Daily reflecting on how easy it is to miss the point of Scripture. We come to the Bible and to church on Sunday much like the Jews came to the Sabbath and the Scriptures. We look for something other than the simple presence of God. We look for something other than Jesus.
God has reminded me of this as we have been studying John, and especially as I've studied John 5. As God has reminded and convicted me again, I would like to share this post with you.
You can read that blog post here: Brave Daily: Jesus is Enough
I think, hope, and pray that this will be helpful for y'all as you read the Bible for yourselves, and even when you come to church on Sundays.

Written by Kailynn Nelson

Everyone watched in awe as she knelt at Jesus’ feet. This woman, this sinful woman, began to cry. Her tears hit Jesus’ feet and she wiped those tears away with her hair. She kissed His feet and anointed them with oil. As this woman knelt before Jesus, Simon the Pharisee, who had invited Jesus to eat with him, said to himself,
“If this man were a prophet, He would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39).
Simon was surprised that Jesus, this holy man would let a woman like this near Him. If Jesus really was from God, then, He would know the sins of this woman and He wouldn’t let her touch Him. Because God wouldn’t have anything to do with her, if He knew who she was.
What surprised Simon in this moment is something that also surprises me about God. I’ve wondered this about myself. The more I walk with Jesus, the more I wonder why He still chooses to love me. Over the years I have seen the depths of my sin. God has shone light on parts of my heart that I wish weren’t there. In His light, I see selfishness, fears, and doubts. I see many things that make me feel shame. I have fallen more times than I would like to admit.
I’ve found myself wondering, many times, if God knew what I would be, would He still have chosen me? When I see all that I’m not, I wonder if He regrets the decision to die for me. Is He just holding onto me out of duty or obligation, or does He truly love me? Because, if Jesus truly knew who or what kind of woman I am, because I am a sinner, He wouldn’t let me touch Him. He wouldn’t come anywhere near me.
I understand Simon’s question here in Luke’s Gospel. The Pharisees had this view of God, that He doesn’t care about or love dirty people. They thought if Jesus had truly come from God, He would stay away from sinners, because they were not worthy of Him. If I’m being honest I have believed this lie about God myself. I have believed God’s knowledge of my sin would push Him farther away from me.
Even when I read through the Bible, I see the people that God chooses, and I echo Simon’s thought. If God knew the sins, both past and future, of the people He chooses would He still choose them? After God saves Israel from their slavery in Egypt, they build a golden calf and worship it. If God would have known about this, would He have bothered to save them at all? If He knew what Israel would become, would He have let them stay in Egypt?
Even in the New Testament, I wonder about the choices that God made. The disciples were a bit of a mess. Even though they saw His works and heard His teachings, they still abandoned Jesus right before His crucifixion. Even while they followed Him, they doubted and were often confused. In Matthew 16, Jesus tells Peter that he will be the rock of the church. But only a few chapters later, while Jesus is being tried before His crucifixion, Peter denies any connection with Jesus. If Jesus really was a prophet, if He really was the Son of God, then He would have known who Peter was. If Jesus knew, then why would He decide to build the church on this crumbling rock?
I don’t know where you are with God right now. Maybe, you are seeing what I’ve been seeing. You’re seeing your sin for what it is. You’re seeing how dirty you are, how unworthy you are. And you can’t seem to understand why He would love someone like you. You may feel like any second God will see you for what you are and change His mind. You think to yourself, “If He really was God, then He would know…”
God knows.
He knew from the very beginning. He knew before I did, what kind of woman I would be. He knew I would be weak and timid. He knew the sins that I would find myself in, even after I was saved. He knows your sin and my sin, even better than we do. Jesus knew long before the sinful woman entered Simon’s house who she was and what she had done.
It's a scary thing to think about God knowing you fully. It’s uncomfortable to think that there is nothing in me that God does not know about. But as I read through the Bible and reflect on this knowledge of God, I also find comfort. God is fully aware of my sin and my current and future failures, and He chooses to have compassion on me. He is not surprised by my sin, and so He already has enough grace to cover me. He will not run out of grace because He wasn’t prepared, and He will not withhold grace because He doesn’t love me anymore. God knew about my weakness and He did not let the knowledge of that weakness stop Him from saving me. How amazing does it make God that He knows how messed up we are, and will be, yet He chooses to still love and still save?
You may be like the woman that entered Simon’s house. You may be seeing how sinful you are. You may be overwhelmed with shame. You may be feeling that if Jesus knew…
I hope and pray that wherever you find yourself today you might find some comfort here.
God knows where you are.
He knows what you are.
God is not surprised by your sin.
He knows.
And He has grace ready for you in Jesus Christ.

History has always been a neutral subject for me. I’ve never hated it, but I’ve never been overjoyed by it either. Names and especially dates tend to get jumbled together in my head. If I’m honest, I also just have a hard time connecting to the past. I know history is important and I know the people of the past are important, but they always seem so distant. So, when I started my church history class in college, I wasn’t really expecting much. In my mind, it was another class I needed to graduate but not much more. However, from the very first day of class God completely changed my mind and my heart when it comes to church history. During that class, I found a beautiful picture of our sovereign and merciful God. I was humbled and awestruck by the legacy He has built.
Now I have an appetite for the past; more specifically, our past. Because it is our past. If you are a Christian, then church history is your history too. I wrote in the first blog post about the church being a family. Well, every family has a legacy, a history. We, the people of God, have an amazing and deep history. We have inherited a historic faith. What we are today is because of what God has done throughout history. One thing my New Testament professor used to say often was the Bible didn’t fall out of the sky in King James English. He said this to remind us that the Bible we have today is rooted in history. There is a history behind the stories we read in the Bible. Likewise, I think we can say the same about the church and Christianity in general. The church we have today, the faith we have today didn’t just pop up in the 21st century. Author Tim Challies says it well in his article, Seven Reasons to Study the Church's Past, “The faith as we know it today was not simply handed to us, but was painstakingly developed over hundreds and thousands of years.” Everything we have in the church today is the result of God working in and with broken sinful people over the course of thousands of years.  
How crazy is that?
God was not just faithful during Biblical times. He did not stop working in the book of Acts. He has been working, saving, and redeeming our world since the beginning of time. And the gospel message that we preach every Sunday and throughout the week, has been preached by thousands and thousands of people ever since Jesus ascended back into heaven. That should be encouraging to us as we continue to preach and share the gospel today.  
Since I finished college, I’ve often wanted to get back into studying church history. I’ve wanted to refresh my memory and remember where we’ve come from. We are in an interesting period of history, both for the whole world, and for the church specifically. I’ve wanted to trace the line of our past to see how we got to where we are. I’ve wanted to see and marvel at how God has grown and changed His people throughout the ages. It’s cool to think about how over all these years, God has been behind all of it. And this time around, as I study and look back at our past, I want to invite you, my church family to join me. I want to share some of what I learn, whether it’s of people or places or events, with you. I hope that through the posts that follow, you will be able to marvel along with me at how God works through sinners just like us. I’ll be honest that I don’t know exactly how all of this will look from where I’m standing now, but I think it will be a good thing for us to take a look back every now and then. It can be easy in the day to day to get distracted and discouraged by how slow things seem to be going. The work we are doing here in Clinton may feel small sometimes. But, looking back at how much God has worked so far might help to encourage us to keep going.
Our past hasn’t always been a pretty one. There have been times of persecution, times where people have used the gospel for their own gain, times where we may question how God was at work. As difficult as it will be to walk through these things I think it will still be beneficial to us. As we walk through, I want to encourage us to remember two things that church historian Justo Gonzalez points out in his book, The Story of Christianity. The first is that “while this narrative is the history of the deeds of the Spirit, it is the history of those deeds through sinners such as we are” (pg.2).
One of the misconceptions a lot of people have about the church today is we are supposed to be these perfect people. Both inside and outside of the church there is this belief that if you are part of the church you never do anything wrong. But if we look back at the dark points in the history of the church, we have to come to terms with the fact that God isn’t saving perfect people, He’s saving sinful ones. This of course does not make sins okay. But we can let ourselves be humbled by remembering that God is redeeming us just as He redeemed people throughout history. The grace of God is not stopped because of our sins. The sins of people, both past and present, don’t make the gospel any less true. Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 3 says, “Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar.” The dark points of church history do not make the gospel less true or less reliable.
The second thing to remember is “it has been through those sinners and that church - and only through them - that the biblical message has come to us. Even in the darkest times in the life of the church, there were those Christians who loved, studied, and copied the Scriptures, and thus bequeathed them to us” (pg. 2). Again, Gonzalez reminds us that God works through sinful, broken people. And even in the times where God seems absent, when people are twisting the gospel for their own gain, God preserves His church. God is not stopped by sin. Even in the hardest points in our history, there are still men and women who stayed true to the gospel and who struggled to preserve it. Even in the history of Israel, in the Old Testament, God left a remnant of people who stayed faithful to Him. Even in the darkest points in history, the gospel has shone through.
There is a lot to gain from learning about the history of the church. I truly hope that y’all benefit from some of these posts. I hope that you’ll learn a little about where we come from, and even more about how faithful God is to have brought us this far. And as we learn together, I hope this brings us a little closer as a family and that we are all encouraged as we join with thousands of sinners throughout history in faithfully preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Related Links and Resources:
** Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity ((Vol. 1). New York, NY; Harper Collins
*Seven Reasons to Study the Church's Past: Tim Challies
Why Study Church History: Ligoner Ministries

Written by Kailynn Nelson
I’ve written a lot lately about being honest with God about ours sins and weaknesses. This has been a theme for my life for the past few years. God has been calling me daily to be honest about my fears (which are many), my failures, and my sins (which are also many). Of course, part of the irony about being honest with God is He already knows everything about me. But in calling me to see my sins and my fears for what they are, and then laying them down before Him, I’ve learned to trust His grace more. It’s a daily, even hourly, struggle for me, but I have learned so much about His love and grace for me. God has shown me how small I am, how unable to save myself I am, and then He has covered me with His grace and love. It’s been a hard but also beautiful journey. Through it I have learned there is beauty in confession.
When I talk about confession, I mean confessing both to God and to others. Confession just means being honest about where you are, again, both with God and with other people. But I think we’d all admit that being honest isn’t easy, especially when it comes to being honest about our sins. As I’ve written in a few other posts, we don’t like to share our weaknesses. We live in a society that likes to pretend everything is okay. We are an “I’m fine” people. We are afraid of what people will think, or what God will think, of us if we show how broken we really are. We are afraid of rejection, humiliation, and any number of other things. If we are honest about our sins, we may not be able to enjoy them anymore. We don’t want to feel judged, we don’t want to feel like other people are better than we are, and so we pretend to be okay. We do all sorts of things to try to make everyone want to be as okay as we are.
I’m very guilty of this. I pretend. I lie. I fake it. I tell people I’m okay when I’m not. I’ve tried to hide my sins. I’ve tried to pretend I’m not scared. I hate it when people think I’m weak. In fact, this is probably one of my biggest insecurities. I’ll go out of my way to make sure people know I’m not as small as they think I am.
But just as the Bible calls us to be honest with God, I believe it also calls us to be honest and open with others. And we are truly missing out on something amazing when we don’t do that. James writes in his letter,
“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:13-16).
Here, James calls us as the church to share our whole lives with each other. If we are suffering, or if we have joy, we are supposed to share all these things with each other. We are a family. And when we sin, James tells us to confess those sins to each other, as well. There are times when I wish that verse wasn’t in there. It’s not easy or comfortable to confess your sins to other people. But see what James says happens when a Christian does confess: “He will be forgiven.” It is important to confess our sins to God, like I’ve already said. But there is something beautiful about confessing those sins to others. The church is the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul talks about this several times in his letters. We are many members, but we are all joined into the same body. When one of us suffers, the other members share in that suffering. When something good happens to one person, we all get to rejoice together. And, when one of us sins, we should not hide it from the rest of the body. By confessing our sins to the rest of the body, we are able to experience the grace of God in a more tangible way. We actually get to feel the grace of God working through the rest of our body.
I’ve personally seen this during my time here at Heritage. Specifically, in my small group I’ve seen how powerful it can be to share my weaknesses with other Christians. Most of the people in my small group were brought together for what we call “Redemption Group” last summer. I won’t go into all of the details here, but the focus of this group was being honest about our sins with each other. It wasn’t a self-help thing, or just feeling sorry for ourselves. The point of the group was to preach the gospel to each other as we confessed to each other. We dug into the roots of our sins, ultimately something we weren’t believing about God. And then, we reminded each other about the truth of the gospel. We reminded each other who God is, and of His forgiveness for us. In this group, we were vulnerable, but in that vulnerability, we also found the grace of God working through each other. Many of us found that we struggle with similar things. As confession has become a pattern in our group, we have been able to help each other even more. Through this type of honesty, we grew closer together because we saw the grace of God through each other. And as I’ve been able to be more honest with these people, who are now no doubt my family, I’ve also been more honest with God. I’ve seen His grace through these other Christians. I’ve seen how He forgives and loves them in their sin and I’ve also seen Him love me through their grace toward me. Seeing His love like this has encouraged me beyond what I can describe in this post. And I don’t think I would have experienced His grace like this if I would have kept pretending that I was okay.
I could write a book just about all God has shown me in the past few years about how beautiful and important it is to be honest with other Christians. It’s something I’ve seen repeatedly, and something that really stirs my heart. I’ve learned there is just as much beauty in confession between other people as there is just with God. This is a pattern I’ve seen quite a bit at Heritage as a whole, as well as in my small group. And this is something I want to encourage us to keep pursuing together.
There is a type of church culture where no one wants to talk. No one wants to talk about their sins, no one wants to talk about the shame they feel, the fears they have. No one wants to talk about how confused they are. No one wants to talk about how they don’t always trust God.  And I hope and pray, as a whole church and individual members in it, we continue to push back against the temptation to stop talking to each other. I pray that we will continue to talk. We will continue to be honest. We will continue to confess.

Written by Kailynn Nelson

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:4)
This is the first in a series of rhetorical questions that God poses to the suffering Job. Job has had everything, but his own breath taken from him. In his pain and confusion, he questions God. He cries out to God, demanding an explanation for the tragedy he’s been going through. God does answer Job. God’s answer to Job’s suffering is ultimately Himself. He points Job back to His own greatness. Job is reminded that God is far greater than what people can understand. Job admits “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3).
Across the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, we see demonstrations of just how great God is. From the very beginning in Genesis 1, we see a divine being who can speak anything He wants into existence. He can just decide that something should exist, and it does.
In the story of Exodus, God demonstrated that He is far greater than any idol created by humankind or any earthly king. The plagues in Egypt all show the weakness of Pharaoh and his gods. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is more powerful than any ruler in any corner of the earth. When the Lord meets His people at Mt. Horeb to give them His Law, He intentionally appears to them in the midst of fire, with no earthly form. Here, God shows His people that no image they can carve will even come close to representing who He is. He is far greater than anything we can imagine.
Throughout the Psalms, David and the other psalmists constantly praise God for His awesome deeds. Psalm 90:2 says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” Psalm 104 walks us through all of creation and how God provides for animals and human being alike. Even in the prophetic books we see the power of God over the nations and kings as He moves them for His own purposes.
However, this greatness and power are not the only qualities of God. He is not simply a great force that rules over His creation with an iron fist, nor is He a God who creates and controls with no interest in His creation.
Unfortunately, however, this simple view is how a lot of the world views God. For many, He is no more than a tyrant or some distant figure who could care less about what happens to us. But if one studies the Bible carefully, they will find a beautiful picture of a God who is above all that He creates, and yet a God who chooses to be intimately involved in that creation. In many other creation myths, the world and humanity are merely the result of chaos or an accident. But the God of Christianity deeply desires His creation. The world He formed is no accident. He intentionally formed the mountains, the seas, the animals and birds. He called all those things good. Human beings were not formed as the result of some chaos in the heavens, but have been given the breath of this great, divine being. He forms us in His own image, giving us a piece of Himself, desiring to live and have a relationship with us.
Even as those beings that He carefully, lovingly formed turn our backs on Him, God does the remarkable once again. Instead of destroying us the minute we sin, the minute our hearts are covered in gross darkness, He covers us. He gives us clothes to cover their wickedness. And then He stays and even creates more of them. The rest of the Old Testament points to a God, who in His greatness chooses to stay and love a rebellious people. We see a God whose ultimate desire is to dwell with His creation. He does not want to just create and rule, He wants to love as well. This is a very radical and unusual thing, this God who wants to love the ones He creates. And in that desire to love His creation, He stays.
We may think to ourselves, “Well, that’s great, He wanted to create us and He stays in control. But God doesn’t want to come close to us right?” It’s easy to think about God looking at us and loving us from a distance, not wanting to get His holy hands dirty. He loves us, but from a distance, keeping us at arms-length so that our mess does not get on Him. But the beautiful thing we find if we study the Bible carefully is that God is not that god. Yes, He is holy. And yes, He hates sin. And yes, because of our sin there is a separation from Him. But that separation is not because God is afraid of getting dirty. The God of the Bible does not stand at a distance wishing He could love us closer. He does not look at us in our darkness, in our evil mess and feel sorry for us. He moves and initiates our salvation.
In fact, God loved this world, and the people He created so much that He stepped down into that world in the person of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2 says “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Our God took on the humanity He created. Although He was not anything like us, He became fully like us. He chose to step right into our despair and darkness. Philippians 2 goes onto say that “being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” God not only took on our humanness, He also took on the judgement and death that we deserve.
In the person and work of Jesus Christ, we see the great glory and the great love of our God come together. On the cross, Jesus Christ, both fully God and fully man, poured out His blood so that anyone who would believe in Him would be restored to God. Here we see this great love of God toward those He creates. We see a God who loves so much that, not only will He get His hands dirty, He will get them bloody. God doesn’t just wait for us to turn ourselves around, or for us to get our own acts together before He comes after us. No. Instead this God enters our world, taking our punishment on Himself, while we are still sinners, while we are still His enemies. In the cross, God shows His great love for us.
And in the resurrection of Jesus we see the pinnacle of God’s power and greatness. This God who gives life, can also conquer death. He can kill the thing that is killing us. He has control over both life and death. There is nothing that can stop Him from loving the ones He created. In the resurrection, the love of God is sealed by His power.
Here in Jesus Christ we see this same powerful God, who makes life out of nothing and controls the nations. For those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, this means that, as Paul says in Romans 8, “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).
The God that we have faith in is not like any other god we can imagine. He is so much God that we cannot capture His God-ness in any image we make. He creates what He wants out of nothing. He moves the course of the world to serve His purposes. He is outside of what we can imagine. And yet, God is also not a tyrant, Zeus-type god. He does not just sit and watch our lives from afar. He steps in and lives with us.
Our God does not distance Himself from His creation because He is afraid of getting dirty, or because He wants to look down on how small we are. Instead, this great, powerful God loves. He loves so much that He gets very personal with those He creates. God not only steps into our dark, evil world, He dies to save it. This is the God we worship, this God that is above all else.
 
Related Links:
Where Were You? Ghost Ship
The Lord is Great and Does Wondrous Things: Desiring God
The Lord, a God Merciful and Gracious: Desiring God

Written by Kailynn Nelson

We often refer to the church as a hospital for broken people. We build this idea from Jesus telling the Pharisees that “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Mark 2:15-17). Here the Pharisees are calling Jesus out because He ate with “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus responds by telling the Pharisees that He came to redeem those very people. He knew they were desperately sick and His mission was to heal them. I think this idea of Jesus coming to heal the sick challenges how many of us think about life and respond to the disease of sin.

Now I do believe that for true Christians there will be sanctification and change. There is an uprooting of sin. Jesus does not let us stay in our disease, but rather He desires that we are set free from it. For now, I just want to deal with the beautiful freedom that comes when we finally admit to ourselves, to the rest of the world, and to God that we are in fact sick. We cannot fully understand the cure for our sin unless we understand this first step of turning to Jesus for help.

Many commentators have noted that the Pharisees were just as sick as the tax collectors and sinners, they were just blind to their own sickness. Their sin was disguised as religion and trying to save themselves. They had an American, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps kind of thinking. If they did all the right things, if they followed the law, if they just cleaned themselves up, they could fix the problem. In their own minds, the Pharisees did not need a physician. When Jesus was seen eating with people who looked as sick as they actually were, the Pharisees thought that He was defiling Himself. By associating with sinners, Jesus would catch their “disease”.  Jesus’ response was that He was in fact healing that disease. The people who came to Him knew there was something wrong with them. They were aware of the darkness in their hearts; they were aware of their sin. They knew they were dying. These people also found that Jesus was their only hope for healing and life. The Pharisees, in contrast, would not approach Jesus to be healed because they had convinced themselves that they didn’t need it. They believed  their holy lives and their good works had kept them clean. They believed  they could cure the disease of personal sin.

But Jesus clearly preached something very different. Jesus says that many people will come to Him saying they have done many works in His name, but He will tell them He never knew them. The Pharisees came to Him with all their holy works and He called them whitewashed tombs. He told them they could not save themselves. Because sin is a disease that no amount of religious activity can cure.

This “do-it-yourself” kind of religion is something that many of us try to live out today. We brag about how we have built up our own lives without help from anyone else. We boast in our own strength to push through trials. Whether it’s religious works or any other success, we believe that we can fix anything that is wrong with us. We value the ability to do anything without ever needing help. Strength is valued above any sign of weakness.

We shudder at any indication that someone thinks we are weak. If someone tells us we are too weak or we can’t do it, what should our response be? To push back harder, to prove them wrong, to show them and the rest of the world that we are okay, that we’re not failing. We may be able to fool the rest of the world, and even ourselves, like the Pharisees, but we can’t fool God. The truth is in trying to cure ourselves, we are really pushing ourselves closer and closer to death.

Martin Luther puts it like this

"Note, this worthy man, despite the holiness of his life, has no acquaintance with any article but that of the divine judgment according to the Law. He knows not the comfort of Christ’s gospel. After a long life spent in the attempt to keep God’s commandments and secure salvation, the Law now slays him through his own works. He is compelled to exclaim: ‘Alas, who knows how God will look upon my efforts? Who may stand before Him?’ That means to forfeit heaven through the verdict of his own conscience. The work he has wrought and his holiness of life avail nothing. They merely push him deeper into death, since he is without the solace of the gospel, while others such as the thief on the cross and the publican, grasp the comfort of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins in Christ."*

When we pretend we are okay and fool ourselves into thinking we can secure our own salvation, we rob ourselves of the grace of Jesus Christ. We rob ourselves of our only cure and our only hope. Our efforts at healing only push us deeper into our disease.

In that cry for help, in that admitting I can’t do this on my own, God graciously and lovingly steps in. In that cry for help, I am set free. In that weakness, I find my only comfort in knowing that Jesus has already killed my sin, “nailing it to the cross,” (Col.2:14). I am healed by His death and resurrection.

Martin Luther points us to this truth as well when he says this:

"Cast your sins from yourself upon Christ, believe with a festive spirit that your sins are His wounds and sufferings, that He carries them and makes satisfaction for them…For if you do not take this course, but miss the opportunity of stilling your heart, then you will never secure peace, and must yet finally despair in doubt. For if we deal with our sins in our conscience and let them continue within us and be cherished in our hearts, they become much too strong for us to manage and they will live forever. But when we see that they are laid on Christ and He has triumphed over them by His resurrection and we fearlessly believe it, then they are dead and have become as nothing. For upon Christ they cannot rest."**

See how freeing that is? When I come to terms with my weakness and inability to save myself, I can cast them onto Jesus. I don’t have to pretend I have it all together anymore. I don’t have to be strong enough. I don’t have to heal myself. Jesus has already healed me in His death and resurrection. In dying, Jesus took my punishment. And in rising three days later, He killed my sin completely. I can come to Jesus in all of my weakness, knowing that He has healed me.


Sources:

*Luther, Martin. "15." 95: The Ideas That Birthed the Reformation. New Kensington: Whitaker House, 2017. 41-42. Print

**Luther, Martin. "14." 95: The Ideas That Birthed the Reformation. New Kensington: Whitaker House, 2017. 39-40. Print

Written by Kailynn Nelson

One of the beautiful parts of the Bible is how the Old Testament and New connect to each other. Throughout the Old Testament, we see stories and pictures that point us to something beyond what is going on in that moment. Many Old Testament stories point us forward to Jesus. Some familiar examples include: Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and the many references to the Messiah in the prophets. These all are great stories on their own of God and how He deals with His people. But they also point us to the beauty of the gospel. There is one other story in the Old Testament that I want to focus on that paints a beautiful picture of what Jesus does for us. That story is the story of Esther.
Ever since I was a little girl Esther has been one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It has always been a reminder to me of how God uses us where He places us. For many, Esther is a story of God’s sovereignty and provision for His people. He knows what is going to happen to His people and He will provide for them. That is usually the main lesson we pull form the story of Esther. Or we even like to make ourselves the hero in the story. I know many times I have read through this story assuming I am Esther, the woman that God will use to save His people.
However, I believe there is something much deeper going on here. I believe that if we look at Esther’s story in light of the gospel, we also see a picture of what Jesus has done for us. As we will see, the Jews in the book of Esther needed to be saved. They needed someone to stand in their place before the king, someone to intercede for them. Likewise, all of humanity needs to be saved. Because of our sin, need someone to stand in our place before God. In this story of Esther, read in light of the gospel, we see how God saves His people through intercession, through someone standing in their place.
Esther is set around the same time as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, during the reign of Ahasuerus King of Persia, following the exile of the Jews to Babylon. The story starts out with King Ahasuerus removing Vashti, his first queen, from her position as queen because she refused to come before his officials during a feast. After removing her, the king is counselled to seek another queen. So, he finds all the young virgins in the kingdom and brings them to the palace. Esther, a Jew, is one of those women. Esther quickly gains favor with the people in the palace, including the king himself, and is crowned queen.
After Esther is crowned queen, she learns of a plot devised by the king’s right-hand man, Haman. Haman ordered that on a certain day the people of Persia are to kill the Jews. This plot is meant to be a form of revenge against Esther’s cousin Mordecai, who refused to bow down and pay homage to Haman. Mordecai will not bow down to Haman because he is a Jew, and like many others in the Bible will not put another human being above God. Haman does not want to just hurt Mordecai, so he decides to hurt all the Jews. Mordecai tells Esther about Haman’s plan and asks her to go to the king and “plead with him on behalf of her people” (4:8).
According to Persian law, if anyone approached the king without being called they were sentenced to death, unless the king held out the golden scepter to them. But, Esther decides to help Mordecai save the Jews from Haman’s decree. She goes before King Ahasuerus, who holds out the scepter to her. She asks for him and Haman to come to a meal she has prepared for them. Then, she invites them to come back again the following day. During that final meal, Esther reveals Haman’s plot. Ahasuerus orders that Haman is to be killed and gives Esther permission to write a decree that allows the Jews to defend themselves. On the day when they are meant to be destroyed, the Jews end up seeing victory instead of death.
Like the Jews, all of humanity has been sentenced to death. This is a death that we deserve because of our sins. Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” In Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam that if he eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he will die. The sacrificial system in the Mosaic Law was meant to show, through the death of animals, that someone has to die to pay for our sins.
In the story of Esther, the Jews were also unable to ask the king for help. First, in the Persian Empire, laws and decrees were set in stone. Once a law or decree was made it was impossible to revoke or change it. Also, the Jews were merely subjects and had no right to approach the king. When Mordecai asked Esther to help, she reminded him that “if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law- to be put to death, except to the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live” (4:11). Even if the Jews were part of the royal family they would not be able to ask for help unless they were called. There was nothing that they could do to save themselves.
We find ourselves in a similar position. The death that we brought upon ourselves cannot be revoked. We, as mere subjects, are also unable to approach God to ask for help on our own. Moses is told in Exodus 33:20 that no one can see God and live. The Bible makes it clear that we are unable, and even unworthy, of approaching God to plead for our lives on our own. Even if we were allowed into His presence, we have no right to argue for our own lives because of our sin before Him.
As I said before, many times when I read the Old Testament I want to put myself in the position of the hero. I want to be David killing Goliath or, in this case, I want to be Esther saving God’s people. And while Old Testament characters surely provide us with examples of faith whom we should strive to be more like, more often we should be casting ourselves in the place of the Jews, the ones who need saving. When we put ourselves in the position of the Jews we can see the message of the gospel more clearly. We need someone who can approach the throne of our Lord. This someone needs to be more than a subject. They need to have favor and good standing with the King. They also need to be willing to risk their life to help us.
The Jews had Esther. She had been brought by God into the household of the king and she had been granted favor with the king. She was the queen. She was loved and chosen by the king. Esther as a Jew could empathize with the fate of her people. But, as a member of the royal family, she could approach the king on their behalf.
We, have Jesus, a better Esther so to speak. The book of Hebrews talks about Jesus being a great high priest. The role of the high priest was to intercede for the sins of the people. They were qualified by God to stand before God and plead with Him. Jesus came into our world and took our place in His life, death, and resurrection.
Hebrews 2:17 says that He was made like us in every respect so that He could empathize with our situation. Jesus sees us on our way to deserved death, and has compassion. Because He is also God Himself, Jesus can stand before God and beg for our lives. Hebrews 7 says that Jesus always lives to intercede for those who draw near to Him. Like Esther, Jesus saves the people of God by going to the King on their behalf, through intercession.
What makes Jesus better than Esther, however, is that He allows us to approach God ourselves. Hebrews 4:16 says that because of the intercession of Jesus Christ, we can approach “the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Christ’s favor with God not only extends to us on the outside, He actually brings us inside the family of God. Jesus Himself, stands beside us as He intercedes for us.
Like many other stories in the Old Testament, Esther ultimately shows us a picture of Jesus. In this story, we see how God saves His people through Esther’s intercession. She was the only one willing to approach the king, risking her own life. She stands in place of the rest of the Jews, and pleads for their salvation. She risks her life so that they might live. It is only through Esther’s intercession that His people are saved. Jesus gives up His life so that  might live. And it is only because Jesus stands before God on our behalf, only because He intercedes for us that we are saved.
 
Related Resources:
Read Scripture: Esther
Desiring God: Our High Priest is the Son of God Perfect Forever