For Those Prone to Forget

I recently got up and proceeded to get ready for the day, preparing to take my son to school. As I gathered my purse and keys, I called for him, “Are you ready to go?”

He came into the kitchen, still dressed in pj’s. “Mom, it’s Good Friday. I don’t have school today.”

Sigh. Oh, yeah.

I am increasingly forgetful. So much so, I have monthly, weekly, and daily lists to remind me of where I need to go and what I need to do. Apparently, even those aren’t sufficient for me to remember my son has a day off from school.

I don’t know about you, but I am also spiritually forgetful. I go about my day as though my life depends on me. I labor in my own strength. I put my trust in methods, plans, and to-do lists. I fret and worry and fear in the face of challenges and unexpected circumstances. I often feel overwhelmed and ill-equipped. In all these ways and more, I forget the power at work in me. I forget the gospel and its significance, not only for salvation, but for daily life and growth in grace.

The Apostle Peter wrote a letter to a group of believers, reminding them of the gospel and its power to transform them. He reminded them they’ve been given everything they need to live a godly life, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:3-4). Friends, this is huge! Did you catch that? God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. All things!

He did this through the work of Christ on our behalf, who through his perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection, secured for us all the promises of God. Through faith in Christ, we are united to him. We have the very Spirit of Christ living within us, making us partakers of the divine nature. That word, partakers, in the Greek is koinónos. It means mutual fellowship, sharer, partner. We share in God’s nature as we become increasingly more like Christ, through the power of his Spirit at work in us.

Peter then goes on to describe what it looks like to grow more and more like Christ (vv.5-7). These are qualities that characterize sharing in the divine nature. They are the natural outworking of the Spirit’s power in and through us. These qualities help us bear fruit for the Kingdom (v.8). These are not characteristics that save us; rather, they are produced in us by the Spirit as we live out the realities of our salvation in Christ.

• virtue

• knowledge

• self-control

• steadfastness

• godliness

• brotherly affection

• love

He then cautions, “For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (v.9). Peter could refer here to those who verbally expressed faith in Christ but did not have a transformed heart. Or he could refer to true Christians who have wandered from the truth. Either way, such forgetfulness is serious. Friends, it is crucial that we remember our salvation. The good news of the gospel is that not only are we saved by grace, but we are also transformed by grace. God calls us to grow in the likeness of Christ and then he provides us all we need to do so. Amazing grace!

When we find ourselves living life apart from the gospel; when we find ourselves living as though everything is up to us and our own strength, wisdom, and power; when we find ourselves stagnant in our growth in godliness; we need to remember the gospel which saved us. We need to remember the promises of God for us in Christ: We are his children (Jn. 1:12); He will make us like the Son (1 Jn 3:2); He will persevere us to the end (Phil. 1:6); We have an inheritance in heaven (1 Pet. 1:4), among many others.

Forgetting what day it is (an all too often problem for me!) is a challenge. Forgetting an appointment is problematic. Forgetting the one thing you went to the grocery store to pick up is annoying. But forgetting what Christ has done for us in the gospel is far worse. May we go to great lengths to remember and rehearse the truths of the gospel each day, relishing in the truth that God has given us everything we need to live for him.

A Broken and Contrite Heart

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” Psalm 51:2

I don’t now about you, but my first response to sin in my life is to minimize it. I look for ways to lesson my responsibility. Someone else made me angry and that’s why I responded the way I did. I was sick or tired or simply don’t remember doing anything wrong. Or how about this one: what I did is not as bad as what someone else did. In all these ways and more, I attempt to justify my actions, to make my sin seem like a good thing, when it is actually far from it.

In Psalm 51, we get a glimpse into the heart of a sinner, King David. The prophet Nathan confronted David for his sin against Bathsheba and his immediate response wasn’t to self-justify himself. He didn’t try to minimize his sin or look for someone else on which to lay the blame. He didn’t even come up with some method to rehabilitate himself; rather, he simply said, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13). He then penned Psalm 51, a lament in which he confessed his sin to the Lord. This psalm then became a hymn for God’s people.

There is much we can learn from David’s psalm about confession of sin. Even more, it can help shape our own prayers of confession.

Trust in God’s steadfast love and mercy: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions” (v.1). At the start of this psalm, David turned in humble reliance upon God’s covenant love and mercy. These are characteristics of God found throughout Scripture, linked with his identity as the Great I AM (see Ex. 34:6-7). This is the truth we too must rest in when we cry out to the Lord and seek his forgiveness for sin. We come before One who is unchanging in his steadfast love and mercy. The same God who walked past Moses as he hid behind a rock is the same God who hears our prayers today. The same God to whom David turned in prayer, is the same God we turn to today—full of steadfast love and mercy.

Our sin is against God: Though David’s sin was against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, it was ultimately a sin against a holy and righteous God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (v.4). We must remember that all our sin is against God. Even one sin, no matter how small it may seem, is an affront to One who is holy pure. When we have sinned, it is important that we call it what it is. That we name it. That we don’t minimize or excuse it, but confess it.

Salvation is found in God alone: Only God can cleanse us from our sin. “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow… Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior” (vv. 2, 7, 14). In David’s day, atonement for sin was made through the sacrificial system, one that had to be repeated over and over. On this side of redemptive history, forgiveness and salvation is found in Jesus Christ. Through faith in his perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection, we are cleansed from sin and made righteous. There is nowhere we can turn for life and hope but in Jesus. No one else can rescue us but the perfect Lamb of God. As much as humanity might like to think otherwise, there is no other solution, plan, or remedy available to us. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6).

Our sin is a barrier between us and God: David refers to this barrier in Psalm 51, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (vs. 11-12). Ever since our first parents sinned and were cast out of the Garden, there has been a barrier between us and God. Jesus came to tear down this barrier. He came to bring us back into right relationship with the One who made us. And in removing this barrier, we now have full access to the throne of grace, where we can come to God in confidence and receive the grace and help we need (Heb. 4:16).

God cleanses us and makes us new: In this lament, David asks for cleansing: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (v.10). Not only does David want forgiveness, he wants to be cleansed; he wants to be washed clean from his sin. We have to be made right before we can come into God’s presence, for only those who are holy can stand before him. In Christ, we are new creations. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). What amazing grace!

God wants our broken and contrite hearts: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (vv.16-17). We bring nothing to the throne of grace but our broken and contrite hearts. We come to God just as we are. We do so through the sacrifice of Christ, wrapped in his robes of righteousness. When we’ve sinned, it is good and right to come to the Lord in lament for our sin, bringing him our broken and contrite hearts. That is a sacrifice he delights in.

Our response to this grace is a heart that rejoices. Anyone who encounters God’s amazing grace— who has been forgiven, cleansed, and made right with God— can’t help but response in praise to the One who made it so. “Restore to me the joy our your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (v.12). “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise” (v. 15). When we’ve confessed our sin and appropriated the gospel of Jesus Christ to our heart and experience God’s grace and forgiveness anew, we respond in praise and thanksgiving. We rejoice at the goodness of God.

David sinned against Bathsheba and rightly felt the sting of conviction. His guilt weighed on him, so much so, that it felt like broken bones (v.8). When we too feel the pain of conviction for sin, may we be quick to run to our Father in prayer. May we come to him in humility and honesty, with complete confidence, knowing that our loving, merciful God forgives us through the cleansing blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sharing in Christ's Sufferings

“…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10)

I don’t know about you, but my first instinct upon facing suffering is to find a way to extricate myself from it. When I encounter loss, hardship, trials, or difficulties, I just want them to go away. I don’t care to stop and consider what lessons I might learn from them. I just want to move on to better and brighter days.

In Philippians 3:10, Paul talks about wanting to share in the sufferings of Christ. What? Why would he want to experience that? Earlier in this chapter, he talks about his sevenfold pedigree. He talks about all the things he once looked to and found confidence in: circumcised on the eighth day, a Pharisee, persecuting the church. Then he met Christ on the road to Damascus and everything changed. He came to faith and was united to his Savior. His confidence changed. Instead of placing his confidence in his works, in his heritage, or in his obedience to the law, he now places his confidence in Christ and his work on his behalf, “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (v.9). In fact, all those things from his past, he now considers rubbish (v.8), refuse, something only worthy of tossing to the dogs.

Paul no longer depends upon himself for salvation, but upon Christ alone. He now wants to know more of Christ. He wants to experience fellowship with Christ, including fellowship in Christ’s sufferings. In the Greek, fellowship is koinonia. It means to share, participate in, commune with. Through faith in Christ, we are united to him. Everything that is his becomes ours. His perfect life, sacrificial death, triumphant resurrection, and ascension is now ours. We are clothed in his righteousness. God accepts Christ’s death as payment for our sins. In Colossians, Paul tells us we’ve risen with Christ (3:1). The Westminster Confession puts it this way: “All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their head by his Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory” (Ch.XXVI). As Rankin Wilbourne wrote is his book, United With Christ, “When we are in Christ, every part of Christ’s life, not only his death, has significance for us. We share in his life and obedience, his death and his resurrection, even his ascension! We participate in another’s victory…How can such things be? God in Christ assumed our full humanity to heal our full humanity. He came all the way down to blaze a trail all the way back—for us to live in the presence of God.”

When we come to faith in Christ, we too cast aside all those things in which we once placed our confidence. Our own pedigrees become rubbish. United to Christ, we now get to share in all that Christ is for us, including his sufferings. When we experience our own sufferings, we learn more of the great love of Christ who endured immeasurable suffering on our behalf. And more, when we participate in the sufferings of Christ, the power of the resurrection is evident in our life.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11)

This Holy Week, as we remember and dwell on the sufferings of Christ for us at the cross, may we look at our own sufferings in this life as an opportunity to fellowship (koinonia) with our Savior. May we learn more of Christ’s great love for us as we face the hardships and sorrows of this life. And may this fellowship further encourage us with the hope of the resurrection to come. Because he lives, we too will live forever with him in glory.

Who Shepherds You?

I have a framed photo hanging on my dining room wall that I picked up while in Israel a few years ago. It was taken in the early 1900’s and shows a shepherd with his sheep gathered on the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane. The shepherd sits there with his sheep, looking toward the city of Jerusalem and the temple mount.

I love this photo, not just because it reminds me of my trip, but also because it reminds me of my Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. On the night before he was betrayed, Jesus also stood in that Garden and looked toward the temple—its smoke billowing out from the repeated sacrifices made for sin. But not for long, for he would soon become the final sacrifice as he laid down his life for his sheep.

My pastor is preaching through the book of John and he recently asked the question: “Who shepherds you?”

John wrote about Jesus as the Good Shepherd and my first thought when asked such a question was: “Of course, the Lord is my Shepherd.” After all, as Jesus said in the book of John: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He also knows me and I know him (v.14). He calls me and I follow him (v. 27). He gives me eternal life and no one can take me from him (v. 28).

But the question my pastor asked has to do with other shepherds in my life. Other voices I heed. Others who call out to me and I follow after them. Others who influence and shape my heart. Others who offer alternate paths to life. Others who offer hope and rescue from the cares of life. These shepherds are not those appointed over me by my Good Shepherd, but those who seek to lead me astray. The more I think about it, the more I realize the number of lesser shepherds in my life. Those voices who call out to all who will listen to follow after them: podcasters, bloggers, social media influencers, cultural leaders, and the like. There are also fictional shepherds, those who don’t exist in the flesh, but whose stories in movies, television, and books influence the heart and mind with falsehood. There are even shepherds who use the name of Christ to speak a false gospel and seek to lead God’s people astray.

While at a recent college tour with my son, one of the college staff pointed out that college professors seek to make their students like them. He asked us to consider, “Who do you want shaping your student’s heart?” For educational leaders too can be like shepherds, gathering a flock of sheep who follow after them in their teaching.

Anyone or anything that speaks not the words of the Good Shepherd is a thief come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). The question is, who shepherds my heart? Who shepherds your heart? Is it the One who truly knows his sheep? The One who calls them each by name? The One who lays down his life for them? Or is it some lesser shepherd, whose words and influence lead not to life, but to death?

May we listen and follow after our Good Shepherd, for he alone knows the way to life.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:1-3)

Missing a Place I've Never Been

Our family enjoys traveling to visit and tour new places. Whether it’s a city in another part of the country, or another country altogether, we love visiting places we’ve never been. Many of our trips include learning about the history of a place and exploring the beauty of God’s creation. Often, the kids and I will do a unit study on a place, digging into its historical past and its unique culture before we visit. We’ll read both fiction and non-fiction books about the place where we are headed. We’ll learn about the food and talk about the meals we want to try. We’ll also research places to walk or hike during our trip, places where we can witness the creative hand of God. Then we’ll spend months preparing for and looking forward to our trip.

Last year, like everyone else, all our plans to travel were cancelled. I’ve since felt a strong tug to get away and explore the world. I recently watched a travel show about a place I was scheduled to visit this year, but has since been cancelled. As I watched the tour guide explore this place, I felt a twinge of grief. I felt sadness over missing a place I’d never been to before. I felt a longing to be in that place.

The Germans have a word for this feeling: Fernweh. It means a “longing for distant places,” coming from Fern which means “distance” and wehe which means “ache or sickness.” So literally, fernweh means “distance sickening.” It can also refer to the longing for a place you’ve never been to. A place you’ve long dreamed of. A place you know you’ll love.

Perhaps, even a place where you know you belong.

More and more, I have a longing for another place I’ve never been. This longing is shared by all believers, past, present, and future. It’s the place of our citizenship. The place where our Savior now sits at God’s right hand. The place where shalom is ever present and the glories of God are on magnificent display. The place that is our destiny.

Heaven. Our true home.

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:21).

I’ve felt this fernweh more and more as the place in which I pilgrimage grows increasingly foreign to me. I’m reminded that I don’t belong and I never will. I’ve felt this longing more and more as I consider Christ and who he is and what it would be like to be in his presence. I’ve felt it as I grieve over my sin and long to be shed of it once for all. I’ve felt it more and more as I contrast this life and the one to come. The more my grip loosens on the things of this world, I long all the more for the next.

When my family and I plan a trip together, we spend time preparing for it. We learn all we can about where we are headed. We learn about the ways of the people and place. We set aside money to invest in the costs associated with the trip. We count down the days until we leave. Oh, that my heart would do this and more to prepare for life in eternity! Oh, that I would store up treasures in heaven, rather than invest in things that will not last!

The feeling of fernweh may one day soon pass once vacations and travel become the norm again. But I pray that my fernweh for heaven never ceases. May I always feel that “distance sickening” until the day I enter the gates of glory.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:1-4).

Celebrating the Launch of Tell God How You Feel

Launch day is almost here! Tell God How You Feel: Helping Kids with Hard Emotions officially releases on Friday!

This is my first children’s book and I’m excited to share it with you. Tell God How You Feel is a discipleship tool for parents to use to help their children learn to bring their emotions to the Lord in prayer. It helps children learn to identify and verbalize their emotions. It helps them learn that God cares about their emotions. It helps them learn to see God as their place of refuge in all the cares of life.

The book contains separate stories, each focusing on a specific emotion all children feel: fear, sadness, rejection, loneliness, and gratitude. The characters in each story learn about what God’s word says about these feelings. They learn about people in the Bible who felt those emotions. They learn how to tell God about their emotions and ask for his help. Each story contains discussion questions which help parents talk with their children about their feelings and about the God who loves and cares for them. If you are familiar with my book, A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament, then you’ll recognize that this book is inspired by it. It plants a seed in the hearts of children, giving them a beginning understanding of what it looks like to lament to God all of their feelings.

We all have habits in how we respond to difficult emotions, many of which we developed as children. Some of us distract ourselves from what we are feeling. Others pretend we are feeling fine when in fact we are not. As a Weight Watcher’s commercial from a few years ago revealed, some eat in response to any emotion they feel—whether good or bad. Rather than develop unhealthy responses to emotions, my hope is that as children grow and mature, they will develop the spiritual habit of turning to the Psalms and using its prose to help them shape their own prayers and laments to the Lord.

Want to learn more about the book? You can view a sample here. It’s available for pre-order now and will officially release on Friday. Are you on social media? Be sure to visit my Facebook page and @christinarfox on Instagram this week to enter for opportunities to win a copy.