Bible

Why I’m Reading the Bible (Again) This Year

JENILYN SWETT | GUEST How did you usher in the new year? Perhaps with a midnight toast, watching the Rose Bowl parade in your pajamas, or eating some dumplings or black eyed peas. In addition to some of those festive activities, I spent time journaling and did some deep-cleaning to help give the year a fresh start. I also started back at the beginning of the Bible reading plan I followed (with a few stops, starts, and detours) last year. If you’ve gotten out of the habit of regular Bible reading – or if it’s a habit you’ve never developed, the new year can be a good time to start (or start again). The Bible is God’s Word, for us, so it is worth our time and attention. It’s worth treasuring because it’s how God makes himself known to us (Psalm 19). And just like any treasure is worth looking at over and over, the Bible is worth reading again. Here are a few reasons why I’m continuing the habit of regular Bible reading again this year, and why I hope you’ll consider doing so too. Because We’re Forgetful No matter how many times I’ve been told, no matter how many times I tell others, I still tend to forget some important things: God’s love for and delight in me, the ugly reality of my own sin, the significance of Jesus’s sacrifice, the hope we have in the resurrection. I need God’s Word to remind me. We have the Holy Spirit to help us remember what we’ve been taught, and one of the key ways he does that is through the living, active words of Scripture (John 14:26; Heb. 4:12). Because We Need Help Praying When I don’t have the words, when I’m not sure what to ask for, or when my heart is just struggling to pray, the words of Scripture are a great help....

Why I’m Reading the Bible (Again) This YearChristina Fox2024-12-26T19:37:56+00:00

Why Use a Physical Bible

.TARA GIBBS | CONTRIBUTOR Last fall, I received a text with nothing but a photo of the original, hardback, black and white English Standard Version Bible from my 23-year-old son. I replied with a single question mark. His response made me smile, “Mom, we are at Goodwill, and I saw your Bible.” Why would this text have such an effect on me? I have made more parenting mistakes than I can number, but that day, I stopped to give thanks to God that when my son sees a generic, hardback ESV Bible at Goodwill, he associates it with the impact and reality of God’s living Word in his formative years. What a picture of God’s grace. And what a reminder of the importance of God’s Word in physical form. The God who made us as physical beings allows us to touch, feel, and see His covenant love through physical words on paper. In this day where Bible access is incredibly convenient on our ever-present phones, it is easy to neglect the use of our physical Bibles. I confess my own struggle as a daily Bible-reading plan conveniently populates my inbox with clickable emails. I open the email, and a link leads me straight to a read-aloud plan with a devotional by Don Carson. What could be more convenient? I am a fan of using the audio feature to help me get through my longer Bible-readings. But there is something very personal and irreplaceable about picking up my own personal physical Bible, touching the pages, and hearing God’s faithfulness through these words for the last five decades. “I read this promise, during this struggle, on this page in the upper, right-hand corner.” I open my Bible to a passage I memorized with my children, and pictures of God’s goodness flood my mind. There is no replacement for regular use of a physical Bible. Here are a few places and ways we can do so: Encouragement to Use a Physical Bible Use a physical Bible in your personal devotional reading whenever possible. Reading comprehension, retention, and multi-sensory connection to the reality of God’s love and presence happen in a deeper way with our physical Bibles...

Why Use a Physical BibleChristina Fox2024-08-26T14:53:44+00:00

Why Talk About Covenant Theology

SARAH IVILL | CONTRIBUTOR Our family attends Christ Covenant Church. The school that meets on our campus, and is a ministry of the church, is Covenant Day School. Our denomination’s college, as well as the seminary, is named Covenant. And the most recent women’s ministry leadership training conference was titled: A Covenantal Framework for Life & Ministry. Yet many of us do not understand the meaning of Covenant Theology, and therefore, do not understand why it is important to talk about it. So, I want to suggest five reasons why we should talk more about covenant theology. What Covenant Theology Reminds Us First, Covenant Theology reminds us of a perfect promise. There is no way that we could have reached out to have a relationship with the creator God. But amazingly, He has reached out to us by way of His covenant. He has promised, “I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Lev. 26:12). Second, Covenant Theology reminds us that the Bible is better than any other book. It reveals the bigger picture of who God is and who we are. Through His Word, He reveals our need of salvation and of His perfect solution in the Savior. Third, Covenant Theology reminds us that Christ is the center of our story, as well as the bigger story of redemption. In fulfillment of the covenant of grace, which is founded upon the covenant of redemption, Christ accomplished the redemption that God the Father appointed, and the Holy Spirit applies (see John 17:1-26; Eph. 1:3-14; Heb. 13:20). Fourth, Covenant Theology reminds us of the implications of God’s free grace. Justification and adoption are acts of God’s free grace, and sanctification is the work of God’s free grace. Everyone deserves God’s wrath (Eph. 2:1-3). But God is “rich in mercy” and love and saves His people by grace (vv. 4-5). This salvation is not a possibility, but a certainty (vv. 6-7)...

Why Talk About Covenant TheologyChristina Fox2024-03-05T17:59:03+00:00

Advent Devotional: Jeremiah 23:1-6

CHRISTINE GORDON|GUEST 1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. 5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ (Jeremiah 23:1-6) Consider this scenario: you hire a babysitter to care for your young children for a few days. When you check in on them, you realize that instead of feeding them, the sitter has neglected them. Instead of keeping them safe in your house and yard, enforcing rules for their safety, the sitter has been so brutal that the children have run from the house, out into the neighborhood and streets. They are now hungry, unprotected, and flirting with danger. What might your heart for your children and your response to the sitter be? Any parent would feel protective love for the children and outrage mixed with enormous anger at the sitter. Shepherds Failed God’s People This is the situation God is addressing in Jeremiah 23. God called Jeremiah around 626BC to prophesy to the southern kingdom of Israel. God’s words to these people included his anger with them for their idolatry, and warnings of a force coming from the north that would punish them if they didn’t change their ways. God spoke in particular about the failure of Israel’s leaders to care for his people. These leaders failed the people fantastically, leaving them ignorant and drifting into idolatry. In his protective love for his people, he provided priests, prophets, and kings to guide, protect, and uphold justice. In Jeremiah’s time, leaders were often referred to as shepherds. God intended for them to shepherd his people with tender care, as a shepherd protects his sheep. But far from that attentive watchfulness, these shepherds had abused their positions of power, and actually scattered the flock they were to preserve. In these words of chapter 23 we feel the anger of God and his heart for his wandering people who have not been pastored well. At this point in the book of Jeremiah, the first wave of exiles had probably already been taken out of the city of Jerusalem and transported to Babylon as prisoners. In verse two, God says through Jeremiah that because these shepherds had failed to attend his people with their love and care, he would attend the shepherds with his punishment...

Advent Devotional: Jeremiah 23:1-6Christina Fox2023-11-15T21:56:42+00:00

The Most Important Person in Your Bible Study

CHRISTINE GORDON|GUEST I’ve seen the signs and I’ll bet you have, too. They’re on special store shelves, tucked into sale flyers, and piled up in designated areas of Target, curtly signaling that summer is waning. The school supplies are back. It always surprises me, no matter how many summers I’m alive. “Really?” I think to myself. “It’s already time?” Once I’ve accepted the sad fact that pool season will once again come to an end, I begin to think about what comes next. For me and many women in the church, this means Bible studies. Every fall, we crank up the machine: leaders, sign up lists, childcare, and nighttime meeting spaces. It’s a good effort and a worthy cause. We need the help of our sisters, the regular schedule and expectation of a passage studied, a book chapter finished. But in all our resolute efforts, it’s easy to forget that we are not the only participants in this endeavor. In fact, if the sum of our activity was simply a group of women regularly reading the same text, our time may have been better spent back at the Target school supply area. The Work of the Spirit Thanks be to God, something more than a good book club happens in these groups—something supernatural and beautiful. God himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, works alongside the Word of God. Our Father not only reveals himself in his Word; he also illuminates our hearts so that we might understand and believe it...

The Most Important Person in Your Bible StudyChristina Fox2023-07-25T19:12:32+00:00

Parenting in the Age of LGBTQ+

KELLY URBON|GUEST An “age” is a cultural period marked by the prominence of a particular item or a particular way of understanding the world. By that definition, our current cultural moment certainly represents a new age with respect to identity, sexuality, and gender. Never before have sexuality and gender been so persistently centered, and so drastically redefined. The numbers related to this change can be a bit shocking. According to a recent Gallup poll, the number of individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or by some description other than heterosexual and cisgender, doubled from 2012 to 2021. By far the biggest change is seen in those who have come of age as a member of Gen Z. A surprising 20% of those born between 1997 and 2003 self-identify as LGBTQ+. Given these statistics, it is no surprise that there has been an enormous increase in the number of parents who have a child sit down with them to reveal that they are gay, bisexual, nonbinary, trans or queer, to name a few. Many parents struggle to respond. Especially for parents whose firm theological convictions are in conflict with outright acceptance of these identities, this part of the parenting journey can be especially challenging. While there are no cookie cutter responses sufficient to meet all of the questions and tasks before these parents, the following are a few suggestions that will lay a basic foundation for a godly response. Cultivate compassion and patience Several months ago I came across a quote by Christian author Tim Challies. It has become a foundational principle in my current parenting. Challies wrote, “Remember that your children are sinners who are beset by the fierce enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Be gentle with them and have pity for them. Don’t be yet another enemy to them.” Colossians 3:12 immediately comes to mind: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”...

Parenting in the Age of LGBTQ+Christina Fox2023-08-15T13:25:51+00:00

Cultivating Hearts of Adoration

ABBY HUTTO | GUEST One summer while my children were in elementary school, I instituted a new prayer policy in our home. I could no longer take hearing the same prayer over and over again. Every single day, three times a day, they prayed, “Thank you, Jesus, for our food and please help us have a great day.” I finally had enough. I purchased a little chalkboard, downloaded a prayer guide with 31 names/attributes of God, and made a new rule: before we thank Jesus for our food, before we ask him to make every day a great day, we must first thank him for being himself. I declared that summer a season of adoration. Meditating on God’s Character My children were doing what comes instinctively to all of us. When we pray, it’s easy to thank God for the things he has done for us. We don’t have to search our minds for things we want to ask him for. If we’re truly spiritual, we confess our sins. But appreciating God for just being who he is doesn’t seem to come naturally to us. Adoration is not something modern American Christians spend a lot of time doing. Our culture, our schedules, and our overactive hearts don’t leave us time to slow down and meditate over who God is in his character and nature. We rarely separate who God is from what he does. At first glance, that may not seem like a big deal. After all, who God is in his character and nature is displayed in his acts of power as he works in our world to rescue and save his people. Thanksgiving and supplication are vital to our prayer lives. Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts.” It is good and right to be moved by God’s intervention in our life. When he provides, comforts, rescues, it is right to be thankful for what he has done. But do we also adore him for who he is? Do we open our prayers as Jesus taught us, adoring our Father who is hallowed and enthroned in his heavenly kingdom?

Cultivating Hearts of AdorationKathy Wargo2023-03-24T18:08:40+00:00

Cultivating the Art of Reading at Home

ANN MARIE MO|GUEST In a technology-driven world, books face stiff competition. Have a question about George Washington or what to make for dinner tonight? It’s just easier to google than to read an entire book. Books require time, concentration, effort. Reading War and Peace necessitates devoting weeks, if not months, to unlock the treasure within. In contrast, our handheld devices offer instant gratification. Why Read Good Books? Yet good books impart to their readers what no digital device can match: Some of my fondest childhood memories are the summers I spent living at the library immersed in one compelling hardbound story after another. I recall the summer before fifth grade when I discovered the genre of historical fiction and a few years later in middle school when I read Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and in high school, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Through these books, I learned the world is powerfully unjust and not everyone grows up with the same opportunities. By my junior year in high school, I knew I would major in English at college. Books were my gateway to understand another person’s experiences and be exposed to new ideas. Fast forward to adult life, teaching my children to read and cherish books has been of paramount importance.

Cultivating the Art of Reading at HomeKathy Wargo2023-03-24T18:09:04+00:00

How the Bible’s Story Intersects with Our Story

If you know me at all, you know I love talking about the big story of the Bible—the one that starts in the garden and doesn’t end until we see God on his throne in the new heavens and new earth. This big, overarching story—also called the metanarrative—is beautiful, vast, and shows us a God who spans eternity and holds all things in his hands. But does it do more than simply astound us? Are there reasons to understand it other than merely marveling at it? In other words, does understanding the metanarrative of Scripture make any difference in my day-to-day life? The short answer is, it should. Understanding the biblical story helps us read our Bibles well, remember God’s love, and reminds us there’s more going on. Read Our Bibles Well The Bible is God’s self-revelation. We don’t “discover” God; we can’t. He’s completely other-than us. He’s the Creator and we’re the created. Any knowledge we have of him is because he has chosen to reveal himself to us—because he wants us to know him! The way he chose to reveal himself is through a story. In this story, he sometimes tells us who he is (i.e. Ex. 34:6-7), but mostly he shows us who he is. If we’re reading our Bibles well, we’re supposed to know more about God by observing what he does. He creates, protects, rescues, promises, speaks, provides, and engages in real relationship with his people. We are meant to take those actions and ascribe them to God. He is a creator, a protector, a rescuer, a promise maker (and we’ll see promise-keeper, too!), a provider, etc. He doesn’t come right out and tell us most of this, we learn it as we see God act....

How the Bible’s Story Intersects with Our StoryChristina Fox2022-05-05T00:13:25+00:00

In Bible Study, Words Matter

Words matter. As a counselor, I know the power of the spoken word, how certain words can break a relationship, while others can heal it. As a writer, I know the importance of selecting the right word to use in a sentence. Sometimes, just one word can be the difference between confusion and clarity. Words matter in the Bible as well. God created the world through just the power of his word; he merely spoke and light appeared. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is The Word incarnate, God’s word to us made flesh. Unlike the words we write or speak, God’s word is active and alive; it changes and transforms. It is truth which sanctifies. As we prepare to return to Bible studies with the women in our churches this fall, it is appropriate to look at the significance of words in Scripture, for every word carries meaning and significance. When we study a passage or chapter in the Bible, it is important to make note of the words used, the meanings of those words, and how they are used. It makes a world of difference as we seek to understand, learn, and be transformed by the very word of God. As you study this semester, consider some of these words: Names of People and Places: The meanings of names carry great weight in the Bible. Whenever we come across a name, whether of a person or place, we ought to look up its meaning. Unlike modern times, in the Bible, a person’s name often indicated something about who they were and what they would become (Gen 17:5). Sometimes God instructed prophets to name their children names that spoke to what was happening at that time in Israel or signified what would happen in the future (Hosea 1:6). Often the names of places tell us something about who God is and what he has done. Repeated Words: Consider how often a teacher or parent repeats the same instructions to children. They often feel like a record set on repeat. In the Bible, when a word is repeated, it’s not accidental. It’s done so to enforce something, to highlight something, to make a point. The author is saying, “Listen up! This is uber-important!” When we come across repeated words or phrases, we ought to stop and take notice. A good example of this is when Isaiah hears the seraphim call out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (6:3) Transition Words: Many bible study students have heard a pastor..

In Bible Study, Words MatterChristina Fox2022-05-05T00:24:33+00:00