Blog: March 2017

Katy Manni is a mother of four children and married to our Associate Minister, Pete Manni. She recently started writing her own blog, Dear Emmy, to express her personal experiences of being a mother of a special needs child. As a result, Katy has connected with many moms dealing with the same struggles and anxieties and Katy (and Emmy) have been an encouragement to so many. The Manni’s are on a journey with their youngest daughter Emmy that is unchartered territory but God is providing each step of the way. Emmy has Williams Syndrome-  a ...

It seems that the phrase, “All things to all people,” has taken on a life of its own in contemporary English.  Dictionary.com says, “Today it often appears in a political context, but phrased negatively, as in He wants to be a good school committee member, but he can’t be all things to all people.”  After all, who can satisfy everyone completely? Of course, the phrase comes from Scripture, and the Apostle Paul gave it a profoundly positive sense:  “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians ...

Have you ever seen the movie, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”?  It’s the story of a mad-scientist dad who accidentally reduces his teenage son and daughter and their two friends to the size of insects.  A wild plot unfolds with parents seeking “lost” children, and four micro-people desperately trying to make themselves known.  All good humor. But not so funny when we shrink spiritual realities that are truly grand and immense.  I’m thinking of prayer—after Jim Rhodes’s reminder last Sunday from Ephesians 3, and how Paul prayed for believers, ...

We’re excited to continue our Goshen Baptist Church staff interviews with our Director of Children’s Ministries, Lori Herson. We spent a couple minutes catching up with Lori as she shared her heart for ministry, the important role parents play, and her diverse music preferences. We’re very thankful for her and her leadership at GBC. Goshen Baptist Church (GBC): Lori thanks for being our latest Goshen staff interviewee! How long have you been at Goshen Baptist Church? Lori: I’ve attended for 17 years. GBC: How did you first come ...

Do you think it was just by chance that Caesar Augustus called for a census? Did it just so happen that Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem—the very place the Messiah was prophesied to be born? (Micah 5:2) God is in control of all things, which He showed by using a pagan emperor to bring about His plan.  After Jesus was born, Mary laid Him in a manger. A king in a manger! It was so unlikely. But Jesus was no ordinary baby. He was God’s Son, sent in the most humble of positions, “not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ...

Last Sunday we explored the Corinthian controversy about eating food offered to idols (1 Cor 8).  Here’s the issue:  since Christians knew that Apollo was no real god, was there any harm in continuing in the local custom of feasting in Apollo’s temple?  Or should they withdraw from the culture and say no to sacred meals associated with false gods? Many believers asserted their freedom:  All foods are clean, it’s just meat, idols are nothing, and we have the right to eat. But others, seeing these bold, liberated Christians dining in pagan ...

God’s people had not heard a clear message from God for hundreds of years. Then one day, Gabriel—an angel of the Lord—told a man that his wife, Elizabeth, was going to have a baby. The baby's name would be John. Then the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would have a baby, and her baby would be God's Son. Mary and Elizabeth were relatives. Elizabeth was old and barren; she and her husband, Zechariah, had no children. Mary was a young girl—likely in her early teens. She was a virgin, engaged to be married to Joseph. ...

I’ve been exploring the Psalms lately, and I’m seeing how David (who wrote many of these songs) calls out to God from just about every spot along the spectrum of human emotion.  He shouts with joy and wails in grief—and everything in between.  Let me point to a few examples and then ask:  Does your faith take this range of expressions? Psalm 6:  David is languishing; he floods his bed with tears, crying to God, “How long?”  Yet he hopes in God’s future deliverance. Psalm 13:  David’s heart is writhing in sorrow; it feels like God has ...

The prophecies concerning Jesus’ birth are numerous, and many of them refer to Jesus’ lineage. Old Testament prophecies tell of the promised Messiah being born from the seed of a woman (Gen. 3:15); from the seed of Abraham (Gen. 22:18), Isaac (Gen. 21:12), and Jacob (Num. 24:17); from the tribe of Judah (Micah 5:2); from the line of Jesse (Isa. 11:1); and from the house of David (Jer. 23:5). The prophecies said He would be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14) and would be the Son of God (1 Chr. 17:13-14; Ps. 2:7). Jesus fulfilled all of these ...

Parenting is an adventure that changes every time you turn around.  Our grown children now range in ages from 28 to 24 to 22—how did that happen?  It was just yesterday we were all gathered around the cassette tape player singing “Baby Beluga” along with Raffi (go google it—you’ll love this song!)  And now they’re all 20-something? At thegospelcoalition.org, Melissa Kruger interviews Paul Tripp about his new book, Parenting:  14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family.  Our children grow and change, and we live in swiftly ...