Keri Folmar's Blog, page 4

Sneak Peak Interview: Natalie Brand

Read Natalie’s Sneak Peak Interview on her new book, The Good Portion: Salvation, with Melissa Kruger:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m a Christian, wife, mom, and theologian. I just love a flat white in one hand and a book in the other! 

I’m married to a fellow bibliophile, Tom, who I met at a theological college more than a decade ago. Tom serves as the ministry director for the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, and he’s involved in pastoring pastors and supporting churches in the U.K. 

When did you first start writing? What do you enjoy about it?

I read a lot as a child, and my reading has always turned into pen-on-paper. I remember writing “novels” when I was young. They were nothing profound like the juvenile literature of Jane Austen. They were just half-finished stories. 

I always wanted to be a writer—to create something from nothing with words. It really is grace upon grace that I can now serve the Lord in this way.

Is writing ever difficult for you? How so?

Every book has its own difficulties, and each one always surprises me. How can I make this book even more accessible? How can I powerfully illustrate this God-truth? What should I include? What should I not include? Writing is just as much about what you don’t say as it is what you do say. I always struggle with that.

George Orwell once described writing a book to be “a horrible, exhausting struggle” rather like a long “bout of some painful illness.” I know what he means! It gives you such joy but is a hard slog, like pregnancy. 

It’s the mental obsession and ill-timed waves of inspiration that possess you. I think C. S. Lewis understood this when he said, “I was with book, as a woman is with child.”

Read the rest of Natalie’s interview.

The Status Change We All Need

Here’s a little taste of my book, The Good Portion: Christ, from The Gospel Coalition Blog.

As a mother of five young children, it’s not unusual for complete strangers to ask about my family. The question I hear most often at the grocery store or the playground is, “Are they all yours?” The most awkward I hear is, “Do you not believe in birth control?” But the most surprising came one spring afternoon when my children and some of their entrepreneurial friends set up a lemonade stand in front of our house. Someone stopped their car to ask me the name of our school. I took that as a compliment. They could’ve asked, “What is the name of your circus?” 

One of the sweetest questions I often hear is, “Who does he/she look like?” It’s an obvious question when we see a child. We look to see whom they resemble. Children inherit physical features from their parents, but parents also pass on things like habits and genetic medical history. We look to the older generation to see things we want to imitate or avoid as we get older. This is natural. Watching our parents gives us a foreshadowing of what life may be like down the road. 

God also raised up men in history whose lives help us better understand Jesus: human figures given to foreshadow his life and help us to understand his work more clearly. 

Read the rest of the excerpt.

Pitiful Christians in a Pandemic

As a brand-new, twenty-something Christian, spending a year doing intern youth ministry, I had just shared the gospel to a class of jaded twelve-year-olds, when a boy swamped in an over-sized school blazer approached me. By the look on his face the cogs of his mind were spinning fast. He politely asked if he could ask me a question and said, “What if you’re wrong? What if it all just isn’t true?”

I was flummoxed. As I floundered for an answer, a forgotten Christian lyric unfiled itself and jumped to the front of my brain:

And if I die with no reward/Then I know I had peace ‘cause I carried the sword.

I hastily quoted the line, trying to sound like some old sage. And although the boy nodded and walked away, I knew he was as unconvinced as I was.

The senselessness and emptiness of my words haunted me. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I found the biblical answer to the boy’s question. And it winded me like a blow to the gut! What if we have it all wrong? What if the gospel is not true? Paul writes to the Corinthians, ‘If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied’ (1 Cor. 15:19). No Christ . . . no reward . . . no peace . . . no nothing! Just pity – more pity than the most pitiable!

More pitiful than the new-born baby found wailing in the woods because it was unwanted by its mother. More pitiful than the one long imprisoned and enslaved, denied even an ounce of humanity. If we Christians die with no reward, we are more pitiful than these!

Futile

As the death toll continues to climb and we now see death in a way that for many of us was confined to history textbooks; what peace can we have if we hope in this life only? Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15 couldn’t be further from the hollow optimism I had conveyed all those years ago; missing completely the true weight of gospel hope in Christ. Paul, in seeking to defend the resurrection of the dead on the Final Day, is fighting the Sadducees’ denial of resurrection on one side, and the Graeco-Roman ideals of total ‘end game’ or a wisp like half-life in Hades on the other. So, he underscores the necessity of Christ’s resurrection to the gospel and the union of Christ’s past resurrection to the future resurrection of His saints. ‘If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain’ (1 Cor. 15:14). ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins’ (v.17). We Christians are those who declare in joyful song each week that Christ is our righteousness and freedom, even when we are stuck at home in isolation. Paul makes the point that if Christ were just a Nazarene, still lying dead in a grave in Palestine, then we are deceived and our faith is a sham. And ‘those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished’ (v.18). Meaning the belief and comfort that we will see our loved ones again is utterly ludicrous!

This is a real challenge to our spirituality at a time of global pandemic. Does our hope in Christ stretch beyond the grave, second-by-second, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, with such confidence that without it we are most miserable?

We are reminded that confessionally our resurrection hope in Christ is unique and unreserved. So much confidence we put upon the resurrection witness of the New Testament writers (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-8) and the witness of the Spirit to our hearts, that we are kings and queens – conquerors even – awaiting the promise of a mighty inheritance! We will not be left to maggot and decay. Our Lord Jesus, with whom we are supernaturally fused, is our power beyond the grave. His resurrection is our resurrection (vv.20-23). Do you hope in Christ like those who, out of 7 billion, would be the most to be pitied?

Sting!

I have a young daughter nicknamed ‘Bee’ who loves to pretend to be a bee. She buzzes around the house, punctuating her flying with attacks to innocent members of the family. “STING! STING! SHARP! SHARP!” she says to make the point. It always reminds me of Paul’s victory cry at the end of 1 Corinthians 15 (v.55).

Death certainly has a sting. Whether by means of a slow decline or a sudden tragedy, like a scorpion, death delivers a swift, sharp and painful shock. We have certainly experienced this in recent weeks. In an instant, someone we love is gone and we are forced to bury one we don’t want to live without. Yet in the gospel there is life in death. Never before has a grisly execution been the means of eternal life, bringing about the death of death itself! When anxiety drains you of peace during the night, remember death was defeated by the Easter work of Christ, and it will not survive its own final Ragnarok on the Day of Judgement. ‘For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death’ (vv.25-26).

We are not pitiful but those united to ‘the Resurrection and the Life’ (John 11:25). Christ is our comfort, hope and victory in the merciless face of death. Christ is our certain reward!

So now death ‘where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ (1 Cor. 15:54-55).

Adapted excerpt from Natalie’s new book, The Good Portion: The Doctrine of Salvation, for Every Woman.

Natalie Brand (Ph.D. Trinity St. David) is adjunct lecturer in historical and systematic theology at Union School of Theology. She is the author of The Good Portion: The Doctrine of Salvation, for Every Woman, part of The Good Portion series published by Christian Focus. Her other works are Complementarian Spirituality: Reformed Women and Union with Christ and Prone to Wander: Grace for the Lukewarm and Apathetic. She is lives with her husband and three daughters, and hopes one day to move to Bag End in the Shire.

*** Look for a Facebook Live discussion with The Good Portion authors, Natalie, Keri, Rebecca and Jenny, on the Christian Focus Publishing page Monday, May 18, 2:00 p.m. E.S.T.

Sneak Peak Interview

My family has lived in the Middle East for almost eight years, although we never set out to be cross-cultural church planters. I used to envision at this point in my life I would be a U.S. senator or governor—or at least attempting to be one. I was serving as the chief of staff to a senator when my husband, Josh, and I could no longer resist the urge to put all our energy into local church ministry. 

After seminary, friends of ours told us about an Arab sheikh who gave a plot of land on the Arabian Peninsula for the Christians in his emirate to have an evangelical church building. It was an incredible opportunity for a gospel presence in the Middle East. 

So we moved hemispheres and cultures, planted a church with people from dozens of nations, built a church building, and are now raising our five children in a multicultural context in the Arab world. We still love keeping up with the American political scene, but we do so safely from 7,000 miles away. 

Jenny Manley is the author of The Good Portion: Christ.

Read the rest of Jenny’s interview here.

Mother’s Day Book Giveaway!

Mothers who delight in the doctrines of God are gifts to their children and models for younger women. At The Good Portion Books we want to increase your delight. So to celebrate Mother’s Day, we are having a drawing to give away two sets of the 4 books currently in our series.

To enter the drawing, Like our Facebook page and tag one other woman in the comments on the Mother’s Day post. You’ll be entered into the drawing along with the mother, daughter or friend you tagged, and if your name is drawn both of you will win the books!

You may enter as many times as you like, as long as you tag a different person each time.

We’ll draw the winner on Mother’s Day, May 10th.

Happy Mother’s Day!

The Good Portion Books 40% Off at T4G

Order The Good Portion: Scripture and The Good Portion: God with a 40% discount on the T4G online bookstore.

Look to 20-Year-Old Jesus This Easter

The week that so joyfully defines the reason for Christian hope has been eerily replaced with empty baskets, vacant pews, and untasted communion. Even so, we continue celebrating the events that happened in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago as the only hope sinful men have to be reconciled to a holy God. 

But we do so more quietly this year. Not in large gatherings, sunrise services, and loud choruses of corporate worship. Christians around the world this year will celebrate in our homes, meagerly offering unpretentious and humble praise. Perhaps while we contemplate and celebrate the victory of the resurrection, we should do so with 20-year-old Jesus in mind.

What was Jesus like as a 20-year-old? 

We have thorough accounts of Jesus’s distinctive entrance and dramatic exit from the world, but Scripture does not provide us with many details about his early adulthood. We know a smattering of facts about Jesus as a boy, most notably that at age 12 his parents accidentally left him in Jerusalem after a Passover trip, only to find him in the synagogue three days later, tending to his Father’s business. But the Gospels don’t record much else for the next 18 years until his famous encounter with John the Baptist. So what was he doing as a young adult?

Obedience of the Incarnate Word

Scripture speaks loudly about this crucial age of Jesus’s development in a small detail found in the Gospels. Jesus had already healed the sick, cast demons out of the possessed, silenced a storm, and raised a girl from the dead when he returned to his hometown of Nazareth. On the Sabbath he began teaching in the local synagogue, likely the one where he studied as a boy. Those present were surprised at the power and wisdom with which he exposited the Scriptures. They asked, “Is this not the carpenter?” (Mark 6:3). The incarnate Son of God’s reputation in his own hometown was not as an insightful spiritual leader or eloquent teacher. He was known around town simply and most notably for his skilled labor. The One who created all things by the power of words was known primarily for making things with his hands. 

For years, Jesus took up Joseph’s occupation as a carpenter, learning the trade from his earthly father as he was made ready for the work of his heavenly Father. Scripture’s silence on these 18 years speaks loudly—Jesus worked six-times longer doing manual labor than doing public ministry! Yet these hidden, tedious years at a workman’s bench were not in vain. For while he was crafting pieces of wood into useful items for others, he was being made ready to hang on a beam of wood himself.

One relevant hint is found in Hebrews 5:8: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” Although mysterious, this passage must be speaking to the humanity of Christ, for the emphasis is on learning. The divine, all-knowing Son did not have to learn anything. But as the man Jesus learned to obey and trust his Father, and as he was tempted without succumbing to sin, he became the perfect (also translated “complete”) sinless man. And as the sinless man, he became our only suitable substitute, the source of eternal salvation. The passage suggests the incarnate Word of God learned obedience throughout the entirety of his earthly life, not simply in a singular act of suffering.

Learning Through Suffering

With each instance of suffering in his life, with each temptation, he learned to obey the Father. Each small moment of trusting his Father in adversity prepared him for the next and bigger one until, ultimately, he was able to obey the Father’s will unto death. 

With each instance of suffering in his life, with each temptation, he learned to obey the Father. 

Bruce Ware helps us understand this profound reality:

As the Son learned to obey the Father in earlier times of “lighter” divine demands upon him and consequent “lighter” suffering—lighter, that is, in comparison both to the divine demands and the suffering he would encounter in the end, as he obeyed the Father in going to the cross—these earlier experiences of faith in the Father’s provision, protection, and direction prepared him for the greater acts of obedience he would need to render as he got nearer to the time of the cross. 

What “lighter” suffering did Jesus experience in his life that equipped him for the cross? Ware refers to “the training program necessary to prepare Jesus for the later and much harder obediences that were to come.” We can only speculate what afflictions he experienced in those 18 years. 

It seems reasonable to assume his daily suffering was not less than ours. Life wasn’t easy in first-century Palestine, and Jesus had an unimaginably difficult task to accomplish in the end. Years of manual labor also surely helped prepare his body for the physical challenges of his public ministry. For the three years detailed in the Gospels, he spent most of his time in active ministry—preaching, teaching, healing, and so on. He was with people and traveling for the majority of those years. Calculating only his recorded journeys, he walked more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km.) on foot during that time. He needed a strong physical constitution, and 18 years of manual labor prepared him for it. 

Training in Small Things for Bigger Things

Never undervalue the training in which God may currently have you, whether you’re staying home or on the front lines of fighting a global pandemic. Does the position God has called you to feel small and insignificant? Does this lockdown season feel like an inconvenient pause to your plans?

In your temptation to think life is on hold or going nowhere, remember: your faithfulness in the “small” things God has called you to may be preparing you for faithfulness in “bigger” things. God may be strengthening your muscles of obedience and faithfulness now in preparation for something that will require greater stamina and fitness. 

Just as God didn’t waste any of the Savior’s suffering, he’s not wasting your days this Easter week either. In his hands, even the smallest and seemingly most “foolish” obediences can be used for ends more glorious than you can possibly imagine.

This article originally appear at The Gospel Coalition on April 10, 2020.

Jenny Manley lives on the Arabian Peninsula, where she serves in an international evangelical church with her pastor husband, Josh, and their five children. Previously, she served as chief of staff in the U.S. Senate. Helping women from all over the world study Scripture in a Christ-exalting way is one of her greatest joys. She is the author of the new book The Good Portion: The Doctrine of Christ for Every Woman (Christian Focus, 2020).

Delighting in Doctrine: How Theology Supercharges Women’s Lives and Ministry

Going to The Gospel Coalition’s Women’s Conference this June?

Join Keri Folmar, Margaret Kostenberger, Jenny Manley, Courtney Reissig and Mary Willson as they discuss why understanding doctrine is crucial for life and ministry.

Do women in your church seem to be living for the moment instead of in light of eternity? Does your small group Bible study skim the surface without going deeply into the Word? Do you want to help women know how to suffer life’s trials with joy?

This panel is for you!

First 150 attendants will receive a complimentary book from The Good Portion Series.

Register for Delighting in Doctrine here.

The Sweet Rewards of a Quiet Ministry

By Erin Wheeler

Fall is a spectacular time for the senses. Our Creator’s glory splashes the world with vivid colors and woodsy smells. It’s also the time of year when I’m reminded that God is in charge of the seasons of our lives. As Christians, we know and trust that God ordains all things and is working out our sanctification as we move through these seasons. So whether you’re resting or wrestling in a season of quiet ministry as a woman yourself or you’re shepherding those in a quieter season of ministry, I hope to encourage you to delight in God’s timing. Jesus told us, “The Father who sees in secret will reward you.” There is much to gain in seasons of serving quietly.

As a woman, I’ve had to wrestle with God through some of the seasons where ministry opportunities took the backseat, where they were almost invisible. Days would go by when the only person who would see my labors was God himself. Those were challenging days. They were challenging for me because I longed to teach and train others in the truths of God’s Word. I wanted to be more active in the life and ministry of the church in a more visible and vibrant—at least to me—way.

Frustrations surfaced when I had women into the chaos of our home. Nap revolts, potty accidents, and distractions of every sort all seemed to come whenever I was trying to disciple another sister in the Lord. Wiping up messes or repeatedly correcting one of my children felt more like interruptions than opportunities. I wanted to be able to sit quietly over tea and discuss God’s word. But God was doing other things with those years. What I would later come to learn was how vital those “interruptions” were for others. By struggling to stick to God’s good design, I was teaching and training in ways I still don’t think I fully appreciate.

Erin Wheeler is a pastor’s wife, mother and nurse who is writing a book on the doctrine of the church for The Good Portion series. You can read the rest of her article here.

Joy for Joyless Pastors’ Wives

A young pastor’s wife sat across from me in tears, wondering how she would partner with her husband in ministry with three little ones in tow. She had a head for theology and a heart for women, but two babies had slowed her down in the last few years and now she was pregnant with her third.

I can remember the days of wanting to partner with my husband while running after little ones. When I was a young assistant pastor’s wife, I asked an older, wiser woman how to have spiritually encouraging conversations after church with tired and hungry kids clinging to me. Her answer wasn’t filled with the practical advice I expected. “Sometimes you just have to go home,” she said.

Often pastors’ wives feel like what we do is trivial compared to our husbands’ eternally significant work. It’s not just young kids that slow ministry wives down. Chronic pain, rebellious teens, or sick parents can drain time and energy. Or we may just be introverts who need time alone with our thoughts. Our husbands are at it full-time—studying the Bible and theology, preaching, discipling, sharing the gospel, and more. And what are we doing? There may not be much on our to-do list that feels very important.

Read the rest of this article in the 9Marks Journal.