Rachel A. Fox

God is God. I dethrone Him in my heart if I demand that He act in ways that satisfy my idea of justice. It is the same spirit that taunted, “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross.” - Elisabeth Elliot

Ephesians 1 - Christ is seated in heaven. Ephesians 2 - You are united to Christ. Ephesians 3 - You are therefore as safe and secure as Christ is.

Never knew how much I needed to see bunnies jumping on a trampoline

“A Lion of the Pulpit, Now in Christ’s Presence: The Relentless Expository Passion of John F. MacArthur, Jr., 1939-2025. This essay honors John MacArthur as a great gift to Christ’s church — and to me. To God be the glory. wng.org/opinions/a-lio…

"Some people have the mistaken impression that it was traditional children’s literature that was preachy. This is not only untrue, but it is almost the exact opposite of the truth." bloodandmorality.com/blog/the-consp…

A truly devastating, gut-wrenching piece by @SethAMandel. How painful it must have been to write these words: "The crimes against the Bibas family are indeed the symbol of the anti-civilizational menace that is Hamas—but also of the cowardice of the political and cultural leaders of the enlightened West. Yes, we should be ashamed of our fellow Americans, who not only won’t mention the Bibas family but won’t even learn the name of a single American hostage held in Gaza throughout the war.... Kfir’s face became a symbol of the conflict because it represented a line that had been crossed and cannot be uncrossed. Members of Congress giddily attended tentifada demonstrations that were no longer simply 'pro-Palestine' or 'anticolonial'; they were about defending those who stole Kfir from his home and dragged him to Gaza where, according to Hamas, he died. And it is impossible for the rest of us to pretend that we didn’t see a chunk of society, whether in person or online, rush to cross that line and cheer the people who kidnapped a baby.... Kfir became a symbol because he is the answer to every relevant question about this conflict. His case is the war boiled down to its essence. Kfir is the dividing line. In a better world, there’d be no one standing on the wrong side of it."

I simply don’t understand the “both sides” stance on this issue. One side paraglided into a music festival to rape, murder, and kidnap innocent civilians. One side took Israeli infants as hostages and killed them. One side jeers at the hostages released from Palestinian captivity. One side is led by a group of barbarian, genocidal tyrants. The other side is a democracy with religious liberty that has defended itself against unprovoked terrorism. No side is perfect in any conflict. But this one doesn’t seem hard.

Jesus’s remedy for spiritual exhaustion is not yokelessness. His yoke is now both “ought” and “can.” “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28–30

Our sweetest memories in a church family are, at best, a hint of the life we will enjoy in the new heaven and new earth. And our hardest experiences will all be healed and redeemed. Stay present. Don't bail. Love well. Hope fully.

If God has graciously numbered my days (Ps 139:16), and if his mercies are new every morning (Lam 3:23), then surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life (Ps 23:6).

@mark_joubert We've brought a little bit of the hospital home with us. It was intimidating but we found our rhythm quickly and it was so much better being home. Will continue to oray.

BIG GUS UPDATE: Hello friends. An update is long overdue. This update is good, and we hope it offers some encouragement in these anxious times. Over the last week, Gus was able to successfully transition from the CICU to the PCU. We are probably only weeks from going home...what a thought! The Lord has been so kind in bringing us this far! Gus is doing well, though he is still struggling to put on weight. He's had some bumps, but overall his move to the PCU this last week has been positive. Lots of smiles today supply the evidence - Gus approves. Our team (of amazing people) has been working on nutrition and fluid balance. Because Gus was diagnosed with end stage renal disease (ESRD) and his kidney function is so poor (virtually non-existent), balancing his needs on peritoneal dialysis (PD) is an ongoing challenge. It's going well. He's currently on 12 hours of dialysis every night. As much as we are excited to be going home, we are also feeling the weight of the challenges ahead. Going home after a heart transplant was a challenge we were mentally prepared for. Going home with the demands of caring for someone with ESRD is another story. White cardiac stuff is more dramatic and acute, the kidney stuff is more demanding and taxing. The way I've been putting it is, we are not simply taking Gus home from the hospital, we are taking the hospital home with Gus - without all the amazing help. Add to that the fact that nearly eight months in, we are mentally, emotionally, and physically drained - and it's daunting. The demands on us are increasing at a time when we are most feeling the exhausting of the last eight months. Not complaining - God has been gracious - just being real. In a way, we are coming to the end of one stage of treatment and embarking on a new one. This next year we will be monitoring his heart health closely and maintaining his kidney care in hopes that he will be able to get a kidney transplant. We are working to prepare our home and looking at all the things we'll need to get for his dialysis care. We are working on building our support team. We will need the help and respite to run this marathon. We want to give Gus the best care so he has the best chance of long term success. Thank you for all of you who have followed our story and prayed earnestly for us these last seven months. We will need prayer as we enter this new phase of life built around dialysis and kidney care. We will continue to provide updates. We're not going home cured - we're going home to manage serious illness. I'll probably start a Caring Bridge or something like that to centralize updates. Again, much thanks, friends. "I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done." Psalm 9:1

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and freed the last enslaved people in the Confederacy. When we celebrate their freedom, we celebrate America itself. thefp.com/p/bcf18588-808…

The “apocalypse” means “revelation, disclosure”. Good to keep in mind what Jürgen Moltmann writes this of the “apocalyptic fantasy” that Christians have embraced: Some people think that the Bible has to do with the terrors of the apocalypse, and that the apocalypse is “the end of the world.” The end, they believe, will see the divine “final solution” of all the unsolved problems in personal life, in world history, and in the cosmos. Apocalyptic fantasy has always painted God’s great final Judgement on the Last Day with flaming passion: the good people will go to heaven, the wicked will go to hell, and the world will be annihilated in a storm of fire… These images are apocalyptic, but are they also Christian? No, they are not; for Christian expectation of the future has nothing whatsoever to do with the end, whether it be the end of this life, the end of history, or the end of the world. Christian expectation is about the beginning: the beginning of true life, the beginning of God’s kingdom, and the beginning of the new creation of all things into their enduring form. The ancient wisdom of hope says: “The last things are as the first.” So God’s great promise in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, is: “Behold, I make all things new” (21.5). In the light of this ultimate horizon we read the Bible as the book of God’s promises and the hopes of men and women — indeed the hopes of everything created; and from the remembrances of their future we find energies for the new beginning. Quoted in “Art+Faith: A Theology of Making” @yalepress

The darkness and death of the Saturday in between, by God’s holy plan, gave way to the light and life of that empty tomb Sunday.

“God does not love us because Christ died for us; Christ died for us because God loved us. If it is God’s wrath that needed to be propitiated, it is God’s love that did the propitiating.” —John Stott, The Cross of Christ

.⁦@iamfujimura⁩ says “if you want to change the world, change the metaphor.” So, to an artist, it’s more of a cultural garden than a culture “war.” He says we should be thinking in panoramic mode, not portrait mode—less binary, more seeing colors, seeing the whole.

Hello friends. It's early. We're up and Gus is getting vasoplegic again. His blood pressure is not staying up. Please pray as our team adjusts meds and interventions. Please pray.

Totoro hummingbird!