This week the blog is sponsored by Children’s Hunger Fund (CHF), a nonprofit seeking to “deliver hope to suffering children by equipping local churches for gospel-centered mercy ministry.” Serving in the United States and 29 other countries, CHF seeks to help the local church reach suffering children and families in their communities with both physical help and spiritual hope found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lupe Gomez distinctly remembers what it was like to receive the gift of food as a kid.
One of eight siblings, growing up in the ‘80s, Lupe told us a story about when his elementary school had a food drive.
He remembers telling his mom about it and asking her if he could take a can of corn or beans to the food drive.
“She opened the cupboard, and there wasn’t much in there,” Lupe shared. “But she gave me a can of corn.”
Caption: Lupe and Julie Gomez at Children’s Hunger Fund
Lupe took that can of corn to his school for the food drive and gave it away to children in need.
“A week later, this big truck comes to my house with food for us,” Lupe shared. “I gave a can and I got boxes of food. It just came right back to me, and it was just amazing, but I don’t know what happened.”
Now, almost 40 years later, Lupe understands why he received those boxes of food. Even though Children’s Hunger Fund wasn’t the one that provided it, that generous gift motivates him to volunteer at CHF almost every week.
“I volunteer two hours at a time, but I could be here for three days. It feels amazing and it just makes you want to get involved more,” Lupe said.
Lupe volunteers with his wife, Julie, and they enjoy filling the boxes of food called Food Paks that will be delivered into the hands of suffering children by a pastor or church volunteer.
“I feel a sense of peace knowing that what we are doing is special and I tell everyone about it,” Julie said. “Everyone is just so welcoming, loving, and caring!”
Reflecting on the gift of food he had received as a kid, Lupe shared: “Hope—it’s everything.”
Even though he didn’t understand where that gift of food first came from, now, looking back, he understands. “The heavenly Father was looking out for us.”
About 30 miles away, on a warm afternoon in June, two small children sit enjoying some applesauce. The snack came from a Food Pak delivered that morning by a volunteer from a local church.
Sitting around a small table, Araceli converses in broken Spanish with the volunteer.
Araceli is one of many immigrants from Michoacán, Mexico who have settled in rural Fillmore, California. Like others in her community, Araceli speaks Tarasco, a dialect spoken by the people of Michoacán. Tarasco is classified as a language isolate, unrelated to any other known languages, including Spanish. Because of this, Araceli has difficulty communicating with anyone outside of her small community.

Caption: Araceli and her son with a Food Pak from Children’s Hunger Fund
Communication is even difficult with her own children. Attending school in the US for several years, Araceli’s two teenage daughters speak English and have little interest in speaking their mother’s native dialect. Because of this, Araceli has lost a lot of her authority over her children, simply because they cannot communicate. Her three-year-old son and her two-year-old granddaughter speak Tarasco, but both will be learning English when they begin school in a few years.
Prior to the pandemic, Araceli was invited to a women’s Bible study at Sembradores Church. Through this relationship with her local church and the home deliveries of food, Araceli has heard the gospel message and made a declaration of faith.
Recognizing the need in Fillmore for someone who speaks Tarasco, Pastor José Luis Paz of Sembradores Church has made it his mission to identify someone in the community who will be able to bridge the communication gap between the church and the Tarascan community in Fillmore.
If it weren’t for the faithfulness of volunteers like Lupe and Julia and church volunteers and pastors like the ones visiting Araceli, the ministry of CHF would not work. God is using His people all over the world to bring healing and hope to children and families who are suffering, and we are so thankful that He allows us to help provide the resources to make that ministry possible.
There are so many ways you can get involved with CHF and help further the mission to deliver hope to suffering children. Find out more here!
Make sure you sign up for our email newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to keep up to date with the amazing things God is doing in the lives of suffering children.

May has been another good month for Christian book releases. I sorted through the many options and arrived at this list of new and notables. In each case I’ve provided the editorial description to give you a sense of what it’s all about. I hope there’s something here that’s of interest to you!

A Concise Guide to the Life of Muhammad: Answering Thirty Key Questions Ayman Ibrahim. “What is so unique about Muhammad? What are the reasons for the strong devotion Muslims have for him? Did he really exist? What do Muslims say about him and his teaching? Did he perform miracles? What did he say about loving one’s neighbor and about those who abandon Islam? Did he teach on homosexuality and owning slaves? These are some of the thirty questions answered in this clear and concise guide to Muhammad’s life and religious significance. This companion volume to Ayman Ibrahim’s A Concise Guide to the Quran answers many of the key questions non-Muslims have about Muhammad, reveals the importance of Muhammad for Christian-Muslim and Jewish-Muslim interfaith relations, examines Muslim and non-Muslim primary sources, and engages classic and modern studies on the most important human figure for scores of Muslims.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion by Herman Bavinck. “Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion is an introductory systematic theology by one of the foremost theologians of the past century. Alongside The Sacrifice of Praise, this is Bavinck at his best doing catechetical theology. To this end, Bavinck sets off to explain in a simplified manner the main contents of the Christian religion, even giving it a title that is a tip of the hat to John Calvin’s Institute of the Christian Religion. While Bavinck’s lengthy Reformed Dogmatics is an academic work, Guidebook for Instruction serves a more egalitarian aim. It is a theological guide for the everyday person in the pew. In this one—and much shorter—volume, Bavinck walks Christian readers through all the major topics covered in Reformed Dogmatics with theological depth and insight.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
The Lord’s Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray by Kevin DeYoung. “Christians know the importance of prayer, but the act of praying can be a real challenge. Some have the desire, but not always the will; others worry they don’t do it well. Books about prayer usually emphasize spiritual discipline, but that can foster more guilt than reassurance. So how can Christians improve their prayer life, embracing the privilege of communicating with God? In The Lord’s Prayer, Kevin DeYoung closely examines Christ’s model for prayer, giving readers a deeper understanding of its content and meaning, and how it works in the lives of God’s people. Walking through the Lord’s Prayer word by word, DeYoung helps believers gain the conviction to develop a stronger prayer life, and a sense of freedom to do so.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
What Is Saving Faith?: Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure by John Piper. “What happens in the heart when it experiences real saving faith? John Piper argues that faith in Christ is not saving unless it includes an “affectional dimension of treasuring Christ.” Nor is God glorified as he ought to be unless he is treasured in being trusted. Saving faith in Jesus Christ welcomes him forever as our supreme and inexhaustible pleasure. What Is Saving Faith? explains that a Savior who is treasured for his all-satisfying worth is more glorified than a Savior who is only trusted for his all-forgiving competence. In this way, saving faith reaches its God-appointed goal: the perfections of Christ glorified by our being satisfied in him forever. (Buy it at Amazon)
Refreshed: Devotions For Your Time Away by John Hindley. “Vacations often give us an opportunity to rest and reflect. However, when our normal routines and habits are suspended, it can be hard to spend time with God. These 30 devotions have been specifically designed to help you to rest in the Lord’s goodness and glory during your time away so that you can return home feeling refreshed spiritually as well as physically. ‘I want to help you find rest, peace, joy, hope, and renewed zeal. We go away to be refreshed. Christ is the one who sets his Spirit in our hearts to cause streams of living water to well up within us and flow from us. Sometimes we rest away from Jesus, but how much better to rest with and in him? He is where our true refreshment is found.’ You can pick and choose which devotions to read depending on the type of vacation you are on (for example, city break or beach) and there are optional family activities and questions linked to each devotion giving other family members an opportunity to reflect alongside you.” (Buy it at Amazon)
Growing Downward: The Path of Christ-exalting Humility by Nick Thompson. “Author Nick Thompson recognizes that pride is our worst enemy. If pride is our chief foe, then humility is our chief friend, even though its company may be painful. But spiritual growth is a descent―we must grow downward. Defining humility as “the downward disposition of a Godward self-perception,” Thompson walks us through the practical implications of this definition, leading us to embrace a God-centered perspective on the self. With winsome illustration and warm pastoral instruction, Growing Downward shows us that the path of humility, though difficult, is the way to true meaning and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.” (Buy it at Amazon)
Pure: Why the Bible’s Plan for Sexuality Isn’t Outdated, Irrelevant, or Oppressive by Dean Inserra. “Few things bring more immediate scrutiny and impassioned angst among young adult Christians today than hearing the words ‘purity culture.’ Serious flaws from purity culture deserve to be scrutinized, especially given its lasting negative effects on some raised in the movement. Many Christians today reject the movement—and all that it stood for—wholesale. However, we can’t ignore the clear sexual ethics of the Bible. Pure dives into the big picture of God’s design for men and women regarding sexuality, and seeks to reclaim one of the clearest teaching in the scriptures: the call to sexual purity. While purity culture gets the truth right, the approach and gospel elements it espouses are often wrong. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water, but rather celebrate God’s great design for marriage and the loving boundaries he has put in place for our joy, protection, and flourishing.” (Buy it at Amazon)
The Gates of Hell: An Untold Story of Faith and Perseverance in the Early Soviet Union by Matthew Heise. “Decimated by war, revolution, and famine, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia was in critical condition in 1921. In The Gates of Hell, Matthew Heise recounts the bravery and suffering of German–Russian Lutherans during the period between the two great world wars. These stories tell of ordinary Christians who remained faithful to death in the face of state persecution. Christians in Russia had dark days characterized by defeat, but God preserved his church. Against all human odds, the church would outlast the man–made sandcastles of communist utopianism. The Gates of Hell is a wonderful testimony to the enduring power of God’s word, Christ’s church, and the Spirit’s faithfulness.” (Buy it at Amazon)
Retiring Well: Strategies for Finding Balance, Setting Priorities, and Glorifying God by John Dunlop, MD. “Preparation for retirement requires more than just financial planning. For most people, and especially for Christians, it comes with a host of other considerations—when to retire, where to live, and how to spend one’s time. Many find themselves asking, Is there a right way to retire? Drawing from his work with geriatric patients and his own retirement experience, Dr. John Dunlop shares practical strategies for Christians as they approach their retirement years. With Scripture as his guide, he promotes balance between rest and activity—encouraging intimacy with God, service to churches and communities, time with friends and family, and care for one’s health. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
Everyday Holiness: Becoming Who You Were Made to Be by Josh Moody. “You don’t have to pick between being boring and being bad. There is a better way: a biblical understanding of holiness. David Brooks’ The Road to Character, and Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, both in their own way underline our renewed interest in character and responsibility today. In the church too we sense the need for a fresh call to holiness. With moral scandals in the news, it is time is to listen to what the Bible says about becoming more like Jesus. What is holiness? Why should we be holy? What place does grace and the gospel play in the drama of becoming more like Christ? And, most practically, how do we become holy? Dr. Josh Moody leads us with clarity along a path to a simple biblical profundity: holiness is becoming who we are in Christ. Holiness isn’t about a drab or dreary lifestyle. It’s not about faking it, or being inauthentic. Holiness is becoming who you were made to be. There’s a sweetness, a joy, a freedom in pursuing Jesus. We were designed to live like this, so we find our fullest flourishing there.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
Blessed: Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Revelation by Nancy Guthrie. “Over 12 chapters, Blessed covers the full text of the book of Revelation, exploring its call to patient endurance as God’s sovereign plans for judgment and salvation are worked out in the world. In this book, Guthrie shows how Revelation is less about when Jesus will return and more about who we are to be, what we are to do, and what we can expect to endure as we wait for Jesus to return to establish his kingdom in the new creation. With a friendly and engaging tone, Blessed takes the fear, intimidation, and confusion away from studying Revelation, providing a solid and accessible resource that individuals and small groups can use to study this important yet often avoided book. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)

For many years there was a little potted plant on our kitchen window sill, though I’ve long since forgotten the variety. Year after year that plant would put out a shoot and from the shoot would emerge a single flower. And I observed that no matter how I turned the pot, the flower would respond. If I turned the pot so the flower was facing the room, within a day or two it would have turned to face the light. And if I rotated it again, the flower would respond in the same way, turning itself toward the light streaming in from the window. I could not fool it. I could not discourage it or persuade it to give up.
You cannot read about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ without noticing his love for the natural world. Many of his most vivid illustrations are drawn from nature—the birds, the plants, the trees, the winds. You often observe him making use of the natural elements that were right before him to help his listeners understand his teaching—the fig tree that failed to bear fruit, the fields that were white for harvest, the birds that were unconcerned about their next meal.
And in that vein, I learned a lesson from that little flower—the lesson of the potted plant. No matter how I turned the plant, it dutifully responded by realigning itself to face the light. No matter how many times I turned it and no matter how completely I turned it, it responded in the same way.
From the plant, I learned that life’s circumstances often turn us into times of darkness, times when we are overcome by pain, sorrow, or other trials. For a time the world around us may look dark and foreboding, like the Valley of the Shadow of Death is closing in around us and threatening to swallow us up. Yet our duty in such times is to look for the light and to turn toward it.
God never leaves us without some truth to believe in, some promise to cling to, some hope to long for, some light to turn toward.Share
And there always will be a source of light, for our God never deserts or abandons us. He never leaves us without some truth to believe in, some promise to cling to, some hope to long for, some light to turn toward. For God does not just have light or display light—he is light.
I’m certain that if I had taken my little potted plant to a dimly lit room in a hospital, it would still have turned toward whatever light came from the window, no matter how dim the source. I’m certain that if I took it to a prison cell with nothing but a single little window high above, it would lift its face toward that one shaft of light. It could not be stopped. It could not be discouraged. It could not be dissuaded.
And neither should we ever be dissuaded from turning toward the Lord in every circumstance. Our eyes may be weary and full of tears, the light may seem distant and dim, but the Lord is present, close to the broken-hearted and eager to save those who are crushed in spirit. It falls to us to simply turn and to look toward the light that streams from his presence and illumines us with his grace.