Elyse M. Fitzpatrick - Comforts from the Cross: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time

These thirty-one short readings will scoot you up to the banquet table of Gods grace and glory and leave you feasting on your Savior and the cross. But beware: this cross-centered diet will change the way you live. Get ready for joy, power, contentment, security, and hope to flood your life as you sink your teeth into this feast. These short meditations will shape your heart and mind. We need this book! The church today, particularly in America, has been languishing in selfish, impotent, shallow immaturitybarely able to survive, let alone thrive and make an impact on our culture. So this book is a gem that stands out in the mountain of Christian self-help, feel-good, and name-it-and- claim-it books that have dominated the Christian landscape for too long. Get this book. Read it, and give it away to someone else who needs a gospel booster shot.

BRAD BIGNEY, Senior Pastor, Grace Fellowship Church, Florence, Kentucky

The love of God in its deepest intensity is found in the immediate vicinity of the cross, and this is where Elyse invites her readers to dwell for thirty-one days of gospel meditation. Poignant and thoroughly biblical, Comforts from the Cross presents an endearing view of Christ that will encourage Christians with a fresh hope in their Savior. This book also provides a wide-ranging tour of gospel truths and shows readers how to apply them with life-changing results. This book is truly a gift to women who want their lives to bear more deeply the imprint of Gods love.

MILTON VINCENT, author, A Gospel Primer for Christians

Comforts from the Cross

OTHER CROSSWAY BOOKS BY
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Because He Loves Me:
How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life

Comforts from the Cross: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time
Copyright 2009 by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: The DesignWorks Group, www.thedesignworksgroup.com

Cover photo: iStock

First printing 2009

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, EnglishStandard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-0555-3

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-0556-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fitzpatrick, Elyse, 1950

Comforts from the cross : celebrating the gospel on day at a time / Elyse Fitzpatrick.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4335-0283-5 (tpb)

1. fChristian womenReligious life. 2. Bible N.T.Meditations.

I. Title

BV4527.F583 2009

242'.2dc22 2008053282

VP 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Laura
A sweet sister with a Little name
And a great love for our Savior.

Contents

This book was originally the idea of my dear friend Laura Little (now Gannon). Thanks, Laura. I hope youll find comfort here.

I have the great privilege to bask continually in the glowing light of the gospel. Im blessed to hear strong, Christ-centered preaching every Sunday. Our senior pastor, Mark Lauterbach, along with Dan Wilson and Eric Turbedsky have the earthly care of my soul and regularly drench me with the gospel. Much of what you read here is a result of Marks preaching. Thank you, Mark.

My friends love the gospel and remind me of it constantly. Rondi Lauterbach carefully read every celebration and offered gentle, helpful correction. My friends Donna, Anita, Cherie, Jessica, Kei, Laura L., Laura H., Chelsea, Aaron and Monica, and Glenn and Laura C. read and rejoiced with me. My heart is so bent towards self-righteousness, pride, laziness, and despair. Thank you for making me remember Jesus. My small group probed and pushed and loved me when I wanted to retreat to a cave and be left alone. And they ate the dinners I prepared and acted like they were delicious. Thank you all.

My family waits and encourages. My husband Phil loves me and is my greatest source of earthly comfort. My children love their mother and have given me six delectable grandchildren to delight in. Ive been so blessed.

Lydia Brownback and Allan Fisher from Crossway understand the gospel and want to spread the message. Theyre pouring out their lives for the sake of the church, and theyve been another great source of earthly encouragement to me.

Thank you all. Celebrate with me. Were so blessed.

I love celebrations. I love parties and getting together with friends and Christmas trees and water slides in the front yard. I love barbeques and Thanksgiving and birthday candles and having our church small group over for dinner and fellowship. The Lord has blessed my husband, Phil, and me with the perfect party house and the more, the merrier is our motto. Theres something intrinsically wonderful about being with others around a shared joy, isnt there? Give me a birthday party or any holiday party and a houseful of guests and Im in my element. I know that this kind of ruckus drives some people batty. Not me, I thrive on it. In fact, one of the dearest thoughts of heaven to me is the marriage supper of the Lamb. Sounds like a party. I cant wait.

Through this book Im inviting you to join me in a months worth of daily celebrations. These celebrations wont center on temporal fetes like birthdays or national holidays or even the Mad Hatters Un-birthday. Instead, theyre all about Jesus Christ: his incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, and ongoing reign as Lord of all there is. In other words, were going to be celebrating the gospel.

Im assuming that right about now you might be wondering why you would need to celebrate the gospel every day. You might think you already know it; in fact, Im pretty sure that most of you do. Most of you would be able to clearly articulate the facts of Jesus birth, death, and resurrection. But this book isnt about mere facts, although these facts are true and significant. This book is about how those facts are to inform, free, gladden, and enliven your soul every daywhen youre struggling to balance the checkbook, stuck in traffic or in a hospital bed, or just bored with the same-old-same-old. These facts are so much more than mere facts, and yet, the longer we walk with God, the more likely we are to forget about them. Heres my perspective: nothing, and I mean nothing, is more important than Jesus Christ and the gospel, and this gospel is meant to be remembered and celebrated every day.

So, heres your invitation: join me for the next month, wont you? Im praying that the Spirit will use our time together to comfort, transform, and encourage you as we revisit ancient realities and dust off the truths that once enflamed our hearts with first love.

(Oh, by the way, if youre not sure that youre a Christian, Ive included a short summary of this really great news in Appendix 1. You can turn there now before you start reading, so that youll under-stand what I mean when I talk about being a Christian. Thanks!)

Celebrate Jesus

As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim