60 Seconds of Hope with Horace McMillon

Send us Fan Mail We Find What We Look For. Focus On The Positive  “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” - Philippians 4:8 We don’t have to look around ourselves too far to find examples...

Send us Fan Mail Prayer Helps Us Be Ok When It’s Not Ok “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:7-8 Our praying to God doesn’t mean that everything is going to work out the...

Send us Fan Mail Acceptance Is More Than Tolerance “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters” - Romans 14:1 In a pluralistic, multicultural, group as the early Jesus movement was, disagreements and disputes were inevitable. They may have agreed that they were all called to love God and their neighbor, but they were never going to agree on what love looks like...

Send us Fan Mail “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.” - Psalm 100:3 We are God’s people, not some of us, but all of us. The challenge that many of us have is that we like to think of ourselves and maybe our family and friends, and maybe people who think and believe like us as God’s people. Then we want to exclude those f...

Send us Fan Mail Surround Yourself With Good People  “… for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” - from 1 Timothy 6:12 Taking hold of life and fighting the good fight is hard. We get retired. We get discouraged. We get distracted. We get disappointed. We get hurt. There will be times when we feel like giving up and giving in.  That’s why it’s so important to surro...

Send us Fan Mail Take Hold Of Life “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” - from 1 Timothy 6:12 The gospel meaning of eternal life is not a life we are waiting for after we die. It is a richer, fuller, more meaningful life that we begin to experience and participate in now and continues on, into eternit...

Send us Fan Mail How We Fight The Good Fight  “Fight the good fight of the faith...” - from 1 Timothy 6:12 How do we do we fight the good fight? What does it look like? How do we prepare ourselves?  The writer of Ephesians suggests putting on the full armor of God:  “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.” -The central truth of the Gospel is love. Stand firm, rooted, gr...

Send us Fan Mail It’s Not That Kind Of Test “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.” - Psalm 66:10 The meanings of words change and evolve over the centuries. Today when we think of the word test we think of an exam or evaluation where we will be given a pass or fail grade.  Depending on the stakes, a failed test can cost us our jobs, our raises, our promotions, our...

Send us Fan Mail God Is Faithful Even When We Are Not  “If we are faithless, he remains faithful-- he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13 God loves us even when we don’t love God, our neighbors, or ourselves.  God takes joy in us even when we are unappreciative and ungrateful. We are God’s children.  God is patient with us, even when we aren’t patient.  God is kind and gentle and always seeks to...

Send us Fan Mail A Faith That Heals “Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." -Luke 17:19 What was it about the faith of this Samaritan foreigner that allowed him to be healed?  First, he never gave up on himself or the idea that he could live whole. His condition had marginalized him. There’s a good chance he was living among foreigners because he...

Send us Fan Mail Be Faithful To The Process  “When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean.” -Luke 17:14 Wouldn’t it have been nice if these ten people who had suffered for so long, struggled with so much, been through so much- wouldn’t it have been nice if they had healed and restored on the spot, that same moment? I’...

Send us Fan Mail Don’t Give Up On Yourself  “As he entered a village, ten with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" -Luke 17:13-14 Robert was in his early thirties. He’d been struggling with a crack addiction for some time. While sitting in my living room he poured out his heart.  He had tried to stop. In a cra...

Send us Fan Mail From Despair And Misery To Contentment and Wellbeing  “How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?” - Psalm 137:4 They had been defeated. Their cities destroyed. They had been taken to a foreign land. They were never going back. Home no longer existed. Now their captors wanted them to smile and sing when all they felt was misery and despair.  How does one move from m...

Send us Fan Mail Focus On Living Your Life Well “Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers,” -Psalm 37:1 Many of us spend an inordinate amount of time worried about what other people are doing. Some of us are out right jealous of the folks we know are doing wrong.  Too many of us see their clothes, their cars, their jewelry. We hear about their parties, their sexual advent...

Send us Fan Mail Don’t Be A Coward  “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” - 2 Timothy 1:7 Fear will stop us from going where we need to go, doing what we need to do, and becoming who we were meant to be. The author of 2 Timothy, writing in the tradition of Paul, gives us three principles for defeating our cowardice.  The first...

Send us Fan Mail Be Faithful And Ask The Hard Questions  “I will stand at my watchpost and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me and what he will answer concerning my complaint.” - Habakkuk 2:1 Being faithful doesn’t require us to turn off our brains. Being faithful doesn’t mean that we are without our questions and without our doubts.  In the Gospel of Mat...

Send us Fan Mail From Anger And Worry To Empowered Action  “Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret--it leads only to evil.” - Psalm 37:8 The psalmist didn’t say that we wouldn’t have good reasons to be angry. The psalmist didn’t say we wouldn’t have good reasons to worry. Most assuredly most of us do.  Nevertheless, nursing our anger and grievances seldom leads us to positive outcomes....

Send us Fan Mail What Does The Heart Desire? “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” - Psalm 37:4 What does the heart desire? At first we are tempted to believe the heart desires money, power, and status. However if you’ve ever spent much time around people who have obtained those things, you will find many of them are still miserable.  I’m convinced that there...

Send us Fan Mail It’s Ok To Name Our Pain “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?” - Habakkuk 1:2 Living in faith doesn’t mean living in denial. We sometimes try to comfort ourselves when going through hardships or injustices by telling ourselves it’s all part of God’s master plan.  But sometimes this answer isn’t...

Send us Fan Mail Our Wellbeing Comes From Trusting That… Given human history and the present state of the world, the words of Psalm 146 are some of the most challenging to embrace. They are also the most comforting, empowering, and inspiring when we do: Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them;...

Send us Fan Mail Be Faithful With Dirty Money (and it’s all dirty) “If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” - Luke 16:11 The Roman Empire was perhaps the first global economy. It was virtually impossible to participate in it without in some way being tainted by or complicit in it. As it was then, so it is now.  There’s a good chance...

Send us Fan Mail Never Accept Injustice As The Norm Most of the scriptures included in the Bible were produced by an oppressed people.  First by the Egyptians, then the Assyrians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans. Even when they had their own kingdoms, their rulers often failed to render justice.  Many of Scriptures left behind are our reminder to never accept social and economi...

Send us Fan Mail Called To Care  “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.” - Amos  6:1  There’s a big difference between contentment and complacency, between gratitude and entitlement.  Some of us have gotten very comfortable. We have food to eat and a safe place to sleep. We have friends and or family who care about us. We have a reasonable portion of...

Send us Fan Mail How To Live Faithfully In An Unfaithful World  “But as for you, person of God, shun all this (the love of money); pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.” - from 1 Timothy 6:11 How do we follow do we follow the way of Jesus? How do we live faithfully in an unfaithful world? These are the questions 1 Timothy wrestles with.  Writing in the tradition of P...

Send us Fan Mail Who Are The People Outside Our Walls? “And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.” -Luke 16:20-21 We all have walls. We all have boundaries. We all have gates. Physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, we all have people who are...