60 Seconds of Hope with Horace McMillon

Send us Fan Mail Not Everyone Is Going To Cheer You “The wicked see it and are angry; they gnash their teeth and melt away.” - from Psalm 112:10 Nearly all of us like to be praised. Nearly all of us like to be encouraged. Nearly all of us would like the whole hearted support of people around us. Some of us love being affirmed. Not everyone is going to cheer.  Some folks are going to be angry and r...

Send us Fan Mail “So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"- Hebrews 13:6 Verse six is the conclusion of a six verse sequence where we, collectively and individually develop fierceness and fearlessness the face of adversity.  First, we always look out for one another practicing kindness, compassion, generosity, and affection....

Send us Fan Mail How Are We Any Better Off?  “It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.” - Psalm 112:5 The psalmist says that those who are ethical and upright and live generously are well. How are we well? In what way are we better off than the mean and the stingy? How are we better off than the folks who are willing to do anything to get ahead? T...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds Of Hope: How To Shine  “They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.” - Psalm 112:4 How can we shine brightly? How we can we be beacons of hope? How can we become the light houses that help ships navigate the stormy seas of life? The psalmist identifies three aspects of character and habit that we must develop to do s...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: What Pleases God? “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” - Hebrews 13:16 While creeds. confessions of faith, and intellectual frameworks have their uses, they are not the main thing. Tradition and ritual can be of great value, but in themselves are empty. We don’t please God by believing the right things...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds Of Hope: A Morning Prayer For Anytime  Thank you, God,  for waking us up this morning with a portion of our health and strength and mind.  We thank God today for our food, clothing and shelter. For a warm place to sleep and a comfortable place to lay our heads.  We thank God for our friends and neighbors and co workers- for our families and our families of choice. For e...

Send us Fan Mail Recognizing The Voice Of God: If It’s Not Love, It’s Not God A fellow TikTok’er in response to a recent post, asked how can we be sure that we are hearing God’s voice and not our own desires. How do we make sure we aren’t being self delusional? This is not only a great question. It is perhaps THE question when it comes to spiritual discernment. Here are a few thoughts: The voice o...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: Repairers Of The Breach  “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” - Isaiah 58:12 The primary metaphor here is that of a massive city with huge security walls. The walls are broken and have huge gaps or breaches that allow all...

Send us Fan Mail If We Want To See A Brighter World… “If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”- Isaiah 58:10 Things hadn’t just gotten bad in those section of Isaiah, they’d been bad for generations. Nevertheless, there was still a divinely inspired vision of a renewed and rebuilt br...

Send us Fan Mail A Prayer For Refuge And Deliverance: (Psalm 71:1-6) None of us are exempt from challenges or difficulties. In those times let us let us join the ancient psalmist in praying: “In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for yo...

Send us Fan Mail Time To Stop Criticizing And Start Helping  “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil…” -  Isaiah 58:9 In this section of Isaiah, the prophet describes how the  world can be rebuilt. Too many people are content to point the finger and assign the blame to someone else. Too many people content to only talk about how bad things are.  We...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: Don’t Doubt Yourself  “But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy,' for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.” - Jeremiah 1:7 If we have any self awareness, it’s easy to be filled with doubt and uncertainty. Jeremiah would go on to be remembered as one of the major prophets of the Bible. H...

Send us Fan Mail How To Distinguish The Voice Of God “Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” -Jeremiah 23:29 In this section of Jeremiah, the people were being led astray by false prophecy. In other words they were being told what they wanted to hear instead of what they needed to hear.  The solution proposed to this isn’t to silence or even argue...

Send us Fan Mail Faith Is Having A Dream That’s Worth The Sacrifice  “… For the sake of the joy that was set before him, (he) endured the cross, disregarding its shame…” -from Hebrews 12:2 What makes a person of faith? A person of faith and people of faith have a vision or dream for the world that is so important to them, so compelling, so beautiful, so inspiring, so powerful that they are willing...

Send us Fan Mail A New Me, A New You, A New Us, A New World  “…Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith…” -  from Hebrews 12:1-2 Before the term Christian took over, participants in the early Jesus movement were frequently referred to as people of the way. Jesus was and is   our  trailblazer and innovator that inspires us to f...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: What Weight Do We Need To Drop? “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” - Hebrews 12:1  The people who were listed among the faithful in the previous chapter were not perfect people who had led pe...

Send us Fan Mail When Family Can’t Come First “From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." - Luke 12:52-53 Many of us have been taught blood is...

Send us Fan Mail All Peace Ain’t Good Peace “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” - Luke 12:51 The Roman Empire celebrated itself for bringing “peace” to the world. But its Pax Romana was built through military domination and sustained by brutal violence and its threat. Bow to the emperor or face total destruction. It mattered little how...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: Let Us Burn With Holy Fire “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!” - Luke 12:49 Elie Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference… The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” We are called to live with a holy fire. We are ca...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: What Are Our Convictions? What Is Our Faith?  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” - Hebrews 11:1 In whom or what do we place our trust? What are the beliefs and principles upon which we base our life? This is the true content of our faith. These are our convictions.  Some of us mistakenly assure ourselves that mo...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: It’s OK To Not Know  “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out, not knowing where he was going.” - Hebrews 11:8 I had no desire to go into ministry or become a pastor. My father and both my grandfathers were ministers and pastors. I knew what it looked like. I had no desire for it...

Send us Fan Mail The Difference Between The Faithful And The Unfaithful  “All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.” - from Hebrews 11:13 Many before me have referred to this section of Hebrews as the Faith Hall of Fame. It references many folks throughout the Hebrew Scriptures who remembered as people of great faith. What is th...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: When God Serves Us  Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.- Luke 12:37 In the ancient world, a common metaphor used to describe the relationship between God and humanity was that of master and slaves. By the time the gospels wer...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: Stay Ready “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;” - Luke 12:35 There’s an expression that many of you are familiar with, “If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.” Jesus’s quote from the Gospel of Luke may have been the first time this expression was used.  In chapter 10, Jesus spoke on how we come to experience eternal life by loving God, ours...

Send us Fan Mail 60 Seconds of Hope: What Do We Value?  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” -Luke 12:34 What do we value? What’s important to us? Where is our heart. It’s easy to say we care about someone or something, but do we really? How do we know if we are being sincere or if we’re just going through the motions, putting on a show because we think we’re supposed to? ...