Heaven and Hale

Hey everyone! Welcome back to another episode of the Sunday Recap! This Sunday, Pastor Joseph preached on Psalm 122. It says, "I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord!" Which begs the question.... "Why?" Why was David glad? We're breaking down four reasons why David might have been glad to go to the house of the Lord.  You ARE a Bible...

This is such a special episode, my sister Rebekah is on the podcast with me today, as well as my two nephews, Micah and Isaiah. We’re talking about what it looks like to teach the next generation about Jesus.  Sometimes it’s intimidating to think that we hold the responsibility of teaching our children about Jesus because we don’t feel confident in our own knowledge of the Bible. Rebekah reminds u...

I'm back with the Sunday recap, and today we're digging into Pastor Joseph's message on "A Good Soldier." 2 Timothy 2:3 says, "Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don't get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them." A good soldier is faithful, a fighter, knows h...

When we think about people in the Bible who were men and women of prayer, Job might not be the first one that comes to mind, but he was a man of prayer, and more than that, God trusted him. How do we know? God sent those three "friends" of his to Job to have him pray for them. The question now is "Can God trust us?" In Sunday's message, we talk about the power of a regular...

"It's the highlight of my week, the highlight of my life to lead someone to Jesus."  Sis. Ashley Perry leads 8 Bible studies a week, and that's on top of her roles as wife, mother of four children, pastor's wife, and student (just to name a few). In this episode, Ashley and I talk about her passion for leading Bible studies, where it came from, and how she is passing it on...

It was my absolute honor and privilege to be able to sit down and recap this morning's service with Bro. Stephen Tolman from San Pedro, Mexico. In this episode he shares about the work the Lord is doing in Mexico, and how it grew from 10 churches with roughly 2800 people to 17 churches and 6000 people DURING the Covid pandemic. We talk about witchcraft, how it has been normalized in our cultu...

Exodus 12:13 says "The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.".... but that was approximately 1500 years before Jesus came, and approximately 3,500 years before you and I came along, so why is it a big deal to us today? In this episode, I&apo...

Got church notes? In this episode, I'm joined by my cousin and friend, Rachel Pitts to reminisce on some of our favorite sermons, one-liners, and "sillies" from years of taking notes in church. More importantly, we talk about how to use the notes you take on Sundays to encourage others (and to encourage yourself) and to improve your Bible study. It's a super fun conversation th...

We've got a special guest on the podcast today: Bro. Harold Mauldin, Pastor of Grace Apostolic Church in Hot Springs, AR. Bro. Harold was in town to help our church celebrate 25 years of Hope, and it was the perfect opportunity to have him on the podcast. We cover all kinds of topics in our conversation today (except for what we actually planned to talk about) from how the church has changed...

This Sunday we celebrated 25 years of Hope Apostolic! While there are plenty of wonderful memories to celebrate, we spent most of the day in a posture of gratitude, giving thanks to Jesus for all He has done in the past 25+ years! Pastor Harold Mauldin from Hot Springs, AR was with us this weekend to help celebrate, and I'm recapping his message about Hope in this episode. "Whatever you...

There's an invitation from me AND from the Lord in this episode. You may have heard Matthew 11:28 before... "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  ... but what about the next verse? "Take my yoke upon you..." Does Jesus want us to rest, or does he want us to work? The better question might be, "What is the work that Jesus wants us t...

"When you get here [death] it's too late." That's what Joseph's Mawmaw told us last week, so this week we're making sure everyone knows what the Bible says about salvation before it's too late! The sermon this morning was based on Hebrews 2:1-5, and focused on three main points: what was spoken by the Lord, how it was confirmed by those who heard Him, and how God...

We spent this weekend at a funeral, but oddly enough every message, every song, every scripture fit right in with what I've been studying lately! Death is not the end for those of us who are filled with the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is the  earnest  of our  inheritance  (what in the world does that mean?) and to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (how does that line u...

Everyone answer this question to yourself: Who is Jesus?  We had our first Hope Kids Service of the school year, and we are building on the basics. We had so much fun, and I definitely share about some of the fun and crazy things we did today, but we got serious when it came to the Word. The world is doing it's job of teaching our kids (and us too, honestly) that we all worship the same God a...

This Sunday Recap comes straight from John 15 and Jesus' teaching on the fruit, the branch, and the vine. Just so we have it straight, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, and we can't produce good fruit unless we abide in him!  In this episode we talk about everything and how it relates to this message from gardening, to soul winning, to next steps. I also shared a song we sang t...

Pastor Joseph preached a FIERY message Sunday Morning (but in the best way). This recap is all about looking at some very familiar scriptures in a different light. Matthew 16 tells us "the gates of Hell will not prevail." If you look around, though, it might seem like Hell is prevailing. Well, maybe we're looking at it all wrong. You ARE a Bible reader. You CAN understand God's...

Remember that old Matthew West song? "I don't want to go through the motions/I don't want to go one more day" It happens to the best of us, but thankfully we have a Savior who has seen it before and made a way for us! In this episode, I'm recapping Pastor Joseph's message on Micah 6:1-8, and it's all about overcoming those routines, rituals, and traditions that w...

Praise the Lord! I'm praying for a safe school year for all our back-to-school friends, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Today's message at Hope was all about teaching TRUTH to the next generation. The world would like to tell us that truth is subjective, that we can all have our own version of the truth, but that's just not the case! What are we going to do? We have to put th...

Don't understand the Bible? Maybe you just need to read from a different translation! It's so easy to access different translations of the Bible, especially with the Bible app or on the internet. However, I want you to be knowledgeable and wise about your decision on which translations to use.  In this episode, I'm sharing the details on the AMP (Amplified Version), GW (God's W...

Foreboding joy, the original sin, David's mighty men, and fallen trees... that's what this episode is all about.  Have you ever experienced a day, or a moment, just so good that you worry something bad will happen? That's foreboding joy, and I'll tell you why I'm feeling it today. Then, I'm recapping today's message. I took so many notes, because it was SO good!...

Today is our final day with the book of Romans, and we will be covering all of chapter 16. I don’t know about you, but it has been life changing for me. I’m not trying to be dramatic or boastful at all. When I tell you that the scriptures we have studied here come to my mind daily, I mean it. I don’t want it to be over, and it’s not, for me! I’m actually going through Romans with my home Bible stu...

Today we are reading Romans 15:14-33, and friends, it is the beginning of the end. We have entered the “Closing” section of Paul’s letter form. This is where he tells those he is writing to about his plans, where he is, where he is going, and in the final chapter he will do a lot of name dropping. We will talk about that tomorrow. I love verse fourteen. I hope this won’t be the last or only letter...

Alright, let’s jump into chapter 15. The first few verses of chapter 15 are a continuation of the conversation we’ve been having on recognizing differences and disagreements and how to live at peace with one another. Notice I didn’t say, “how to resolve differences and disagreements.” A lot of times we think of unity in the body of Christ as uniformity, and that’s not what God intended at all. We...

Today we are finishing up chapter fourteen with the last ten verses, verses 13-23. Yesterday we talked about what to do when we disagree with other members in the body of Christ, or in the church, and today we’re going to finish that conversation. In the first part of the chapter, Paul tells us we need to be convinced of what we personally believe, we need to live with the knowledge that we will a...

I cannot believe I am saying this, but ya’ll we are winding down with Romans! We just have four more episodes after today. Today we will talk about the first part of chapter 14, verses 1-12, and tomorrow we will finish the chapter. We are still in the “paraenesis” or the “practical application,” section of the book, and it has really been all about our relationships with God and others. As an elem...