Hope Alliance Bethlehem

True worship is way more than the songs we sing on a Sunday. It comes knows God and values him above all other things. From this comes not only our songs of praise, but an entire way of life - a posture of submission, adoration and service to God. In this way, worship is holistic. Its any every moment reality that includes every part of us.

Central to our identity as followers of Jesus is our call to go and make disciples. Contrary to the regular practice of the church, going is not just for some - it is for everyone. Going is not an option and it is also not geographically bound. Most of us will not be called to foreign lands, but we are still very much sent to the neighborhoods, workplaces and spheres of influence in which we find...

In closing his letter to the Corinthians, Paul hits on some really important points for the church. As God's people, we must think beyond ourselves. We must learn to follow God and not simply our heart. We must value character over charisma. We must hold tightly to the gospel. And above all, we must love pervasively.

The Lord's Supper is meant to be a unifying reality for the church and yet the Corinthians were using it to be divisive - honoring some above others. Paul reminds them that this is the very meal which symbolizes Jesus being shamed so that we might be honored as children of God. The only proper way to approach the communion table is as one unworthy and yet one graciously welcomed!

In this often confusing passage about head coverings and hair length, Paul is emphasizing three centrally important realities for the Jesus follower. First, our cultural context matters and we should do our best to offer the gospel in context. Second, God created men and women not only for each other, but more importantly to better bear his image to the world. Finally, we must constantly ask ourse...

As the Israelites moved from the Exodus to the Promised Land, they found significant struggle in the wilderness. Paul relates the Christian life in many ways to the wilderness - a place where our heart is divided in its allegiance to God and our former life. And his urgent plea to the Corinthians and to all Christians is to not look back to where we've come from so as not to be tempted into o...

Paul loves to use the metaphor of a race to describe life. And for him the race well run is the gospel-centered life. How do you live this kind of life? You have to prepare now for the future and learn from the past. Knowing that not everyone makes it to the finish line, it is imperative that we put in the hard work of discipleship now.

Paul is a truly remarkable testimony. His heart is centered on pursuing the glory of God and as a result he engages in ministry by embracing his sent-ness and sacrificing his rights and preferences to make the gospel known. Why does he do this? He has a deep love for God and a deep love for those who don't know God's love. How might are lives be different if we shared the passions of Pau...

The Bible gives us plenty of direction, but what about the ares it doesn't speak directly to - places where we don't have a right and wrong? In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul is helping them deal with this reality. His urge is to say "no" to license and "no" to legalism, while embracing liberty. Liberty won't acquiesce to legalism, but it values the glory of...

The Corinthian church had lots of questions for Paul. Is sex bad? Should we get divorced? Should we not bother with marriage at all? Paul uses his experience and the teaching of Jesus to effectively answer these questions. But his greater purpose is to show them that true identity comes from the gospel, not a marital status or lack thereof. In fact, it is our identity defined by the gospel that sh...

The beauty of the gospel is that even though we have built an identity as sinners, we have been joined with Christ. This means we have a re-newed identity as sons and daughters of God. It also means that we have access to the wisdom of God and are quite literally the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. Therefore, we have the ability to choose well. In fact, the gospel not only gives us a new iden...

The resurrection is not just a nice ending to a good story. It changes everything! The resurrection means that God has accepted Jesus' sacrifice and therefore gives hope to the entire world that they can be accepted too. It assures us of the power over death and offers us the freedom of life now and in the future.

The church today tends to value intellect or the Spirit over the other one. This unfortunate binary reality is smashed by the gospel which demands intellectual belief and a dependence upon the Spirit. Likewise, the life of Christian faith must engage in the mind and be dependent upon the Spirit. Personal experience is not normative, nor is personal intellect. However, the gospel and the Spirit abs...

The primary aim of the Spirit is the proclamation of Jesus and the primary product of the Spirit is love. This poetic chapter on love which is often referenced is really a reflection on God himself. God is love and our only hope to live into this reality of love is through the gospel - the reality that he loved us first. This is the product of the ministry of the Spirit: to become a people who lov...

Sometimes we end up valuing gifts more than the giver. This unfortunate reality was prominent in the church at Corinth and is prominent in our church today. The gifts of the Spirit are good, but they are secondary to the Spirit himself who works primarily to make Jesus our Lord and to affirm us in our uniqueness while pulling us together as a church, the body of Christ to the onlooking world.

The church at Corinth was filled with people struggling with major identity crises, finding their value in the opinions of people around them. Paul's fatherly urge to them is to reject the courtroom of this world and instead find their identity in Jesus and his love for them. True joy in life comes from moving to the beat of the gospel which reminds us we are rescued and secure. This verdict...

To a church filled with people who thought way too highly of themselves, Paul reminds them of their continual need for the basic truth of the gospel - God's love in the midst of their failure. It is this love of God that propelled Jesus to earth and ultimately to a cross becoming the foundation of a whole new way of being defined. They are now God's people - his harvest, his temple. They...

The gospel is divine wisdom because it saw and addressed the true need of humanity. It is a message of victory and identity in the new age that Jesus has brought about through his death and resurrection for those who are powerless. This is the message that the Spirit proclaims and the character of the life of all who are spiritual.

Human wisdom always serves human identity. We do whatever we can to make ourselves better, happier or more successful. Or at least to appear that way. But this wisdom is foolish because it avoids the real issue of hopelessness. Divine power rescues us from hopelessness and reasserts our true identity as sons and daughters of our Creator. This is why divine power is far greater than any human wisdo...

Paul opens his letter to the church at Corinth by reminding them that the church is both established and enriched by God. On the basis of this, his beginning plea to this church in turmoil is that they would embrace unity without the need for uniformity. Unity on the central reality of the gospel without the need for uniformity on secondary issues.

We live in a world that loves to be intoxicated on ourselves. We pursue self-worth, self-improvement, self-indulgence and self-sufficiency at every turn of life. But the gospel call is to be sober - to avoid these intoxication and instead find our value in our Creator and not what we can offer ourselves. Take it from Peter who learned the hard way what it meant to be sober and alert!

In so many ways, the magi had no business being in the nativity scene. And yet God in his perfect sovereignty pave a way for their inclusion. The magi were the result of a legacy of faith, but they also demonstrated their faith in the their pursuit and worship of Jesus.

Unless you wanted someone to watch out for sheep, shepherds were the last choice for any job. And yet, God chose shepherds to be the first witnesses to the arrival of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus came for people like them...people just like us!

Joseph's life was far from impressive. And yet one cannot help but be impressed by his radical humility. Joseph demonstrates this humility in his care for Mary, obedience to God and embrace of Jesus. How would your life be characterized? 

Mary is a poor, young teenager living in a no-name town. If anything, her future seems nothing more than ordinary. And then Gabriel shows up to let her in on God's plan for her life. Mary's journey goes from God's selection to her struggle with God's call and finally her surrender to God's plan for her life even at the cost of her own.