Hope Christian Fellowship

Wednesday Night Bible Study

Communication at its core is meant to transfer ideas and understanding from one person to another. Many times, something goes wrong in that process and misunderstanding ensues. But it would make no sense to any of us for a college professor to give a lecture from their class to a toddler. If the professor wished to communicate anything to that child, he or she would have to adjust their wording an...

Today’s concept of God is probably different than it was at many points through history. God was a fearful and seemingly unknowable being who could bring great harm (or great blessing) at His whim. People lived in fear of God. Jesus came to show us who God really is. He told His disciples that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. Jesus helped us understand that God is knowable and unwaveringl...

Wednesday Night Bible Study – 10/28/2020

Wednesday Night Bible Study

How much have you heard about ‘the saints’ in your life? Some religious traditions take great care to memorialize people who reportedly have lived lives overflowing with goodness. When we hear the word ‘saint’ in front of someone’s name, we think of them as being on a higher plane spiritually. But the word simply means holy ones who are set apart. Another word we can use for that is sanctified. An...

10-14-2020 : Wednesday Night Bible Study

Have you ever heard someone say, “God will never give you more than you can handle”? When you heard it, did it comfort you or did it confuse you? Maybe if you didn’t think too deeply, you were encouraged by the idea that seemingly overwhelming things are no match for the power you have to overcome. But when you look at your life more closely, it is probably easy to see times where life was simply...

Truth is tricky. While knowing the truth would seem to be a pretty necessary part of life, it is quite common to hear people talk about truth like it is personal or moldable. Some part of us feels like we’re on a quest for discovering what’s true and real. Then hearing that truth is unknowable and relative erodes any hope of finding what we need. On top of that, we are surrounded by people who are...

Continuing our study of Ephesians (after some technical difficulty).

When we’re lost, we look for direction. Or at least some of us do. Without knowing the way, it is much more challenging to ever get to the place we want to go. You can choose to just give up and decide that you’ll never find the way. You can wander and hope that you find the way. Or you can keep listening to others who try to tell you they know the way. But Jesus says He IS the Way. The startling...

People need hope. Without it, life is draining, bitter, disappointing, and almost always too heavy to endure. But with hope, we can do what seems impossible. When people find something they believe gives hope, they are inspired and energized to sacrifice and endure with joy and expectation. Unfortunately, many who think they’ve found an answer for hope live to see that hope dissolve into emptiness...

1. Don't be casual about the way you love God. 2.Love your neighbor in sacrificial way. 3. Loving your neighbor bridges the divides.

We probably all know that sharing Jesus is a part of what Christians are supposed to do. We are on this earth as people who represent and hopefully reflect the God we serve. Israel was God’s people in Exodus, and Moses was their leader. He gets a chance to share the true and living God with his father-in-law. What is the goal in sharing Jesus? Are we looking to convince someone of a set of facts?...

Have you ever had a family member or close friend who you really enjoyed being around? Of course, right? Have you ever been surprised to learn something new, and perhaps unsettling, about that person? You assume that this person sees the world the way you do, agrees with you on most everything. Then you find out you’re not quite as similar as you thought. This can be quite upsetting. We can even b...

We found out this year in a unique way how just gathering regularly as a church has an impact on how we are able to handle the burdens of life. While there are many different explanations and viewpoints, we know that heavy times can wear us out and that having others to bear the weight with us is essential. In this story, we see Moses having to bear a weight that is exhausting and unsustainable. G...

Today we want to remember that we serve the God who can do the impossible. Each of us have known moments when our lives seemed impossibly broken, stuck, or empty. Heartache and grief, or frustration and anger, or panic and fear threaten to swallow up our hope. So this day, we look at a story that is meant to help us remember and believe that God can do what we can’t. He is able to bring us through...

We all need food. Some of us could skip a meal or two, but the human reality is that without food for a prolonged period of time, we would die. Many in our world today know that danger very personally as hundreds of millions of people face starvation this year. So there’s nothing unclear about our need for nutrition through eating. With that reality in view, any time there is a question about havi...

We are probably all complainers. It is as natural to human beings as breathing and sleeping. We experience something we don’t want, or we don’t get to have something we do want, and we complain. Not all complaints are evil; sometimes there are very good reasons to raise our voice and talk about what isn’t right. But the tendency is for our own judgment about ‘how things should be’ to replace true...

At some point in all of our lives, we have been desperate. The need we faced was so essential that we couldn’t just brush off our lack of resources. But it seemed there was nothing we could do to meet that need. In this moment, most people panic, or pray, or both. We talk about a God who cares for us and watches over us. So why would He bring us to desperation? Since that’s exactly what He did rig...

Have you ever tried to walk through a corn maze? What seems like a simple puzzle can quickly frustrate and confuse us. From our perspective, everything looks pretty much the same and there is no real way to assess where you are or where you should go. What would really help is a map! And some sort of ‘you are here’ indicator. Once you know what the maze looked like from above and where you were in...

Paul tells us that man is the head of the home. And he gives us instructions as men in how we are to interact with our family. So let’s take a look at something essential to manhood: courage. If we are to raise a generation to know, love, and follow Jesus, it will require courage from our men to step up into their faith and leadership. What does it mean to lead? How does leading as a believer diff...

We don’t believe much in being still. Our lives and our minds are constantly in motion. But no matter how fast we run or how much we ‘multitask’, we can never seem to get ahead of all there is to do. Unfortunately, this reality does not deter most of us at all from going at maximum speed, straight into some kind of breakdown. In our story, Israel has been freed. But not long thereafter, they find...

Some people act before they think. Others think and think and think before they act. Both groups of people make mistakes. And mistakes often lead to regret. If you think about it, it can make you wish for some way to know the right way from the wrong way. As believers, we put our trust in the living God. But sometimes, it can feel like He is uninterested in our lives or in telling us which way to...

How’s your memory? There are many reasons that our minds don’t work as well as we want them to, including sleep patterns and diet. But the bigger reality is that we all tend to forget over time. Even the best of us are more likely to remember things we focus on and forget the things we never think about. Of course, our Creator knows this and He has given us instructions on what to do about it for...