Hope Christian Fellowship

This Father’s Day, we’re inviting our kids to take over our service. We’ll have our GoZone in the main auditorium and the whole church will join their normal Sunday routine. We do this in honor of our Dads who have an incredible and indelible impact on their children. And we do it to partner with all our parents as they work to lead their children spiritually. At Hope, our HopeKids Ministries exis...

How are you at responding to messages and texts? Some people are so continuously on their phone that every message is immediately returned. Others look at their phone once in a while, and when they get a notification, they neglect to respond. No matter how you are at responding, you’d certainly like others to respond to messages you send that need an answer. Responding is a natural part of any hum...

The Olympics have a unique tradition: after the winner and the runners up are decided for an event, the champions are honored by standing on a pedestal to receive their medals, and having the winner’s national anthem played. This idea goes way back to the ancient games, almost 800 years before Jesus was born, when victors were given an olive wreath to wear on their heads so all would know that the...

If you’ve ever been at a public pool, you’ve probably seen a sign that warns against running near the pool. Of course, this is common sense because a wet surface can be quite slippery and pose great danger if a person is not careful. The idea of losing your footing is exactly why we worship. The world around us can pose many hazards to our spiritual footing. We’ve all experienced how the trials of...

Ephesians Bible Study

We don’t often associate music with a fight. In the last few years, we have seen the tragic combination of violence and music too often. The irony is that music is generally associated with enjoyment and ‘good feelings’. So when anger or danger shows up where people are singing along to their favorite songs, it is startling. But one of the big reasons we sing in church is to do battle spiritually....

SUNDAY MORNING MESSAGE – Mother’s Day – Choices of the Heart ( Genesis 38:24-30 ) Few gifts in life are more universal or precious than the gift of motherhood. While not everyone experiences it the same way, we all have a mother. And this simple reminder points us back to the Creator of life. Our society is currently in a real struggle to decide what to do with babies before they are born. As beli...

You’re certainly familiar with the expression, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” Good news hardly ever precedes or follows that expression. But it’s just pithy enough to sound true. We’ve all experienced that fight or flight moment where our back was against the wall. Behavior that would normally be unacceptable, all of a sudden became a real possibility. But do desperate times actual...

Re-gifting is the genius idea of taking something you've been given that you didn't want, and using it as a gift to someone else. It has the benefit providing a free present that you would have to otherwise buy, and it allows you to feel less guilty about not wanting what you've been given. However, it can hardly be characterized as generous. Or thoughtful.  Or loving.  As believers, w...

This Easter Sunday, we have the privilege of having our choir share with us the story of God’s work among the people of this world. There is no narrative in all of history that has had a more profound effect. Join us to experience this incredible music, and to witness again why the Easter story has been such a force throughout history – one that continues to impact the world today. Then we’ll take...

Ephesians Bible Study

The Sunday before Easter has been celebrated throughout the history of Christianity as the beginning of Passion Week. It is such a vivid contrast to the way the week ends. Jesus rides into Jerusalem as a king, to the cheers of the crowd. We have just finished looking at the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus describes His Kingdom. And now He arrives as the ruler of that Kingdom. Yet, what the crowd e...

Building on Solid Ground (Matthew 7:21-27) A few years ago, a hurricane was bearing down on New Jersey. For those of us who had lived here for a long time, this was a rather unique event. A major storm projected to make landfall on the coast of our state was unsettling and we didn’t quite know what to expect. When the storm hit, it did unbelievable damage: blowing homes from their foundations and...

Ephesians 1 – God is Sovereign

We are bombarded by advertising every single day. Restaurants serve us pictures of food that bears little resemblance to what actually shows up in front of paying customers. Amazing deals are advertised only to be undermined by the ‘small print’. With all the sensational promises we hear, it is hard for us to know how to sort through which ones to believe, and which ones to ignore. Christianity is...

When you play sports, coaches have a bunch of sayings they use to try to get the players to reliably perform well. The short quips summarize some wisdom from years of experience, and help players stay on track in split-second decisions they have to make in the course of a game. Whether a player accepts them or decides to ignore them will likely have a huge impact on their performance (and probably...

Ephesians Bible Study

Wednesday night Bible study on Ephesians 1.

If you've ever read the book or watched the movie, there is a scene in The Lord of the Rings where the whole group is stuck in front of a door while they try to figure out the magic words to open the door. Of course, while they are waiting, danger lurks. And soon after they enter, they are very aware that there is more danger inside. Jesus uses the picture of a closed door to invite people to...

Being unfairly criticized is a terrible feeling. No one likes to be wrongfully accused of anything. Having been on the wrong side of an accusation, there’s nothing like the truth coming to light to clear the air. In John 18, Jesus stands before Pilate and is asked an extremely profound question, What is truth? In our world truth is perceived to be relative, let’s take a look at what the Bible says...

Don’t Judge ( Matthew 7:1-6 ) Does anyone remember the OJ trial? High powered attorneys piled up on one side, with all of the resources of the District Attorney’s office on the other side. But no matter how rich or powerful, each person had to submit to Judge Ito. In retrospect, Judge Ito may have surrendered more control in his courtroom than was healthy for the process. But as the judge in the c...

Ephesians 1 Bible Study

Back in the 80s, a very popular song suggested “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. The catchy tune coupled with a very simple formula for a carefree life was quite appealing. But it did seem to oversimplify the process of letting go of worry. For many of us, worry is a constant companion. We don’t want harm to come to the people we love. We don’t want to lose what is important to us. So we are drawn into wor...

Back in the day, boys would trade baseball cards. Most of us didn’t think it was important to keep the cards pristine. In fact, some even used them to recreate a motorcycle sound by putting them in the spokes of their bikes. Later, baseball cards became a legitimate hobby, and collectors drove the price of certain cards to unimaginable heights. Of course, if a little boy knew how much that card wo...

Just Hunger Youth Sunday Do you love Chinese food? I love Chinese food. but what I've found is that it doesn't matter how much of it I eat, within a few hours I am hungry again. This is true of most foods that are high in starches and/or carbs. Jesus plays on this reality multiple times throughout the gospels, calling himself "the bread of life" and "living water". We d...