Hope Christian Fellowship

Sometimes, there are too many choices. Have you ever been paralyzed by an array of options because there are just too many of the choices that you like? Or maybe your health journey has suffered because you have too many options to choose from for eating and exercising, so you wind up never really committing to anything. Being a disciple requires certain holy habits that you choose and to which yo...

Are you tired? Exhausted? Do you regularly feel like you don’t know if you can keep up the pace at which you are living? All of us live in a very hurried world. It is hard to imagine a life that is characterized by peace and rest. This makes the invitation of Jesus to come and find rest for our souls seem wonderful and out of reach all at the same time. We think of rest as stopping from all our ac...

From the very beginning, God’s people have prayed. There are many different approaches that have been taken. Some beg for mercy over and over while others barely do it at all. Some repeat the same prayers endlessly and others find a way to bring every single event to the Lord throughout their day. One of the big challenges for people is knowing HOW to pray. Or at least that’s often the thing that...

As we continue looking at Holy Habits, there is one that we have been emphasizing for well over a year. Isolation and loneliness are our enemies. Whether you feel alone or not, our calling is to make sure no one who is a part of Hope is vulnerable to being disconnected from our church family. Paul uses a picture of a body to teach us how we are supposed to function together. We cannot follow Jesus...

Following Jesus is not a light or easy thing. It is quite simple, but it is completely against our human way of living. We always think of ourselves as being in the center of the story. But when we follow Jesus, the story isn’t about us anymore. Instead, we are living for things that last forever. This allows us to follow Jesus into a life of faith that may look a little crazy or ridiculous to oth...

As we begin our series, we look at one thing that is an inescapable outcome of receiving Jesus. Those who are saved want others to have it too. We don’t lose anything by giving away the Good News. In fact, we are explicitly following Jesus who came to “call sinners to repentance.” It is normal to think about Christians being “good people” and non-Christians as people who are sinful. But Jesus make...

It can certainly feel challenging to love like Jesus amidst a highly polarized and emotionally charged atmosphere. However, as followers of Christ, we are called to find our voice and engage with the world in a way that reflects His character. In this passage, Jesus calls His followers to a radical kind of love – one that goes far beyond natural human instincts. As we go through the text together,...

(Hebrews 11:1-13, 32-40; 12:1-2) Faith is a mysterious thing. There’s an element of belief in it, but also trusting in things that never happen, and seeking to know things that can’t be known. If we look back at the giants of faith in the Bible, as the author of Hebrews does in chapter 11, we can see that their lives reveal a faith that goes far beyond belief—a faith that calls to action, to sacri...

Have you had someone in your life as a friend who was actually a bad influence on you? Maybe they were the reason you made choices that you still regret. Or maybe they just offered some moments of fun that turned into a distraction from the life you actually wanted. We see the impact of friendships in our own lives and in the lives of those we love. On the flip side, some relationships are grounde...

We are working our way through the Gospel of Luke. These stories are about the life and work of Jesus. Luke took time to interview eyewitnesses and to investigate times and locations so that he would have an accurate record of what Jesus said and did. In this story, we find a very interesting interaction between Jesus and a man that no one would be even allowed to touch by the Law of Moses. It wou...

If you know someone who loves to fish, you realize how much it takes to be successful at fishing. Some days, it seems like “the fish are biting” and others days it seems like all the fish have vanished. Jesus’ calls some disciples – including the three in His inner circle – from this career. And He uses that imagery to describe what He wants to ask them to do. Instead of fishing for fish, He wants...

When you or someone you love is sick, you ache for them to be healed. If it is an infant who cannot sleep because of a cold, you wish you could make them feel better immediately. If it is something like cancer, you pray that God will heal and that the doctors will be able to remove it all. Our bodies are quite fragile and we are significantly powerless to determine our own well-being. So, we pray...

Sometimes life can make you think that a dark cloud hangs over you. Nothing seems to go right, and you get bad news on top of bad news. This kind of pattern often causes people to think that someone is out to get them – maybe even dark spiritual forces. As Christians, we should know about the spiritual enemies that we face. In Jesus’ ministry, He often demonstrated His power to set people free fro...

The end of World War 2 was good news for the world. After all the battles and the lives lost, there would be an end to the fighting. No matter which side a person was on, this had to be good news in that respect. However, it is documented that one Japanese soldier kept fighting until 1974. He simply did not believe that the war was over. For almost 3 decades, he spent his life fighting a war that...

If you’ve ever started a diet, you know that there are so many messages about food – especially food you shouldn’t eat – that saturate your daily life. You are helpfully reminded that the local fast food restaurant has a sale on their quick lunches. The donut stand near your workplace is always ready to serve. And the evening munchies sneak up on you every night. Temptation is a battle that we kno...

At the start of any project, there is a key moment when the thing you are doing moves from something that COULD happen into something that IS happening. At lot of people get stuck in the dreaming phase and never really begin anything of substance because they cannot imagine going from the “anything is possible” part to the “this is what I’m going to actually do” part. Thankfully, Jesus’ ministry d...

If you have been alive for any length of time, you will know the weight of your mistakes. Whether they are premeditated or reactionary, the result of misplaced intentions, or flat out selfishness they all pile up. We can lie awake at night wondering how we could have done things differently, tip toe around relationships we once thought we were secure in, or feel that desire to do enough good to ou...

Everyone has someone they need to forgive. And everyone needs to be forgiven. That is not new; in fact, it has always been this way. Some people think they don’t need forgiveness, and others don’t want it. But with God, forgiveness is necessary for any hope of a future that we want. John the Baptist bursts on the scene in Luke’s Gospel and he is baptizing people and calling them to the pathway tha...

So often, we think we know what God is doing (or what He should be doing) in the situations we face. Most of our misunderstanding about God’s plan comes down to thinking that the story unfolding in our lives is all about us or all about ‘right now.’ Luke includes a story – the only one we have – from Jesus’ childhood. In these events, you might be surprised to see that Mary and Joseph had normal p...

As we celebrate all of our Moms today, we’re going to take a look at the treasured memories of Jesus’ Mom. As Luke interviews the eyewitnesses, he gets these stories from Mary about some of the early interactions she had with people who reinforced the promise of God in her Son. Mary and Joseph go about their parental duties and God uses those faithful acts to show them (and us) that, just like wai...

For most of us, the social dynamics of middle school and high school are really hard to navigate when you’re living through them. Trying to fit in when you don’t even really know who you are is an experience of real struggle and trial. There are few things more painful than being left out of a group to which you’ve tried to connect. It tends to send the message that you are unworthy and that you a...

Some of us consider ourselves to be ‘control freaks.’ But all of us actually would prefer to be in control of many of the things that happen in our lives. We’d like to decide if we get the job or don’t, if we’re able to have kids or not, if tragedy skips over us, or if people like us. The list goes on. And each of us have our own. The problem is that we don’t get that kind of control. And as long...

Today, we know that the resurrection of Jesus is the most well-established fact in ancient history. But for those who lived through those days, His resurrection was unthinkable. Jesus’ followers were left crushed and confused by His crucifixion. Before they even had time to process that loss, there are reports that Jesus was alive again. Can you imagine what it felt like to live through that? Toda...

On Palm Sunday, we celebrate and remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to the shouts of praise and victory. Of course, we know that it was only a few days later that Jesus was crucified. That contrast can make Palm Sunday seem empty or tragic. Yet in a real sense, Palm Sunday told the truth about what was to come. This man came as the fulfillment of God’s promises to David and Abraham and Moses. Wh...

Faith is a word that gets thrown around a lot in church. Sometimes, that familiarity can lessen our appreciation for the miracles that God offers through faith. By faith, we can know Him and have a relationship with our amazing Creator. By faith, we can find salvation and healing and hope and peace in this life. It is faith that navigates us out of the traps of discouragement and despair. It is fa...