Hope Christian Fellowship

Betrayal is a wound in the soul that feels like it changes everything. You don’t know who you can trust or if you will ever be able to put your faith in someone again. All of your thoughts bend toward how you didn’t see it coming or didn’t believe what you saw.  Regret can spill into those thoughts as well and start to disable you from even trusting yourself. But in this story, we are presented wi...

Does this world need help? Perhaps it needs even more than that. Jesus’ world certainly did. Just before He died, He spent one last night with His disciples around a dinner table and talked to them about what He knew they needed to know. The result of that conversation eventually changed the world. When you think about it, those last words before Jesus suffered and died have more significance and...

A New Year. This moment is regularly used to evaluate what we need to change and how we need to hold onto what is valuable while letting go of what is empty. As a church, we’re going to begin the year by observing Communion together and by asking ourselves what kind of church Jesus wants us to be. What should be our focus as Christians and as a church family for this New Year? This morning we’re g...

If you could invite lonely and needy people to your Christmas table, would you? Of course, that’s a difficult question. We don’t know who is lonely unless they tell us (and we believe them). The same thing goes for those in need. But it’s likely that our hearts would WANT to include as many as possible if we truly believed we could help meet their needs. Christmas is good news because God’s heart...

This morning, we’ll take some time to keep talking about why Christmas is good news. Jesus’ arrival tells us that God is relational. That means He wants and seeks personal relationships with people. How does the birth of Jesus tell us that?  We’re going to look at Jesus’ words at the Last Supper to see what He says about why He came and who He’s connected to. Then we’ll see that it’s also the reas...

Here we are in December and it is time to celebrate Christmas! In the coming weeks, we’re going to look at why Christmas is good news for everyone. And today we start by talking about the way Christmas relates to one of the big questions of history and of our lives: Is there a God? Jesus’ arrival settled that question for all time. There is indeed a God of the Universe, all-powerful and glorious....

Have you ever looked back at some pictures of yourself from years ago and wondered what you were thinking?  You may even remember that you thought you really looked good. But now, with fresh eyes and a good deal of distance from that moment, you have a very different opinion of your appearance. For this last church in Revelation, Jesus tells the church at Laodicea that what they think of themselve...

With our state banning plastic bags, you may have found yourself in this situation over the past few months.  Since we’re so used to having grocery bags to carry all of our purchases, sometimes we forget that we’re not getting them anymore. That leads to an awkward attempt to carry as many loose groceries as possible into the house, which creates another problem… opening the door!  With no hands l...

Today, we hear a lot of talk about being ‘Woke’. That one word has been used as either a challenge or a derogatory label for people. Depending on what you think are the best answers for our country, you can think that being called ‘woke’ is a compliment or a curse. But long before it became a code word for some social or political ideology, Jesus came with a message to the church in Sardis, tellin...

If you have children, have they ever continually resisted advice you give them, but then when someone else gives them that same advice, they enthusiastically embrace it? This is one of many challenges in raising kids! Parents are pretty alert to the voices who have influence in their children’s lives.  That’s because they know that the choices their kids make are greatly impacted by who they liste...

These days, it is probably hard to imagine getting lost while driving to some new location. We use technology that tells us each turn to make and when to make it. We even get to see a map with a symbol showing us where we are and how we’re moving. But before smart phones, it was pretty easy to get lost if you were on the road.  Consulting a map could help, but it wasn’t always a guarantee that you...

We’ve come a long way from the days of traveling with a map that unfolds, which has made it harder and harder to get lost.  The hopeless feeling of being lost is one that is much harder to come by due to the abundance of GPS apps.  By looking at a popular parable given to us by Jesus, The Prodigal Son, we will explore God’s desire to draw all people unto Himself and the response we give as a resul...

When you kicked off this year, you may have made some resolutions.  They probably didn’t include any aspiration to suffer. We just don’t like the hardship or pain, and we look to escape as quickly as possible.  But Jesus talks to the church at Smyrna and tells them that He sees their suffering.  He goes on to tell them that they will suffer more and in greater measure. But instead of apologizing f...

Sometimes as you’re doing things online, you come across one of those videos where a service member who has been overseas surprises their family by coming home and showing up unexpectedly. If you’re given to emotion (and even if you are not), you can’t help but be overwhelmed with how much it means to the family to be reunited. When you love someone, you want to be near them. Plenty of people toda...

Sometimes when you’re watching a movie or a TV show, you see and actor and kind of recognize him or her, but you can’t quite remember where you’ve seen them before. In our world today, we whip out our phones and look up their name and their career so that we can connect the dots. It’s good to get an answer to the question “Who is that?” even if it’s for something as trivial as just not having to k...

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to be ‘in the know’ and others are left in the dark?  Whether we’re talking about what’s happening at school, at our jobs, or in our family or friend group, it can be really hard to be left out of the latest news. Some of that feeling is what drives people to stay constantly connected on their phones, scared they may not know what is happening. Spirituall...

Thanks to the ever increasing speed and reach of mass media, we have access to all sorts of opinions and beliefs. Instead of leading to us all being more open-minded and well-rounded, most of us have retreated to our echo chambers. We’ve surrounded ourselves, in real life or through our media consumption, with voices that reinforce our own opinions and beliefs. This leaves us ill-suited to handle...

One of the most natural inclinations we have as humans is a desire to use what is ours for ourselves. We spend the first several years of children’s lives teaching them to share. We never have to teach them to be protective of what is theirs. We do get better at sharing, but we also get better at hiding the fact that we aren’t sharing. As adults, we can be quite possessive of that which we deem is...

When a couple gets married, they vow to one another to love one another through whatever comes. Right in the traditional vows themselves is a plain acknowledgement that life is uncertain. So the vows say that no matter what they face (sickness or health, riches or poverty, etc) the love they are promising will endure. Truly this is one of the most notable and desirable parts of love. But it is som...

How many times have you had something stuck in your head because a person said something hurtful to you? Maybe you played it off and acted like it didn’t bother you, but later on you can’t seem to get it out of your mind. The truth is that it is difficult to let go of wrongs done against us. In fact, the larger the offense, the more difficult it is to disentangle ourselves from both the pain and t...

As we kickoff our week of Vacation Bible School, we are going to continue our discussion about the practice we need in the things that Christians do. In fact, we’re going to talk about one of the ways we practice loving people in this week, and the mindset that it reflects. In a world where social anxiety and tribalism dominates our connections (or lack thereof), we believe that being a Christian...

If you’re a photographer, you know a thing or two about focus. Most of us take focus for granted since our phones automatically focus for us. But there are a few apps that let us go back to a technique where you can choose what is ‘in focus’ in the picture, and what is blurry instead. For artists, this control of focus was used to direct the viewer’s attention as desired. What was in focus natural...

While we’re talking about practicing as believers, we should note that our culture gives us regular opportunities to practice what isn’t core to following Jesus. For example, we are constantly barraged with opportunities to envy what someone else has. Desire is seen as a good and healthy driver to decision making. So why wouldn’t a company selling something try to fan the flame of “I want that” to...

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who always seems to need to ‘one up’ whatever you say? If you talk about some kind of struggle, they respond with how much harder they have struggled. If you relate something you’ve learned, sure enough, they have learned that long ago and mastered it. It’s really frustrating isn’t it? This is an expression of pride, and pride is a tremendous barri...

Have you ever had a conversation with a person who really likes to talk about themselves? While it is normal in conversation to talk about your own experiences and ideas, there’s something unmistakable in certain people who cross the line into self-absorbed. When you notice it, you first marvel at their ability to take any topic and turn it back to themselves. But before long, you are looking for...