Our Journey to Hope

Send us Fan Mail One of the blessings all of us share is to have wonderful friends who encourage and support us in our life.  Arthur and Sandy Barry have been friends with us since 2016 when we came to know them through an evangelistic effort we shared in Pennsylvania. In this episode I am speaking with Arthur about his work in Sayre, Pennsylvania to bring hope to a small community.  We discuss wh...

Send us Fan Mail As we continue in our journey to hope, it becomes obvious that faith plays a major role in the direction and success in which we travel.  Faith and hope are intertwined and supportive of one another.  As our faith grows, so to does our hope.  And as our hope grows, so to does our faith. In this episode, I look at faith as a matter of choice.  I will explore a bit about what hope i...

Send us Fan Mail It's not unusual to feel alone and overwhelmed when life throws challenges at us.  We also may feel in these moments that these challenges pile on seeming to crush us by their number and weight.  It is in these moments that it is very important to remember that we are not alone. I recently came across a poem by Amar Amarvani called, "The Hope Poem".  I want to share...

Send us Fan Mail We all have knowledge, skills, and experiences that we can use to help others discover, sustain, or regain hope.  We might not recognize these in ourselves, but they are there.   In this episode I have a conversation with Don Moore, Assistant Executive Director for the Lads to Leaders organization.  We discuss what Lads to Leaders is and how it contributes to helping others challe...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of us learn or think in some sort of pattern.  We find comfort in patterns to help us understand and live our life.  We can learn outside of a pattern, but it helps to have one.  In this episode, I want to look at a pattern that will help us understand a bit about Christianity.  There are a lot of thoughts out there about what Christianity is.  Most have a pretty good idea,...

Send us Fan Mail You've heard it expressed in some form or another that everything has a cost or that nothing is truly free.  This is applicable to true and lasting hope.  True and lasting hope is found only in our Lord Jesus Christ.   The hope most people have is a vague form of wanting something to happen or not to happen.  There is nothing inherently wrong with this.  We all use the word h...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I want to look at a character known to many who traveled from hopeless to hopeful through his interaction with Jesus.  This man was willing to sacrifice his dignity to get a chance to see Jesus.  Of course, I'm talking about what is a favorite Bible story for many.  I'm talking about Zacchaeus.  Perhaps you are facing rejection and lonliness.  Or you know...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone of us have a past that has elements we are ashamed of, or regret.  Some have extreme situations from which they are seeking to grow out of.  Another point to note is that when something has become a part of who we are, it is not easy to change it.  It usually takes what is known as a significant emotional event.    In this episode I have a conversation with Aaron Anderson...

Send us Fan Mail Scripture, God's word is serious.  It communicates to us how God created us, how sin came into the world, and how He made the way back to Him possible through Jesus Christ. Yet God also created us in His image with all the emotions we experience.  Among those is the ability to see humor in things.  And although scripture is serious, sometimes God uses forms of humor to help u...

Send us Fan Mail One of the best ways to discover, sustain, or regain hope is to be there for others.  There are no individuals of greater importance than our caregivers who help take care of us as we face challenges in life.  Many caregivers don't expect to be in that role and find themselves with limited knowledge and resources.      My friend Judith Henry has written a wonderful book calle...

Send us Fan Mail In this presentation I want to discuss briefly three gifts, wonderful gifts, powerful gifts, that fully equip us to serve our Lord and to help each other.  These three gifts form a holy triad:  Faith, Hope, and Love. I want to briefly explain a bit about them but mostly, I want to focus on how they work together to strengthen and equip us for our journey to hope. The most known pa...

Send us Fan Mail It is easy to feel fear when we are bombarded daily with such negative input.  We hear it from our news sources.  We hear is from our friends, co-workers, and even family.  It is not wonder then that fear can have such a presence in our life.  But we can break away from fear.  We can embrace fearlessness.   In this episode I share some things I've learned about being fearless...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes, even with our best intentions, what we offer someone isn't what they need.  What they need is to just "walk with me." I came across this poem sometime back as I journeyed through cancer treatments.  I'm so very thankful for the many who did walk with me with abundant love.   The transcript for this poem is included. One last thing, remember that none...

Send us Fan Mail I have had the honor and pleasure to get to know and work with Feroze Baksh from the  Georgetown, Guyana area.  Feroze is an evangelist in that area helping to teach the gospel of Jesus and by that, to bring true and lasting hope to others. Feroze faces many challenges in his work.  He shares with us his story of how he was converted to Christ and the persecution he faced from his...

Send us Fan Mail There are so many remarkable events in the life of Christ.  We spend years studying them and drawing an application for our lives.  In this episode I want to look at one of these events that occurred towards the end of our Lord's life yet hold great significance to us.  I'm speaking of the interaction between Jesus and one of those crucified with Him.  There was somethin...

Send us Fan Mail This episode marks one year since I began my podcast.  It has been a wonderful journey.  I have enjoyed tremendously the guests I've had, the insights I've gained and shared, and my personal growth in knowledge of hope. I wanted to briefly chat about how I began my podcast and a bit about why I started it.  I am looking forward to many more opportunities to help others d...

Send us Fan Mail As I've gotten older I've noticed how much joy I have in seeing young married couples begin life together.  They are full of love, joy, and hope as they grow in their relationship. Such is the case with Nic and Isabelle Cavender.  I recently met this couple at our congregation and saw how special they were.  I also saw how much they reminded me of my wife and I as we beg...

Send us Fan Mail It may seem odd that we would find hope through worship when it is often seen as an activity in which we should look outward to God.  But like other things, God provides us benefits in this activity.   In this episode I discuss with David Barker, minister for the Midway Church of Christ about how we find hope through our worship to God.  We look at what hope is and how the activit...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode you will hear the passion and excitement in the voice of Tim Hodge as he tells us the story of Rainbow Omega and how it brings hope to individuals and their families in unique and wonderful ways.   Rainbow Omega is a wonderful organization with an unusual name.  But as you will learn from this episode, the name is perfect for what they do. Even their physical addre...

Send us Fan Mail It has been noted that the more hope we have the more motivated we are.  Sadly, the opposite is also true.  If we feel we have no hope then our motivation wanes or is nonexistant.   In this episode we look at the relationship between hope and motivate.  We look at how we can develop motivation and how we can recapture motivation when it begins to wane. My guest, Keith Kasarjian is...

Send us Fan Mail We've stated in several episodes that true and lasting hope is found in our Lord Jesus Christ.  And until we put on Christ through our repentance and baptism, we don't have that true and lasting hope. Part of the elements that God requires for us to be granted salvation from our sins is repentance.  This word is sometimes misunderstood.  For example, some might think rep...

Send us Fan Mail Becky has been a guest before (Season 1 - Episode 20) where we talked about the healing of humor.  She is a remarkable person with a tremendous spirit.  I think you will discover as I did that you feel like you've known her for years as a good friend.  In this episode Becky and I discuss a new venture she started that is aimed at helping folks going through challenges in thei...

Send us Fan Mail Perhaps you've heard it said many times that we find true and lasting hope through God's word, the Bible.  You may even have heard it often enough the it is easy to tune it out.   I like to think you want to know God's word but not sure where to begin reading or understanding it. In this episode I have a discussion withe Dale Jenkins about how we find hope through G...

Send us Fan Mail Music and singing have always been part of efforts to motivate and stimulate us.  Even in our entertainment, we see the importance of songs.  For example, we hear a song from a movie and are immediately transported to that movie.  Military bands serve to spur on soldiers.  Highschool bands spur on teams to keep going. The same is true in our spiritual songs we use in worship.  The...

Send us Fan Mail Imagine being brought before a judge for a crime that you are completely guilty of.  You know the law and know you must be punished.  You can only hope that the judge will show mercy.   Such is the situation for a woman brought to Jesus for a crime that in that time was punishable by death.  She dared not hope for mercy.  Yet our Lord demonstrates his love and compassion as he gra...