The Voice of Hope

Mark 7:14-23 You have probably heard the saying, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Some people think it’s a quotation from the Bible! You know that God gave specific commands for hygiene in the Old Testament Law. He wanted His people to enjoy good health, and cleanliness was part of it. These commands are not just rules but divine wisdom that reinforces the importance of cleanliness.            ...

Mark 7:1-13 Fiddler on the Roof, a timeless classic first released in 1964, held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost a decade. The story centers on the weight of choices as Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, grapples with preserving his Jewish religious and cultural traditions in the face of changing times. One of the most well-known songs in Fiddler on the Roo...

Luke 12:22-34 There once was a king who had all this world could afford. But the thing he loved most was to laugh. Once while he was being entertained, a jester came along. He wanted to join in the festival and perform for the king. His opportunity came and he put on the best comical show he’d ever done, and the king laughed harder than he’d ever laughed before.             Once the festival was o...

Luke 12:22-34 There once was a king who had all this world could afford. But the thing he loved most was to laugh. Once while he was being entertained, a jester came along. He wanted to join in the festival and perform for the king. His opportunity came and he put on the best comical show he’d ever done, and the king laughed harder than he’d ever laughed before.             Once the festival was o...

Mark 6:45-56 Early in human history, people learned that sailing the oceans and seas of planet Earth was costly and dangerous. Countless lives were lost as storms, hidden shoals, and other catastrophes awaited the unsuspecting sailors. Yet despite the risks, many persisted because of the advantages of travel and the movement of goods from one place to another. In the United States, in the early 18...

Mark 6:30-44 Reverend Frank Graeff was a pastor in Philadelphia in the late 1800s. He had a radiant personality and an ever-present smile. Because of his cheerful outlook on life and simple faith, he was nicknamed, “The Sunshine Minister.” Although Reverend Graeff’s nickname indicated a life filled with joy, he also knew heartache and spiritual trials. At one point in his life, he struggled with d...

Mark 6:14-29 As a young person, I was an avid reader. Because of that, I enjoyed the literature classes I had in school. Back then, we were assigned to read different types of classic literature. One author I remember was Edgar Allen Poe.             I read one of his short stories titled “The Tell-tale Heart.” Itis rather ghastly but carries an important lesson. I’ll spare you the gory details, b...

Join us today for a special discussion on the future of HOH with Anthony, Arlin, and J. Mark! Thank you for joining us today. Did you catch last week’s special episode for Father’s Day? Anthony and J. Mark hosted a discussion on fatherhood. Want to double your impact? We currently have a DOUBLE MATCH opportunity as we are “Working Together, Winning the World.” More details here. Help us broadcast...

Anthony High, Executive Director, and J. Mark Horst, Bible Teacher discuss fatherhood in this special episode of the Voice of Hope. Anthony: Here in the United States, we are celebrating Father’s Day. J. Mark, what’s a memory you have of your father? JMH: I’ll briefly share two. My dad loved to sing. We were dairy farmers, and he sang in the milkhouse. All that steel and concrete made for good aco...

A History Lesson : HOH Celebrates 65 Years! Can you tell me a bit about Dr. Yoder? 1. J. Otis Yoder was born on the plains of Colorado in 1914. At two years of age, he was stricken with double pneumonia. His parents were given little hope for his survival, so they told God that if He would spare their son, they would dedicate him to the ministry of the Gospel. His mother then applied an old-fashio...

Mark 6:7-13 One significant difference between the setting in Luke 9 and today is hospitality. In biblical culture, hospitality was a requirement! The widow in Zarephath took her last food and gave it to the prophet Elijah. She had no idea God would use her obedience to sustain her and her son, yet she showed hospitality. If you read the Scriptures carefully, you’ll repeatedly see this display of...

Mark 6:7-13             When I was in junior high school, one of the classes we boys had to take was woodshop. The teacher was eccentric, but I learned some fundamentals of woodworking in that class. Of course, the best part was using essential hand tools to build simple projects. Because of that positive experience, I took woodshop as an elective in my sophomore year in high school. After that, I...

Mark 6:1-6             I once heard a story about the first automobiles in the rural United States. An older gentleman and his grandsons sat on the porch enjoying a lazy summer afternoon. He was reading a newspaper, and they were watching the swallows dipping and swooping through the humid air.             Suddenly, a strange sound caught their attention. In the distance, the boys spied a cloud of...

I Timothy 2:11-15 I had the privilege, or misfortune, of growing up in the 1960s and 70s. During that time, the concept of authority was trashed in favor of personal autonomy. The mantra of that era was “no one is going to tell me how to live.” It led to the wholesale rejection of moral standards. The young adults of that time eventually grew up – at least they got older. Yet many of them never ab...

Don’t Be Afraid, Just Believe Mark 5:21-43                Charlotte Elliott was a sickly English woman who developed a long history of refusing to do things she was asked to do because of her illness. Her brother was a pastor, and he was particularly persistent in trying to get her to do something positive. But Charlotte always refused. She’d say things like; “I’m not feeling up to it; I’m an inva...

Going to the Dark Side: Part 2 Mark 5:1-20 At the insistence of the demons, Jesus permitted them. By His power, Jesus could have sent them anywhere, even back to the abyss. That fact that He didn’t do that tells us He had a larger purpose to fulfill in this interaction with the demons and the residents. John MacArthur wrote, “By granting permission for these demons to go into the herd of pigs, Jes...

Going to the Dark Side: Part 1 Mark 5:1-20               What was the purpose of Jesus’ coming to earth? Hint: there’s more than one right answer. In First John 3:8, John answers this question very clearly. In this context, John is writing about the relationship between sin and the child of God. He wrote, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose,...

Is Jesus in Your Boat? Mark 4:35-41             Few ships in the world are more famous than the Titanic. She began her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, from Southampton, England, to New York City. On April 14, the Titanic struck an iceberg and in a few short hours broke apart and sank. More than 1500 people lost their lives in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.             On the Sunday after t...

The Mystery of the Kingdom Mark 4:21-34             In Ephesians 5, in the context of his teaching about marriage oneness, Paul wrote, “This is a great mystery , but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”              In First Corinthians 15, he wrote, “Behold, I tell you a  mystery : We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump...

Resurrection Celebration 2024 Selected Texts We Shall Assemble/There is a Redeemer Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and...

Don’t Miss Your Moment Luke 19:28-48             Some of you are familiar with Leo Tolstoy’s famous Christmas story where the main character is Martin, an old cobbler. One night as Martin sat reading from the Gospels, he thought he heard someone calling him. He listened and heard clearly: “Martin, look out into the street tomorrow for I will come to visit you.” He looked around the tiny room, and...

A Fruitful Life : Part 2 Mark 4:10-20             This text reveals several key INGREDIENTS necessary for producing “A Fruitful Life.” In the previous episode of The Voice of Hope we began studying Mark 4:1-20 , Jesus’ parable of the soils. We looked at the skill of the sower, the quality of the seed, and the first two kinds of soil. They were the hard-packed soil of the footpath and the thin soil...

A Fruitful Life: Part 1 Mark 4:1-20             As we continue our study of Mark’s Gospel, we come to the record of Jesus’ teaching that’s often called “The Parable of the Sower.” You’ll notice as we read Mark 8:1-20 that the sower is only mentioned twice, once in verse 3 and again in verse 14. The main thrust of the parable seems to be the types of soil on which the seed falls. We could more accu...

A Model for Leaders Mark 3:7-19             When I was a boy, models of classic cars were a big thing. They came in a box unassembled, and you had to glue all the plastic parts together and then paint the model whatever color you wanted. In my memory, I can still smell the glue we used to assemble them. They accurately represented real cars, and the details were pretty amazing. In the spring of 20...