April 25, 2024

Psalm 50:1-2

1 The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Lord Byron, a British poet, said the world has two types of people: the boring and the bored. The bored would be the worldly-wise who, having experienced much, are now never surprised or delighted by anything. The boring are the simple folks who see a miracle in even the mundane like the sun rising or a child laughing. I know which I’d rather be, and which the Psalmist is. Which are you?

Are you able to look up at something as common as the sky and worship its maker? There is a lie that being regularly near something makes it less valuable, or at least less exciting. Feel the sun on your face, spilling it’s rays from millions of miles away, and pray again to your God. Commit to the brief time it takes to let each amaze you and sing praise to a God who loves you like that.

Prayer prompt: Lord, wake me up to the wonder of the ordinary.

April 24, 2024

Ephesians 3:17-19

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

When we are promised by Scripture to receive more than we ask or imagine, it can seem hard to believe. We can imagine so much! How can God overcome all the delights, the wild fantasy worlds, we try to imagine for ourselves? In these verses, we begin to find out.

God’s love is so intense, He has to strengthen us to endure it. He can’t tell us how great His love for us is because our experiences to this point just aren’t big enough to create the categories. How can He describe the depth of oceans to people who have only stomped parking lot puddles? How can He make you feel the heat of the sun when you have only seen birthday candles? Pray the magnificent prayer of Ephesians that God would make you strong enough to see just how big His love is.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please strengthen me to comprehend a little more of Your amazing love.

April 23, 2024

Luke 8:49-50

49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.”

What do you do when you’re afraid? A specific fear can be stomped out, like a spider. If it can be addressed quickly, great, but most of the fears that we deal with go deeper. Most of our fears are less defined and more persistent. How do we deal with that nagging, constant fear that what we most want or love will go away?

The man Jesus was speaking to in these verses just lost his only daughter. Yet, when he was sure that what he most loved was gone, Jesus told him not to fear. Jesus assures the man that there is still a solution, a grand solution, to the most awful of problems. Address your fear by looking up to the one who defeated even death.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I hate being afraid. Teach me to believe.

April 22, 2024

In Tim Keller’s new book, Hope in Times of Fear, readers get a long look at how the Resurrection changes our lives. God has come to turn us upside down, even in ways we don’t really think we need.

“Before we become Christians, most of us also think of ourselves as sincere seekers after the truth. We feel like we’re pretty good people. But most Christians, like Paul, look back on their lives and see that they had never really been sincere seekers after truth at all. They had wanted a truth and a God that fit their desire to be in charge of their own lives. And yet God came after them, found them, and graciously helped them see their own blindness and their unwarranted distrust of him. This is what happened to Paul. He thought he knew who God was and who Jesus was, and he got it all wrong.”

Check out Keller’s book to find reasons to believe the Resurrection happened, and a million more reasons to Hope it did.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to see my pride so I can turn and embrace real joy.

April 20, 2024

Luke 4:18-21

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” 20 And [Jesus] rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus told us exactly what He came to do: He came to bring good news to those who need it. If you read the part of the Old Testament Jesus quotes from here (Isaiah 61), it tells of the Lord coming to captive, brokenhearted, mourning people covered in ashes and lying in ruins. The Lord picks them up, frees them, cleans them, and fills them with joy. He then has them rebuild the ruined city they were in. What does that mean for us?

Jesus said He fulfilled that prophecy. That meant he was looking at people who were dirty, captive, broken, and sad and He came to make them sing. Jesus has come to make you clean, to forgive you and bring you into the Lord’s favor, where broken things are fixed, captives are released, and joy overflows constantly. Ask Him to forgive you, see your captivity to sin and come to Jesus to be cleaned. He will do it, and you will be free!

Prayer prompt: Lord, make me part of your work to bring people back to you!

April 19, 2024

Matthew 15:32

32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

Ever gotten cash for Christmas? It’s the kind of gift you might expect from a generous if distant uncle, but not from a spouse or parent. We expect the people who say they love us to know something about us. When you get those kind of gifts, even if they’re less expensive, they mean the world. 

God keeps up with the details of your life. Jesus saw how these people were hungry because He looked and cared enough to know. Love does that. Follow Jesus; He knows you enough to give you what you really need. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for knowing me and loving me.

April 18, 2024

Luke 7:13

13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Is God really there? Does He really hear me? I’ve asked that question more than a pastor probably should. God is so high above us, so shrouded in glory and majesty, would He really see us? If He did, would He really care for us?

Jesus, the Lord, Yahweh in the flesh, saw the woman in Nain who had lost her husband and now her only son. He didn’t just know about it or read it in the obituaries, He saw her and felt compassion for her. Then, and this is almost too much to hope, He fixed it. The cross, the grave, and then the empty grave are enough to shut up forever that needling worry. God hears you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, kill all my doubts by turning my eyes to the glorious gospel of Jesus!

April 17, 2024

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

It seems like God is saying, “Live as though the world was about to end.” Well what does that mean? If the news came that a world-ending meteor was about to hit, what would you do? Steve Carell was in a movie where some people gave themselves up to pleasure, some just wept, and some, like Steve, fell in love. In other words, they tried, in a sad way, to do as much normal stuff as possible. But what does God expect of us?

It’s not a meteor that’s coming, it’s God Himself. When He comes, it won’t just be annihilation, but a judgment. With time so short, our priority for God’s glory and the unending good of our neighbors is to introduce as many to Jesus as we possibly can! We can ache for Jesus to return, but we must work flat-out to get as many ready as we can. Who can you tell about Jesus?

Prayer prompt: Lord, please motivate me to work hard for Your glory!

April 16, 2024

Isaiah 40:30-31

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

These verses hinge on one word: wait. Before the waiting, the strongest and most healthy are falling over in exhaustion. After the waiting, anyone who does the waiting, even old or flabby folks are flying, running, and walking without fatigue. So ask with me, what is the waiting? Is it waiting like sitting at a bus stop? Are we supposed to just hold still, like a hammer, waiting on a carpenter to pick us up? I don’t think so.

Reading these verses along with the rest of Scripture, we are commanded to work, trusting that the Lord will do something amazing if we will just continue. ‘Wait’ is closer to ‘hold on’. Recently a friend told me his growth in the faith seemed to be slowing down. He went from painful and exciting moments of change, to a more settled, daily grind. To him, we say Hold on. Wherever you’re at as you read these verses, if you’ve left behind what God has given you to do, or if you’ve continued but it’s getting hard: hold on. He will renew your strength.

Prayer Prompt: Ask for strength to wait on the Lord, to do things His way.

April 15, 2024

If there is a lie at the heart of every single sin, it has to be the one going all the way back to the Garden. There, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to believe God was holding out on them. He tempted them to break God’s law with the lure of pleasure. If we are going to fight that same temptation, we have to see the lie for what it is.

The quote below is from CS Lewis’ book The Srewtape Letters. Screwtape, a demon and tempter, gives demonic advice to another tempter: 

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.” 

Never forget that pleasure, ALL PLEASURE, comes from God! If we stop believing the lie of the enemy, “at [God’s] right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11b).

Prayer prompt: Lord, I don’t know why You would include me in the pleasure of Your presence, but thank You!

April 13, 2024

Psalm 23:5

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Where will my happiness come from if God forbids so much? He forbids me from even the fantasy of more than one lady (Matthew 5:27-28), from more than a little drink (Proverbs 23:29-35), even from the very American pleasure of wanting what my neighbor has (Exodus 20:17). Should I ever come to the place where I agree that God’s right about these sins, what’s left? How do I get pleasure when He outlaws almost everything the people around me love?

We have to remember where all pleasure comes from. He invented them all. The enemy can only ever tempt us to twist God’s pleasures and in twisting reduce them. God promises to give us the food we need for life, even to load a table with it in the presence of our enemies. He makes our skin and hair soft with oil, He gives us blessings until they fill us up then over flow! We will have to trust Him while we adjust to the pleasures as they were meant to be, but when we do we’ll feel a little bit of Heaven even here on earth. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to trust You for pleasure by reminding me about all the good gifts You’ve already given.

April 12, 2024

Psalm 3:3

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

I want to be strong. I want my kids to see me as invincible and the one they can run to in trouble. I want to be Captain America, but I’m not. Really, I’m more like the scared kid than the invincible dad. That’s why this verse means so much to me. 

I am the scared kid, but I have an invincible Dad. God is a shield about me, total protection. God gives me what value I have calling me loved and His child. God lifts up my head when it droops from fatigue and discouragement. That’s just how good He is when I go to Him. Commit today to look to Him for your security, your satisfaction, and your identity.

Prayer prompt: Lord, let me look to you to lift my head, to be a strong shield around me.

April 11, 2024

Today, read a quote from James KA Smith’s book You Are What You Love. The whole of God’s law to us is summed up in that word love. Take a hard look at your heart and life and ask yourself, what do you love most?

“Jesus doesn’t encounter Matthew and John—or you and me—and ask, “What do you know?” He doesn’t even ask, “What do you believe?” He asks, “What do you want?” This is the most incisive, piercing question Jesus can ask of us precisely because we are what we want. Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow. Our wants reverberate from our heart, the epicenter of the human person. Thus Scripture counsels, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Prov. 4:23). Discipleship, we might say, is a way to curate your heart, to be attentive to and intentional about what you love. So discipleship is more a matter of hungering and thirsting than of knowing and believing.”

Prayer prompt: Lord, bring my heart again and again back to You.

April 10, 2024

Psalm 16:11

11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

What do you expect to happen when you talk to God or open your Bible? What do you hope will happen when you attend a church service and spend time with Christians? If it is anything less than real joy, joy that fills you up and satisfies you all the way down, you are missing out.

We have to walk a path of life, a path that includes understanding our sin before God and coming to Him to save us by faith in Jesus. But once we have received God’s forgiveness, at the moment we ask Him with faith in Jesus, He walks with us. He leads us into His presence, full of joy, with pleasures forevermore. Pursue God today with joy as an expectation, maybe only a little now though increasing, and full-volume joy forevermore.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please teach me to feel an ever increasing joy in You.

April 9, 2024

John 4:16

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

When Jesus says His followers have to take up their cross daily to follow Him, it sounds like He only accepts followers who are ready to die for Him. Who could ever match up to that? So to become a Christian, you have to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before Nebuchadnezzar and the fiery furnace? Yes, it will certainly be the case that many will be called upon to die for Christ, but to become a Christian, giving your life is much more like the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman.

When she finally asks for the water He is promising, Jesus tells her to bring her husband. He knew her love life was the primary place she sought life and happiness only to be the place of her greatest failures. In taking the conversation to that awful sore spot at the core of her identity, Jesus told her to trade in her failed life for the true life He offers. It always comes back to worship. Will you lay down your life to find it in Him?

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust You to be the One I put my hope in and the One I get my joy from today.

April 8, 2024

Are you keeping up with people at Hope Church through all the craziness of life now? If you haven’t been, you’re missing out. Jesus’ Church ins’t a place to show off, or to perform some kind of penance. It’s His body showing His love to His people and the world. Ed Welch has written a tremendous book helping Christians know how to care for one another. Check out this brief quote and maybe give the book a read!

“In our era we consult experts, professionals, and specialists, but when you look at your own history of having been helped, it’s likely that you’ll notice very few experts among those who have helped you. Who were your helpers? Were they professional counselors or specialists? Probably not. Most often, they were friends—the regular, everyday people in your life. Friends are the best helpers. They come prepackaged with compassion and love. All they need is wisdom, and that is available to everyone. It’s the perfect system. If God used only experts and people of renown, some could boast in their own wisdom, but God’s way of doing things is not the same as our way. We ordinary people have been given power and wisdom through the Holy Spirit and are called to love others (John 13:34). From this beginning, we are compelled to move toward others rather than stay away.”

Welch, Edward T.. Side by Side (p. 14). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for Your church! Teach me to give and receive Your love through them.

April 6, 2024

Luke 9:23-24

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

It doesn’t matter how easy, or how difficult, the commands of Christ are. There’s still that moment of bowing the knee to Him, and I think that’s the hardest moment. True obedience to Christ starts by calling Him Lord and by laying your whole life before Him. His commands are to love Him with everything you have, so how could obedience require anything less?

At Hope, we’ve been confronting some stuff our culture has tremendous difficulty with. Yet, the hardest part isn’t the Bible’s teaching on sexuality or identity. The hardest part is handing God the right to be God over your life. As desperately difficult as this death sentence looms, God requires our life. Give it to Him. Then watch as He, being Lord of your life, gives it back to you abundance forever!

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for giving me life!

April 5, 2024

John 18:8-9

8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”

Chesterton said, “Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.” I’m not a fighter. Nobody considers my hands lethal weapons. But when something makes a bump in the night, and I get out of bed to check, shuffling around in my pajamas, I do take upon myself the grand mantle of Protector. God gave men that job, and when we accept it we regain something of that original spark and even reflected majesty that God intended man to have.

Adam failed as a protector, the snake slid right past him. I know I fail constantly to stop the lies of the world from getting to my children and wife. But Christianity isn’t built on teaching people what failures they are and pointing to what they should have done. Christ came to show us what a protector is and then to boldly protect us now and forever. He put Himself before His disciples like a shield, then He bled to shield them from the serpent, Hell, and death. Look to your Protector and gain the confidence to keep fighting.

Prayer prompt: Lord, You are my protector. I hide myself under the shadow of Your wings.

April 4, 2024

John 6:11

11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Men are called to provide. When Adam sinned, God’s curse to Adam was on his ability to bring up food from the ground. It’s difficult to talk to a man without finding out what he does for a living; it’s just who we are, even to a twisted degree. There is something about God displayed when a man makes sure his family is satisfied.

Jesus models masculine provision in a staggering way. We have stories like this where He miraculously gives enough for thousands to be satisfied, but He goes much further. Jesus doesn’t just model a fatherly provision, but a heavenly self-sacrifice. He gives them bread in John 6 before teaching them that He is the bread of life. Don’t just go to Jesus for an example, go to Him for your life.

Prayer prompt: Lord, be my bread, what gives me strength and pleasure, all my days.

April 3, 2024

John 13:5

5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Jesus’ style of leadership is just different. Everybody works hard at college in order to be the boss. Why get ordered around when you can do the ordering? Our culture likes to think “Unless you’re the lead dog, the view never changes.” But Jesus went in a totally different direction.

Jesus is the Lord over all by right, by competency, by goodness. By every conceivable metric Jesus should be the leader over everyone and everything. And being the highest, He went the lowest. The God who dwells in unapproachable light stooped to a servant’s role when He knelt to clean the feet of the disciples, even Judas. Look up and see not just your example for leadership, but the kind eyes of your Servant King.

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to lead by Your example of service.