Many of my books sit on the shelf only being referenced once every year or two, as need arises. There are other books like "Jonathan Edwards on the Christian Life," by Dane Ortlund that I come back to again and again. And there is one chapter in this book that I find exceptionally helpful to me personally as I seek to grow in my faith; his chapter on "Gentleness: The Aroma...

The garage door went up and out went our minivan. For the first time in nearly 8 years, I wasn’t going to church. I was scheduled to preach, but stomach issues laid me low, so home I sat (providentially with an internet outage to remove the temptation of NFL Countdown)....

Grace is enough for even the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). It is sturdy. It can withstand the most difficult suffering and trials. It is enough on our best days, when we think we earned something, and enough on our worst days, when we wonder how God could possibly love us....

This Sunday, we will have the 1-2 Thessalonians ESV Scripture Journals for sale for $3. These are a great resource for our new series “Don’t Give Up: Messages from 1 Thessalonians” which will enable you to see the text of scripture as well as take notes....

We’re always looking for peace in our lives, but can’t find it because our hearts are always shifting allegiances. None of the things we set our shifting hearts on can cancel out the noise in our lives. Psalm 131 shows us that calm and quiet souls are possible. ...

Psalm 46 shows us that God created all of us with the need to be still and know that He is God and we are not. ...

We're all busy. We need rest. Psalm 46 helps us find true rest by answering two big questions: Who is God? And what is our response? ...

Ezra and Nehemiah is the last chapter of the Old Testament narrative ...

“And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” ...

The resurrection is meant to be an immediate and constant source of joy and hope to the Christian. The empty tomb gives us meaning beyond the grave, and meaning brings hope...

If we look at Luke 23, we see Jesus, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, wrongfully accused, tried, beaten, and now hanging on a Roman cross. If anything seems unforgivable, it is that offense. And yet, we hear Jesus on the cross pray, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”...

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, "lead us not into temptation" and near the end of his life, Jesus calls them to "pray that you may not enter into temptation." This should lead believers today to ask what temptation is, and how God uses prayer to combat it....

We live in a #mefirst culture. But lest we think the disciples who spent time with Jesus were any different, we see how on the last night of Jesus’s life with them before the cross, they begin to argue among themselves who is the greatest. Jesus takes the time to show them who is truly great, and what true greatness is....

It’s not enough to be interested or intrigued by Jesus. We can’t stop at agreeing intellectually to some facts about who he is...

In Luke 12:22, Jesus is reminding us of our value to him, so much more than other things of creation. He provides for those other things, so why are we anxious about those things that we can’t ultimately control? Jesus concludes Luke 12 with the call, “Seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” What does it mean to seek his kingdom? ...

We should spend ourselves, no matter how many years we have left, waiting purposefully for Jesus return by working for his glory. Luke 9-19 points to a number of ways we can do this. Today, we will focus on how as we wait, we should be about the business of being good stewards of what he has entrusted to us....

We should spend ourselves, no matter how many years we have left, waiting purposefully for Jesus return by working for his glory. Luke 9-19 points to a number of ways we can do this. Today, we will focus on how as we wait, we should be about the business of showing mercy toward those in need. ...

Jesus has a call in Luke 19:11-27 for how we are to live as we wait for him to return: we need to be busy about kingdom work. In short, we’re not called to kill time or be distracted as we wait, but to work...

Throughout the Bible, we see that God is a missionary God...

The faith of a follower of Jesus is a dependent faith, dependent on God who does the impossible...

What do the writers of the New Testament mean when they say gospel? Why is it such a central concept that Christians need to understand today?...

What does it mean for us to be trained by the gospel? Titus 2:11-14 is a key passage to help us understand grace, gospel and training in righteousness....

Martin Luther said every Christian should have only two dates on their calendar...

Bruce Ashford has written a helpful article, about how Christians should respond to the shootings in Las Vegas At Hope Fellowship, we grieve with those who are grieving in Las Vegas, and also are praying for those friends and loved ones who have been affected by this senseless act of evil. Please pray for Grace Point Church and Pastor Ty Neal as they seek to minister to ...

What does the gospel have to teach us about unity as Christians?...

Like detectives, We need to be looking for connections between what we are called to do as Christians, and the gospel that is the foundation and power to complete these commands. ...

At the heart of the gospel and the Christian life is the person and work of Jesus. If Jesus is most excellent and above all and if Jesus is worthy of all the praise of the universe, then it would follow that for our thinking to be what Paul is calling for in Philippians 4:8, “If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise” then it must find i...

Dr. Josh Moody, Sr. Pastor at College Church in Wheaton, joined us on Sunday morning, October 14. He preached from Galatians 2:11-14 "How One Long Word Can Make a Big Difference to Your Life." Dr. Moody wrote an article on justification that has been posted on Christianity Today Online. Since we have been going through our doctrinal statement as a church, and Dr. ...

I picked up Thomas Watson's "The Godly Man's Picture" off my shelf today and began reading the section, "the godly man strives to be an instrument for making others godly."Watson writes, "The godly man is not content to go to heaven alone but wants to take others there. Spiders work only for themselves, but bees work for others."He then applies it to how we might encourage...

Have you ever paused when someone asked you how they might be praying for you? It can be an awkward moment when we try to determine how much to share, or even what we feel is truly worth sharing. Sometimes, if we are honest, we can even respond with a request that we ourselves are not personally praying for! So how might we be praying for ourselves and seeking for other...

I wanted to recommend a few resources that we have found really helpful and enjoyable for our girls as they have begun reading over the last few years. ...

So often each week as I prepare for the sermon I have a number of quotes that I have read that were personally encouraging but didn't fit into the sermon. It is my goal each week to post some of these quotes on Friday for your encouragement....

We will be starting a four week series on the book of Jonah this Sunday, April 29, 2012. In preparation for the series, take some time with your family to read the book of Jonah together....

When we come to the end of Mark 16, in most English translations of the Bible there are brackets that include something like, "some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9-20" which presents a question for those who are reading their Bibles and who hold it to be inerrant (without error in the original manuscript) clear and trustworthy. Perhaps you might think somet...

Jesus is reigning. He is king. In order to reign as king he must be alive. Verse 34, "David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." Imagine a kingdom where there was a king who reigned as a tyrant for many long years. He had no patience or mercy for anyone who crosse...

Verse 32 says, "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses." The disciples all saw the risen Jesus as did more than 500 other people. Tim Keller wrote, "Even if you propose the highly unlikely idea that one or two of Jesus's disciples did get the idea that he was raised from the dead on their own, they would never have gotten a movement of other Jews to be...

If the whole plan was of God for the crucifixion and the resurrection, it makes sense that the Bible is unified in the story of redemption-- of it's promise and fulfillment. In verse 25, Peter quotes Psalm 16, which is seen as fulfilled in Jesus. David, as a picture of what the Messiah would be was dead and had been for a long time. Death held him in the tomb and it was...

"God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." It is impossible for Jesus to be held in the grip of death. The same word for "pangs" here is used elsewhere of labor pains. Labor pains on a pregnant woman indicates that there is going to be a baby born. Pregnancy by it's very definition is not permanent. Jesus is un...

Part 2 of our Easter series of posts about the truth of the resurrection: I heard a speaker say recently that it was not as if the disciples were sitting around on Saturday night after Jesus died on Friday having a party saying, "I can't wait until tomorrow!" The disciples, though Jesus had clearly taught of his coming death and resurrection, didn't "get it" until he ap...

Over the next few days we're going to walk through Acts 2 to see how this first sermon by Peter speaks so clearly about the resurrection and why it is essential to Christianity. To do so, each point will fill out the acronym "R.A.I.S.E.D."...

A few years ago I asked a friend about some good research on Pontius Pilate and the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ and he recommended Pontius Pilate: A Novel by Paul L. Maier. He explained his unique recommendation by telling me that Dr. Maier was a top-notch historian who wrote a historical novel about Pontius Pilate in order to help people understand the h...

Concerning serving others,the over arching question we could ask ourselves is about our understanding of how the gospel informs our service of others; "Do I see the gospel as both the remedy for my sin of selfishness and the motivation for Christlike service?" When we see the gospel as the solution for our sin and the motivation for serving others we can then ask ourselv...

Jonathan Dodson: "Contextualization is the intentional process of communicating the historic gospel and teachings of Jesus in contemporary cultural forms. [3] This may result in churches gathering in white tents or rodeo arenas, to hear how the grace rebuffs bootstrap religion among country folk in rural areas of Texas (also known as Cowboy churches). Alternatively, it may...

A Short story for children (and adults!) that was written by Pastor Jeff Brewer about Amanda Snidefeller, the little girl who was positively fed up with Christmas. It was shared on Christmas Eve at Hope Fellowship....

At Hope Fellowship we have been looking at the incarnation through the lens of how Christ is our King. It has been a joy to worship together celebrating advent for the first time as a new church. The links to the audio for the four week series are now online. ...

Joseph often gets forgotten in the Christmas story. Russell Moore writes, "I played a cow in my first grade Christmas pageant, and I had more lines than the kid who played Joseph. He was a prop, or so it seemed for Mary, the plastic doll in the manger, and the rest of us, we were all just following the script. There's rarely much room in the inn of the contemporary Chri...

Our membership class is being held two separate weeks. You need only attend one class. Each class will be from 6-8pm on Sunday evening November 13 and 20th. Childcare will be provided each week. For directions, see our events page and click on Membership class....

Growing up in a large traditional church, all I can really remember about the worship service was wondering if it would be possible for me to swing from chandelier to chandelier in order to reach the platform from the balcony. It was clear that I wasn’t thinking through truth about God in those days, let alone contemplating what worship meant! Little did I know howe...

I once knew an engaged couple whose whole relationship seemed to depend on the fact that they were engaged rather than on the reason why they were engaged. The relationship itself was nurtured through their constant (and somewhat sickening) reminders to themselves and others of the greatness of the relationship they were in. When they met other people they talked about ...

A friend of mine once told me that when he moved into a new house as a kid that he tied all of his best toys on the back of his bicycle and rode around the neighborhood trying to attract friends. If you’ve started a new job or moved into a new community, you’ve probably learned from experience that people usually don’t come knocking on your door to get...

As long as Rachel could remember she wanted to be an attorney. While it was a little awkward to be the only kid at halloween carrying a briefcase, she stuck to her dreams until she passed the bar exam on the first try. If people thought she was driven during law school they would have been surprised to learn that she actually had another gear in the workplace; no amount o...

In the 1970 movie, Love Story, Ali MacGraw’s character says the now famous line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” It seemed to fit in the movie (if you like that sort of thing) but frankly, it doesn’t sound to me as if it was good advice. It must not have clicked with John Lennon either because he quipped, “Love means h...

I read that if you want to count to a million without stopping it would take you 6 days, 22 hours and forty minutes. If you want to count to a billion it would take you 31 years and 252 days. A Trillion? Forget about it. 3,170 years. What does this tell me? First, who sits around thinking about this stuff? and second, I’m not even going to try to count to any...

Remember the Palm Pilot? Still use one? Probably not. Why? Because the palm pilot has gone the way of other first generation technology devices and disappeared into the realm of trivia questions (What is a bag phone?). But just a half dozen years ago you could have thrown a rock into a crowd of ten businessmen and hit twelve PDA’s. Now just try to go and buy o...

I’ve not been to a high school reunion yet, but I don’t really feel like I need to go to one since I can see how much my friends have changed and how messed up they are in real time on facebook everyday. Since I wasn’t a believer in high school, not only do I wish that I could go back and have those years to do over again as a Christian, but I often th...

I once went on a week long trip to Daytona Beach with other college students during Spring Break—no, not that kind of spring break trip— it was with a campus Christian group! What I didn’t realize when I signed up for the week at the beach (or I blocked out of my mind) was the fact that we were going to walk up and down the beach and talk to students ...

One of the lessons I am trying to learn in parenting is to try and empathize more with my daughters when they are deeply distraught about something that I can’t quite understand. It’s tempting for me to think when the lost blankie can’t be found before bed or when the doll that they love was forgotten at a friends house that they just need to calm dow...

History shows us that no army will get far without supply lines that link them to more materials, ammunition, and fuel for the battle. I feel the same way if we’re going on a camping trip— we’re only staying as long as we have good food and dry clothes— after that, I’m out—which means we don’t typically camp! ...

No one has to twist our arms to speak about things that we value––we easily speak of that which we love. Just ask someone why they bought the car they just bought. Or where they found a deal on something they were looking for. Or their favorite sports team....

Looking around at the people surrounding me singing and swaying to the worship music, I felt like a complete failure. I felt that I must be missing something because I didn’t feel what they seemed to feel as people closed their eyes and raised their hands. I expected that they felt some great surge of energy or force that you are supposed to experience when you si...

Love has a limit, at least that is, if you are the NECCO candy company. Each year they make 8 billion of the small,chalky candy hearts to be sold on Valentine’s day. Each message of love can only contain a two line, 8 character message of affection for your sweetie. Over the years the messages and length have undergone quite a change—consider the piece of...

Doug O'Donnell defines the fear of the Lord in his new book, "The Beginning and End of Wisdom." ...

Fifteen ways for someone heading off to college to remember about glorifying God in your studies....

So you went on a short term mission trip this summer and you are getting ready to come home (or you just returned home). Here are ten things to remember about the gospel, missions and humility as you process through your trip....

Why is it important to know that we are made in the image of God? The incarnation hangs on it....

This Sunday we will be focusing on parables about the Kingdom of God from Mark 4:21-34. Here is a great quote about the kingdom of God from John Frame....

A great quote by Tim Keller about how the gospel undermines both swaggering and sniveling. ...

The quote from James Edwards about Jesus functionally trading places with the leper by cleansing him. What a great quote!...

Ben Stevens writes in an article posted at The Gospel Coalition how we, in order to love our neighbors, must get to know them first. He also gives some very practical advice on how to get to know your neighbors. He ends with this: "You cannot love your neighbors if you don’t know them. Get it on the calendar and have fun." How true! ...

Seven things we can pray for from 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 for Hope Fellowship....

The new song we sang last night by Mike Magnussen, "We are the Body" from Ephesians 4....

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in Life Together about fellowship and how we must speak God's Word to one another. ...

STARS Family services annual fundraiser....

Download flyers to give to friends and neighbors for our January 22 gathering at the Lombard Community Building....

From the Crossway.com blog: Practicing Hospitality, Pat Ennis and Lisa Tatlock ...

If you are like me, you are always looking for something to share with family members who will be gathering for Christmas in order to talk about Jesus and the hope we have in Him. I wrote the following story, "A Question for Christmas"for a group of 3rd grade girls' "Christmas Cocoa" that a wonderful family at College Church hosted on Saturday, December 17, 2010. My desire...

I have been working through The Theology of B.B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary. I thought this section in chapter 2 was helpful in defining apologetics. A Right Definition of Apologetics "Apologetics does not merely teach men how to defend Christianity; if it were only this, then it would belong to the discipline of practical theology. Nor does apologetics set out mer...

The Valley of Vision Prayer Guide by Joe Thorn...

Christmas Music recommendations ...