I am really excited aboutAll That Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Usby Stan Guthrie. It was released this month, but last April I did a series of posts in which I interviewed Stan about his forthcoming book.I find it really helpful in sermon preparation when authors look at scripture and collect all of what scripture says about a particular topic or...

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 ...

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...

One of my favorite books about the incarnation is The Incarnation in the Gospels in the Reformed Expository Commentary series. I highly recommend it as a collection of sermons that are very encouraging and edifying to read and think about this Christmas season....

Collin Hansen recently reviewed Laura Hillenbrand's new book,Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemptionon The Gospel Coalition's book review site. ...

STARS Family services annual fundraiser....

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

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

We discussed how to Talk to your Kids about the Sermon today in our Adult Community at College Church by Joe Holland. We used it as a jumping off point to talk about how to listen to and gain from the sermons we hear....

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

A very helpful article on the practical applications and meaning of bearing our cross by Chris Castaldo....

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! ...

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

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....

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

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....

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

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....

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)....

Of all the issues that cause stress and confusion among Christians, the question of divine guidance must be near the top. How can I know God’s will for me? Are there certain steps we need to learn in order to access information from God that we would not otherwise know? How does God guide me?...

By “reason,” I mean rational thinking and God-given common sense. Proverbs 3:5 does not say, “do not use your understanding” but rather, “don’t rest on human understanding, don’t make it your ultimate rule; don’t put all your weight upon it!” Instead, put all your trust in God who rules and over-rules all human decisions. There are always gaps in our know...

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...

If you have been around Hope for any length of time, you have probably heard us talk about the “functional centrality of the gospel” from the pulpit and in our mission groups. Starting the last week of August we’ll be unpacking what it means that the gospel is central and functioning as it should in our lives and church. My desire is that this short series serves to ...

We should be set free from the view of planning and decisions that make us put the weight on ourselves that only God should bear. We will not plan for everything. Sometimes we won’t know what to do. Even in our best plans, there will be the unexpected that arise. We take comfort in a God who is in control and who works all things according to his purposes....

On Sunday morning we spent some time in Psalm 119:9-40. My main goal was to begin this new school year (and re-entry into post COVID??) by helping us desire to be nourished by the Word of God. We didn't spend time on the "what does this look like practically" or "how can we try some new ways to study God's Word" because I wanted for us to desire God's word before we looked...

In our sermon last week we looked at Galatians 2:20, the description of the decisive death to our old person that has happened when we believed in Jesus and where crucified with Christ. In this quote from John Stott see three ways that Scripture speaks of this union with Christ in his death and the kind of death(s) that we die....

When we looked at Galatians 5:16-17 we spoke about the flesh. But it is more than simply the flesh that threatens to undo us in this life. Ephesians 2:1-3 speaks of the trifecta of difficulty we face in sanctification. ...