Podcast/Blog - ♥Hopesprings

We turn the gem of the Scriptures and find something that was always there, never hidden...God leaves the safe sheep to find the vulnerable one, leaves the stored treasure for the lost coin, leaves the entitled son to find the broken one...and nothing is lost.

David, reflecting on his time as a shepherd, pens one of the most compelling songs in the Bible. It compels us to reflect on the shepherd who loves us wherever we are. A meditation on Psalm 23.

Isaiah pulls the wig off of our spiritual games played when we pretend we want to hear from God without loving people and breaking all forms of oppression. We find our healing lies with the healing of others.

As we find ourselves in a new situation, we turn to old texts that reveal a message that is always new. We wrestle with a passage calling us out of darkness and into light, with an encouragement to return to the way of love. Love for everyone, all the time, everywhere, in any situation.

In a prayer from the least of all of God's people, we see the big-ness...the width and length and height and depth of the love God has for us. The love that made the worlds breathes life and power into us in our inner being.

A radical Mom teaches us how to love and find our place in THE story. We see a love that challenges ours in fresh ways and challenges us to deny ourselves and find something more.

It is easy to forget where and who we come from. In a text from the book of Isaiah, we are beautifully reminded of the faith and struggle all through the long years to realize who we are as the kids of God. May you remember and live as loved ones.

In a baffling encounter with the divine, Moses supposes he isn't the one, that he knows the story doesn't include him. From a burning bush God speaks, sees, hears, and subverts his reasons he cannot. We are caught up in the story of God together, seeing our own excuses being swallowed up by the love of God.

We find comfort and challenge for folks facing exile. In our our isolation we can relate. All the high places, the low places, the rough places...all places are revealed as God's places as we hear the good news we are not alone.

In a pandemic, in a snowstorm, in unbelievable times, we celebrate the good news that was initially...unbelievable. We find a resurrected Jesus welcomed by disbelief. A story so crazy it just might be true, and give life and light to those wrestling with the darkness. Happy Easter!

We find Jesus in his own garden of solitude waging the fight of his life in isolation, even as we deal with our own current isolation as a society. Strength and obedience get stripped of their melodrama and are revealed for what they are in the garden of Gethsemane: acceptance.

Our pastor Michael takes us on a bike ride, on an exploration of the river that runs through the Scriptures, our community, and the one running through us.

As the Coronavirus threatens the health and safety of everyone, we find ourselves sticking close to home. But we gather together online for a study of a song written from a cave. Peace from our fort to yours.

In a beautiful expansion of his teaching about who is first and who is last, Jesus illustrates the point with a story perfectly designed to offend our sense of fairness. It calls into question our hearts, exposes our motives, and illuminates a love that makes sure everyone eats.

Jesus addresses a young, entitled, religious person who wants what we all want...more? Life? Jesus shows him his way and reveals a way for us all.

Men look to test Jesus with a question about divorce. He upends the question, their hearts, and their understanding of what marriage means. In the process he gets to anyone willing to hear.

In a conversation that begins with taxes, we see the deeper question: who's significant? Who's in? Who's out? As he does, Jesus reveals how we ask the wrong questions in our search for significance. We end up finding more than we bargained for.

Jesus heals. Again. Jesus challenges us to have a little faith, a little more than the little faith we have. That little speaks to the mountains of impossibility in our lives.

Moved in his guts for the harassed and the helpless, Jesus asks us to ask God to send someone. Spoiler: the someone is us.

In stories of healing we find faith that stops at nothing. No social, physical, mental, or spiritual barriers keep people from Jesus, or from the life he is bringing. People jump the barriers Jesus is tearing down to life and peace.

In two episodes, Jesus confronts both external and internal chaos of all kinds. We see him address a storm, small faith, and the darkness. What kind of man is this anyway?

In a series of stories, Jesus heals those on the outside, untouchable, second-class. We find ourselves challenged to love how Jesus loved, breaking down the separations between people and God.

What are we building these lives on? Who are the voices shaping our thinking? What path are we on? Jesus ends his Sermon on the Mount with a warning, and an invitation. An invitation to a gate, a way, and a rock to build a life on.

Jesus is crucified, buried, and...that's...not the whole story. We meet a resurrected Jesus, paving the way for resurrection to flow into every broken, dead place. Happy Easter!

Where your treasure is, there's your heart...Where your treasure is, there's your heart...Where your treasure is, there's your heart...Where your treasure is, there's your heart. Where your treas...

When we do things to be seen, we forget the one who sees us completely. This touches how we pray, and Jesus shows us the way to talk and listen to the good dad in heaven.

How good is your word? Do you need oaths, pledges, swearing to make people believe you? A brief word from Jesus has big implications for how we speak and move in the world.

In a passage about how we view the people we see, we are challenged to challenge our desires in order to see people for who they are instead of what they can do for us. Instead of objects to be desired, we see others as sisters and brothers made in the image of God.

In one of Jesus' most recognizable teachings, we find a creative path of loving our enemies while standing up creatively for justice. We are invited to do what God does, to love the unloveable.

JESUS HAS AN ANNOUNCEMENT. A word about who you are, no matter who you thought you were. A story to be a part of, larger than yourself. We shine and stay salty, helping others see and their lives taste better.

Jesus unveils his teaching about who is connected, who is happy, who is at peace. It is upside down, flipping our understanding of peace and power. We are invited to live in a kingdom from out of this world.

Jesus begins his public service, drawing all sorts of folks and driving away all sorts of darkness. Immediately he invites others to the party. Yourself included.

Jesus, God-with-us, comes down to the water to be baptized with sinners, while John announces the Kingdom of God isn't there and then and for them, but here and now and for us.

We see a star. We meet foreign astrologers who a brought near to worship Jesus. We see the religious and the powerful afraid and angry. Two responses to the coming of Christ invite us to make our own.

In the midst of an impossible situation, God asks Joseph to go beyond righteous and into impossible. We see a picture of grace, the with-us God doing what he does: save.

In a family tree full of crisis, and surprise, Matthew begins the story of Jesus with His family origin story. We find scandal and surprise. The genesis of Jesus reveals the heart of the good news, and grace for any family we find ourselves in.

In a book more concerned with what we do, rather than what we say we believe, James comes after our...wealth. We take a hard look at whether we are hoarding anything and how our clutching is misery for us and for our world.

What causes your quarrels? With others? With God? With yourself? James reveals the deep, first cause and takes us on a journey beyond what we think we need and into the ocean of the love of God.

In a vivd, devastating series of word pictures James reveals the destructive power of our words. We take a look at our words, and how our speech wasn't meant to be poisoned well, but a fountain of living water.

In a passage that challenges all of us to our core, James tells us the freeing and difficult truth: faith without action is dead. Our faith is one that moves, that goes, that's alive. It was for Father Abraham and Mother Rahab...it is for us.

We begin with a lesson in partiality, meet a God who shows no favoritism, and discover a mercy that triumphs over all judgment.

Instead of a loud, stubborn, dead way, James invites us into true religion. Into faith that loves the fatherless and alone.

How do you view the suffering you have experienced, are experiencing in your life? James speaks through the fog of trial to shine a light on how we can have a different perspective on the darkness we face.

How do you view your trials? Your suffering? Do you need some wisdom for the challenges you face? In our first dive into James, we see challenge, encouragement, and an upside-down invitation to see everything through a prism of joy.

We find a contextual note reveals a critical backdrop for one of the top songs in the Bible. A song borne out of pain, and revealing a deep healing in the life of the writer and in our own.

We continue our conversation on the fruit of the spirit with a message about gentleness.

If God is faithful, how much faith does God have? How is that faith breathed into us as we experience the faithfulness of God? We explore a faithfulness we could never force, but can freely give even as we have experienced it given in abundance.

We trace the roots of goodness back to the beginning, and it's course into the human heart. An experience of goodness turns into giving that away into the world.

We explore a kindness from the breath of God. Beyond obligation, into a delight in reflecting the kindness we have experienced to other people. A kindness not grounded in white knuckles, but in the expansive love of God for us.

How can we as a people look at kids taken from their families and not address it? After reading the Scriptures, experiencing a God who defends the immigrant, the fatherless, the powerless, and the widow, will we? We have a tough conversation about ourselves as a people.

We study peace, the connection with God and with people and with the world. We find a peace that isn't just personal, but meant for everything, everyone, everywhere. And for us too.