New Hope Church

FOLLOWERS OF JESUS ARE IN PROCESS If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But…

OUR LORD MAKES THE DEAD LIVE! I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. —Isaiah 43:25 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. —Colossians 2:13-14 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the…

GOD IS CONTROL! The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. —Colossians 1:15-18             Jesus is— The Son of God The image of the invisible God The firstborn over all creation…

I WILL TRUST MY LORD! ” A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. —Isaiah 40:6-8 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.  To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? —Isaiah 40:17-18  Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created…

REMEMBER YOUR FIRST ALLIANCE! But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. —Philippians 3:20-21             Keep in mind whose “country” we belong to!  Fellow follower of Jesus, we are citizens of heaven first along with all those who have called on the Name of our Lord for salvation.  Let us keep our focus the King and His “country” and not be distracted from the ambassadorship that we have been given— “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as…

SELF FOCUSED OR CHRIST AND OTHERS FOCUSED Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. —Philippians 2:3-4 For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. —Philippians 2:13 For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. —Philippians 2:21                Whose interests do you really have in mind— yours, others, the Lord Jesus’?  The interests of our Lord Jesus Christ should be our interests as well.  Then, when His interests are our…

EVIDENCE REVEALS THE FOOL AND THE FAITHFUL The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable. For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink. —Isaiah 32:5-6 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. —Philippians 1:21  Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit,…

MY HEART’S FOCUS And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. —Isaiah 29:13 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine.” —Isaiah 30:1 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. —Ephesians 6:5-6             Are you and I “doing the will of God from the heart?” …

HE SEES AND KNOWS EVERYTHING! Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans form the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us?  Who will know?”  You turn things upside down, as if the potter where thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me?”  Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing?” —Isaiah 29:15-16             There are people who think they are hiding what they are doing, but our Lord knows.  These people do their work “in darkness and think, “Who sees us?  Who will know?”  How…

KEEP YOUR FOCUS! The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left. —Isaiah 24:5-6 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is…