New Hope Church

WICKED PEOPLE DO NOT WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH GOD!  Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? —Job 21:7  Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!  We have no desire to know your ways.  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?  What would we gain by praying to him?’ —Job 21:13-15  They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!  What can the Almighty do to us?’ —Job 22:17              There are times, if we allow ourselves to get stuck in this thought, that the wicked are just being allowed to get away with “murder” and it does not seen that God cares.  Oh……

JOB’S DIFFICULTIES— NO UNDERSTANDING AS TO WHY THEY WERE HAPPENING! He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. —Job 19:11 God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body. —Job 20:23 The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God’s wrath. This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.” —Job 20:28-29             Again, the focus is on Job’s belief, and his “friends” belief, is that God is pouring out His wrath on Job.  But this could not be further from the truth.  It is interesting…

EXPERIENCING PAIN My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness. —Job 16:16             The pain that so many people we know are experiencing— a spouse has died, severe health situations has entered their lives, divorces that have occurred, people that have been in prison, people that have been abused, broken relationships of any kind… the list goes on with such painful ordeals.         Seek for a few moments to try and imagine the pain that Job was experiencing.  In a very short time he got news that all his oxen and donkeys were stolen and those keeping watch over them were all killed, but the…

BAPTISM— FIRST ACTION OF A FOLLOWER OF JESUS And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” —Acts 8:36             Why did the eunuch want to be baptized?  We are surely not told the full discussion that Philip had with the eunuch, but we are told that “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).  What did Philip tell him about Jesus?  It seems part of what they talked about was when “Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven…

Our God Reigns!  He makes nations great and destroys them; He enlarges nations, then disperses them.  He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.  They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards. —Job 12:23-25              If nations are great it is because of our Lord God Almighty.  He is the only One that makes a nation great.  No man or group of men can make a nation great by themselves; it is the Lord that does it through them if indeed a nation is to be great.  Oh, that man would acknowledge His hand in this and not…

FACING DEATH If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?  Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.” —Job 7:20-21 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. —Acts 7:59-60             Here are two men facing…

SPEAK FROM GOD’S COUNSEL… ACCORDING TO HIS WORD As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. —Job 4:8-9 …for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. —Job 6:10             God said of Job that “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8).  He was a man who did not deny “the words of the Holy One.”  Instead Job sought to live according to the Word of God.  God gave the…

KEEP PERSPECTIVE! And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he…

DON’T BE NAÏVE! On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. —Esther 8:1-2 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they…

YOU HAVE PURPOSE! For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” —Esther 4:14             “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place.”  Is this principle not true for us today as well?  Our Lord God Almighty has called us to be witnesses and disciple-makers.  If we are not faithful and keep silent He will work through someone else.  He does not need us,…