Church of New Hope

Wednesday Night Service 3/3/21 Hebrews 12:1-2 Its Not a Sprint its a Marathon Part 2

Sunday Morning Service 2/28/21 Matthew 13:1-23 What Kind of Soil are You?

Sunday Morning Acts 7:52&53

Shepherd’s Heart Devotional by Tony Costello ... The Cross, The Cross The cross, the cross! God can only be found in suffering and the cross! - Martin Luther Two things are clear today as we step into this new year. First, is that there is no lack of bad news. We have experienced tragedies in our homes and communities with the onslaught of COVID and the severe and often hypocritical responses to it. We have seen a breakdown in the fabric of our governmental institutions and an internal political war that has forced Americans, even Christians, into almost parallel moral universes. And, if we have been paying attention, we have seen the shocking fall of public ministers and evangelists who we (wrongly) thought were beyond the touch of sin and the devil. Add to these the everyday struggles of maintaining or losing marriages, taking financial hits, and struggling to understand our parents or our children, and we have had plenty of bad news. At least, bad news if we look at it from a merely human perspective. But, if we have ears to hear, perhaps this news would not be as bad as we think. Unfortunately, the second problem becoming clear today, is the increasing difficulty to see spiritual truth. Too many in the American Church want to conflate earthly blessings with God’s will for us, both as individuals and as a nation. However, no serious student of God’s Word can accept such an unbiblical thought! For God’s will for us is ultimately not about rewards on earth. God’s will for us is far greater than that! God’s will is about making us blessed, so that we can attain incorruptible rewards in eternal and incorruptible places. The earthly goods that God gives are not the ends themselves. Money, accolades, good food, nice houses, even family and good health are all finite and corruptible things. They will come, and they will go. They are here for us to use and appreciate, but not to dwell on or grasp too tightly. When asked what the meaning of the Christian life was, the great reformer, Martin Luther, did not respond the way many might today. He did not say that the meaning of the Christian life was to live a prosperous and easy life. Instead he said this, the cross, the cross, suffering and the cross! Now, for Luther, the Cross certainly was the key to flourishing and prosperity, but what a way to flourish! It is a way the world cannot understand. To the world, it is foolishness. I suggest, therefore, in this time of much bad news that we hear any news as Luther would have heard it, or as St Paul did when he said this, For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. For, to gain Christ will require that we look beyond the immediate tragedy of our times and see God in that tragedy. For where there is suffering, there is our God.

A prayer for our nation and people that are sick.

Gather your family for a time of worship, study in the word and communion.

Shepherds Heart Wholehearted Obedience He who says, I know Him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 John 2:4... Obedience is one of the main principles of the Christian life. The Apostle John makes this clear throughout his writings. Obedience is also the secret of a good conscience and gives us the confidence that God hears us. The Apostle John writes, Now this is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us (1 John 5:14). May we challenge ourselves to have God search our hearts. God, search our hearts and reveal them to us! If we truly give ourselves up so that God’s Spirit searches our hearts, and we are honest with ourselves, we might discover that obedience does not hold the place in our hearts it should. Our failures in prayer and our failures in Christian living are often, but not always, caused by a lack of an obedient life. While God’s grace is secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s temporal blessings in this life often depend on obedience. We should not expect God to bless us in our disobedience. The Christian life begins with obediencerepent and believe! and growing in loving obedience is the goal. Jesus tells us plainly that if we love him, we will obey him. Obedience is how we demonstrate our love to him. Let us all be challenged to grow in the obedient life, fully surrendered to the will of God. Shalom, Brother Anthony

Shepherd’s Heart Devotional: Why Work Matters by Anthony Costello... Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden to cultivate and keep it. (Genesis 2:15) Work comes before the Fall of man. It is only after sin enters the world that toil and sweat, thorns and thistles spoil Adam and Eve’s work. From this we can infer a few things about the nature of work, and any particular work we engage in, i.e. our jobs, our vocations, and our hobbies. First, we know that work is a gift from God. For anything that God gives man is gift. But, one might ask, how is work a gift? Well, as our God is the creator of the universe, and as we are made in His image, so too He has given us the capacity to create like Himself. When we work, and work well, we participate in God’s plan, His design plan, by exercising those attributes He has shared with us. And, when we participate with God in anything, two things happen: 1) we glorify our Creator, who is worthy of all glory, and 2) we thrive in our own self, because we fulfill our purpose. It is in this sense that work itself is a great gift, for in doing good work we glorify God Who, in turn, glorifies us. When we work well, we grow closer to our God. Second, to refrain from work (intentionally so) would be to defy God’s purpose for us. Work is meant to dignify us, so to not work out of laziness or apathy is to reject one way God has chosen to dignify mankind. This is sin (Proverbs 6:6). This rejects God’s will for our lives. However, this is not to say that those who cannot work (children, the severely handicapped) are somehow breaking God’s law, or defying his will. There are always extenuating circumstances. But, even there, we have seen children create beautiful things (work should not be equated with money making) and the even severely handicapped (e.g. Joni Erickson Tada) often carry out lifelong service, service that has ministered to thousands. So, even those who seem incapable of work, often do do work that dignifies God, themselves, and others. Third, however, is the reality that since the Fall work is not pure. It too, like all aspects of creation, is tainted by sin. I do not think this means that work before the Fall meant effortless labor. But, it does mean that after the Fall we can work hard, yet still feel unattached or alienated from that which we have created, from the things we have labored for. It is for this reason that, like everything else, our work must also be lifted up before Christ, so that our efforts, the work now done by the sweat of our brow, can be fully redeemed in Christ. Our work matters. It matters to God, and when performed in the right spirit, in the Spirit of God, it can dignify us and serve our church family, as well as the culture we inhabit. So, let’s do good work.