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Hope (Psalm 130)

Brian Hopkins

November 30, 2025

As Christmas rapidly approaches, we take time to reflect on the blessings we have received by Jesus' birth. The miracle of God taking on human flesh fills us with awe, but we are deeply humbled when we consider that He did so because He intended to redeem us out of death by taking the judgment for our sins upon himself at the cross. Nevertheless, we are thrilled and richly blessed with the promise He gave just before He ascended back to His Father that one day He will return to gather us to Himself so we will be with Him in His glory forevermore. This is the blessed hope we hold tightly onto as we await His coming.

Lessons from Acts – Community Thankfulness

Brian Hopkins

November 9, 2025

Thankfulness and generosity go hand-in-hand. When we consider the blessings that God has bestowed upon our lives, we are filled with the desire to not only tell others how God has blessed us, but to be a blessing to others ourselves. When others see the joy we have in the LORD and His blessings upon us - especially His gift of eternal salvation He purchased for us with the precious blood of Jesus - they will be filled with the desire to know that joy and peace for themselves.

Lessons from Acts – The Barnabas Effect

Brian Hopkins

November 2, 2025

In his letters to the churches at Ephesus and Corinth, the apostle Paul tells all Christ followers that God's Holy Spirit living within us gives us specific and varied spiritual gifts to be used for building and strengthening His Church. Paul's missionary companion Barnabas consistently and fully applied the spiritual gift of encouragement that he had been given. In fact, the nickname Barnabas that the apostles gave him means "son of encouragement," reflecting his obedience to God's calling. Barnabas' gift of encouragement isn't as spectacular as some other spiritual gifts like prophecy and healing. But encouragement from the Holy Spirit given through God's chosen vessels like Barnabas is nevertheless vital to the health and strength of the Church, and indeed the world at large.

Lessons from Acts – Ugly Houses

Brian Hopkins

October 26, 2025

The account found in Acts 9 of Saul of Tarsus' transformation into Paul the apostle after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus is perhaps the best known example of God's desire and the power of His Spirit to restore seemingly irredeemable, deeply flawed people into His instruments for accomplishing His purposes. God used Paul mightily to establish and nurture His Church throughout the Mediterranean basin despite the initial misgivings of the Christ followers whom Saul had previously persecuted. Saul's supernatural transformation into Paul is a great encouragement for us. God continues today to redeem and restore even the most seemingly hopeless sinners and then put us to work as His representatives to reach our lost world with the restorative Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lessons from Acts – Unified – Not Uniform

Brian Hopkins

October 20, 2025

In the Garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed that His disciples would be one just as He and the Father are One. But that doesn't mean we should be cookie-cutter duplicates of one another - all striving under our own power and by our own will to do the same old things we believe are "the right things to do." Rather, it means that we should be united under the guidance of God's Spirit that by His power and in His will we may apply the individual spiritual gifts that He has given all of His children. If we rely upon our own power to accomplish the things we ourselves have determined, we will be ineffective in accomplishing the mission God has assigned to us - to share the Gospel of eternal salvation in Jesus alone, and to raise up disciples of Jesus to carry on the mission of building God's Kingdom together in true unity of mind and spirit.