Living Hope Bible Church

This week, Pastor Mark and Pastor Josh preached together on how to help those in need. Instead of focusing on the need, the Bible teaches us to focus on the person and what led them to this state they are in. We seek to help them in ways that transform them to be more like Christ, rather than simply sustaining them in the life they are living. This concept is based on the book "Redemptive Compassion" by Lois Tupyi.

Throughout the Bible, there are many passages that record God sharing a meal with His people. It is a time of intimacy and unity, and the culmination of this is communion. It is a time to remember what Jesus has done, and to realign our life to be more like His. 

This week guest speaker Chaplain Tim Hadley broke down the importance of waiting on God. We need to trust God, because He can see the whole picture. We should be actively growing in our faith while we wait, because God is using the waiting to strengthen us. And finally, our waiting reveals God's goodness and patience towards us.

In John 8, the religious leaders bring a woman caught in the act of adultery before Jesus in the middle of His teaching. Their goal was not to bring justice, but to entrap Jesus. But, with patience and love, Jesus brings grace to the woman who was caught in sin, and lovingly guides her to leave behind her sinful life.

Zacchaeus was well known as a rich man and a chief tax collector, but he wanted to learn more about Jesus. As he climbs a sycamore tree, Jesus calls out to him and asks to dine at his house. Zacchaeus finds that Jesus has come to seek and save that which is lost.

This week, we recognized our high school mission trip to Puerto Rico. God was at work in many ways in this group and in the community they served!

As Jesus travels through Samaria, He stops to talk with a woman drawing water in the heat of the day. She is an outcast in her community, but Jesus stops to speak with her and meet her greatest need. She is thirsty for water from the well, but Jesus offers her living water that will last for eternity.

In this passage, Jesus meets with a man who is possessed by a legion of demons. He seemed to be beyond saving, but after a conversation with Jesus, his demons are cast off and he is set free. Those who hear of this miracle are afraid and ask Jesus to leave the region, but the man tells everyone around him what Jesus has done in his life.

In John 3, Nicodemus comes to speak with Jesus in private. He is curious to know more about what Jesus is teaching, and so Jesus presents the Gospel to him in the most famous verses in the Bible. Nicodemus thought Jesus was teaching about a better way to live, but Jesus was calling His followers to a new life.

In Exodus 33 and 34, God reveals His character to sinful people. We learn that no gift God can give us is as important as dwelling in His presence. In order to draw closer to God, we need to change to become more like Him and follow His commandments.