“For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.” (Romans 8: 24 – 25) The word “hope” is a lovely word. But what do we hope for? “I hope that dress goes on sale.” “I hope I win $20 on my lottery ticket.” “I hope my car makes it.” “I hope she calls.” “I hope the stock market turns around.” But that definitely doesn’t sound like the kind of “hope” the Bible is referring to! In fact, hope is one of the three…

I teach the women’s Bible study group at my church and have for over 10 years. We have prayed for each other weekly during all that time and have seen miracles. But there is one recent miracle that I will never forget. Alice is one of our long-time members. A delightful, feisty, funny, fighting daughter of God. She’s in her 80s but always had great physical health and is still a caretaker for the sick. But then she got sick with severe altitude sickness — which is ironic since she’s lived in the mountains for years. One of her symptoms is severe nosebleeds. A couple of Tuesdays ago she came…

In the I-could-have-told-them-that department, a recent study on Canadian churches reported that evangelical churches were growing faster than their liberal counterparts, even in the same denomination. (BTW, please keep in mind that “evangelical” doesn’t mean a political conservative, although many are — it means a conservative approach to the literal truth of the Bible.) The Christianity Today article titled “Even in Canada, Conservative Churches Are Growing” discusses the research. It’s good, please read it. And here is my take: liberal churches are essentially telling their congregants to be nice and go out and help people. But you don’t need to attend church to do that, so why bother going on…