As we enter the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, my heart is filled with gratitude for each of you. This is a beautiful time of year, but it can also become incredibly busy. Between shopping, decorating, traveling, gatherings, and countless responsibilities, it is easy to lose sight of the peace and joy Jesus offers us.

“I’m just getting old.” How many of us have said this to explain why they forgot something or couldn’t keep up with the younger folks? I know that I have. What does God say about that? In Ecclesiastes 3:1, it says that “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… This tells me that I am not meant to keep up with children and young adults. We have other things that need to be done.

Your past may have shaped you, but it does not have to define you. There may have been seasons of your youth filled with poor choices, struggles, and moments you wish you could change. But God has a way of taking the broken pieces of our lives and creating something new. Scripture reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” Your story is not simply about where you have been, it is about where God is leading you.

I would be willing to bet that most of us as children or young adults heard the saying, “Do what I say, not what I do.”  The first time I remember hearing this saying I was probably 7 and my Aunt said it to me. Can’t remember why, but I remember the saying stuck with me. I was reading my weekly bible study and it asked, “Do you put into action what you have studied?” The following bible verse was part of the study.

God calls us to love, as He has loved us. We are called to love our friends, co-workers and neighbors and forget bitterness and love those around us. When we start to hate and have hard feelings, we spiral into destruction. When we love, however, we build true connections between each other as people, bonds that can't be broken.

I was talking with Pastor Lou recently about the interactions we have with the people around us and how impactful those interactions can be. Sometimes we don't realize just how much our words and actions can affect someone else.

Today, I found myself looking around and thinking, “Wow. This place is full of life.” Not just on Sunday mornings, but throughout the week. There are people coming and going, serving, learning, meeting, working, and being cared for. Everywhere I looked today, I saw another reminder that God is at work in our church.

Dear One Hope Church Family, I am so excited about what God is doing in the life of our church. We recently began a new sermon series through the book of Galatians, and my prayer is that, as we walk through this letter together, we will grow in our understanding of the true freedom we have in Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.” A few weekends ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time in the Red River Gorge with five teenagers. We hiked more than 17 miles over two days, and somewhere along those trails, I started thinking about the water.

There's something special about camp. The games are over. The cabins are empty. The songs have faded, and everyone has gone home. But the work God started? That's just beginning. This past week at district Kids Camp, 25 children made the decision to follow Jesus. That's not just 25 names on a report. That's 25 testimonies that will be shared in homes, schools, churches, and communities. If you've ever spent time with kids, you know they love to tell stories. And when Jesus changes their hearts, they're going to tell that story too.

Malawi is experiencing a growing measles outbreak, with children being most affected. In Nsanje District, near the border with Mozambique, health authorities have reported at least 188 suspected cases, including 76 laboratory-confirmed infections.

Have you ever felt like you're "doing" your relationship with God wrong because it doesn't look like someone else's? The truth is, God didn't create us all the same. He wired each of us uniquely, and because of that, we often connect with Him in different ways.

Dear One Hope Church Family,

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we look ahead, I am genuinely excited about the future God has prepared for us as we trust Him together. Even as many things are unfolding around us—both in our world and in our own lives—let us not lose sight of what God is calling us to do: to remain faithful to Him, to love Him with all our hearts, and to serve the people He has placed around us. We move forward not in our own strength, but in humble dependence on His grace.

We know we need faith, because it is by grace we are saved through faith. A good question therefore is, “how can we increase our faith?” Sunday we learned that our faith is rooted in God’s faithfulness. In other words, we can have faith in God because He has been faithful.

My childhood blanket had a satin binding. As a child, it would comfort me to fall asleep. I carried it around for a long time. The satin was soothing. I can admit that | still like that binding on my blankets today. Realizing this leads to thinking about why it comforts me. When my fingers are rough from a cut or washing dishes, it creates a pick in the satin. For some reason it is something that I do with the lining of a coat and anything that would pick when I do it.

In the beginning the Trinity created the world knowing all that would happen. Knowing that Adam and Eve would sin and humanity would fall to sin. The story could have ended at the fall. The Trinity could have said they were done and gotten rid of humanity, however the story doesn't end at the fall. On the contrary the fall is at the beginning of God’s story. God has spent every day reaching out to His people trying to have relationships with them. Jesus came to die for our sins so that God could have an intimate relationship with us. Before Jesus goes to the cross (knowing what was going to happen), he prays this for believers.

The countdown to Nazarene Youth Conference has begun. Students are excited about worship, new friendships, and the possibility of encountering God in a life-changing way. But for an adult volunteer, the weeks leading up to the trip can feel overwhelming.

Sometimes when God calls us to do things, it can seem impossible. This can be something as little as inviting a friend to church, or to preach to congregations of hundreds. This can be scary! For some, even being in front of a group of people is spine chilling. God calling us to do things could be scary for multiple reasons…

At the beginning of Family Worship Praise Team practice, I had the kids pair up with two of our regular team members to talk about why they serve in this ministry. The kids shared first, followed by the teens and adults.

During my years spent hiking in the Appalachian Mountains, I have regularly sensed God’s presence and witnessed His creation. From birds singing beautiful and inspirational songs to spectacular views from atop mountain peaks, it has become obvious that this is not an accident or happenstance, but rather something crafted by the hands of our mighty God.