Real Hope Community's Podcast: Recent Episodes
Real Hope Community
Real Hope is a family of ordinary people on an extraordinary mission. We have a senior pastor, but all of our people are made in the image of God, gifted for purpose, and set free to lead restoration in our community. We are all working together to be the good news of Jesus and his Kingdom in Oswego and beyond.
When God makes a commitment to love toward us, it's real. In fact, we can look at God's commitment of love for us and see 3 ways that love works its way out. Love remains with someone, in spite of all things. Love is for another person, even when that person isn't for themselves. Love cares enough to believe and work toward the best for someone else, even when that's difficult because the best isn't always (or often) the easiest. Do we make those kinds of commitments to one another in commuity?
Do we view God as one who gives us a resounding No! or a joyful Yes! in our life? It makes a difference. How we respond to God and how we treat others depends on how we perceive God responding to us. What if God's response to you is an overwhelming Yes?
The first church "shared what they had generously." If a person was in need, people sold things that they owned and took care of that need. It's not surprising the church drew attention, right? What would it look like if we shared their values and practices now? Was Luke suggesting a form of government? Or does he have something very different in mind?
Real community is hard. It's harder than ever right now. People no longer know how to form bonds with one another--it's not me talking--that's social science saying it. Distrust, isolation, online lives, busy lives--we can blame a lot of things. But how do we learn again to be with one another in community? The way we were created to be? It isn't good for humans to be alone.
Real community is hard. It's harder than ever right now. People no longer know how to form bonds with one another--it's not me talking--that's social science saying it. Distrust, isolation, online lives, busy lives--we can blame a lot of things. But how do we learn again to be with one another in community? The way we were created to be? It isn't good for humans to be alone.
What does it mean to be seen? What are the steps to restoration--with God or with one another? Do we want to be seen--all the way through?
We love it when Jesus turns the tables. Well, sometimes.
This week's story is a familiar one--and we could go right past it and think we know the moral. But do we? Is "who is my neighbor" really the question we need to be asking?
"Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are."
Hard to imagine, right? When we're in the middle of suffering, it's hard to believe it will feel light someday. (And that's not a great thing to say to people in pain, btw.) Yet there is great hope in this truth. There will be a time when all tears are gone, as we're told in Revelation. Hope has the last word.
Fred Rogers said, "If we can explain that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health." He had that right.
Grief and mourning are normal. Emotions (like anger) are normal. We’re reacting to something we know is wrong.
Pretending it’s all joy, proof texting our way to fake gratitude, pushing aside our real feelings to manufacture “pretty” ones are all unnecessary and unhelpful.
We can know something is true and still not feel it in the moment. A mix of joy and grief is normal and in line with scripture.
We're continuing our series on Death, Dying, and What Comes After this week with "Big Feelings." What do we do with the feelings surrounding grief?
What kind of statements have you heard when someone dies?
God needed another angel?
He's in a better place?
Everything happens for a reason?
If these are true, what can a person offer someone in grief, or a nation in grief after a horrific event? Very little.
What do we really believe about death, and how does Christian belief offer better answers?
As we talk through this series on "Reset," what practices do we need to re-enter life in a healthy way? Not blindly, and not back to unhealthy practices? We're on #2 this week, and that's self-care. But it might not look like our culture has told us it looks. We're taking a look at how Jesus modeled rest and withdrawal from a crazy life in order to recenter and re-enter intentionally and well.
Easter is bittersweet this year. We celebrate new life. Yet this year, we also remember all the sorrow of the past year. How do we react with joy to the resurrection yet respect our loss?
Jesus wept. Jesus got angry at death. He showed us all the range of emotion we've been having this past year. Yet Jesus also said--I AM the Resurrection and the Life. How do these things go together this year in ways we've never noticed before? There is hope.
Jesus said I AM the vine and you, my followers, are the branches. Farmers prune vines so that they can offer their best. How might we need to be pruned, or now might the "pruning" of this lat year teach us something going forward?
We're finishing our two-parter on genocide and the book of Joshua. What if the Israelites had eclipse glasses on, sort of? What if they were only seeing God through their lenses, and God chose to take them from where they were and bring them slowly toward knowing a whole new way of thinking? Those are some of the things we're talking about. Most importantly--what kind of person are we if we choose to live with a concept of God that's angry and out for power? I've seen a few people around like that lately, tbh.
Part 1 of A difficult discussion on war in the Bible and God’s seeming encouragement is genocide. Great topic for Valentine’s Day, right?
But it is, when you realize that the perception of an angry God who must have victory produces followers who don’t know how to love God, others, or self well. Let’s talk about the important implications of the Bible and holy wars of all kinds.
How do we pass on the stories that matter? How do we learn to tell a good story of our lives and our faith?
This morning we're talking about rest. The world is pretty weary right now. Yet there is also a lot of work to be done in a world where God's rightness is hard to find. How do we do the first well so that we can do the second with God's energy and power?
Rest is one of the biggest themes in the Bible. Find out why.
Did you know the Ten Commandments aren't really called commandments in the Bible? They're called "words." The important words of God to begin his new community on the right footing, both with him and with one another. They're pretty good words for a new beginning. Mayne in our new beginning, we should learn from them.
God uses ten words in a few places, too. He uses them in Genesis 1 ("and God said" ten times). in the ten plagues ("uncreating" Egypt), and here, the ten words. Like in Genesis, God is creating something completely new here, going back to the drawing board and beginning again with his people. In our beginning, this is good news. God is always willing to start over. He's always creating. He wants to see what we will do with his words.
This week: Thou Shalt Not Murder.
Well, we kind of know that, right? And most of us have probably not done that one. But what if, maybe, God means a little bit more than simply not killing one another? Are there ways we kill our fellow humans without actual physical death? Do we kill souls, spirits, hearts, or other parts of a human made in the image of God? What would it means to look at this command closely to see how we could make it work in a new community?
What do you think of when you hear "The Ten Commandments"? I either think old movies with giant stone slates and thunder or courthouse battles. But what if we saw them instead as a blueprint for a new community? A new group, learning to be free people in a new, changing world? Kind of like ours right now? What would it mean for us to re-learn how to not take God's name in vain, for instance? Is it relevant? Very.
Our culture looks for certain qualities in a leader. But are they the right ones for long-term success? And what about those of us who like being lone rangers--and don't like competition? What then? How do we release others to use their gifts for the kingdom in the best way we can?