Hope Church PCA

Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem

Sunday Schedule:

8:30 a.m. – Worship
10:00 a.m. – Sunday School
10:15 a.m. – Hope Café
11:00 a.m. – Worship

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David Speakman

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The Secret Master of Ceremonies

January 15, 2023 |

“In friendship … we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,’ can truly say to every group of Christian friends, ‘Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.’ The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.” 

C.S. Lewis

“What matters supremely therefore is not in the last analysis the fact that I know God, but the larger fact that underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off of me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment therefore when his care falters.” 

J.I. Packer

“Jacob, Jacob, . . . I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.” 

Genesis 46:2-4

Seeing Him Who is Invisible

January 8, 2023 |

“The life of Moses presents a series of striking antitheses. He was the child of a slave, and the son of a queen. He was born in a hut, and lived in a palace. He inherited poverty, and enjoyed unlimited wealth. He was the leader of armies, and the keeper of flocks. He was the mightiest of warriors, and the meekest of men. He was educated in the court, and dwelt in the desert. He had the wisdom of Egypt, and the faith of a child. He was fitted for the city, and wandered in the wilderness. He was tempted with the pleasures of sin, and endured the hardships of virtue. He was backward in speech, and talked with God. He had the rod of a shepherd, and the power of the Infinite. He was a fugitive from Pharaoh, and an ambassador from Heaven. He was the giver of the Law, and the forerunner of Grace. He died alone on Mount Moab, and appeared with Christ in Judea. No man assisted at his funeral, yet God buried him. The fire has gone out of Mount Sinai, but the lightning is still in his Law. His lips are silent, but his voice yet speaks. The history of such a life is well worth attention, and the principles which underlie its antitheses, the closest study.”

I.M. Haldeman

 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” 

Hebrews 11:1

The Threat and Relief of Christmas

December 25, 2022 |

“Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man;
Stooping so low but sinners raising,
Heavenward by thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man.”

Frank Houghton

“No matter how much we give lip service to the notion of free grace and dying love, we do not like it.  It is just too . . . indiscriminate.  It lets rotten sons and crooked tax farmers and common tarts into the kingdom, and it thumbs its nose at the really good people. And it does that, gallingly, for no more reason than the Gospel’s shabby exaltation of dumb trust over worthy works.  The work of redemption is done entirely by the Redeemer and not at all by the redeemed!” 

Robert Farrar Capon

“We need a Savior – even (or especially) we who think that we are good Christians.”

Frederick Dale Bruner

“One of the most unbelievable parts of the Christmas story is that a bunch of men showed up to a child’s birthday party and remembered presents!”

Will Nettleton

The Deep and Wide Promise Fulfilled

December 18, 2022 |

“Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.” 

Charles Wesley

“Oh! I love God’s ‘shalls’ and ‘wills.’ There is nothing comparable to them. Let a man say ‘shall,’ what is it good for? ‘I will,’ says man, and he never performs; ‘I shall,’ says he, and he breaks his promise. But it is never so with God’s ‘shalls.’ If He says ‘shall,’ it shall be; when He says ‘will,’ it will be.” 

Charles Spurgeon

“Here is a simple Gospel mantra always to keep in mind: “One, I am a complete idiot. Two, my future is incredibly bright. Three, anyone can get in on this.” 

Ray Ortlund Jr.

A Collision Course: the Expected Messiah and the Received Messiah

December 4, 2022 |

“Who is this, so weak and helpless,
Child of lowly Hebrew maid,
Rudely in a stable sheltered,
Coldly in a manger laid?
‘Tis the Lord of all creation,
Who this wondrous path has trod;
He is Lord from everlasting,
And to everlasting God” 

William Washam How

“John [the Baptist] saw the mission of the Coming One as primarily one of separation: those who repented he would save and the unrepentant he would judge. John, in fact,expected this twofold messianic work to take place in a single eschatological event. He had predicted that the coming Messiah would both ‘gather his wheat into the granary’ and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12). When John was in prison, he began to reflect on the fact that, while he did see Jesus gathering wheat, he did not see him burning chaff.” 

Anthony Hoekema, The Bible and the Future

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 

Acts 2:36

The Lamb In All His Glory

November 20, 2022 |

 “Crown Him the Lord of heav’n,
One with the Father known,
One with the Spirit through Him giv’n
From yonder glorious throne,
To Thee be endless praise
For Thou for us hast died;
Be Thou, O Lord, through endless days
Adored and magnified.” 

Matthew Bridges

“We wonder, What does worship have to do with my work? . . . The work we do together each week in gathered worship transforms and sends us into the work we do in our homes and offices . . . we are people who are blessed and sent; this identity transforms how we embody work and worship in the world, in our week, even in our small day.” 

Tish Harrison Warren

“When I have learned to love God better than all my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.  In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all.  When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” 

CS Lewis

Heaven: There and Back Again

November 13, 2022 |

“Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.”

Eugene Peterson

“Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.”

James K.A. Smith

“Beethoven … turned out pieces of breath-taking rightness. Rightness — that’s the word! When you get the feeling that whatever note succeeds the last is the only possible note that can rightly happen at that instant, in that context, then chances are you’re listening to Beethoven… Our boy has the real goods, the stuff from Heaven, the power to make you feel at the finish: Something is right in the world. There is something that checks throughout, that follows its own law consistently: something we can trust, that will never let us down.”

Leonard Bernstein, The Joy of Music

From Apathy to Zeal

November 6, 2022 |

“It is clear that at the very beginning of Christianity, there must have occurred a vast release of energy, unequaled in the history of the race. Without it, the future course of the faith is inexplicable… Something happened to the men who associated with Jesus. That burst of energy was ascribed by the early disciples to the founder of their faith. Why this occurred may lie outside the realms in which historians are supposed to move.” 

Kenneth LaTourette

“A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God.” 

JC Ryle

“There are two ways to be fooled: one is to believe what isn’t true, the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” 

Soren Kierkegaard

The Grace of Truth and the Truth of Grace

October 16, 2022 |

“Idols are non-gods and as such are much more congenial to us than God, for we not only have the pleasure of making them, using our wonderful imaginations and skills in creative ways, but also of controlling them.  They are gods with all the God taken out so that we can continue to be our own gods.” 

Eugene Peterson

“Nothing could be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing could be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from his sin.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

John 1:14

Under the Sword

October 9, 2022 |

“There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all.” 

Charles Spurgeon

“A great mystery: to redeem our brokenness and lovelessness the God who suffers with us did not strike some mighty blow of power but sent his beloved son to suffer like us and through his suffering to redeem us from suffering and evil. Instead of explaining our suffering God shares it.”

 Nicholas Wolterstorff

“Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire his miracles, but few follow him in the humiliation of the cross.”

Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ