Hope Church PCA

Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem

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Ethan Smith

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Grace Changes Everything (Even Our Bank Accounts)

March 3, 2019 |

Once we begin to understand and experience ‘wealth’ according to God’s definition of the term—that he himself is our only true riches and that in comparison to him money is a small and insignificant thing—our perspective on the value of persons will be reoriented. Our hierarchies of who is important and who is expendable, of who is noteworthy and who is not-worthy, of who deserves our friendship and who does not, completely fade away. Because in God’s economy, the poor in spirit—regardless of their so-called net worth—are the sole heirs of God’s riches.”

Scott Sauls, Irresistible Faith

“Hospitality is not so much a task as a way of living our lives and of sharing ourselves. … A life of hospitality begins in worship, with a recognition of God’s grace and generosity. Hospitality is not first a duty and responsibility; it is first a response of love and gratitude for God’s love and welcome to us.”

Christine Pohl
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition

“The American dream—that hoary mythology that hard work always guarantees upward mobility—has for more than a century made the U.S. obsessed with material success and the exhaustive striving required to earn it. … The problem with this gospel—Your dream job is out there, so never stop hustling—is that it’s a blueprint for spiritual and physical exhaustion.”

Derek Thompson
“Workism Is Making Americans Miserable,” The Atlantic

There is No Other Name

February 24, 2019 |

“Christianity is a religion of salvation, and the fact is that there is nothing in any of the nonChristian religions to compare with this message of a God who loved, and came after, and died for, a world of lost sinners.”

John Stott, Basic Christianity

“The gospel is not a preference. It’s not another piece of flair we add to our vest. It’s something far more beautiful and disturbing. The gospel is the power to raise the dead, to proclaim the greatness of God in a fallen and confused world.”

Alan Noble, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age

“It’s time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I’m free!”

Elsa, “Let it Go,” Frozen

My Feets is Tired, But My Soul is at Rest

December 30, 2018 |

“A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating the risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. … There is plenty of suffering on both sides, past and future. The joy comes because God knows how to wipe away tears, and, in his resurrection work, create the smile of new life. Joy is what God gives, not what we work up.”

Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

“‘We want suffering to be like pregnancy—we have a season, and it’s over, and there is a tidy moral to the story.’ I’ve come to sense that isn’t what faith is at all. What if there is never an end? What if the story never improves and the tests continue to break our hearts? Is God still good?”

Kara Tippetts, The Hardest Peace

“[The real heroes of the Civil Rights Movement] will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: ‘My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest.’”

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

The Mothers of Jesus: Rahab the Prostitute

December 16, 2018 |

“Even the size of our faith and the height of our holiness aren’t the basis of our hope. The value of our faith is based on the object of our faith.”

Bethany Jenkins, “Saints—They’re Just Like Us”

“Because you have loved me, O Lord, you have made me lovable.”

Augustine of Hippo

“We’re women and men who are so sinful and flawed that we deserve hell, but we’ve been so loved and welcomed that every spiritual blessing, adoption, tender fellowship with our Father and each other, forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life is ours. Christ’s accomplishments and perfections are ours now. Everything about us is different.”

Elyse Fitzpatrick, Because He Loves Me

Wisdom is Not a Fish That You Can Catch

August 5, 2018 |

“Christianity is a life to be lived and not a mere philosophy or point of view.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit

“Dramatic, life-altering moments come only a few times during our lifetime—that’s why they’re dramatic. The rest of our lives are lived in the common, ordinary mundane. …  Dirty dishes in the sink is not just a worrisome ordeal in your otherwise uneventful day. It’s an opportunity to see glimpses of grace.”

Gloria Furman, “God Rules the Mundane”

“you bear the weight of all our grief
uncertainty and unbelief
oh, you restore our sanity
so we raise our voice
we raise an offering
would you come near
and quench our thirst
oh, lift our hearts
as the spirit bears the curse”

Derek Webb, “The Spirit Bears the Curse”

“To be joyful is to expect that life will reveal itself as God’s gift of grace …. To be joyful means to look out for opportunities for gratitude. … Indeed, it is really when the Holy Spirit comes and is present that one experiences true joy.”

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics

Feeling Full(ness) When You Are Hungry

June 17, 2018 |

“Desire lies at the heart of who God made us to be, who we are at our core. Desire is both our greatest frailty and the mark of our highest beauty. Our desire completes us as we become One with our Lover, and it separates us from Him and brings death as it wars against His will.”

―Dan Allender, To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future

“The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night.”

―John Piper, A Hunger for God

“FOMO [‘fear of missing out’] is real just as longings are real, and the fast track to the future carries along my desire, making it feel out of reach and unavailable to me, but available for what seems like everyone else.”

―Mollie Johnson, “Being Single”

Lover, I’m off the streets
I’m gonna go where the bright lights
And the big city meet
With a red guitar, on fire
Desire

―U2, “Desire”

Hidden in Plain Sight

June 10, 2018 |

“If Christian leaders and influencers and organizations do fall on hard times, if we lose favor and become a persecuted minority, it might actually mark the beginning of our truest impact.”

Scott Sauls, From Weakness to Strength

“The powers of evil fight with terrible intensity a battle that has already been lost, whereas believers by grace fight with humble boldness a battle that has already been won.

John “Jack” Miller, Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless

“It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. ‘See how they love one another,’ they say, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred; ‘how they are ready even to die for one another,’ they say, for they themselves will sooner put to death.”

Tertullian, The Apology

Jesus: Lord at Thy Death

March 25, 2018 |

“The secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: ‘I’m the Messiah.’ I’m saying: ‘I am God incarnate.’ And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the ‘M’ word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah.”

—Bono in conversation with Michka Assayas

“What will he do when he comes as judge, who did this when giving himself up to be judged? What will his power be like when he comes to reign, who had this kind of power when he came to die?”

—Augustine of Hippo

“I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her finger tips
It burned like fire
This burning desire …
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”

—U2