Hello Hopefuls!

You may already know that I love worshiping with you and everyone on Sundays at Hope! 🙂 One of my favorite times of the week. Currently, we are in a sermon series called Summer Stories: Testimonies of Radical Change. Last Sunday, we took some time with the story of Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). Bartimaeus experienced not only physical healing from his blindness, but also a life change as he then began to follow Jesus instead of remaining stuck by the roadside.

As I thought through this sermon series, it made sense to me that in addition to exploring the scriptural stories of life change that come from Jesus, we also want to hear stories from people in our midst who also experience life transformation. So last Sunday, we heard a powerful testimony of radical life transformation from one of our congregation members, Angie, who shared about how her perspective of God has changed and shifted radically in the last couple years.
 
And my hope is that we are reminded that radical life change is not limited to the people we read about in scripture… life transformation as a result of being with Jesus happens today in real time in the lives of real people. It is so encouraging, powerful and also challenging to hear someone’s testimony. And I am grateful that Hope is a safe place where that can happen.
 
And so I encourage you… if you have a story of life transformation as a result of Jesus, share it with me. I would love to hear those! Share it with one of our elders… those stories make great articles for our Message of Hope newsletter. The truth is, Jesus is transforming lives all the time. Many of us have stories about that in our own lives. Don’t be afraid to share your story. It is important to build up the body of Christ and celebrate what God is doing. I look forward to the continued journey with you! Bless you!