09/01 ((from Courtney)) “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2 “He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.” Psalms 102:17 It’s been almost five years since I met her. Five years since her little hand slipped into mine, and her big…

8/31 ((from Brittany)) I have to admit, I got this week’s topic and scratched my head. Angels unaware, hmmm, I’d sit down to write and every time I come I’d come up dry. It’s not that I don’t believe in angels, it’s that the whole unaware part 100% applies to me. But the more I…

8/30 ((from Megan)) “Cornelius said, ‘Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour; and behold, a man stood before me in shining garments, and he said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Therefore send to Joppa and invite Simon,…

8/29 ((from Natalie)) Hurricane Harvey has got me reflecting on the year 2005. That’s when Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern coast. The devastation caused by this terrible natural disaster tore at my heart.  I know many around me in the Midwest felt helpless watching the aftereffects unfold. At the time, I was a full-time waitress…

8/28 ((from Kate)) Abraham, Lot, Gideon, Samson’s mum and pop. You. Me. (and more than likely a whole gajillion others.) What’s the common thread? From Genesis to Judges there are stories in the Bible of men and women interacting with angels, completely unaware that they were angels indeed. One of the most confusing, enlightening, and…

8/27 ((from Abbie))   Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Built the walls of Jerusalem. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of the righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.   Have you ever read the entire Psalm 51 chapter? If you…

8/26 ((from Eve)) “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.”…

8/25 ((from Courtney)) I have sat in my sin. The same sin I regurgitated time and time again. It varies in the type of sin. Sometimes it’s gluttony. Often it’s pride. Sometimes it’s despair. Often it’s laziness. My soul cycles through sin again and again and again… My soul while it wallows in sin, expecting…

8/24 ((from Brittany)) “Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”   Have you ever messed up big? Had…

8/23 ((from Megan)) David’s heart of confession and repentance continues. I love the model of humility, the picture of this man after God’s own heart that we are marinating in this week. A sincere apology, even among humans, is a balm to relationships, simple in theory yet rare in practice. How do we do in…

8/22 ((from Natalie)) The path ahead, the direction we were pointed, was not where I should’ve been going. I knew that. The thud, thud, thud, of my sins was nagging in every heartbeat.  I was so far off track from where my conscience had previously told me I ought to go. I guess I had…

8/21 ((from Kate)) This week each of your seven Hopers is going to take a chunk of Psalm 51 and wrestle it, knead it, sit in it, and hopefully talk about it (with you!) I would encourage you to get out your Bibles, the one with pages to flip and a leather binding to crack,…