God is Born: The One who brings HOPE

This week, guest preacher Pastor Brian Thie helps us navigate the connection between hope and John Wesley's Three Simple Rules. Wesley preached, "Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God." In addition to Wesley's three simple rules, Pastor Brian says are three sizes of hope: lower case hope, mixed case Hope, and all caps HOPE. However, seeing and experiencing war, suicide, and broken relationships make having all caps HOPE difficult. This is the place where Wesley's Three Simple Rules come into play.When you lose hope, you do harm to yourself and the world around you. It's also counterintuitive to do all the good you can during a low point. However, God gives you faith. Take that faith with you and share it with others. If you want to know what hope is, go where people don't have it. Hope is practiced when you serve others. Finally, stay in love with God by be maintaining a daily connection. It can be an act as simiple as a few minutes of daily prayer or Bible reading.When things fall apart to a level where you can't imaginee the future being good at all, faith is an enormous gift. Remember there is always hope. You're not going to fix everything, but continue what you're doing. There will be a day when we all can experience the divine banquet.