By way of the "Parable of the Prodigal Son", Timothy Keller insightfully illustrates the patient, generous and merciful character of God in The Prodigal God.  Defining the term "prodigal", not as meaning wayward, but rather as "recklessly spendthrift", Keller reemphasizes the famous Parable in a surprising ways.  Keller shows the target audience (us!) of Jesus's famous Parable, dangers of misunderstanding the Parable, and how God our Father patiently seeks us out, bringing us to repent of our often overlooked sin lest we fail to enter His feast.  This book is brief, concise and wise.  Its concepts well illustrate the Gospel...

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This Sunday, I will conclude a four-week long sermon series on New Hope's mission, values, and emphases.  Our mission, once again, is to celebrate, cultivate, communicate, and demonstrate the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus.  For the past three weeks, I have spoken about how we want to celebrate God's grace through historic worship, cultivate God's grace through intimate community, and communicate God's grace through hospitable witness.  This Sunday, I will wrap up with a look at how to demonstrate God's grace through creative service.  In over ten years of preaching, I have often had the experience of finding something...

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  Our Body Life event back on February 17 focused on the future of New Hope.  Those who were present expressed a great deal of excitement, and left with a renewd desire to pray for the work to which God has called our congregation.  For the benefit of those who could not attend, a summary of the presentation follows below.  For even more information, click on the "About Us" tab to your left and check out the subheadings called "Our Method," "Our Mission," "Our Emphases," "Our Values," "Our Vehicles," and "Our Vision." Many of the most "frequently asked questions" at New Hope have...

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    Join us Friday, February 19th at 6:30 p.m. for the Grand Opening of the new art exhibit in the New Hope lobby We are excited to announce that New Hope and the Muddy River Art Association are partnering to bring local art work to the community by having an exhibit in the New Hope lobby. Please come and bring some friends to view the art and have a chance to meet some of the artists! Light refreshments will be served.  

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  For Christmas this year Clay bought me the entire series of the tv show, "The Wonder Years." The show aired on ABC from 1988-1993, with each season being set exactly 20 years prior to the air date (so 1988 takes place in 1968). I had been trying to find this show on dvd for quite some time, with no sucess. We were suprised when it came in the mail from China, and even more suprised that it was a copy of reruns from the ABC Family channel (it turns out that ABC hasn't made the show available on dvd)....

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