Mike Hipsley
Day 2: Home With Us

Day 2: Home With Us

Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ Matthew 2:23 (NLT)hen I think of Christmas, I think of home. Home is a place we all long for and sometimes cannot...

Day 6: Jesus Dies

Day 6: Jesus Dies

Mark 15:33-35 (ESV) And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of...

Enjoy the Silence

Enjoy the Silence

Enjoy the Silenceost summers we vacation at the beach with my entire family. That’s 23 people in one house. It’s loud, it’s chaotic, it’s unpredictable, it’s fun. I have so many good memories with my wife and my kids and with my family as a whole...

Branching In

Branching In

Spiritual health is impossible apart from discipleship. We can hardly say that, as Christians, we are spiritually healthy if we are not following the way of Jesus. The question is how do we follow Jesus in a healthy way? It is very easy for discipleship to become...

Where You Do Not Want to Go

Where You Do Not Want to Go

Saying that Jesus is Lord, implies surrendering to His will over ours. No matter how you frame it, surrender is frightening. When we surrender, we are vulnerable. When we surrender someone else determines our path and can take us where we do not want to go. Jesus...

Is it Right For You to Be Angry

Is it Right For You to Be Angry

God is gracious and that is a very good thing, and, normally, we consider it a good thing. But what happens when God shows His grace to those who have hurt us or others? All of a sudden we're not so certain anymore. When God gives grace to the undeserving it raises...

Break Their Teeth, God

Break Their Teeth, God

There are some songs of the heart that we might rather not sing out loud. They express thoughts and feelings that are brutal and dark - feelings we'd rather others not know we feel. There are Song of the Heart in the Bible that curse others or invoke evil and they...

Contentment Matters

Contentment Matters

Everywhere we look, we are confronted with messages telling us about the things we need to be happy and whole. If only we can get, the better phone, go on the better vacation, drive the better car, get into the better college, then we will be content. We will be...

Your Life with God

Your Life with God

Salvation is often viewed as a singular “event” or moment in our lives. By God’s grace, we receive salvation by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus to save us. There is a sense in which this is absolutely true, from the moment of belief we are saved...

Life in the Desert

Life in the Desert

Life in the Desert  he desert is not a common vacation destination for good reason – it’s not a place that most people want to visit. We long for beaches and mountains, for valleys and lakes. We want beauty and life abounding. We don’t seek...

The Resurrection and the Life

The Resurrection and the Life

Study Guide Download Week 5 Last week we discovered in John 10 Jesus’ claim that He is the Good Shepherd. John 10:14-15 “14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the...

A New Song

A New Song

Songs are powerful things. The combine melody and harmony. They express both truth and emotion. They can fill us with joy and hope or with lament and sorrow. Through the beauty of song we worship, we celebrate, and we mourn. In the Psalms, the worship songs of the...

Coping in Crisis: Five Ways to Maintain Mental Health

Coping in Crisis: Five Ways to Maintain Mental Health

Coping in Crisis: Five Ways to Maintain Mental Healtho one wants to have mental health issues, but the truth is that life can be painful and difficult at times. As humans, we can and do break. For the overwhelming majority of us, mental health...

I AM Study Introduction

I AM Study Introduction

Study Guide Download Week 1 The “I AM” Statements in John are directly connected to his central purpose of establishing Jesus as the God who has come in the flesh to give us life. This gospel was written to establish Jesus’ credentials for the incredibly audacious...

A New Mind

A New Mind

There is a powerful connection between how we think and how we live. We’re not always aware of those connections, but what we think about and how we think about it directs our actions and responses. The Bible draws a direct connection between spiritual transformation...

A Good Old Age

A Good Old Age

Family involves many times and seasons of life. Our roles within our family change, but each role and each season is part of God's plan for family. If we're fortunate, one day we'll find ourselves in the last season - Old Age. While this is a season some of us would...

Not Enough

Not Enough

Read Genesis 22:8   In 2013 I was part of hike to raise money a non-profit organization that does amazing work. The goal was ambitious - hike 60 miles in 24 hours. I trained for months, invested in equipment, gathered people’s support, recruited friends to join...

Only Better

Only Better

Read Deuteronomy 18:15-19   When I was six, my Dad took me on my first roller coaster - The Comet at Hershey Park. I was so excited as we buckled into the car and the lap bars dropped. I remember the shudder of the train and the clickety-click sound as we went up...

One Last Thing

One Last Thing

Last words are important words. Books have been written and lists compiled about the last things that famous and influential people have said. This week in our study of 2 Timothy, the Apostle Paul will write his last and most important words to Timothy, his protégé....

Live as One Approved by God

Live as One Approved by God

Approval is something we all long for, especially from the people who matter most to us. There is something deep inside of us that craves knowing that others are pleased with what we do and who we are. Approval gives us a sense of meaning and significance in the...

Shalom

Shalom

Peace. We sing songs about it. We march for it. Demonstrate for it. Hold conferences about it and create think tanks to create it. We long for it. But it remains elusive. We live in a world broken by war, poverty, hatred, and illness, making peace seem impossible. Yet...