Hays Christian Church

Psalm 65:5-13 (and Sabbath Poem VII by Wendell Berry) describe the wonders of God’s creation, its dependence on God, the glory it gives God, and our own connection to the earth. Pastor Cana Moore encourages us to take in God’s creation with gratitude and honor Him through love and stewardship.

Luke 10:25-37 contains Jesus’ well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. Pastor Cana Moore presents the less-studied point-of-view of the robbed Jewish man, who also offers an example to follow. Just as it is important to give compassion to those unlike us, we must also remember to accept the compassion offered to us, no matter the source.

The text for this message comes from I Timothy 4:6-10; 15-16, where Paul emphasizes to Timothy the necessity of practicing the spiritual disciplines. Pastor Cana Moore outlines what those disciplines are so that we can also put them into practice and grow spiritually.

In Matthew 6:5-13, Jesus gives us guidance on how to pray with intention through the example of what we know as “the Lord’s Prayer”. Pastor Cana Moore breaks up the prayer into its meaningful components so we can better understand how we can pray as Jesus did, with greater boldness, love, and desire for God and His will.  

For this message, Pastor Cana looks to Luke 4:16-21 and 1:46-55 to show that Jesus and the Father side with the marginalized over the powerful. There is sin in clinging to power that and it is our duty to join the Trinity in being with and loving the marginalized.

In this message, Pastor Cana’s source verse is Proverbs 24:3-6, which speaks on wisdom. We learn what wisdom is and why it should matter to us. After understanding that, we can become wise Children of God who look to Him for the right knowledge, at the right time, and follow the right actions.

Among Jesus’ final words on the Cross is a quote from Psalm 22:1. Pastor Cana provides us with context explaining that Psalm 22 is ultimately about the comfort of God’s closeness to us through our deep grief and pain. He did not abandon Jesus on the cross, nor will He be far from us at our lowest.

Pastor Cana brings us to Ezekiel 37:1-14, where God illustrates to Ezekiel the power of the Holy Spirit through prophesizing: bringing dead, dry bones to life. To prophesy to dead bones is to hope for something to happen to them. We are called to prophesy where there is no hope visible and wait for God’s Spirit to come and breathe new life.

For this message, Pastor Cana Moore analyzes Psalm 73, in which the wicked succeed for a time, until they reap what they have sown, and the righteous will have the ultimate reward. It can be discouraging to see the unrighteous prevail, but rather than giving up goodness for evil’s immediate success, we as children of God may have hope in His promises and the lasting victories He has for us.

Pastor Cana Moore uses John 8:31-36 to remind us that if we are believers in Christ with our trust on God, we are free from sin. It’s just that simple! We might give focus to our past sin to keep it from getting in the way of our relationship with God, but we cannot allow that focus to become a sin itself and consume our focus on God. We have His permission to live as freed people!

Pastor Cana Moore begins her pastorship at HCC by focusing on the message of Romans 12:4-10, which tells us that diversity is essential to the body of believers united by Christ and it is love that allows us to act as a community. That is who we are and by using our skills and gifts, we can contribute to the love our Christian body needs.

In this message, Jennifer Urban comments on Simon Peter, Jesus' leading disciple, who proves that God can use anyone to live a life of impact. When we allow ourselves to be used by God, we touch those around us with His light and our heavenly rewards are great. 

In this message, Bruce Bellinger addresses what we should do if our lives don’t reflect God’s light in us, using notes from Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People by Keith Drury. We shouldn’t forget the light and truth, get discouraged, pretend to follow the light, or drag our feet to obey. Instead, we should look back at how far we’ve come, make sure our light is from God, listen to Him, and trust Him to change us.

In continuing to explain the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, Jennie Straight shifts focus to the second Beatitude in Matthew 5: “Blessed are those who mourn”. We work to understand what it means to mourn and how we will be comforted.

Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:27-38 prompt Steve Tramel to explain the Golden Rule: “Do to others what you would have them do to you”, a rule shared across belief systems. We must understand the Golden Rule in it’s Biblical context, why we often fail to abide by it, and ways to improve our obedience.

Kit Dotson from Emmanuel Christian Seminary speaks on the effects the Holy Spirit has when we allow ourselves to be guided while we are spreading the Gospel to those within our reach. The lives we touch with God's power and love are able to expand the ripple of ministry. 

Pastoral candidate Cana Moore presents what we can learn from Matthew 10:29-31. To humans, sparrows are insignificant, but God remembers even the most unremarkable creature. With this knowledge, we can be comforted that God knows our burdens and cares for us even more so because we are God’s most treasured creation.

We often think that virtues are better in abundance. Joanne Tramel explains that that is not always the case and if we take any virtue to an extreme, they become harmful to others. To keep our virtues in check, we should ask ourselves certain questions.

Betty Rupp tackles to subject of adjusting to changes. When we encounter changes, it is helpful to rely on God's unwavering guidance to help us persevere, whether it's changes for ourselves, for our church, or for our pastor (old or new).

Steve Tramel begins his non-consecutive series "The Other Half of the Great Commission" by introducing us to the 2 parts of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and the importance of learning and obeying God's commands.