HOPE

HOPE

Hope is the optimistic attitude of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include; to expect with confidence and to cherish a desire with anticipation.

Hope comes into its own when crisis looms, opening us to new creative possibilities.

Hope is the driving force that gives a pregnant woman who is about due to give birth to get into a crowded inflated boat and cross the sea from a dangerous zone to hopeful safety.

Hope can help people heal faster and easier. Individuals who maintain hope, especially when battling illness, significantly enhance their chances of recovery.

Hope is one of the three virtues of Christianity along with faith and love. The word hope in the Bible is a strong expectation of future reward. In Titus 1:2 Paul said his aim was to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end.

Rom 15:4 tells us that. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Stories of hope are threaded through out the Bible from Genesis to Revelation;

of Noah, Abraham, Nehemiah, Daniel, Ruth Deborah and others.

Hope sustained a lady who lived in an emotional abusive relationship for over 30 years. She was also in a business partnership with the abuser until her mind and body could no longer sustain the pain. She ended up in a woman’s shelter. The years of abuse took its tole on the children, one of them living on the streets, another who wrecked her car and lost her license due to being under the influence.

During these painful years she never gave up hope. She never gave up on the fact that God loved her. She is on the path to recovery and filled with hope.

Hope says that in spite of the fact that sin and death still rules the world, somehow Jesus has conquered them and in some unforeseeable time He will return bringing peace and healing to the nations.

Paul says in 1 Cor 15:19 If only for this life we have hope, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Hope that we are each known by our name. Fear not for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name. Isaiah 43:1

In spite of the fact that secular humanism dominates our culture and has played its role in our governments, educational institutions, our homes and yes even in our places of worship; we must never lose hope.

When the angel approached Gideon to deliver Israel from the enemy, Gideon’s response was, “If the Lord is with us why has all this happened; but Lord how can I save Israel, my clan is the weakest of the pack?” After God reduces his army from 32,000 to 300, He blows the trumpets and actually wins without fighting!

Our God is alive and well and has all things under control and hope is rising across our land.

In a world notorious for dashing any ray of hope, may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

JESUS

JESUS

God coming to be with us himself, changed the course of history. We date our letters and documents, our children’s birth and loved one’s death by what happened so many years ago. It has impacted art, literature, political and educational institutions and our understanding about ourselves. While he never wrote a book or a song, libraries of the world could not hold the books written about him. He has inspired more songwriters to write about him than any other theme.

HIS BIRTH

His birth was announced to Mary by a surprise greeting from the angel Gabriel. The wise men who studied the stars and planets to a fine art, knew something important was happening on earth. It was announced to the Shepherds who were visited by an angel and a heavenly host.

The Christmas nativity with the captions of peace, joy, goodwill creates in all of us a sense of hope. At the heart of the Christmas story, he poses such a threat that power hungry leaders will kill a village full of babies. He was homeless with a price on his head before he could walk or talk.

HIS MINISTRY

Everything he did was the opposite to what the religious leaders expected of a coming Messiah and deliverer. John goes around yelling the top of his voice, prepare the way of the Lord, he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Through the crowd Jesus comes, stands at the water’s edge and quietly asks John to baptize him!

He choose the wrong kind of board members, hung out with the wrong crowd, accused of being a drunkard and a glutton. It was the poor, the brokenhearted the disenfranchised, he addressed himself too. He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

HIS DEATH

The shadow of the cross hung over Jesus from the beginning. And by the time they nailed him to the cross his friends and followers were up and running. Those who waved palm branches and hailed him king were part of the mob shouting crucify him. The one they had said was the hope of the world is now hopeless. The light of the world is gone out. The cross a punishment for slaves was considered an outrage by a Roman citizen. His body and faced was marred beyond human semblance. The king of the Jews says his last words; Father forgive them.

HIS RESURRECTION

The Gospels don’t give us any explanation as to how the body of Jesus disappeared from the tomb. Whatever happened and however it happened that first Easter, what convinced the people that he had risen from the dead was not the absence of his corpse but his living presence.

He appeared to them unrecognizable until he blessed the bread, broke it and gave it to them. He appeared at the tomb as a gardener. He showed up in their midst and disappeared into walls. He permitted doubting Thomas to check out his wounds. He told them to breath in his breath, his Holy breath and spirit so they could go out into the world and do his work.

HIS REVOLUTION

The Big Bang of Christianity broke into the world when enthroned upon the cross he called it is finished, marched into the abyss and secured the keys of hell and death.

Jesus not Caesar is Lord. Jesus is raised so he is the Messiah and therefore he is the world’s true Lord. What happened at the Resurrection generated something new. It grew and developed into a movement that continues to have eternal effects to this day. Jesus is raised so God’s new Kingdom has begun and as his followers we are to announce his Lordship to the world.

I recently read an exert from Oscar Wilde’s play Salome. It goes something like this:

When Herod hears reports that Jesus has been raising the dead: “I do not wish him to do that I forbid him to do that, I allow no man to raise the dead. This man must be found and told, I forbid him to raise the dead.”

We hear the same voices today who wants to carve up the world to their advantage. They want to silence the gospel, threaten our freedoms, make harsh demands on us that are contrary to Kingdom principles.

“Where is this man.” Herod demands. “He’s everywhere my Lord,” replies his courtier, “but it is hard to find him.”

He shows up at a loved ones tomb, in prisons, in our schools, hospitals, government buildings. He appears to the worried and stressed, the poor and disenfranchised. Sometimes differently than what we expect. HE’S EVERYWHERE.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: TIME

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: TIME: TIME Teach us to consider our own mortality so that we may live wisely. Psalm 90:12 My parents never believed in wasting time...

TIME

TIME

Teach us to consider our own mortality so that we may live wisely. Psalm 90:12

My parents never believed in wasting time. The clocks in our home were always at least 15 minutes fast. So at twenty past the hour we would hear the call; come on children it is going for 8 o’clock which meant it was 7:15.

I don’t have time is probably more like I don’t want to. We all have the same amount, twenty- four hours in a day.

Life is punctuated by time, sunrise, sunset, the days of the week, the seasons. Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays and anniversaries are all part of the calendar of time.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 3 records his take on time. For everything there is a season, for every activity under the sun: Birth death, killing and healing, planting and uprooting, weeping, laughing mourning.

GOD AND TIME

God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments, days and years. He lives above what we call our timeline. We have to leave point A behind to get to point B but God contains the whole line and sees it all. He has infinite attention to spare for all of us and is never in a hurry. On the other hand we see him using the gift of time to precisely unfold his plan for his creation. The world will see it as coincidence and we see it as divine intervention synchronized with utmost precision.

Ruth went to glean in the fields behind the reapers and it SO HAPPENED that she was in a strip that belonged to Boaz and appeared there just as he came out from Bethlehem.

Joseph was thrown into a dungeon by his brothers, JUST as some Egyptians were passing by who bought him for 30 pieces of silver and he became a ruler in Egypt and in turn saved the Israelite nation, which only consisted of around 70 people at the time.

David JUST HAPPENED to be taking lunch to his soldier brothers when he heard the Giant of Gath defy the ranks of Israel and their God.

In the FULLNESS OF TIME God sent forth his son into the world.

Jesus SO HAPPENED to be at the well when the outcast Samaritan woman came by to draw water.

Jesus SO HAPPENED to be in a mob of people when a women reached out and touched the hem of his garment.

GOD US AND TIME

Demands on our time can vary depending on our season of life and the responsibilities. As followers of Jesus, we might want to ask, what do you want me to do today because there is time for everything God wants you to do.

 God uses time to teach us what to do with all that we have been given.

God will strategically place us in the right place at the right time.

He orders our footsteps, not just at graduations and weddings.

God is setting up divine appointments all the time.

Jesus said in Mark 6:31come with me by yourselves and get some rest.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: Hope

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: Hope: HOPE Hope is the optimistic attitude of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstan...

Hope

HOPE

Hope is the optimistic attitude of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include; to expect with confidence and to cherish a desire with anticipation.

Hope comes into its own when crisis looms, opening us to new creative possibilities.

Hope is the driving force that gives a pregnant woman who is about due to give birth to get into a crowded inflated boat and cross the sea from a dangerous zone to hopeful safety.

Hope can help people heal faster and easier. Individuals who maintain hope, especially when battling illness, significantly enhance their chances of recovery.

Hope is one of the three virtues of Christianity along with faith and love. The word hope in the Bible is a strong expectation of future reward. In Titus 1:2 Paul said his aim was to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end.

Rom 15:4 tells us that. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Stories of hope are threaded through out the Bible from Genesis to Revelation;

of Noah, Abraham, Nehemiah, Daniel, Ruth Deborah and others.

Hope sustained a lady who lived in an emotional abusive relationship for over 30 years. She was also in a business partnership with the abuser until her mind and body could no longer sustain the pain. She ended up in a woman’s shelter. The years of abuse took its tole on the children, one of them living on the streets, another who wrecked her car and lost her license due to being under the influence.

During these painful years she never gave up hope. She never gave up on the fact that God loved her. She is on the path to recovery and filled with hope.

Hope says that in spite of the fact that sin and death still rules the world, somehow Jesus has conquered them and in some unforeseeable time He will return bringing peace and healing to the nations.

Paul says in 1 Cor 15:19 If only for this life we have hope, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Hope that we are each known by our name. Fear not for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name. Isaiah 43:1

In spite of the fact that secular humanism dominates our culture and has played its role in our governments, educational institutions, our homes and yes even in our places of worship; we must never lose hope.

When the angel approached Gideon to deliver Israel from the enemy, Gideon’s response was, “If the Lord is with us why has all this happened; but Lord how can I save Israel, my clan is the weakest of the pack?” After God reduces his army from 32,000 to 300, He blows the trumpets and actually wins without fighting!

Our God is alive and well and has all things under control and hope is rising across our land.

In a world notorious for dashing any ray of hope, may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

TIME TO SHRED

Time to Shred

It is January 2018. Good news, I can purge another file box of business receipts. It’s a struggle getting in and around the close quarters of the storage room. I throw the boxes out the door causing some of them to fly across the balcony.

I set myself up with my brother in law’s, shred one page at a time shredder and know I am in for a day’s work. I hate this job it is boring and somewhat back aching.

O here’s a time sheet, bringing to memory people who I have mostly forgotten. I wonder how Brinn is doing? She was such a great worker. Amazing how many of them could not count back to give out change if the computer defaulted. There were good and better and a few not good at all workers among them. During the fifteen years there must have been some 35/40 students that were part of our team.

Did I make a difference in their lives? Did I show appreciation? Had to let a couple of them go. What are they doing today? The majority stayed with me through high school so maybe I wasn’t too bad after all.

Shred -Here they go in the shredder!

December 2007!! What a month that was! Little Haven Emporium served health conscious lunches, delicious home made goods, specialty coffees along with gift items. The aroma of great food welcomed customers as they came in the door. Christmas Carols filling the place, special features. Memories that were pushed in the back of my mind like being tucked away in that little storage room. I thought of Celine Dion’s song, ‘It’s all coming back to me now’.

As I filled up the clear bags and took them to the ECO depot, I thought, well, maybe this can save just the bark of one tree and if so a piece of my history will go on living.

Life is like that. There comes a time for all of us when we need to go into the backroom filing cabinets of our lives and do some shredding. Some of the work can be boring and painful but through the mess will come memories that can give us new perspective for the future.

The past is always a mixture of the good and the bad. The dark and the light. Forgetting the things that are behind ….

There are stiil goals to reach, visions to fulfill. Mountains to climb and deserts to explore and a filing cabinet that will be filled with new memories.