Tag Archives: hope

Have a Heart

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2 Corinthians 6-7

I think Christians make a couple of mistakes when sharing the Gospel. Sometimes we might be so fervent, so black and white, that we come across as insensitive. Other times we might try to be so sensitive that we sugar-coat the Gospel until it’s unrecognizable.

Paul knew he could be harsh. In his defense, he didn’t have time to tiptoe around the issues. He was like the captain of a sinking ship, barking out orders to get the passengers into a lifeboat. Worrying about hurt feelings was the last thing on his mind.

But at the same time, Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that his words, as harsh as they were, came from a place of genuine love. He’d laid his heart wide open, and didn’t want them to miss that fact in spite of the tone of his voice.

I think it would do us good if we could find that balance, too. We can’t dumb down the message of the Gospel so it doesn’t offend. The Gospel IS offensive! No one likes to hear they are wrong, without hope. But it’s a message everyone needs to hear because of the seriousness of sin in all of us.

And, it’s a message everyone needs to hear because of the Good News of Jesus, His love and grace, His work on the cross on their behalf is their only hope, their only salvation.

Let’s learn to be firm yet gentle, like Paul as a parent with dearly loved children. Having a heart means caring enough to tell the truth in love. The message is too important for us not to have a heart.

When Hope Dies

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1 Samuel 15-17

Samuel must have had so much hope that Saul would be a great leader, blessed by God. The young king started out so well. But it wasn’t too long before Samuel began seeing the signs that surely disappointed him:

Saul’s impatience. Saul’s audacity to offer sacrifices. Saul’s lies. Saul’s excuses for disobedience.

Oh, Saul often said the right things, and I believe Saul probably meant what he was saying at the time. But Saul’s commitment to God didn’t go very deep. In the end, Saul became his own god, and Samuel had to wash his hands of Saul. God was moving on, and Samuel had to choose whether to follow God or stay with Saul. Samuel chose God.

But Scripture tells us Samuel mourned his loss. Saul had become a friend, perhaps like a son to Samuel. Samuel was a fan, rooting for the success of the king. But whatever hope Samuel had placed in Saul died.

And it hurt.

What do you do when hope dies? How do you handle the hurt and disappointment, perhaps betrayal? Even though Samuel had placed his hope in Saul, the ultimate hope Samuel had was in God.

People fail us. Circumstances change. We aren’t even beyond disappointing ourselves. But God never fails. His plans are always best.

And if we have our hope in Him, we have our hope in the One who will never let us down. When hope dies, we grab tighter to His hand and realize hope hasn’t really died at all.

Hold On

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Job 26-31

As Job speaks his last defense to his friends, I can almost feel his pain. He’s at rock bottom, trying to make sense of it all.

He went over and over his life, the choices he’d made to see where he might have gone wrong. He remembers being successful and respected, honored by young and old alike. He remembers opening this home to strangers, feeding the hungry, caring for the needy. He remembers praying to and trusting in God. He remembers choosing right over wrong to the point he wouldn’t even look at another women so he wouldn’t sin against his wife.

He stood by his righteousness. And he was disappointed that God seemed to have turned his back on him. And yet…

Even in the midst of his pain, confusion, and sorrow Job couldn’t let go of hope. By now it was just a thread, but it prevented him from turning his back on God. Job may have felt he was speaking to the back of God’s head, but Job couldn’t let go of the hope that something bigger and greater was going on. He still had trust in God. He just couldn’t let go. Yes, even though he was hanging on by a thread.

When everything around me is falling apart, when I feel the rocky bottom getting closer, when it seems easier to curse God and die, may I hold on to hope. The truth is, God is faithful. There is something bigger and greater going on that only God knows. And God can be trusted.

Job will find all that to be true. And I have done the same.

A Mystery No More

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Colossians 1

Christ in me, the hope of glory! That was a mystery unsolved for thousands of years. How would God send a Savior? Who would it be? How would people know for sure? And how would He save the world?

That mystery began to unravel when Jesus was born. A virgin mother? A nursery in a barn? A manger instead of a crib? A carpenter? Unschooled? A preacher not a soldier? A spiritual kingdom consisting of repentant hearts and not an overthrow of Roman rule?

The clues continued to mount up… and then Jesus died. Not exactly the conquering hero everyone expected.

Jesus died. But He didn’t stay dead. He lives. And He is every bit the conquering hero God expected.

I might not be able to explain to your satisfaction how Christ lives in me, how He defeated Satan in my life and continues to defeat that snake as I grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus. It may still be a mystery to you – but it’s a sure fact for me.

Christ IS in me. And my future, if it’s anything like the awesome privilege of having Jesus in my life today, promises to be glorious! Paul called it the hope of glory. Not an “I think so, or I imagine so” kind of hope. This hope is assured, cemented, true and is promised by the One who said:

And if I go prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:3)

Christ in me, the hope of glory! It’s a mystery no more.

The Hope Of All The World

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Matthew 12:15-21

Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah to the men who were plotting to kill Him. They were angry because He had healed a man on the Sabbath.

He healed a man.

But it was the Sabbath, a day they had put so many restrictions on, believing they were following God’s Law and then some. And the law was much more important than the healed man. Their idea of the law blinded them from really seeing the miracle.

It’s ironic that they were so concerned about following God’s Law when they were looking at the Author. Jesus wanted them to know that. He wanted them to know He was their long-awaited Messiah.

“I am the beloved Son of God. His Spirit is in me. I haven’t come shouting or fighting or crushing the weak. I bring justice to the nations.”

The fact is, they wanted Him dead because He healed a man on the Sabbath. They didn’t just want Him punished, excommunicated, or simply stopped from continuing His ministry. They wanted Him dead. And Jesus wanted them to recognize who it was they wanted to kill.

I say all of that to point you to verse 21.

And his name will be the hope of all the world.

Our world seems so intent on looking everywhere except to Jesus for hope. Yet here He is!

Some reject Him because He doesn’t fit into their idea of what they think He should look like. Some reject Him because they don’t like His message. Many look to the government, or religion, autonomy, even good deeds to find their hope.

If our civilization has any hope it won’t be because we tolerate differences or are accepting of every thought or belief out there. It won’t be because everyone’s bank accounts have exactly the same balance as everyone else’s. It won’t be because we have a preconceived notion of how things ought to be, like the Pharisees had in Jesus’ day.

Isaiah knew, and Jesus reinforced the truth that Jesus is our only hope.

Jesus is the hope of all the world.

(Matthew 19) The Impossible

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Do you believe all things are possible with God? I do, because Jesus said so. But what are the “all things?”

Does this half-verse mean I can do anything I set my mind to because God can do the impossible? If I’m determined to get that promotion at work, or buy that vacation home at the price I can afford, or get my magic number of followers on SnapChat so I can become an influencer, am I to believe I can succeed because God can do the impossible?

Don’t base your view of God on seven words of a partial verse in the Bible.

What God wants us to know in this portion of His Word is that He can save anybody. He wants to assure us that no one has done so much evil, or is so prideful, or has too hard a heart, that He can’t forgive them when they repent of their sin.

These verses should inspire us to pray for the salvation of our loved ones living so far from the Truth we’re tempted to think they have no hope. God wants us to know they HAVE hope!

Keep praying. Keep being obedient. God might use you to do the impossible in that person’s heart and life.

I beg you, don’t use this verse as a magic wand, believing God has promised to make your dreams come true. He’s not that shallow.

(Jeremiah 29) No Hope

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29:11 is a precious verse. I’ve even used it to encourage friends going through hard times, for High School and College graduates, and in cards celebrating a birth of a child. But I realize today I may have been wrong to do so.

Verses 12-13 got my attention:

You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

The promise in verse 11 isn’t for just anyone. It is reserved for people who go to God in prayer, people who seek God, who search for Him with all their hearts.

God doesn’t promise a future and a hope for people who reject Him. God’s plan for people who don’t accept Him is disaster.

I am convicted today. Let’s not give people false hope. Because there is no hope for people who aren’t right with God through Jesus.

No hope.

(Genesis 3-5) Because I Love You

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I never considered God’s judgment on Adam and Eve an act of love before. Had He allowed them to continue to live in the Garden, and had they eaten from the Tree of Life, they would have been forced to live forever in their sin, struggling in this sinful world century after century, millennium after millennium. They would have had no hope of heaven, because they would not have died.

Yes, they were doomed to a difficult existence during life on earth. They were to experience sickness, loss, heartache, enemies, and death. Sin does that to a person.

But God, even as He sent them away, promised the Savior. God did not leave them without hope.

The writer of Hebrews, and Psalm 3:12 tell us:

the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

God always punishes sin because He loves us. He wants us to turn from sin so that we can enjoy a relationship with Him in this life, and forever. We can’t do that if we hold on to sin. He is holy. Holiness and sin do not exist together. God wants us to exist together.

God didn’t wash His hands of Adam and Eve when they sinned. When He threw them out of the Garden, He didn’t turn off the sun, or destroy creation to teach them a lesson They still enjoyed sunsets, smelled the flowers, tasted the food. God didn’t stop blessing them. I’m sure they laughed again, were excited about the births of their children, enjoyed a romantic get-away to the mountains occasionally. (Well, I’m not sure of that last one, really. I’m a bit of a romantic.)

I think they even enjoyed a relationship with God eventually, although much different than the one they knew before sin separated them. God still was involved in their lives as seen in His conversation with Cain, giving Cain a chance to repent. (4:6-7)

I’ve gone through times of discipline because of sin in my life. Our world experiences the judgment of God because of sin. And often our natural response is to ask, “Why?”

“Why is life so hard?” “What did I do to deserve this illness, or this loss, or this hardship?”

“WHY ME?”

And I hear God answer:

Because I love you.

He Will Not Win (The Revelation of John)

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God allowed John to see the big picture. He showed him the Church, our role in the world, our blessings for obedience, and God’s judgment for disobedience. John saw God’s enemy at work, and the fact Satan only has power given him by God.

I think we miss the point of John’s revelation when we try to fit it into a material box, or try to place events on a timeline. John’s vision is both an encouragement for us, and a warning we need to heed.

The fact is, there is a war going on, and all of us must choose a side. The enemy is clever. He uses both force and subtleties, to bring people to his side. He is cunning, and a pretty good imitator of God.

But he is not God.

And while Satan tries to cloud the Truth that is Jesus, while he tries to put up a smoke screen against the Gospel, he cannot and will not change the Truth. God will be reckoned with. And only we who are on God’s side will escape God’s wrath.

Oh, Satan has and will continue to enjoy certain victories along the way. God’s Church will be beat up, persecuted, and ignored.

But take heart, dear one. Satan will not win this war!

Twilight (Isaiah 21)

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The world was out of control in Isaiah’s day. Nations rose to power only to be overthrown by nations that had previously been defeated by them. People worshiped idols, then they worshiped God, then they returned to idols, and sometimes tried to worship everything at the same time. Isaiah knew, because God had revealed it to him, that the world was on a downward spiral plunging toward destruction.

The prophet longed for peace. We who have lived on this earth for more decades than we sometimes care to admit, can relate. We worked our whole lives. We raised children through lean years, rebellious years, through the laughter and tears. We helped with homework, drove to games, sat through recitals, planned birthday parties, cooked and cleaned and bandaged boo-boos.

We served in our churches joyfully and tirelessly, teaching Sunday School, working in the nursery, serving on committees, visiting the sick, caring for widows. We sacrificed ourselves for the good of others. And we were glad to do it!

But now we are tired. We long for the peace and comfort of twilight, that time of day when things slow down, when the sun sinks in the west amid the purples and pinks and oranges of sunset, when the birds sing their final song of the day, and life slows down. But for some of us, like Isaiah, that twilight has become a horror. (verse 4)

I could sit here and list the many horrific things many of us are facing in the twilight of our years. We all know what’s going on. But I want to point you to the watchman in verses 11-12. The news isn’t all bad, or all good.

Yes, there are times of trouble. But there are also times of blessing. There is night. And there is day. Satan would love nothing more than to have us sit and fret about our current conditions, to worry about the “what ifs,” to be angry if people don’t see things the way we do. Our enemy wants us to live in turmoil.

God wants better for us. Let’s, like the watchman, be on the lookout. Morning is coming, but also the night. God is still in the business of blessing His obedient children. He is still the powerful, loving, just God who hasn’t forgotten us.

Keep your eyes on the sky, your heart in tune with your Creator.  There is joy today. There is peace today. There is hope today. Yes, there are challenges and heartaches and sickness and injustice. But never forget that time marches on. What we face today will be ancient history tomorrow. Morning is coming, but also the night.

I love twilight. Most of the pictures I choose to put as my heading on this blog are of sunsets. The one I’m using currently was taken a few weeks ago when my family and I went on a sunset dolphin cruise. After a hectic day of chasing the kids around, of going to the beach, of putting out little fires when someone had the iPad too long, this boat ride was a time to unwind and take in God’s amazing creation. It was peaceful and absolutely beautiful. A perfect end to a wonderfully chaotic day.

There is every reason to praise God today and every day. Watch for it!