Hope

Hope...a simple four letter word that changes lives. Hope is a huge part of what Easter is all about. Hope. It doesn't have to be much...you've heard the saying a glimmer of hope. That isn't much hope but it's enough to change a person's perspective. Check out this verse from Ecclesiastes...Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! (Ecc. 9:4). It's that a great reminder. One of my favorite verses is about hope...but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Is. 40:31). Paul teaches us...Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5) And the writer of Hebrews emphasizes... Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. (Heb. 10:23) Because the One whom we hope in is faithful. Peter had this hope as well...Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. (1 Peter 1:3-4a)  For Peter as well as Paul and others, their hope was a living hope because of Jesus' resurrection. I want you to realize that hope is secure. Hope is grounded. Hope is more than wishful thinking. Because the hope that we can have in Christ is living. And it's a living hope because Christ is alive just as He had promised. Several times He told His followers that He had to go to Jerusalem to die but that in 3 days He would rise. In my pastor's sermon this morning, he pointed out that the one's who seemed to remember or take seriously Jesus' words were the religious leaders. Although they denied His divinity they knew He was telling the truth. We serve a risen Savior, He is in the world today, I know that He is living whatever men may say...He lives, He lives salvation to impart, You ask me how I know He lives He lives within my heart. That is an unswerving, undeniable, everlasting HOPE!