Good
Morning All,
Romans
5:5; “and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
I
always like to watch a movie where our heroes face a situation that seems
hopeless. Most westerns have a time when
our heroes are short of water and there is no water in sight. Most war movies have a time when the heroes
are running out of bullets. Most ocean
or water movies have a time when the boat or raft is about to sink. Most romantic movies have a time when the
heroes think they will never see each other again. We watch movies where it looks hopeless but
in the end everything works out. I think
most of us do this because we wish real life was like the movies; everything
turns out the way we want it to.
Yet the real world doesn’t always go that
way. The good guy doesn’t always get the
girl, the cavalry doesn’t always appear in the nick of time, sometimes the boat
sinks. That is the real world; we know
this because at one point in time we have all experienced this. We have had loved ones die, relationships
break, jobs lost, health broken. In the
movies, the good guys would not die, the relationships are amazingly restored,
jobs saved and health returns. But only
in the movies.
This
is what happens in a broken and sinful creation. Sin introduced chaos to an orderly system and
death was the result. So the devil keeps
telling us that there is no hope. Most
of the world agrees with him. Most of
the false religions of the world offer little in the way of hope. They tend to have a fatalistic and fearful
tale to tell. Yet we don’t.
God gives us hope. God pours his love on us through the Holy
Spirit because of his love for us. God
poured out his heart for us by having Jesus die for our sins and then raise
again as a sign of the acceptance of that death but also to give us hope. For as Christ rose from the dead so will
we. We have been given the complete
victory over death and the devil. They
will never completely win. We will rise
again and we will live with a perfected, transformed body that is perfect. We have the victory; God guarantees it.
What a wonderful promise this is!! All those people whom we have loved and
looked so ravaged by disease and death will be perfect and we will live with
them in God’s perfect garden. All things
perfect. God’s mercy gives us this
hope. So as we wait, we do so with the
confidence of God’s grace to sustain us, sustaining us until that time comes
when Jesus returns and completes his total destruction and ends death’s reign
forever. That is our hope; death will
not win. All believers will live in
eternal glory with Jesus in his wondrous kingdom with the perfected and
transformed body which will never experience pain or sorrow, death or disease. We are victors; we have hope.
Father,
through your wonderful mercy you sent Jesus to give us hope. You have given to us the victory that Jesus
earned for us. We ask that you would
strengthen all those who feel as though they have no hope. Keep us mindful of your mercy. Keep us aware of your undeserved yet undying
love. Guard and protect us. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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