8-27-2017

Good Morning All,

                      Hebrews 10:23; “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

     “The situation is hopeless.”  There is probably no more painful message than this.  Whether it is a light situation like a basketball game where the one team is behind by 10 points with 25 seconds to play or a serious situation that involves life and death; this message brings about discomfort and pain.  Sometimes, this message comes late like when the firefighters were climbing the stairs in the World Trade Center after the 9/11terrorist attacks.  When they were told to get out that the situation was hopeless; it was already too late.  A few years ago, we came upon an accident.  We began to perform CPR until the ambulance showed up.  It was apparent that the man was dead but the deputy refused to quit giving CPR.  The situation was hopeless but he refused to accept it.

     There are times when we face events that seem hopeless.  A car accident, where the vehicle sinks into some water and after a few minutes of being submerged; the situation is hopeless and those on shore watch, worry, fear then despair.  When you watch someone who has cancer and they begin to fade away, first losing a lot of weight, then the color of their skin goes ashen, they can’t get around very well and soon they are bedridden; the situation is hopeless.  We usually don’t see situations as hopeless unless death is involved.  If we suffer estrangement from a friend or a loved one, we figure, eventually, we’ll fix it but when that someone dies, the situation is hopeless.  Hope is about life; hopelessness is about the end of life.

    Once sin entered the world so did death and so did hopelessness.  Once the enormity of the cost of their sin began to sink in; Adam and Eve experienced hopelessness.  Their perfect world was no more.  They knew pain, sorrow, suffering and hopelessness.  So God gave them hope, hope for life.  He told them that he would send one to destroy the devil and death.  This One would redeem them and give them life.  It was the same promise that God made to his people throughout the Old Testament.  It was a promise that held out hope.  It held out hope that death and the devil would never be the final victor.  It was a promise that said those who believed and trusted in that promise would live forever.

    That promise was kept on a hill called Calvary.   It was there that Jesus defeated the devil and death.  It was there that the promise was completed and we only have to wait for the final few ticks of the clock to run out and the victory is completely ours.  Death no longer has hold of us; it is but a door for us.  No matter what life throws at us, it can never take away the victory that Christ gives us.  We will always have hope; we will always have life.  This is the promise that God has made and kept to us.  We always have hope.

Father, in you there is life. You give us hope.  Guide us to always rely on your delivered promise.  Teach us to always hope in you.  Be with those who feel they have no hope.  Open the darkness so the light of your truth may enter.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret