Posts Tagged ‘faith’

The Identity of Hope

Friday, April 25th, 2008

“Driven and courageous” describes a Christian living in hope:

So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. Hebrews 6:18 (NLT)

Courageous Hope

“Great confidence” is knowing that I stand right here, held by the “unchangeable” oath of God, knowing “it is impossible for God to lie!” With “great confidence” Martin Luther stood alone against the Holy Roman Empire and stood before a throng of menacing Cardinals at Worms to declare, “Here I stand. I will not recant, so help me, God.” His hope was tied to God’s character, not the powerful armies of the Holy See.

Luther at the Diet of Worms

With “great confidence” we too can stand face-to-face with whoever may persecute us for sharing the love of Christ. This includes old relationships with long histories of defeat and intimidation:

For He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NASB)

This courage is the outcome of biblical faith, and the proof of faith, as I wrote earlier. Cowardly Christians are still babes floundering with the elementary issues of faith and have not yet settled the issue of who to trust. (more…)

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The Bridge of Hope

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

So I’ve been rewriting and reworking our neoxenos.org Web, and what an education it was! There’s tons of ministries underway, and lots of activity, yet all goes quite smoothly compared to anything I’ve seen before up here. Every ministry group is not only growing in size, but the maturity of people and the number of real workers and leaders just keeps increasing. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that with all the bumps and bruises along the way, but I’ll take those pains any day compared to the major surgeries and critical injuries I’ve seen in the past.

HOPE!

It’s a picture of the biblical concept of hope in-motion, which I taught at CT last week. Most people’s hope is merely wishful thinking, but biblical hope is rooted firmly in history. To watch God answer prayers, change lives, uproot past failures and plant new seeds of growth all create a hope with certainty. Additionally, our hope is rooted in God’s historical work with humanity as evidenced in the resurrection, prophecy and the profound nature of the Scarlet Thread woven throughout His Word from beginning to end.

Hope is what I see working in people’s lives around me, and it’s infectious. We get our motivation and courage from hope, and hopeful people keep pressing forward no matter what. This what God says:

This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us… Hebrews 6:19-20 (NLT)

But there’s also many Christians living on low levels of hope. Why is that?

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Posted in worthy Purpose | 16 Comments »