Daily Bread

Wallpaper Removal and A New Creation

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Recently my wife and I tackled a small project in our bathroom. The wallpaper having been around since the Reagan presidency had earned a well deserved retirement. My past experiences with wallpaper involved buckets of vinegar and water followed by hours of frustration and scraping. In this modern age I was advised of new and better things.

Reality set in after carefully following all directions to perforate the paper spray and wait 5 minutes. Hmmm well other than smelling differently than vinegar and costing 10 times as much the results were about the same. One hour in with 10% of our tiny bathroom finished I called Home Depot asking if they didn’t have anything stronger. A steamer is what you need for old wallpaper I was told. I wasn’t sure why anyone would remove new wall paper but I shelled out another $50 figuring this would do the trick. Weeeeeell not so much! Another 7 hours of steaming and scraping brought us to the brilliant conclusion that we should have just ripped out the wall and put in new sheet rock!

That’s exactly what Jesus has in mind for our life in Christ. No amount of steaming and scraping of our outsides has any impact on our hearts. Only on the cross as Jesus spilled His blood could an entirely new life be given us. God decided to completely remove all our past by the death of His Son so He could begin again with a brand new creation!

Our Future Hope

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This month I made a new friend. His name is Marcos and he is a resident at a local nursing home.  His room-mate can’t remember any family coming to visit and the aide who helps bring people in to our church service asked if I would have time to stop in. People like my  friend Marcos are everywhere. What hope do we have to offer them?

“How sweet to hold a newborn baby – And feel the pride and joy he gives”

Go the lines from the Gaither song “Because He Lives” The sweetness of holding a baby is nowhere seen more powerfully than in a nursing home. Sadly there are few people willing to bring their babies in so the staff provides lifelike dolls for the residents to cradle. They gently rock their baby and their faces light up with smiles. It is almost as if God has built into us a response of hope for the future every time we see a tiny baby.

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Whether sitting in a nursing facility or standing in a cap and gown waiting to graduate from high school our future hope is always in the love of God. His plans for us are to give us hope. His plans for our future are always for our good. We can trust Him till our final breathe here on earth, knowing that in a moment we will be breathing in our first breathe of heaven!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.     Jeremiah 29:11

 

Hope of Victory

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But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ                       1 Corinthians 15:57 ESV

Sometimes when we are facing a crisis the whisper comes in the dark of night that there is no longer any hope. We feel like a rowboat caught in the tidal wave of serious illness, family turmoil or the death of a loved one. That is exactly the situation which the disciples faced as they accompanied Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had asked them to pray with him for one hour but the Bible tells us that

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And when He rose from prayer He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. Luke 22:45

They were overcome by sorrow, but not their master. Jesus had prayed till His sweat fell like drops of blood. Jesus had continued interceding even when they felt defeated. In the same way He is interceding in heaven for you and I today. Neither our sorrow nor our despair will cause Him to abandon us. He will come and awaken us. He will carry our burdens. He chose in that dark garden to pay the full price for our sin to give us hope. It is that hope which lies behind the cry:

O Grave where is your victory? Death where is your sting? 1 Corinthians 15:55