Uncategorized

Hope of Heaven

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. Psalm 73:25

Hoping for heaven has sometimes been given a bad rap by the church. Some of this has been a push back on old hymns and past sermons that focused exclusively on heavenly bliss and ignored the importance of our time on earth.  But neither our greatest victories, our worst failures, our highest dreams nor our worst sufferings can compare with what lies ahead for us in heaven.

KIMG0401

When our boys were young they made for themselves wooden plaques with their names carved in them to hang over the doors to their rooms. It was their way of staking out their own personal territory.  In the same way God has staked out a territory in heaven for each of us who have put our hope in Jesus Christ. He has engraved our name over the door of our home there. There is nothing wrong with that great joyful longing to be together forever with Jesus in the place He has prepared for us.  We can say with David, “Who do I have either in heaven or earth but you Lord?”  This hope of heaven strengthens our hearts in life’s storms and lightens our load so we can carry the burdens of others. This hope shines through any dark night and lights our path all the way to our home!

From Hope to Praise

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Psalm 43:5

Have you ever been so down that you just couldn’t even sing even in church? You don’t need to feel alone because even King David the writer of the song book of the Bible, came to that place; and said so not once, not twice but three different times. David had bravely faced had Goliath and defeated him, but when he found himself hunted by his father-in-law and some of the same soldiers with whom he had fought beside in battle he became discouraged. Then his wife was taken from him and given to another man and he was separated from his best friend Jonathan and was forced to hide in the countryside. That was when he reminded himself that he would again praise God because all his hope came from Him. Yes, there are times when we as believers struggle to praise God. But God’s word gives us hope so that at those exact moments we can say, “Hold on! This is not the end! There is still hope! I will praise Him again!

Hope for the Soul

High Hopes

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

Sailboat

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

In both his letter to the Ephesians and here Paul talks about salvation being like a helmet. That is interesting because a helmet is the piece of God’s armor that protects our mind and here Paul adds that it is tied together with the hope that salvation brings.

Certainly no 1st century Roman  soldier went rushing to the front lines without his helmet. In that same way none of us should go out even for a single day without first putting over our thoughts, motivations and plans the hope that God gives. There is no need so urgent, no demand so important and no emergency so grave that we cannot pause to remind ourselves that our hope of success lies 100% on the shoulders of God.

Interestingly the Greek includes the idea of trusting expectation with most Latin based languages using the words hope and wait interchangeably. As believers in the Lord Jesus we not only simply wish for better things but we wait with trusting expectation to see God bring about His will in our lives. He is our hope of salvation. He is our living Savior and as we trust in Him, He fills us with the High Hope of His salvation!