"As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more." (Psalm 71:14 NIV)
If my eyes are always on Jesus, my heart surrendered to Jesus, my lips speaking the Name of Jesus, and my life lived in obedience to Jesus, there is absolute no reason to not, "....always have hope...."
When we lost Stephen, my mind, heart, lips were helpless. "I will praise you more and more," was not going on. Nothing was "going on," just darkness, a spiritual "black hole." As the old song says, "Then Jesus came." The truth is, Jesus never "left." Jesus was with and in me before the tragedy, during the tragedy, and since the tragedy. The "tragedy," as I call it was the loss, the missing, the longing to see and hold him. Yet in and through it all, "I will always have hope," not because of my strength or spirituality, but because Jesus is, "the God of all comfort."
"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' Blood and Righteousness." This hope is not only for the "new birth," but life itself. The Blood and Righteousness of Jesus, yes, is the forgiveness of our sins, "He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities....He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification," and the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus is also for the power to live, to serve, to love. Apart from the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus I am literally nothing. This is not some religious mumbo jumbo. This is the reality of life itself.
What is, in the words of the song, "assailing" you today? What is challenging you in, "....I will always have hope..."? Is hopelessness winning, or is the Hope of Jesus winning? No one can be, "in Christ," and be hopeless. Only me-centered people lose to hopelessness. Join me today in a renewed commitment and confession with the psalmist, "As for me, I will always (with 'continuity, perpetually') have hope; I will praise you more and more."
Father, in Jesus' Name, "As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more." Amen.
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OCTOBER 5-27, BERLIN MISSION. Thanks to all who have helped so far; we're "getting there."
If my eyes are always on Jesus, my heart surrendered to Jesus, my lips speaking the Name of Jesus, and my life lived in obedience to Jesus, there is absolute no reason to not, "....always have hope...."
When we lost Stephen, my mind, heart, lips were helpless. "I will praise you more and more," was not going on. Nothing was "going on," just darkness, a spiritual "black hole." As the old song says, "Then Jesus came." The truth is, Jesus never "left." Jesus was with and in me before the tragedy, during the tragedy, and since the tragedy. The "tragedy," as I call it was the loss, the missing, the longing to see and hold him. Yet in and through it all, "I will always have hope," not because of my strength or spirituality, but because Jesus is, "the God of all comfort."
"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' Blood and Righteousness." This hope is not only for the "new birth," but life itself. The Blood and Righteousness of Jesus, yes, is the forgiveness of our sins, "He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities....He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification," and the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus is also for the power to live, to serve, to love. Apart from the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus I am literally nothing. This is not some religious mumbo jumbo. This is the reality of life itself.
What is, in the words of the song, "assailing" you today? What is challenging you in, "....I will always have hope..."? Is hopelessness winning, or is the Hope of Jesus winning? No one can be, "in Christ," and be hopeless. Only me-centered people lose to hopelessness. Join me today in a renewed commitment and confession with the psalmist, "As for me, I will always (with 'continuity, perpetually') have hope; I will praise you more and more."
Father, in Jesus' Name, "As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more." Amen.
***************************
OCTOBER 5-27, BERLIN MISSION. Thanks to all who have helped so far; we're "getting there."
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
