“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
This text comes at the end of the saga of Joseph and his eleven brothers who sold him into slavery. This is years later, when Joseph had the time to look back on everything that had transpired since his brothers had betrayed him. He tells his brothers that he knows that they really wanted to get rid of him, not caring whether he lived or died, but that God had a greater purpose for all that transpired in that event. In other words, Joseph came to realize that after all is said and done, God was in control of that situation, for He knew what would take place with His people Israel, and He took the evil that they intended and turned it into good for His people. This has not changed, for God is still in control of all of the things that take place in our lives. It might not seem so at first, but as things work out, we can look back and see the handiwork of God in our lives. Recognizing God’s control in our lives is all-important. We need to see that it does matter who is in control of our lives. The sinking of a ferry in South Korea that is in the news as I write this is a case in point. The captain of the ferry turned the control of the ferry over to a novice who had never taken the ferry through those treacherous waters, and the result was the needless loss of many young lives. This is what happens in our lives when we cease to recognize God’s control in our lives. Many lives are “shipwrecked” today because they took control of their own lives, or turned their lives over to someone besides the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s control in our lives is important because God alone knows what the end of the matter will be. We might have something that takes place in our lives that shakes us to the core. For example, it might be a serious illness that sidetracks us for awhile. During that time we can feel useless, or we can use the time of suffering to draw closer to the Lord. We just need to trust the Lord day by day that He knows what is going on and what the result of our illness will be. I would never accuse God of making us ill, but I do know that He uses those times to grow us and to lead us to His successful conclusion of the matter. It might be a setback in your plans for your life. It might be that you lost your job and did not know which way to turn. That would not be pleasant, but if you will seek God’s control, you might find that God had something else that He wanted you to do. God’s control is important because He knows what we really need in our lives instead of what we think we need. Many people have decided when they were young to follow some career that would bring them riches and maybe even fame. But God had other plans, and began to steer us in the direction that He knew we need to go. We might have been well-meaning in our plans, but God meant better for us. “Better for us” is always what God wants of us instead of what we want for ourselves. If you have been disappointed in your life at this point in your life, consider whether or not you have surrendered to God’s control, or to your own control. We like to think that we are “masters of our own fate,” but we make poor masters for ourselves. Surrender all that you are and have to God’s control and see what can happen in your life. Like it was with Joseph, you might meet many pitfalls along the way but in the final analysis, your life will be better and you will be better off under His control. It could be that the Lord has you reading this article now, because you need to turn control of your life over to Him. Go quickly to prayer and start to seek God’s guidance and see what a difference it will make in your life. Bro. Joe
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“The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
The world had become so wicked that God put all living things to death except Noah, his family, and the animals that he took aboard the ark. After the flood, God gave Noah a promise that He would never send a worldwide flood again. The sign of His promise was the rainbow. Even today when we look at a rainbow we can remember the promise that God made concerning a flood that will never drown every living thing. The rainbow gives us a message about the nature of God. It is a message about the sovereignty of God. What do I mean by “sovereignty”? I mean that God is in charge of everything all of the time. There is nothing that God cannot do. There are plenty of things that God will not do, because part of His sovereignty is His holiness. God created everything; He knows everything; He is in charge of everything all of the time. The reason that God could make a promise like the rainbow promise is that, in His sovereign majesty, He knows that if He does not want it to flood it will not flood. There are also plenty of things that God allows to happen in His sovereignty. A good example is God’s dealings with Israel. His promise to them in the Old Testament was that if they would obey Him and live by His will, they would do well. They did not, so they went into Babylonian exile. Of course, there is a lot more to the story, and the story has not ended, but the point is that God allowed Israel to be defeated at that time because they disobeyed Him. We should rejoice in the sovereignty of God. It is comforting to go to bed every night and wake up every morning to a world in which God is in charge. It is a message about the power of God. I want you to think about the flood for a moment. It was not just forty days and night's of rain that flooded the whole earth over the tops of mountains; it was that God unleashed the water under the earth. Here is what the Bible says about it: “On the seventeenth day of the second month – on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:11b-12) Only God has the power to unleash all of the power of nature for such a cataclysmic occurrence as the flood. Human beings are capable of a lot of harm, but even the most powerful human being could not unleash all of the waters of the heavens and the earth at one time. We should rejoice in the power of God, because it is through His power that we are able to be saved and to serve Him. It is a message about the grace of God. If the message stopped with the sovereignty and power of God, and those two things were all that characterize Him, we would need to be really afraid. But the rainbow also tells us about the grace, mercy and love of God. He looked with pity on the world and promised that He would never again send that kind of flood upon the earth. We can trust our sovereign and powerful God, because He is a God of grace. His grace is seen throughout the Bible. This doesn’t mean that everything that God brings about is positive. What it means is that God is working everything to the good of His people. According to Jeremiah in his Lamentations, that it is because of the mercies of God that Israel was not consumed, “because His compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3:22) This was written even while Israel was being taken into Babylonian Captivity. In the final analysis, God will work out everything for all time in His grace. What a great promise and what a great cause for rejoicing. I’m sure that this is not all that the rainbow tells us about God. These are things that are uppermost in my mind about the subject. Bro. Joe “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
1 Corinthians 15 is the greatest chapter on the resurrection, outside of the gospels, in the New Testament. Verse 19 was written in reference to the hope that we have in Christ’s resurrection, and in our resurrection. The New Testament is clear that Christ arose from the grave and that believers will be resurrected. I can’t imagine having any joy in life if what this life offers is all that we have. The New Testament not only teaches that believers will be raised, but that when they die they go immediately to Jesus. The same Paul who wrote this verse also wrote that when we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8) What would be the result if “in this life only we have hope in Christ”? If this life is the only hope that we have, the whole Bible is proved to be wrong. I know that the Old Testament does not put as much stress on life after death as the New Testament, although there is evidence of it in various texts. But the New Testament is rife with the teaching that we will live on after we die. In John 11:26 Jesus said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die…” This is a plain and simple statement from the mouth of Jesus – believers never die. (Unbelievers have after life too, but that is spent in eternal death.) If we believe in the teachings of the Bible, we believe that there is life after this life. If this life is the only hope that we have, we don’t have a great deal to look forward to. Someone once said to me that it would be great to just go to sleep (die) and sleep forever. I love to sleep as much as the next person, but I sure don’t want to spend eternity sleeping. I would hate to think that all of the preaching that I have heard in my life, and all of the preaching that I have done that promises eternal life with Jesus was all for naught. I am looking forward to spending eternity with Jesus, and with all of the believers of all the ages. I know that there is disagreement on this, but I believe that we will know one another in heaven. I don’t know what our eternal relationship will be with each other, but we will know each other. I am looking forward to eternal fellowship with Abraham, David, Peter, Paul, and a host of other great saints of the ages. But as the song says, most of all "I want to See Jesus." If this life is the only hope that we have there is no real joy in this life. The wonderful thing about being a Christian is that when we receive Christ into our lives, we begin eternal life then. In other words, we are living eternally here and now. Jesus brings eternity into our lives. This is one reason that I feel sorry for unbelievers. They would say that their unbelief does not make them miserable, but that is because they do not know the joy of being a believer. Part of the joy that we have in this present life as Christians is that we have fellowship with each other, and can believe that this fellowship will continue into eternity. This thought brings joy to my life here and now, and I hope it is bringing joy to your life here and now. Bro. Joe "And there came a leper to (Jesus), beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, If you will (if you are willing), you can make me clean. 41. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and said unto him, I will (I am willing), be thou clean. 42. And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.”
In this passage the leper came to Jesus to be healed, and he wondered if Jesus would be willing to rid him of his leprosy. Leprosy was, and still is in some places, a terrible thing to have, because one had to isolate himself from the rest of the world. People were deathly afraid of getting leprosy. At any rate, Jesus reached out and touched the leper and he was healed - Jesus was willing. There are some lessons here for us that could help us in our relationship with Jesus. First, Jesus is never reluctant to meet the needs that we bring to Him. Throughout the gospels we see the willingness of Jesus to intervene in people’s lives and make life better for them. You might be thinking that you went to Jesus for healing and you did not get healed. Some would say that it was your lack of faith that caused Jesus to not heal you. You need to understand that Jesus’ willingness to help us is not based on His giving us what we want, but His willingness to give us what we need. I know that I have referred to my bout with cancer a lot, and I am certainly not bragging about it. You must know that when I got the word that I had cancer; I went immediately to Jesus with it and asked Him to heal me. The amazing thing is that He did not heal my body, but in the process of my suffering He healed my soul. During the time that I was fighting with cancer, I grew more spiritually than I ever have in my life. I learned the importance of depending on Him for every breath that I take. I learned that His willingness to heal me was based on what my greatest needs were. The bottom line was that I needed to draw closer to Jesus, and to learn to depend totally upon Him. Second, Jesus is willing to heal whatever needs healing in your life. You might have an attitude problem. You might have a relationship problem. You might have a problem with a bad habit that you can’t seem to break. It could be that you have a physical problem that is weighting you down. There is no end to the possibilities of what you need to bring to Jesus to heal. Just remember this: Jesus is willing to heal you and help you with whatever it is that you need to have healed. Third, it might be that you feel that you are just unworthy to seek the healing power of Jesus. I want you to notice something in this text. Verse 41 tells us: “And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand and touched him, and said unto him, I will be thou clean.” You need to know that when you take your need to Jesus, whether it is physical or otherwise, you find that He has compassion for you. That is to say that He cares about what you are going through and that He loves you. Notice also that Jesus reached out and touched the leper. People just did not do that in that day. As aforementioned, people were deathly afraid of catching leprosy and would not dare touch a leper. But Jesus was not reluctant at all to touch him. I think that one of the reasons that Jesus touched him was that the man had not felt a personal touch for a long time. People would do anything to stay away from him. You might think that what you bring to Jesus iis unforgiveable, and that you need a touch from someone who understands. Whatever your sin, it is not unforgiveable and you can know that Jesus understands and is willing to forgive you, heal your soul, and help you make the changes that you need to make to make your life better. In other words, Jesus will reach out and touch you as He did the leper. Bro. Joe “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There is a lot to write about in this text, but for this article I want to put the focus on the main person in the text – Jesus. The advice is to look to Jesus, and He will enable us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” The NIV translates it: “Fix your eyes on Jesus…” Our spiritual problems multiply when we take our eyes off of Jesus. Simon Peter illustrated this for us when he was walking on water to go to Jesus and put his eyes on the wind and waves and took them off of Jesus. The text tells us why it is so important to look unto, or fix our eyes on Jesus. We should look unto Jesus before anyone or anything else because He is the “author” of our faith. The NIV translates it as He is the “founder” of our faith. Both words mean that the Christian faith came into being because Jesus gave up His heavenly home and came to earth to live a perfect life and die as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. The philosopher would say that Jesus is the “prime mover,” because without Him there would not be a Christian faith. Jesus’ coming into the world was prophesied for hundreds of years before He was born in Bethlehem. The writers of the four gospels make it plain that Jesus came as the fulfillment of hundreds of years of prophecy. He was the long-expected Messiah. Revelation 13:8 puts this great truth in perspective for us: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The Messiah was not an accident of history, but his ministry had been planned from the beginning, or even before the beginning of the world. The coming of Christ into the world was profoundly planned before one star was ever put into place. We should look unto Jesus first because He is the “finisher” of our faith. The NIV translates this as “perfecter” of our faith. Jesus not only began our faith, He finished it as well. Just before Jesus died, He uttered what in the Greek language is one word: “tetelestai.” This word means “it is finished” or we could say that it means that God’s plan of salvation from the foundation of the world was now complete. God’s plan of salvation that will draw Jews and Gentiles into the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus Christ has been perfected. Indeed, it is a perfect plan, because it comes from a perfect, infallible God. We frequently read in John’s gospel where “the hour had not come” for Jesus. The “hour” means that each step of Jesus on this earth was controlled by God’s eternal plan. When the time was right, Jesus finished God’s plan of salvation. This is stated succinctly in Galatians 4:4-5: “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” We should look unto Jesus first because He joyfully surrendered Himself to be crucified for us. Specifically, the author wrote: “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Father.” He joyfully died in order for us to be saved and is now at the “right hand of the Father,” where He “ever lives to make intercession for us.” Wow! What a Savior we have. No wonder, we are to look to Him before we look to anyone else. He is our source of salvation; therefore, He is the source of eternal life in heaven. Let’s look to Jesus and thank HIM for all that He means to us. Amen Bro. Joe “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but His power and wrath is against all them that forsake Him."
Ezra and his traveling companions were going from Persia to Jerusalem. The journey was a dangerous one. Ezra did not ask the king for a military escort, because he had assured the king that God would take care of them. (Read the text above.) Ezra’s boast proved to be true when he and his party arrived safely in Jerusalem. Ezra’s godly boast is still true today, for God’s hand is upon us for good. The hand of God is upon us to lead and guide us. We need the guidance of God throughout life. We will look at some examples of this guidance. God guides us to and on the right paths of life. In Psalm 23:3, David wrote: “He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” The good guidance of God’s hand is the only way that we can stay on the paths of righteousness. God guides us to the right places in life. God’s will is important, but few people consider His will today. We need to be in the place that God’s will would have us. Only God’s hand can guide us to that place. All of us need to ask ourselves, “Am I where God has guided me – where He wants me?" God guides us in making plans for our lives. What we do in our lives depends on the plans that we make in our lives. “To fail to plan is to plan to fail” is certainly true in this place. Surely, a serious Christian will ask: “Am I following God’s plans for my life, or am I going my own way?” Too often people make a mess of their lives because they are not following God’s plan for their lives. I know this looks strange to some people, but that does not make it untrue. What Ezra wrote was true: “The hand of our God is upon all to them that seek Him.” The good hand of God for good is assured to all who seek Him. Understand this: God wants the best for us, i.e., He wants to do good for us. Often He cannot do good for us because we refuse His guiding hand. God never offers His guidance reluctantly. He is eager to do good for you. Let Him! God’s goodness is the rule rather than the exception. Somehow we have the idea that God’s goodness is secondary to His wrath. God’s wrath is certainly real, but only to those who disobey Him. Doesn’t the coming of Jesus illustrate the good hand of God adequately? In Jesus, we see God’s love, mercy, grace, and indeed, His goodness. All of these are the essence of who and what God is all about. 1 John 4:16 reveals that “God is love.” God/Jesus doesn’t just love us; He is love itself. Rejoice in the love and goodness of God and claim it for yourself. We also need to know that it is dangerous to refuse the guidance of the good hand of God. It would certainly have been devastating to Ezra and those who traveled to Jerusalem with him. This is true in the Old and New Testaments. In His goodness, God reaches out His hand to guide us. If we refuse God’s helping hand we tell Him that we do not care that Jesus died for us, or that we do not care that He has offered the Holy Spirit to guide us in life. God’s wrath is reserved for those who say “no” to His guidance and goodness. It just doesn’t make sense to me that people do this all of the time. Some just don’t believe that God exists. Some believe that God exists but He doesn’t care what we do, and is unconcerned about the world that He created. But what amazes me is that there are those who know that the Bible is true and that God wants to be involved in their lives, but they go on with life as though that doesn’t matter. I don’t know which group you are in, but I am praying that if you are in one of these groups and reading this, you will let God take your hand and lead you into salvation and the abundant life that goes with it. God’s goodness and guidance are available to you. He is reaching out His hand to you. Take it! Bro. Joe Verse 67 - “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.”
Verse 71 - “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” According to The American Century Dictionary, “affliction” means to be “distressed mentally or physically.” The psalmist does not tell us what his affliction was, but he did tell us that being afflicted was good for him. It is my opinion (for what it’s worth) that it was a physical affliction. Whatever his affliction was, it made him a better person. How was affliction good for him? He learned the value of God’s discipline. Paul learned this lesson in 2 Corinthians 12 when he wrote about his “thorn in the flesh.” He prayed three times for it to be removed, whatever it was, but was told by Jesus that His grace was sufficient for him. The Bible also tells us that “Whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges every son (or daughter) whom He receives. If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chastens not?” (Hebrews 12 6-7) I don’t know why this is true, but it is. When we undergo affliction, we can react to it like the psalmist, or we can moan, groan and complain. Believe me, from my experience I know that it is easy to moan, groan, and complain, but if we do that we miss out on what God is trying to do in our lives. We have to understand that what God allows in our lives is ultimately for our benefit. Whatever you are going through right now, remember that you can complain or pray. The latter will make you a better person, as it did the psalmist. The psalmist’s affliction drove him back to God’s word. He wrote that “before I was afflicted I went astray.” This means that he had gotten away from God’s word and that his life was not as good or fulfilling. Maybe what you need today is to either return to God’s word, or go to it for the first time. But the psalmist not only read the Lord’s word, he studied it, for he “kept” what he read. He also wrote that his affliction had been good for him because he had learned from God’s statutes. It is just a fact that sometimes we will not “keep” the word or live our lives in obedience to it. I found in my affliction that the word of God spoke to me more plainly than it had spoken before. I want to encourage you to try the psalmists remedy. Also I want to encourage you who are not undergoing affliction that the word of God will make your life better too. What we learn from these two verses is that when we are going through afflictions, whatever their nature, God has not forgotten us; rather He is using them to make our lives better. When people give in to self-pity and complaining, they do not become better, but they become bitter. It would be good for you to bow your head this moment and pray, asking God to do a work in your life through your present distress, and turn to the Bible for it has the “words of life.” Bro. Joe “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house (temple); his hands shall also finish it; and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. 10. For who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”
Many of the Israelites were disappointed because the temple being rebuilt by Zerubbabel was not as large as Solomon’s temple. Zechariah wanted them to know that the size of the new temple was not important. (After all, the God of the temple was as large after the Babylonian Captivity as He was before.)The point is that small things are as important to God as large things. This includes people and churches. Let’s look at the importance of small things. It is true that small things are often of great importance. Evidently, scientists know this, because the microscope was invented to combat small germs that can cause great harm. Naturalists know this, because they know that great oak trees grow from small acorns. Do you remember what Jesus said about the tiny mustard seed? Firemen know this, because they know that large fires often are the result of a tiny spark. In the same way, small churches can do great things for the Lord. Individual Christians might seem inconsequential to the world, but we can accomplish great things for the Lord. After all, we serve a great God who can take small things and use them mightily. Do you remember David and Goliath? Do you remember that Jesus started His church with twelve men who were small in the eyes of the world? Do not consider yourself too small to serve our great God! Did you know that Jesus knew the value of small things? In Matthew 10:29-31, Jesus spoke of the tiny sparrow. If God looks out for small sparrows, surely He cares for us as well. At least Jesus thought so. He said: “You are of more value than many sparrows.” In Mark 12:41-44, Jesus spoke of a widow who put only two mites into the treasury. This appeared to be a small gift, but Jesus didn’t think so. Here is what Jesus said about it: “Verily I say unto you that this poor widow has cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury, for they all cast in out of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. In the fourth chapter of John, Jesus took a little meal of five small loaves of bread and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Small things become large things in the hand of Jesus, and that includes you and me. We need to know the value of small things. You might think that you are only one small, inconsequential person, but the Lord who valued the widow’s mite and five loaves and two fish, values your life, and your input, as well. You might think that your church is only a small church and not able to do great work for the Lord. Remember that the God of your church is as great as the God of the largest church in the world. The Jesus who fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish is the Jesus of your church! You can do great things right where you are, if you will put yourself at His disposal. Do you get the point? As a small temple was not a detriment to God’s work among the Israelites, small people and small churches are not a detriment to His work. Small things are useless only when they are content to do small things!!!!! Bro. Joe “And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord: 19. Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 20. My soul has them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. 21. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. 22. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. 23. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul: therefore will I hope in Him. 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.”
The book of Lamentations, written by Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of the Israelite people in Babylon, is exactly what the title implies – it is a lament about the suffering of God’s people in exile. It is not what one would call a “happy read.” It is filled with doom and gloom. Yet in the midst of this gloom and doom, eight verses rise up as from the ashes and reveal the hope and faith that Jeremiah still had in those dark times. Like everything else in the Bible, it is a word of hope for us as well in the midst of our crises. Verse 19 tells us of Jeremiah’s suffering: “Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.” (Wormwood and gall refer to his bitterness.) Yet even as Jeremiah lamented Israel’s pitiable condition at the time, there arose in his heart and mind the hope that only God, as we know Him in Christ, can give. He wrote: “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” In the midst of his gloom, Jeremiah had a thought, I think from God, that because of God there was still hope. In verse 22, he wrote of the “mercies” and “compassion” of God He recalled that the people of God were defeated, but they were not consumed. After all, Jeremiah himself had written of the hope of post-exilic times that God’s people would rise from the ashes and again rejoice. This is the same Lord that we worship. He is still merciful and compassionate. He has not stopped loving us, though we might be going through dark times. In the midst of whatever gloom we may face, the radiance of God shines forth in our hearts and reminds that we are still loved by our merciful and compassionate God. The Babylonians had the temporary victory, but Jeremiah’s, and our, hope lies in the hands of the eternal God who loves us and is compassionate towards us. These verses are especially relevant today. As I write this there is a worry about the dreaded Covid19 virus. There is the incessant news about "wars and rumors of wars." Besides these things, there are the earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods that have always been bad news for people. But the message of the Bible is that these dreadful things that we face today, and whatever dreadful things will be in the future, are not surprising or unbeatable as far as the eternal God is concerned. We have to remember that we live in a fallen world. We have never been promised a utopia on this side of heaven. We do have, however, the promise that God is aware of all of the things that are happening and that in the midst of it all, He is present with mercy and compassion. Our hope lies, not in the fallen world, but in the eternal God who created it all and oversees it all. It is still true that, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are (still) new every morning: great is (His) faithfulness.” Remember the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Whatever is weighing heavy on your mind today let the reality of the Living Lord lift the weight and give you the freedom to rejoice in His great name. Do it! Bro. Joe “Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.”
The Greek word that is normally translated as hope, and is true of our text, is “elpis” and it means to have a great expectation of something that is certain. We usually use the word “hope” to mean something like, “Gosh, I hope so and so happens, but it might not.” The basis of our hope should be certain – not maybe. In the beginning of his letter to Timothy, Paul wrote of “Christ Jesus” as our “hope.” Jesus is the real eternal basis for our hope. I love the opening words of the old hymn, The Solid Rock: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” I’m not sure what a “sweetest frame” is, but I think it is something, or someone, in this world that we might lean on instead of Jesus. I’m not saying that there is nothing in this world to lean on. What I am saying is that the basis of our hope, and the One to whom we should entrust all of life and all of eternity to is Jesus Christ. This is what Paul meant in 1 Timothy 1:1 and what I mean when I ask you what is the basis of your hope? If your hope is built on anything less than Jesus, you are leaning on a weak hope. There is no other basis of hope that has lived from “everlasting to everlasting,” gave up a home in heaven, died on the cross to save you from sin, arose the third day, ascended to the “right hand of the Father,” is making intercession for you and has promised to return to take you home to heaven. (Wow, that was a long sentence.) Some people put their hope in politics. Be sure that I have my political opinions and I could bore you to death for hours discussing them, but my hope is not in politics. I have lived long enough (from FDR to DT) to know that politics is too tenuous to be a basis of hope. Who is in control in Washington is too tenuous to be a basis for hope. I have seen the political spectrum switch from “pillar to post” in my years on this earth. We Americans are really fickle when it comes to who is to be in control in Washington. We will try one party for eight years and then try another - ad infinitum. You can be deliriously happy that your candidate won, but the years will go by and the delirium will turn to dismay, then the other party will be in control. I just can’t put my hope in politics. I read a lot about politics and there are people on all ends of the spectrum who really and truly put their hope there, but I don’t want to be one of them. I do not want my hope to be on something that the fickleness of human beings can destroy. We will just live our lives, and be happy or grin and bear it, until the next election. Politics cannot take the place of Jesus. Some people put their hope in their bank accounts. That’s why some rich people committed suicide at the beginning of “the Great Depression” in 1929. They just could not take not being rich. Hey, I want my fair share, so to speak, but I can’t put my hope in it. There are any number of things that can serve as the basis of your hope, but if the basis of your hope is not Jesus, you are leaning on something, or someone, that is a poor basis for hope. If Jesus is not your hope, put your faith in Him now, and trust Him here and for all eternity. Do it! Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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