Eminent Hope

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus  Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

I Peter 1:3-6

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I Peter 1:13

Currently I am past the halfway mark of SBS! I am finding such enjoyment in what the LORD has called me to in SBS. There are days that feel much longer than others. Yesterday for instance, (being conservative with how I calculated my time) I worked for about 14 hours on the book of Kings. Amazing book, amazing opportunity taken to be here, very aware of how human I am as I continue through this Bible Course.

I was thinking about the underlying theme that makes me keep going. It is outside of the obvious; I am a missionary, I am called to be on the field, ministering to people, to love other cultures – but is this really hard to do? To a friend back home who reads an update of mine with wanderlust, it may be the most appealing thing in the world. To myself, in the moments that I lack this one thing, it is difficult.

I am finding out in the midst of my amazing opportunity here, that hope is so key for whatever the Lord brings people into. And not just having hope, but being aware of it and using it.

When I am not accessing the hope I have, its like having the ability to fly, and never using it. I can tell people, ‘I can fly! Seriously, the only person in the world who can fly, its me!’  I could go on about how cool it is that I can fly-I can describe how it is much more convenient than taking the bus, but if I don’t actually fly, what a waste that would be!

Part of the assignment that comes with every book in this course, is not only interpreting the books based upon their purpose, situation and audience, but I have to pull out timeless truths that would apply to people at any point in history. This is a challenge and is actually really fun. The hard part is pulling out timeless truths for humanity in general and not just for believers. It is easy to see how the Bible applies to everyone, but is it realistic to say,

‘Choosing to have hope keeps a person in the right mindset regardless of circumstance’

Or

‘Choosing to have hope keeps a believer in the right mindset regardless of circumstance’

Are people who don’t know Jesus able to have hope? What do they place their hope in? People are called to have hope who don’t know Jesus, but they can’t really use that hope unless their circumstances change, becoming a believer, right?

"Our hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness"…

So the song goes that I have heard throughout my childhood. (Songs like this, when heard, make me thankful for a hymn-singing Dad).

In the midst of what you are doing, wherever you are, whatever you are working towards, is hope carrying you there? The real, true assurance of Jesus coming back one day? Is this the hope that gives fuel to your heart when you are caught up in the things that seemingly lack hope?

The author and finisher of our [hope] has given the ability to fly, are we ready to? Or are we more content with talking about how cool it is, while our feet grow tired?

The Love of Christ - First Quarter of SBS completed!

I just got through my first quarter of SBS and am about to begin my second quarter, starting Monday, and the 24^th! Honestly, it was amazing, REALLY intense, and I have never been more busy in my entire life, nor do I see the possibility of being more busy later down the road, but the evidence of God’s grace keeps me going. Even during the days I feel like I can’t possibly contain any more in my head, and my body is going to quit… He doesn’t let me! Haha.

One thing I have been thinking about, since finishing the book of John, is the love of God. John the Apostle wrote John and referred to himself in the book as “The disciple whom Jesus loved”. Whether John was trying to write with some anonymity or was writing properly in third person, this is the title he chose to give himself.

As we studied John, it was clear that John didn’t do this out of pride. He did this because he was convinced of the love of Jesus. John would have been really young when he walked with Jesus and the disciples, probably in his early teenage years, and most likely penned this letter towards the end of his life. In reading John, it kind of sounds like an old man, reminiscing about the times he had when he walked with Jesus.  At this point, he had outlived all the other disciples. Peter was martyred and also his brother James in Acts, and John was around when all of the others died and wasn’t successfully martyred himself. In Ephesus, he was sentenced to being boiled in oil until he died but miraculously, he wasn’t hurt. As I have been learning about John’s life, it was so evident that his account, his story of Jesus, was so necessary to be written for Christians to read. I believe God kept him alive so that we would learn from him what he deemed important to write after decades of looking back on his time with Jesus. And his title was the greatest thing that has caught my attention. “The disciple whom Jesus loved.”

All of this led up to a thought that I have been working through since reading John. “What would it look like if we were fully convinced that we were completely loved by Jesus?” Of course, many of us know this. It is famously said by Christians to try to express why someone should turn to Jesus, “Jesus loves you.” But, if I may ask, do you fully understand this, and if so, do you fully live like you do? I can’t say that everything I do is out of this conviction.

If I completely got it… Or more practically, if I was more convinced of the love of Jesus than anything else, my life would look radically different than I think it looks now.

I would be completely unhindered in friendships. It wouldn’t matter what people thought of me because I would know the opinion that is of greater importance… I wouldn’t second-guess myself… If I felt that I was being compelled by the Lord to do something, like pray for someone, share the gospel, give a word, I would just do it without hesitation because my hesitation mostly comes from the thought “What if that is not the Lord? What if I mess up?” These questions come from fear, and if I understood love, then fear would be discredited.

Would focusing on gaining this understanding actually give empowerment to live as God calls us to? Meaning, would we be more capable of achieving what he has promised we will do because we trust his perfect love more than our ability to do those things or to fail in doing those things? I don’t know if these questions are just specific to myself, or if they are ambiguous, but I would find it hard to believe that anyone, following the Lord doesn’t have the conversations with God that sound like, “Yes God, I want to do that, but how?”

The love of Jesus is empowering. It is the ridiculous gift of God that makes people step out in crazy things.  It is what John preached again and again when he was given opportunity to preach at the end of his life. If he found it one of the most central points of the gospel, it is important enough for me to try and figure out with whatever it is I do with my life.