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There is hope, even for you...
Many in our world live without hope. Struggling to find purpose some do whatever they can to get by from day to day searching for something of lasting value that they can hold on to and depend on. Some turn to drugs looking for the next high anticipating that in their altered state of mind they will not have to deal with the realities of life and for a moment it all will go away. Some look to money and think if somehow they can attain enough wealth that they will obtain a position in life where everything will fall into place, only to find that getting more money only leads to wanting more money or a place of a cruise control lifestyle that leaves them lacking purpose and bored. There are many seemingly hopeful roads that people go down that they find out cannot hold up their end of the bargain. They offer temporary happiness, but nothing of substance.
We can be very misled at times and can think that no one really cares about us, that this life doesn't really matter at all, and that we are to just stick around until our day comes to meet our Maker and hopefully we measure up to whatever standard He'll judge by. The truth of the matter though is that if you do not find hope in this life, then there will be no hope in your eternal one. With that being said there is real hope to be found. I take comfort in the fact that when Jesus walked the face of the earth He didn't just seek out the religious people to make them more religious. You might be reading this and thinking that Jesus is just for those folks who are already going to church, but as I read my Bible I do not see that this was the case at all.
Jesus would teach in the temple, but He would also eat with tax collectors who ripped people off for a living. Jesus was pure in Spirit, but wasn't afraid to touch the lepers. Jesus was a virgin, but Jesus offered hope to the town harlot and the adulteress. Jesus didn't come to make church people better church people, but to offer hope to hopeless people, to bring real life to people spiritually dead. The church in its purest form is a group of people who were hopeless, but found hope. We were lost, but now are found. We were drowning in our sin debt, had no way of paying it off, but then we met the One who came to offer hope. We met the one who saw us in our filth, despair, and our weak attempts to try to find purpose and happiness, and found that He wasn't thrown off by our shortcomings. He didn't look at us and turn up His nose at how bad off we were, but called out to us and offered forgiveness and the rights to become sons and daughters of God.
I write this article today because I want you to know that you are loved. God is not waiting for an opportunity to crush you, but an opportunity to pick you up. Some reading this may be in a bad way, life has beat you up and you don't trust very easily. There is hope. There is One that loves you and gave His life for you. There is One that isn't afraid of your mistakes and bad decisions. He said in the Bible that He didn't come to bring condemnation to the world, but to give life to the world (John 3:17). He wants to bring you new life, a fresh start, a blessed hope. He forgives and forgets, gives you a clean slate, and empowers you to live in a way you couldn't before.
This is the mission of the church, to continue what Christ began. Jesus came and reached out to those that others were afraid to be seen with and to be involved with. I love it that in Acts 3 on their way to the temple to pray Peter and John see the lame man begging for money and instead they see his despair and they offer the truth that there is power in the name of Jesus over this guy's dilemma. In faith they spoke to the man in the name of Jesus and he was healed. Just as Christ reached out, his disciples reached out and the power of Jesus had not diminished simply because He had ascended to heaven. His power has not diminished even today and as the church reaches out into areas that might make some feel uncomfortable offering hope to those that are without, we will see His power manifest. The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation, and is our only hope.
Jesus is still looking for imperfect people to show grace and mercy to and through. We all owed a debt that we could not pay on our own, but Jesus went to the cross and was killed so that we would not have to owe at the end of our lives and could walk with hope in this one. There is hope today, even for you. I know because there was hope even for me. God loves you today and desires you embrace the hope He offers. It cost Him everything to make it available, but God counted the cost and decided you were worth it.
1 John 3:8 says ".......For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." The Son of God is still destroying the works of the enemy in lives as they put their faith in Christ. He is alive and well. Let Him bring victory and hope to you today.
God bless!