Hope!

Hope. We all need it. While we can’t lose faith, it is far too often that we find ourselves having lost our hope. Though Paul wrote famously in 1 Corinthians 13, “These three remain: faith, hope and love…” sometimes we feel that hope is nowhere to be found.

Maybe that’s your status today. Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker wrote, “Since my early years as a physician, I learned that taking away hope is, to most… a death sentence.” Hope is not wishful thinking, like “I hope the Jaguars have a winning season.” It is not blind optimism. It is not “wishing on a star.”

Hope has a grounding in reality. It is a realistic expectation. God is known as “the God of hope.” (Romans 15:13). He is the Source of our hope. He is the REASON for our hope.
One person defined hope as “the inextinguishable flicker God ignites in our soul to keep us believing in the prevailing power of His light even when we are surrounded by utter darkness.” In a dark world, we need His hope to find our way.

Starting this Sunday, we are beginning a sermon series titled, “The Power of Resounding Hope.” This will be a study in 1 Thessalonians, as we see Paul breathing God’s hope into a newly-formed gathering of believers in 1st century Greece. The hope he speaks about, I believe, will speak to us in the 21st century too!

Join us as we talk about such topics as hope beyond the grave… hope in spite of the darkness of our culture… living in hope until Christ returns. If your hope needs a transfusion, us each Sunday through September as we find our hope resounding in Christ Jesus!