Living Hope
Sorry for the less then frequent blogging post lately. As you will see in other posts life has been a whirlwind.. between taking care of Dad and mom in the aftermath of Dad’s cancer (which might I had has been an incredible joy), to my roommate and best friend getting married in 2 weeks, to getting back to seeing clients, to working on the weekends at a cute gift shop an hour from my house.. blogging gone to the bottom of the list. Thanks for sticking with me. I wanted to share with you what I shared with my Bible study the other day about Living hope and the Christmas story.
The advent story starts literally pregnant with HOPE! The Messiah
The one the Jewish people had been wiating for was coming.
There had been a long period of silence between Malachi and Matthew
but think about what God was doing behind the scenes.
Imagine what was going through the heart of God– He knew the joy, the GIFT that was coming. He knew it would not come in the way expected,
But He knew what was coming
LIVING HOPE.
Hope because God was a promise keeper from generation to generation.
Matthew chapte r1 reminds us that, tracing the generation to generation promise.
Living hope :
Did not come in the way expected
Did not come in the package expected,
Did not come in the place expected
But living hope came!
Hope was the wisemen going on a long journey to worship Jesus
The king of the Ews.
They had heard so hope carried them to the Living hope.
No matter how long our journey looks, Living hope can carry us to lay our gifts before the King.
Mark opens with the story of John the Baptist declaring the HOPE that was coming, that he was preparing the way for.
Luke opens with the sotry of the HOPE of a childless couple bearing a child. Gabriel, who stood in the presence of God himself came to tell that a child long hoped for was going to be born
to prepare the way for LIVING HOPE.
Living hope that did not come in the plan expected
did not come in the package expected
did not come in place expected
BUT IT CAME!
Hope is a simple young girl finding favor with God, called by God to birth LIVING HOPE.
I wonder how Mary had hoped her life would count?
Hope is Luke 1:37 nothing is impossible with God.
Hope was the angels proclaiming the shepherds that the shepherd of God’s flock has been born.
I imagine God chose the shepherds
simple men who took care of simple sheep
to be among the first to know
That God had become man to take care of his sheep.
Glory to God in the highest
John opens with reminding us that the living hope was not just present, but it was the beginning and the beginning became flesh
the living word
The living HOPE!
John later is the one to proclaim the hope found in the middle of the judgement of revelation.
The living hope came as promised.
Hope entered alive and well
in the form of a squirmy, squealy baby
in a dirty stable
to a simple man and woman
worshipped by simple shephards
Living Hope Came and is coming again.
We are living the unwritten chapters between Jude and Revelation. But because He came and promises to come again
Faithful and true
To bind Satan
Create a new heaven and earth
calling us to the New Jerusalem
Making all things new
The Living hope is the end and the beginning.
He knows every detail of the story
Alpha and Omega
Beginning and End
The living Hope knows every detail of THE story
The Living hope knows every detail of Your story
and how that fits into His story
which is THE STORY
We worry so much about the details of our stories
living in fear and dread
worrying and fretting
The Living hope, the Messiah came
He wrote our redemption into HIS story
The living hope came so that we can
Live IN HOPE
How will you live in hope? Please share with me! In the midst of what has been the most difficult year of my life
I am chosing to live in hope..
how are you?
how can I pray for you?
linking with gals at
http://www.aholyexprience.com/
Living Hope.What a most beautiful thought…and something I had not realized….He was and is our living hope.Stopping by from Jen's!
You wrote that hope did not come in the package expected, and I just wrote a post on truth not arriving the package expected! I enjoyed looking through your blog. Blessings!
I love this! How do I live in hope? I think I can do it more easily now by taking life moment by moment. In doing this, I become more free of expectations, for as you say, hope often comes in unexpected ways.
I am like Jen, I'm learning to live free of expectations too. My hope is in the living Hope, Jesus Christ. I can't imagine living any other way!Visiting from Jen's place. SO glad I came by and met you:)
Hope is simply trusting in Jesus. Hope filled scriptures are abundant in the Bile and are from God to us, His children. In them is hope, comfort, FREEDOM and HEALING. As I read hope filled scriptures, I try to allow them to encourage, guide, and transform my life.God delights in those who place their hope in Him, and in Him we find hope that does not disappoint. Wishing and hoping in people and events is not real hope. Hope in God is not based upon circumstances, but absolute faith in Him and His promises. This is something I've been dealing with these past few weeks-relying on people for happiness, guidance, hope, etc… When everything and everybody came crashing down on me very recently I had no other place to turn but God for the hope I needed-even though I should have done that in the first place 🙁 I'm glad His hope is not conditional and He will never disappoint me-hallelujah! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I was reading another blog and wanted to add to my above post from yesterday…The real hope of the world is the little baby born in Bethlehem, growing up to sacrifice Himself for our redemption. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Praise His holy name!Keep up the good blog posts Jenn :)Love you much,Your #1 fan and sister in Christ