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Our Rock, Our Hope

Dear Sister,

Are you enjoying the festivities of this wonderful Christmas season?  Christmas is my favorite time of year and it is my heartfelt expectation that you would be joyful as we celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Redeemer, Savior, King and our only HOPE.

Amazingly enough, the sound of HOPE permeates the air through the ringing of Salvation Army volunteers, children’s lists for Santa Claus, and the resolutions for the New Year.  There is hope for the store retailers that their shelves will be emptied by December 24, and that there will be no returned items on December 26.  There is hope for a father to keep his job.  There is hope for a family to be reunited with their loved one serving in the military.

Every moment in our life there is hope—that the car will last another month, or that the bills could be paid, or that the marriage will get better, or that the cancer will go away.  We hope for an early spring, for a job promotion, for a winning season, for a good report card.  We have hope…that longing, sometimes, aching of the heart, which appears as a light at the end of the tunnel, the silver lining of a cloud, the smile that follows a sigh.

Have you felt sometimes that your hope is dwindling dear one?  Perhaps I can encourage you.

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Are you familiar with this hymn? Remember the refrain? “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

This old hymn is eternally relevant and reminds us that we may enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, the loveliness of seasons, the coziness of home and family, the security of a job, and safety in our country—but we must not make these things our hope.   Alongside all these blessings, we might, also, suffer poverty, illness, tragedy, confrontation, heartache—and we must not bear these afflictions with hopelessness.

With the God-given gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are able to enjoy and endure, knowing that our eternal home is not in this world, but in heaven with Him.   Jesus Christ, our solid ROCK, is our hope! “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Colossians 1:27.

Stand on the ROCK with me, my friend, and be encouraged.  There is no one better than Jesus Christ to know all about life in this world.  He created this world, lived in this world and sustains this world.  What glory He receives when a person’s heart is touched by the Holy Spirit and that person trusts in Christ alone for his eternal joy!

Mild he lays his glory by;

Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth,

born to give them second birth.

Hark! The herald angels sing;

“Glory to the newborn King.”

 

Have a Blessed Christmas, full of joy and hope!

Mimi

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The Watermark of Hope

My Dear Sister, I have been challenged day after day this month to not only find the time to sit and write to you, but to speak of this blessed topic in the midst of sorrow. However, even as I write those words the Holy Spirit convicts me deeply of how much more we/I need to be reminded of the glorious Hope that comes from God alone to His people. You see sister, typically this is a “teary” month at best for me. It is a month that brings with it the memories of a nine year old girl waking up one morning and no longer having an earthly father. Memories of my mother’s tears and groans of incompleteness after burying my father and returning home to a seemingly empty home and five children to raise alone. Memories of many episodes of life in our home when struggles occurred and wondering/ wishing “If only…..”. The memories have a way of finding their way forward out of the corners of my heart with the first Christmas song played in the season. As a Christian for thirty years now God has blessed me with His Truth and has given me the power through His Spirit to not only recognize this propensity I have to remember the sorrow, but to run to Him with it and to fall into His loving arms to receive His compassion once again. And when I do that He never fails to whisper into my heart the blessed hope I have through His Son!!! This loving whisper is like that of an artists watermark upon their masterpiece. It never disappears, it is there for the duration of the work of art and it declares ownership of the masterpiece. This is the hope I have in Christ. This is the hope that Peter calls “living” and which Paul calls “sure”, and “steadfast”. This year of 2011, and this particular month has brought more sorrow for me. The loss of a father in law that was a sweet kindhearted man and a sister in Christ at our church. Sometimes it seems the sorrow comes in the form of a flood and hearts grow weary. Dear sister, I am speaking to myself as well when I say that I am looking only unto Jesus today and although my vision is blurred with tears of sadness my sights are set and my faith is sure because God has placed His watermark of blessed hope upon my heart and I trust Him far more than anything/anyone that happens to be walking upon this frail earth. Where does your hope lie my dear sister? If you are still trying to love God and to place your hope in this world too, I encourage you to consider turning from the temptation to believe it is possible to do both. The Lord not only requires our undivided attention to His glory, but He alone is worthy of our undivided attention. His blessed hope is all that will remain when we depart from this earth. The sorrow and sadness of this earth comes and goes but the blessed hope we have in Jesus will not! “Blessed be the God and Father of Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible (imperishable) and un-defiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” I Peter 1:3 Turn your eyes upon Jesus sweet sister look full in His wonderful face, and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.* Blessings upon blessings, Susan * Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, Helen H. Hemmel,1922

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Kayla’s Hope

My dear Sister,

When the psalmist says “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4) and “In Your presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11) I am always confused. Fullness of joy? Really? I’ve never experienced that. And yet the word of God commands us to delight in the Lord and tells us in truth that in God’s presence our joy is complete. Still, I have remained perplexed.

This semester I have been praying that God would become my all in all. With so many distractions from the world and the many desires in my own heart, I have been fearful that I would never truly understand what the psalmist was talking about. To be truthful, for most of the semester I didn’t even want to open my Bible much less figure out this delighting in the Lord thing. Of course, I wanted God to be my all in all but  at the same time it felt like searching for this joy was a hopeless pursuit. I didn’t actually believe that God would reveal himself in such a way that would give me great joy. He does that for other people, not for me. I kept praying (inconsistently for that matter) but I wasn’t always faithful to do my part of getting into the word and praying for Him to work His joy in my life.

The other day I was in the prayer chapel on campus, conveniently located right down the street from my 9:30 class, and I decided to tell God exactly how I was feeling about this. Here is an excerpt of that prayer:

Dear Lord, I don’t fully understand this joy that is fulfilled in Your presence but I do know that You are where I will find it. I do know that You have loved me with an everlasting love, a love that will never change or diminish. I know that You can heal my brokenness and give me a joy that overflows. Lord, I want to know the place where the psalmist could say that fullness of joy is in Your presence. I want to delight myself in you and I want to be in that place where I can truly say that You are my all in all…I pray that as I seek Your face daily I would find unspeakable joy in Your presence. Amen.

With that I had a short quiet time on Romans 5:2 and I went on with the rest of my day. I didn’t really feel any different but I was glad that I had been honest with my Father. When I got home an hour or two later I started doing some things around the house. At some point I found myself wanting to go spend time with God. This caught me a little bit by surprise. When was the last time that I actually wanted to open my Bible and read it? I started praying and found myself crying. However these tears weren’t tears of sadness or loneliness. No, they were tears of joy! Where had this come from? All of a sudden I had this joy in my heart that was so overwhelming that even though I had my Bible in my hand I didn’t want to open it because I just wanted to keep telling God how joyful I was because of what He has done for me.

As you can probably imagine, I didn’t want this mountaintop experience to end. I wanted to feel this intense joy forever more because there in that moment I had found not just joy but hope. I had confidence that Jesus really was enough for me. I had confidence that what I had seen God do in others; He would also do in me. I had been praying for this all semester and here at the end of my last four months of undergrad God gave it to me out of nowhere! It was like God was saying, “Here is all of my joy, Kayla. I’ve been saving it for you for this very time. Now, hope in me.”

This world we live in is a valley, dry, desolate, and wasted. If you look for hope here you will be sorely disappointed. But if you hope in the Lord you will find streams of living water. So seek the Lord and do not grow weary in seeking Him. Persevere and do not give up. There is hope.

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Merry Christmas!

Your sister,

Kayla

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A Hope to Encourage

My Dear Sister,

I have been pondering lately and I wanted to share these thoughts with you in order to encourage you.  There are two ways to view life: with or without hope.  Looking back over time we can see the pain of wars, death, destruction of cities, prostitution, murder, betrayal, lies, homosexuality, death of marriage and the family, government failures, and even stealing the innocence of children.  We see the masses dismiss God through evolution, feminism, existentialism, and the “freedom” of religion.  The support and comfort of the family has turned to the power of individualism.  Hope has been deferred.

Or…has it?

Paul tells us in Romans 15:4 “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

What hope comes through the encouragement of the Scriptures?  Don’t we see a thread of hopelessness through the kings, judges, and even the prophets?  Are not the psalms filled with cries to the Lord to defeat persecuting rulers and painful situations?  Yes.  But you also can see a thread throughout the scriptures screaming of hope.  This hope contrasts the darkness of each pain and cry of our hearts.  This hope is the ANSWER to each pain and cry of our hearts.  This hope is never deferred.  This hope never disappoints.  This hope is never a wish; it is a sure thing.

This thread of hope is the gospel.  The gospel reveals the hopelessness of sin so that the sweetness of the Savior shines sure.  With every pain written in scripture, the hope of a Savior is promised.  With every cry of the heart the hope of our savior is preached. This Savior’s birth is what is celebrated this Christmas.  This Savior humbled himself to come to earth as a man to live a perfect life so that he could die to pay for the hopelessness of our sin.  He rose again so that this hope is SURE forever. Our hope is a forward hope.  A hope that we have eternity with our Savior and Lord in the new Eden where there is no pain or tears.

So sweet sister, how are you viewing your life today? Is your focus on the hopelessness of this world or the hope of our Savior? Be encouraged today of the hope that is yours through Jesus Christ!

Your sister,

Colleen

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Mercy Endures

Dear Sister,

Just a few short months ago, my family, friends and now-beloved husband and I, sat in a small country church and participated, as my brother read Psalm 136 responsively.  We focused then on the translation reading ‘His love endures forever’, but the NKJV captures a different slant that reminds me of God’s unmerited favor to us in so many different situations.  I have been meditating on praising and thanking God in good times and bad, and this passage surely reminds me of that truth.  Can we not call the hard times God’s mercy as well as the times when we coast?  Oh, may we learn to call it all a gracious work of His hand, mercy from above, whether it is raining or the sun is shining.  I leave you with this entire passage, for the repetition of the phrase rings in my mind and reminds me, as I hope it will remind you, that His mercy endures.  Forever.

 

 

1. Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever:

4 To Him who alone does great wonders,
For His mercy endures forever;
5 To Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
For His mercy endures forever;
6 To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
For His mercy endures forever;
7 To Him who made great lights,
For His mercy endures forever—
8 The sun to rule by day,
For His mercy endures forever;
9 The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His mercy endures forever.

10 To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn,
For His mercy endures forever;
11 And brought out Israel from among them,
For His mercy endures forever;
12 With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm,
For His mercy endures forever;
13 To Him who divided the Red Sea in two,
For His mercy endures forever;
14 And made Israel pass through the midst of it,
For His mercy endures forever;
15 But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
For His mercy endures forever;
16 To Him who led His people through the wilderness,
For His mercy endures forever;
17 To Him who struck down great kings,
For His mercy endures forever;
18 And slew famous kings,
For His mercy endures forever—
19 Sihon king of the Amorites,
For His mercy endures forever;
20 And Og king of Bashan,
For His mercy endures forever—
21 And gave their land as a heritage,
For His mercy endures forever;
22 A heritage to Israel His servant,
For His mercy endures forever.

23 Who remembered us in our lowly state,
For His mercy endures forever;
24 And rescued us from our enemies,
For His mercy endures forever;
25 Who gives food to all flesh,
For His mercy endures forever.

26 Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven!
For His mercy endures forever.

 

Yours in Christ,

Ruth