The Hope We Have in Christ

The Hope We Have in Christ

The Hope We Have in Christ

    The Meaning of HOPE:

    1. As written in God's WORD: Confident CERTAINTY that God will fulfill all He has promised.

    2. As used in today's WORLD: A wishful FEELING that wants and expectations might be met.

"...always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed." 1 Peter 3:15 Biblical HOPE is a gift from God -- given to those who have put their faith in Him and received His Life through His Spirit. Oswald Chambers, the beloved author of My Utmost for His Highest, explained it well: "'To give a reason for the hope that is in you" is not at all the same things as convincing by rational argument why that hope is in us. The work of the Spirit of God in us transcends reason, but never contradicts it. And when a Christian says 'the reason I am so-and -so is because I have received the Holy Spirit,' or 'I have received from God something which has made this possible,' it doesn't contradict reason. It transcends it, and is an answer concerning the hope that is in you. "The line we are continually apt to be caught by is that of argumentative reasoning out why we are what we are. We can never do that, but we can always say why the hope is in us. "Reason is the faculty of mind by which man draws conclusions. Every man is always striving after a true expression of what he is. When a man is born again, his personality become alive to God as the Source of inspiration. Paul's words "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" are the expression of the only worthy rationalism.... "As long as we use the image of our own salvation, our experience, the image of our feelings, or answers to prayer, we shall never begin to understand what Paul meant when he said, 'Christ lives in me.' The exercise of man's essential reason is drawing on God as the Source of life." [1] Those who don't know God can't understand the wonders of the hope that God has put in our hearts. It makes no sense to the secular mind! The world's finite reasoning and "rational" understanding clashes with the reality of God's plan and eternal Kingdom. The key to understanding -- God's Holy Spirit -- is missing! "Blessed be the God and Father of our 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 and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of Godthrough faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.        "In this you greatly rejoice, though ... you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." 1 Peter 1:3-7 "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior...." Philippians 3:20 1. Oswald Chambers,  Oswald Chambers Daily Devotional Bible (Thomas Nelson Publisher , 1992, pp. 1116-7).  Chambers was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1874.  He founded the Bible Training College in London in 1911, During WW1, he served and encouraged European soldiers fighting in Egypt. Two years later, he was dying of a ruptured appendix but refused to accept any hospital bed that could beneeded by wounded soldiers.