Thursday: Images of Hope
Read the following texts. What hope does each of them reveal?
Gen. 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
Gen. 22:8 “And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.’ So the two of them went together.”
Lev. 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”
John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'”
Gal. 2:16 “ knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”
Phil. 1:6 “ being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
1 Cor. 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Dan. 7:22 “until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.”
Dan. 12:1-2 ““At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Matt. 24:27 “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Dan. 2:44 “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
| Follow the progression of thought presented in these texts. Together, what do they tell us about the hope that we as Christians can have in Jesus? |
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I like Genesis 3:15, may be simply for the fact that BRUISING THE HEAD is more detrimental than bruising the heal. I see God giving us ability (that hope), to have an upper hand over satan and his gimmicks. I take it to mean, that God will always want me to challenge and defeat satan! And just like all the other verses, even from the beginning we were meant to be victors over satan!
A God of hope created this world. Now, if God makes everything, He can fix everything. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. We will never go hungry because we are in His care. Faith in Jesus Christ can pull us over the mountain top because with God all things are possible. In trials and temptation, in sickness and heartaches, in good times and bad times God is in total control of our lives. Friends worry not what tomorrow will bring, God have our back.God is not slack in His promises as man count slackness. Do all the good you can to all the people you can. Evil is cover come with good. Our great hope is to have faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and one day we will all meet in heaven. I love you with an everlasting love: somebody loves you my friends and that somebody is JESUS. May God bless and keep you. Love you
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have been to the mountain top, I have seen the Promised Land. He continues, I may not get there with you, but we as a people will get there". The Mountain Top speech 24 hours before he was assinated. April 4,1968.
Jesus promised a land filled with milk and honey. Ex 3:8. He also promised that "...He was going to prepare a place for us. That He is coming again. That where He is there we shall be with Him also. John 13:2-3.
In this season of thanksgiving, I thank MLK, jr. for his leadership in the civil rights movement. I thank him for his quest for the freedom for all people, provided for, in the Constitution of America. But greater than that is the freedom Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection provides: freedom from sin, freedom from guilt, forgiven, restored, which gives us peace within. As in Psalm 24:9-10 says, "lift up your heads o ye gates; even ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts (that's us) He is the King of Glory". And we all shall get there together.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
First and foremost w must acknowledge that we are living in fallen world, doomed to misery and death.
From the onset of the fall, a plan was there already arrest the situation. The devil's schemes to perpetuate sin was put into check through the from Gift from God- Jesus Christ.
The gulf that existed then was bridged through the death of Christ who made it possible to to the believers to be called God's children again. so for the believers hope of better tomorrow is very much alive despite what each one of us go though in this wicked world. From Gen. 1 to 2, show how pure the earth was before sin and the last two chapters in the bible likewise depict the recreated new heaven and earth. The chapters in between show how relentlessly God is trying to get us out of this valley of sin.
It gives to to see that at the end of the day God is victorious and the arc rival has his day of re-corning. God loves us so much that He has to send His Son to die for us. Love so amazing. That blood that oozed at calvary brought new life and hope to the believers. Our part in now to live by faith through the merits of Christ. If there time that we needed to ask God to help us grow our faith is now. Remember, the fact that we decided to follow Christ and obey His commands, the devil will not calmly standby and watch. Fierce attacks will be our lot. Our safety is leaning on the everlasting arms. This should give us joy and hope because our enemy is a defeated foe already.
when we believe to the Lamb of God, we have hope that our future is sure. Jesus before he came Abraham was given a lamb(gen.22:8) as a sacrifice offered instead of his son. This teaches us that the blood of Jesus is our only sacrifice given to save our soul.we see Jesus as a lamb.
From enmity with Satan to the glorious kingdom everything has been prepared and freely given to us. All we have to do is pray the Holy Spirit to give us transforming grace to subordinate the world and follow the pattern set before us. we cannot overestimate the value of simple faith and unquestioning obedience, and that eternal glorious home is ours. O how excellent is the LORD our Lord. Psalms 8:1
Jackson, I can share with some of your excitement that there will be a final resolution to the problem of evil. But I wonder if we realize what we are praying for when we ask the Holy Spirit for transforming grace. It may well be that the Holy Spirit in its still small voice may suggest that we are ultimately being quite selfish about the gospel and that we should share it in new ways and to a new audience. That eternal glorious home is not ours alone - it is something to share. What the Holy Spirit is asking us to do may be as unpalatable to us as the the suggestion to the rich young ruler when asked to sell all he had and give it to the poor.
My question is: are we listening to the Holy Spirit? Or do we really hear what it is telling us?
Maurice, it is true that the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Just as Peter,James and John left their nets to follow Jesus, those who are sanctified with the truth will have the same zeal binding up the wheat for the heavenly garner. The world is the field. Our means,our talents and the energies entrusted upon us by the Master should be focused in the salvation of others with the truth of this time, especially as found in the third angels message. We should pray for divine guidance in this. Indeed there is enough room for everyone in heaven. Let us guard our minds that the rich young ruler does not live in our hearts.