A CBA CEO once said to me: We do well to look to the future and not dwell on the past. Sound advice perhaps summarised as learn from your mistakes and get on with of living. Either way it does not address where our true hope lies?
Our Eternal hope lies in the past with Jesus’ once only sacrifice for the sins of the World, but equally stands in the present and more importantly assures us of our Eternal future with our Lord and Saviour in Heaven.
Those around us hope things might work out for them in the end (read death), but rarely seek the truth found in Jesus alone. It is as if they go shopping and see two packaged items for sale one branded” “Life in Jesus to the Full” and the other “Death in Hell at the Last” but they keep buying the latter.
Hope needs a focus; something to be sure and certain about and as believers we have it in Jesus. Without such a focus, what other life and death hope has any chance? Not being with all my friends, or singing on the clouds, or looking down on us with angels, or laughing, or worst of all there is nothing after life anyway.
In 2020 we farewelled some dear friends. They were sad times especially for the families, but never without hope and the assurance of being reunited with all those who have died in the Lord. Eternal life is attractive indeed!!!
What is your hope based on right now? Believers have the only hope that last and we must shout it from the rooftops 24/7.
Our SRE classes include memory verses and a regular for me is John 3:16 because it so neatly summarises the Gospel. It was the first verse I was taught in SRE and I am sure many have memorised it. Are you one of them?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (NASB)
– Geoff Kyngdon