You Can Choose This Life of Hope

The Choice Is Yours To Make

You know by now that I mean what I say: there is hope in this life for joy, peace, meaning, and purpose. We believe that hope is found in a God who made us, who loves us, and who wants us to live with Him forever. We believe that Jesus is the way to God; that God sent His Son to this earth to show us the way to Him. Jesus is the bridge from an imperfect life with its sin and frustration to a life with God. Jesus made a way for us by dying for our sins, and God raised him from the dead. So now what?

Jesus said “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” There it is…the answer to making hope for life real. It starts by getting out of the way. We have all shown that we don’t have the answers. But as long as the focus is on us, there is not room for Jesus. We must be willing to let our old self die, so there can be a new life in its place. That’s why Jesus said take up the cross. The cross is where Jesus died for us. We share in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus by being baptized. This act of faith in Jesus is literally an immersion into water. At this moment, I’m born again, receiving God’s Spirit in my life to help me live better.

Once we have expressed our faith in Jesus by being baptized, we spend our days living forgiven. As a “new baby” in Christ, the goal is to get rid of our old selves and learn to follow Jesus every day. We try to live as he did and treat people as he did, and talk as he did. This commitment frees us to fulfill the purpose God has for each of our lives: to do good so that others might see God through us.

As new members of God’s family, we are able to enjoy life with others in our new family. We meet together to remember the death of Jesus. We study together, pray together, and spend time helping each other live as new creations in Christ. We connect to other people just like us: people that Jesus died for, people that experienced the same new birth in baptism, and people committed to being more like Jesus every day.

Jesus is the Way to God

Discover Hope By Finding Jesus

We do believe there is hope for life. It is our conviction that you can have a life of hope, joy, peace, purpose and glory. That hope is found in God. He made you, loves you, and wants the best for you…both now and forever. And to make sure you found your way to him, God did an extraordinary thing: He sent his Son Jesus to show you the way. Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Why do we need help to get to God? Because we live in a world that is in conflict. There is evil in this world and that it is in conflict with good. This evil is called sin and it is rebellion against God. It is easy to believe that we are not a bad person and that we can make sense of our life. But deep in our heart is that knowledge that we are not good enough, or powerful enough to make sense of this world and our life. We have done things we shouldn’t have, and not done things we should have. We hunger to know the God who is perfect, who made this world, and who can make sense of life. But none of us is perfect…better than some, worse than others. So who are we to ask anything of God? Our very lives must be offensive to God. And we cannot fix it.

That is why God sent Jesus, his perfect Son. He told the story of his Son in a book so we could know him personally. We believe that the book called the Bible really is the Word of God, and it is where the good news about Jesus is found. The good news that God’s own Son was born into this messed-up world, that he lived like we live, and that he let himself die for our mistakes…for each of our sins. He paid a price for us so we could each face God without the shame and guilt of sin. Jesus models how to live a God designed and directed life in this world.

Jesus is the way back to God. He is the answer, the door, the life, and the way to the God who offers hope. Through Jesus we have found meaning, joy, peace, and purpose in each of our lives. Because of what he did, we believe we can live forever with God. We believe that the good news about Jesus is not just that he died for our sins. It is also that God raised him from the dead. Now that makes sense. That God would send his Son to this earth, he would show us how to live, he would die for our sins, and then that God would raise him from the dead.

It makes more sense to us than anything else in this world. If you want to know more about Jesus, please continue reading to the further blogs or please wait for new ones. If you want to move along the path and see how to make a life of hope real, click on to the following blog.

Hope is Found in God

Look To God For The Answer…

It is my belief that hope begins with God. I believe that there is no true, lasting hope in this world without God. The God who made us. The personal God. The God who loves us. The God who wants to give meaning and purpose to each of our lives.

If you’ve tried to make it without God, you probably know how frustrating it can be. Without God’s power, we have no hope of overcoming our struggles. Without God’s mercy, we have no hope of overcoming our past. Without the meaning that God gives to life, without the sense of purpose that he provides, we have no hope of overcoming the problems that life presents.

While we certainly don’t know everything about God, we can learn a lot about God by looking at what he has done. He created this world and everything in it, which shows us that he is life-giving. This world was created in such a way that life can be sustained, which shows a loving nature.

God’s revealed word, the Bible, tells us that God has continually called people to be in relationship with him. He is not an aloof God, but one who desires to interact with his creation. God has told us the things that are necessary to be done to be in relationship with him. These are not arbitrary rules and regulations, but things that actually work for our good.

We also see in the Bible that God made promises, and he always kept his promises. Some of those promises concern things that are still in the future, and we believe that God will continue to keep his promises. He has promised that he will do things for us in this life and that when this life is over, he will provide a life for us that will have no end.

Our belief in God and our trust in his promises fill our lives with hope. God wants to be in a relationship with us. Today. He wants us to talk with him every day. He wants to provide what we need for this life and eventually provide us with a life that doesn’t end. What better hope could there be than that?

There is Hope for Life

The First Step On Your Journey

Have you ever noticed that there are very few universal experiences in life? There are a few though; these rare events give us an experience that everyone can relate to. One experience that no one can avoid is the feeling of hardship. We all know the feeling of being down in the ditch, feeling like there is no hope. Our struggles come in every shape and size, but hopelessness is something that we’ve all shared.

For some people the struggle is with themselves, with their emotions, self-confidence, or depression. Others are bombarded and attacked by situations of the world.

No matter how difficult our struggles, there is always hope. No matter how long we’ve fought to overcome our hardship, there is always hope. The trick to finding hope is to look in the right place.

Throughout life we are lured into countless situations that offer to return hope, only to find ourselves back in hard times. In our desperation, we have been convinced to seek hope through medicine, relationships, ethics, philosophy, hobbies, education, etc. While most of these are great courses to pursue, none of them will bring you true hope.

Then, still in desperation, we attempt to find a cure to life’s problems by doing things that we know are wrong, things that we call sin. All of us at one point have tried to patch a hole in our life with a sin of some kind, like drugs, inappropriate relationships, lying, or materialism.

The sad truth is that sin can never fix life’s problems. And, the worst part is that sin unfortunately only makes it worse. Sin is just a temporary fix for a problem that really has only one solution.

True hope can only be found through the pursuit of something greater than yourself. That greater being is God.

The Only Hope- A short movie by my friends

In a Dream

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams"(Acts 2:17 NIV).

We all have dreams. Some are the dreams we have when we sleep — yes, even those of us who can rarely remember them still have them. Others are dreams we have for our lives and those we love — more than goals, dreams are those great hopes we have for the future. Some of us are not real keen on sharing those dreams — we don't want to be embarrassed if they don't come true or we don't want to be held accountable to pursuing them. Others talk about their dreams — both kinds of dreams — all the time. Regardless of whether we share them or not, we all have them.

So what is the dream you have for your life?

Is this the same dream you had for your life ten years ago?

Have you given up those earlier dreams?

What happens when your personal dreams are shattered by circumstance, betrayal, disappointment, or what feels like unanswered prayers?

And maybe the most obvious question of all: What in the world does any of this have to do with Christmas or the birth of our Lord?

Believe it or not, the story of Jesus' birth is a ship that sails on the sea of broken dreams!

All behind the story is a plot line that connects Jesus' coming to our lives and to our broken dreams.
• God's people had dreams of freedom, independence, influence, and importance that were all broken by the domination of Roman power and government.
• Mary had rearranged dreams of motherhood, marriage, and family when the angel of the Lord appeared and told her about the miraculous conception of Jesus.
• Joseph had shattered dreams of a holy marriage to a pure and devoted young woman of God.
• King Herod had megalomaniacal dreams of power and prestige that were threatened by the coming of Jesus and the recognition by the magi that Jesus was the true King of the Jews.

With all the broken dreams surrounding the birth of Jesus, we shouldn't be surprised by one of Matthew's key phrases in the birth stories about Jesus: "... in a dream."

Joseph is told "in a dream" that Mary was not unfaithful to him, but that the child Jesus was conceived miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit and he should make Mary his wife (Matthew 1:20).

The magi, or wise men as we often call them, are warned "in a dream"not to go back to Herod and tell this demented king where to find Jesus(Matthew 2:12).

Joseph is warned by God "in a dream" to go to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill baby Jesus (Matthew 2:13).

Joseph is told "in a dream" that he could take his little family back home from Egypt because Herod and those who wanted to kill Jesus were dead(Matthew 2:19-20).

Joseph is told "in a dream" to not go to Judea, but back to Galilee, so that Jesus could be protected and God's promises about the Messiah being from Nazareth would be fulfilled (Matthew 2:22).

If we listen closely to the story of our Savior's birth, all behind the story is a plot line that connects Jesus' coming to our lives and to our broken dreams. You see, Jesus' birth is all about what God can do when our personal dreams are shattered. If we follow his lead and listen for his voice, the Father gives us new dreams and fresh hope. The story of Jesus' birth teaches us that every broken dream leaves an empty place in our hearts for God to speak a brighter future and to give us better promises.

So as we remember the birth of our Lord, today and for the days and weeks and months and years to come, let's also remember that out of our broken dreams come God's deliverance and our Savior. The Father's words for us are much like they were for Joseph: "Don't be afraid!" And our response needs to be like Joseph and the magi: we need to do what God says and embrace his dreams for our future. When we do, we will find Immanuel, God with us, is more than a story; he is part of our lives. (Matthew 1:23).

What Do You Do with Jesus at Christmas?

It is a strange question, but one that perplexes many people this time of year: what do you do with Jesus at Christmas? Is this a religious or a secular holiday? Since this year Christmas falls on a Sunday, do you go to church or open presents around the tree? Or both? How do you treat friends who insist that Jesus is the reason for the season? What about friends who do not believe in Jesus? How do you combine Santa Claus, baby Jesus, reindeer, and wise men into one season? What do people do with Jesus this time of year?

1. Ignore him. Xmas instead of Christmas. Trees and stockings, but not nativity scenes. “Deck the Halls”, but not “Away in a Manger”. Read The Night Before Christmas, but not Matthew 1 and 2.

2. Be a little religious. Be nicer to people. Focus on giving, not getting. Show up at church on Christmas day, or at least Christmas Eve. Make a charitable donation or two. Give some presents to the underprivileged. Include going to church and being a better person with your New Year’s Resolutions.

3. Keep Jesus a baby. Focus on the nativity. Attend the wise men, shepherds, animals, Mary and Joseph pageants. Be sure to go to the ones put on by the little kids. They are cuter than and not as startling as the real event was. This approach does not seem to recognize that the baby grew up and died on a cross. So save that for Easter weekend.

Jesus is more than a baby celebration for the holiday season.

4. Celebrate Jesus just like you do every day. Realize that Jesus did not come to earth so we could celebrate a birthday. He came to save us from our sins. That is the good news. He was born to die. He was raised to live. Jesus is not the reason for the season. He is the reason for every season.

As for me, I am happy to celebrate Jesus at Christmas… and in January, and in spring, and summer… and well, every day. If the holiday season has caused you to wonder what to do about Jesus, I would enjoy discussing it with you.

Let Christmas Deny the World

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"(Matthew 16:24-26 NIV).

There is a wonderful line from the American scholar Stephen L. Carter that is appropriate to the Christmas season: "Religion is, at its heart, a way of denying the rest of the world." He is surely, astutely, and gloriously correct.

Faith's view of this world is strangely skeptical. No, more than that. It is a posture of unequivocal distrust leading to rejection! When the world recites its mantras — you matter only if you are beautiful, the most important thing is money, winning is everything, Look Out for Number One — faith protests them all. It adopts a posture of doubt and incredulity. It lives in skepticism and disbelief.

I refuse to believe that selfishness is acceptable or that it is permissible to resent another's good fortune. I will not swallow the world's way of thinking in order to justify prejudice, aggression, and hatred. No believer can be anything but incredulous about the claim of this world that she is entitled to anything she can get her hands on or that he should feel no guilt in exploiting others.

So let Christmas deny the world it's hold on your heart.

So distrust the alleged certainties of sense that cancel the mysteries of faith. Dispute the tendency of the masses to look forward only for the sake of declaring the impossibility of living with hope. Deny altogether the inevitability of such greed, hatred, and violence that we cannot prove the reality of love.

The Bible warns against being blinded by this world and speaks of the danger of the blind leading the blind. That warning puts us on notice that things, people, and ways of thinking totally rooted in the finite world of time, space, and matter will keep us from discovering, experiencing, and delighting in the greater realities of God, spirit, and eternity that can only be known by faith.

Faith isn't self-deception. It is neither wish projection nor wishful thinking. It is our willingness to hear and stand with the things God has shown us through events and people as awe-inspiring as a trembling, smoking mountain in the desert and as modest as a baby's first cry in the village of Bethlehem.

So let Christmas deny the hold of this world on your heart. Let it open your eyes to what the willfully blind will never see, your ears to things the incorrigibly deaf can never hear. See Immanuel — and know God is with us. Hear the song of angels — and receive God's peace given to anxious hearts. Hold the confusion, cynicism, and antagonisms of this troubled world suspect — and choose God's reign as your way of affirming the true realities.

Merry Christmas to all!

God's Chisel