HOPE

Future Mission Trips: This morning I applied and was accepted as a team member for a trip to Liberia in December and a return trip to the Philippines in May 2018. I have had a desire to visit Liberia and Sierra Leone since I read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe a number of years ago. Last night I spoke with a TLI colleague who returned from Liberia on Sunday and he said that this group of 100 Pastors are very enthusiastic and with their leader want to begin a movement of biblical reform in the whole country. They are committed to learn and to teach others. I am excited to be part of this new Training Leaders International project. My living conditions will be poor, no hot water and poor A/C at our hotel, intermittent hydro, heat, mosquitoes, and basic subsistence meals without fruit or vegetables, but what a privileged opportunity to effect a whole country with expository, biblical teaching. Liberia is ripe with cults, occult, focus on healing and delivery ministries and the false teaching of the prosperity gospel. Please, please pray for these upcoming trips. I want to be part of God's impact on these two countries and you can make the difference with your prayers. I mean that, and I hope you believe that also and will pray for Liberia and the Philippines.

 "Abandon all hope ye who enter here". These are the words at the entrance to hell in Dante's Divine Comedy. The loss of hope in this life leads to deep despair and even suicide. Hope is essential to living. Many in this world live with false hope and grip this false hope tightly, maybe even realizing that this hope is indeed built on a lie but not daring to admit it lest they have no hope at all.
One such false hope is that we can earn our way to heaven. The lie is that we earn acceptance from God by keeping certain rules, doing certain actions, satisfying certain religious practices. Millions of dollars are spent on the hope of financial gain  and happiness through winning the lottery or making a fast million. I thank God for the great hope, the true hope, the proved hope that I have as a believer in Jesus who died for my sins, justified me because of my faith in him, and gave me hope for eternal life through His resurrection. Hope is a grace from God and our hope is not cross-your-fingers wishful thinking but assured by God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

 "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God". As I suffer through various trials, wrestle with decisions, face daily temptations, walk in the midst of materialism and wordliness, pray for a confused church, cope with old age, struggle with relationships, hope keeps me encouraged, positive, praising, and singing. Each day I stretch my neck as if looking over a fence on tip toes toward my sure hope, the promised glory of God. My hope is not so much a desire to escape the struggle of this world, but deliverance from the sin that continues to nag at my saved spirit and seeks to pollute and take back my transformed mind. My hope is to live in a holy world, with holy people, and worship a holy God and to live in complete transformed righteousness. It will happen. What I want is for God to have all of me with complete willingness on my part, for He bought me and deserves to  be fully and forever praised for Who He is.