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“True Hope & Change”
Hope “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end” Hebrews 6:11. Not reading the classified ad closely enough, a man was angry to find out that the “free life assurance” offered was a chance to study the gospel with a well-intentioned Christian who did not realize that you can’t trick people into heaven. We who have obeyed the gospel know the hope that we of-fer a world that has none, but the world is often so present-minded that it can’t prepare for eternity. We have to hold up Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross and conquering of death at the tomb as the only hope that man-kind has. This hope is certain and an anchor for the soul. We have the “full assurance of hope until the end.” To hold out this hope as a light in a dark world we must live it out ourselves by trusting in it fully, so the world can see that it is indeed will desire to have it. We are to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Both insurance and assurance gives us peace of mind. While all that is temporary in this life will be destroyed, however, the hope of eternal life is assured. Are you living out the gospel to have hope?
Change “And calling to him a child he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’” Matthew 18:2-3. Jesus, who Himself is thee example for us (1 Peter 2:21-23), points to a child for us to know how to live our lives here as adults. What treasures they are among us! Do we truly appreciate the reminder that they are in our lives? Often we dismiss them; ‘children should be seen and not heard,’ the expression goes. But look at the value that Jesus gives them—they are to teach us how to live before God. We were all children at one time after all, but as we mature into adulthood, we dismiss the childlike qualities that God cherishes—in fact holds up as necessary to enter His kingdom—as, well, childish. So, to walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6), we must study the children He has placed within our lives, cherish them, and then turn and become like them. We must repent and imitate them in humility, trust, and unconditional love. In this world, we are sheep in the midst of wolves and think we must become wolves to survive, but rather we are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.