Hope Springs Eternal

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
~Lamentations 3:21-23

Alexander Pope said, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast..." I'm sure it does, otherwise, we'd have given up long ago. However, I am more inclined to put my hope in something much more sure than myself - my hope is in the Lord (Psalm 39:7).

Hope is described as an aspiration, desire, wish, expectation, ambition, aim, goal, plan, design; but it's also described as "a feeling of trust." This is the hope we have in Jesus Christ because we are:

“Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ… (Titus 2:13)."

There's a lot of things to hope for in this world. We hope for good relationships, we hope for our children to be healthy, we hope for our lives to be long and full, but none of these things are within our control. We have that hope because the alternative is much too horrible to even think about. But when our hope is placed in Jesus Christ we don't worry about those types of things or their alternative. When our hope is placed in Jesus Christ, we know that our place is secure. We know that Jesus Christ has the very best plan for our lives, and we do not have to worry about the future no matter what may happen.

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).”

Stop Clanging

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
~1Corinthians 13:1(NIV)

There's a saying I like, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way," and it's especially true for today's world. Everything around us is in chaos -- natural disasters and unnatural disasters, which is a lot to deal with but on top of that, we have people with no real focus shouting at the top of their lungs, causing discourse, distress, & discouragement for no apparent reason other than to hear the sound of their own voices. They are, in essence, clanging cymbals. They are not acting in a loving, respectful way, and their only purpose is to disrupt the lives of those around them.

Our world is out of order in a serious way. Chaos is all around us, and it seems we barely have time to take a breath before the next disaster occurs. But God's world is one of order, love and freedom. He created everything according to this order, including us. So why does it seem everything is out of order?
Simply put, fewer people act out of love. In the above verse, we are told whatever we do without love is a loud, annoying noise. So the converse would be true as well, everything done out of love for one another would be music to our ears.

So many today seem to react to situations and people, instead of acting in a manner that shows love. However, the Bible commands us to act in love no matter what is going on around us.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35.)”

Following Jesus takes strength of character, and the resolve to be like Him. But once we decide to follow Him, that strength and resolve comes from Him. "I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)." Jesus Christ is our source for all things: strength, comfort, hope, love and the ability to rise above the things of this world that tries to drag us down.

Our evil behavior alienates us from God (Colossians 1:21), but because of what Christ did at Calvary, we have the opportunity to be reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5:18) simply by humbling ourselves before Him. And what a truly wonderful world it would be if everyone of us would stop being a clanging cymbal and start being a beautiful song in Christ.

What Is Love?

"What is love?
Baby don't hurt me
Don't hurt me
No more..."
(Haddaway)

In 1993, everyone was asking "What is love?" and, for Haddaway, it became a gold record, but the Bible has never had a problem answering that question.

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10)."

This is agape love. This is sacrificial love. This is love that knows no bounds, no ends, no parameters whatsoever. This is love that goes on forever and ever.

This is the fantasy love that when we were little girls, we dreamed of being princesses, and our prince would come and sweep us away on his mighty stallion, and we would live happily ever after. Then we grew up and we weren't princesses, and when our Prince did show up, he didn't have a mighty stallion, and he didn't have any money. He was just a normal guy, but we didn't find that out until after we married him.

Life has a way of knocking fantasy out of us, and knocking reality right smack into our faces. And reality can be a very rude awakening. But no matter how rude life can be, no matter how many smackdowns life gives us, there is always that one constant that is not a fantasy, and that is the Creator of all reality, Jesus Christ.

The Bible addresses love more than any other subject: God's love for us, our love for God, our love for one another.

"And He said to him, 'You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:37-39)."

Love is not something that human beings came up with on their own. The idea of love, what love should be, how we should love one another, and the different forms of love are not man-made ideas, no matter how we've managed to pervert those ideals. The love of God is something that preceded even the creation of the world. The love of God is something that takes a long time for us to even try to comprehend because it is so far outside of our purview.

We have a very limited view of what love is. We have a very skewed view of what love is. And we have a very perverted view of what love is. But biblical love is very clear and very precise. And it is also a command from God.

"'And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these (Mark 12:30-31).”

The love of God is a sacrificial love. And that is the kind of love we are to have for one another. When we act in love, when we act in that sacrificial form of love towards our friends, our family, our children, our co-workers, our neighbors, the people in other cars on the road, the people who cut in front of us in line at the store; when we act in the love of God towards everyone we meet, we are fulfilling the Commandment of God. When all of our speech, and all of our actions, are out of that sacrificial love, then we fulfill God's commandment.

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of Elyon, for He is kind to the ungrateful and evil ones (Luke 6:36)."

This is the test. How do we treat those who are evil, unkind, ungrateful, slackers, lazy, those that we consider the dregs of humanity? In God's eyes, prior to accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were like those people, yet He loved us. Unconditionally. So much so that He willingly left the glory of Heaven, took on human form, and died on the Cross.

"(Love) does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5.)"

Love God. Love others. Love yourself.​

Try, Try, and Try Some More

"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
~1 Kings 19:4

Life is hard. It's hard for all of us. No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, we all get discouraged and feel like we want to quit. The same is true in 1 Kings 19 as we read about Elijah. He was tired. He was ready to give up. And he was ready to die. Why? Because he felt like he had failed. He had done everything that he felt like God wanted him to do yet the two people, Ahab and Jezebel, that he wanted to see turn their lives around, turn their lives over to God, and change their evil ways, did not. Instead they ordered Elijah to be killed.

When we have prayed about something, and believe that God has given us an answer, it's easy to get discouraged when we don't see any fruit from our labors. When we pray for something and we don't see an answer, or hear from God about what the answer might be for that prayer, we can get discouraged.

Being discouraged can cause us to give up. Being discouraged can cause us to be depressed. Being discouraged is a natural emotion that we all experience at one time or another, but it can also be
an emotion that causes us to cave in and give up.

We have to be watchful, and alert as 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, "because our adversary the devil prowls around like a lion seeking whom he may devour." Negative emotions can allow openings for the enemy to come in and magnify the things that we perceive to be wrong in our lives. And many things do go wrong in our lives.

We're going to lose jobs. We are going to lose friends. We are going to watch loved ones die. We are going to see our children get into trouble. We are going to be broke, living paycheck to paycheck. And all of this will happen probably while we watch others around us prosper. It's easy to be focused on our circumstances, and to get discouraged about the things that we don't see, rather than the things that we do see.

God never promised that we would not experience loss, sorrow, or discouragement in our lives. That's part of being human. But He did promise that He would always be there no matter how rough it gets.

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world (John 16:33)."

Looking at our circumstances instead of looking at the One who is in control of our circumstances diminishes what Christ did on the Cross. If we say that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, yet continue to look at the circumstances and problems that we have in the world around us, then we are lying to ourselves and we are lying to God.

Being strong and courageous is not something that we just hope for, it's an order. We are commanded to be strong and to be courageous no matter what we are facing.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9)."

We may not face the same type of enemies that Elijah or Joshua did, or the types of battles that fill the Old Testament. We may not face the types of problems that Paul did in the New Testament, facing imprisonment for the things that we say or do, at least not yet, but we still face every day life. And every day life is messy and full of trouble. It always has been and it always will be.

Our part is not the battle itself, because God handles the battle for us. Our part is in how we face the battle, and how we stand while going through the battle.

"Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand (Ephesians 6:13)."

Watch Your Mouth!

"A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it."
~Matthew 15:11

"Watch your mouth, young lady!" My mother didn't put up with sass from my siblings or me. One verbal warning was all it took because my mother didn't mess around. We knew one more word would mean we'd get our mouths slapped. In those days, we understood those warnings were to teach us respect for our parents and others.

The verse above isn't just about disrespect, it's about our eternal souls. Verse 18 goes on to say, "the things that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and those things make the man unholy."

We speak from the abundance of our hearts. What is in our heart is going to come out of our mouths. Whether those things are good or bad, people know us by the words of our mouth. We see it on the news and we see it on Facebook, and other social media every single day. The things people post on social media are the things that fill their hearts. The Bible tells us, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:45)."

Even the memes we post that we may think are funny, or in some other way amusing, are often crass and off-color. I often see people post Bible verses, and then the next post will be something that has a four letter cuss word in it, and they think nothing of doing this.

"From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so (James 3:10)."

Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He will come into our hearts and guide us by His Holy Spirit. However, the caveat to this is that we have to let Him be Lord and Savior. The Lord wants to clean us up on the inside so that our hearts are pure and right before Him. Because one day we are all going to stand before God Almighty, and we are going to answer for every word that comes out of our mouths (Matthew 12:36).

"Let no no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up the one in need and bringing grace to those who listen (Ephesians 4:29)."

It seems to me these days, more and more people are just interested in hearing their own voices without paying attention to what they are actually saying. Our words make a difference. Our words can build up and our words can bring down. Our words can cut like a knife. Our words can make people happy or they can make people sad.

We teach our children not to bully and not to say hateful things, yet we do not even think about the things we say to our spouses or to our friends in front of our children. We complain about hatred in the world, yet we do not even consider the hatred that is coming out of our own mouths.

We have a lot of problems in this world but every single one of them can be traced back to the problems we have with ourselves. As  part of the human race, we need to clean up our own act. But as part of God's family, we need to practice what we preach.

"Let your conversation be gracious as well as sensible, for then you will have the right answer for everyone (Colossians 4:6)."

Wives, Submit! Really?

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord."
~Ephesians 5:22

This is probably the most unpopular verse in the Bible for women, and one of the most abused by men. What does submitting to your husband mean? Is this just a way for men to control women? Before you decide the Bible is anti-female, let me assure you, it's not. In fact, this verse doesn't mean what most people think it does, and it is most definitely not intended to be used as an excuse for men to run roughshod over women.

In everything that God does, there is an order. There's an order in the church -- Christ is head of the church, a pastor is second-in-command, followed by the associate pastor, and then any others, such as deacons or whatever an individual church calls their support ministry. Every person in a church is subject to their pastor, who is subject to God. However, the pastor is also subject to his congregation in the sense that if a pastor is stepping outside of biblical parameters for his position, the church body has a responsibility to say something to ensure the integrity of the church.

As a whole, society is built on the same order as the church. We have a government that is responsible for the nation, with individual state governments, county governments, city and local governments that are all responsible for the people of that area. Each of us are subject to local, state, and federal laws. All of these are designed to keep peace and order for the citizens, and to ensure our individual liberties and protection as human beings.

But order and peace begin within the home. Without biblical order in the home, we find that the family begins to deteriorate, children become unruly, and we see that happening more and more. Women are becoming the heads of households, and are single parents raising and trying to support their children on their own. This was not God's design for the home.

God's design is for a godly home, where parents are devoted to Jesus Christ, and put Jesus as head of their own lives first. In a godly home the husband is the head of the family. This does not mean the husband is to dominate his wife and children, but that he is submitted to, and under the rule of, Jesus Christ. It means he is responsible for his family's support, care, and welfare, and he answers to God for his family.

A man is to "cleave" to his wife (Genesis 2:24). In other words, they are to be glued together. They are to be "one flesh" (Mark 10:8), and are to consider their bodies as belonging to the other spouse (1 Corinthians 7:4).

As the husband submits himself to Jesus Christ as Lord of his life, he is under the protection of God. In the same way, when women submit to their husbands, they come under his protection. When it's storming out, we put on our jackets and get out the umbrella to be protected from the elements. In the same way, when we submit, we come under the umbrella of the protection of our husbands who are under the umbrella of protection of God.

This is why it is so important to make sure that we marry a godly man. We are to wait for the Lord to bring us our husbands. But even men who are in the church are not always what they seem, so we have to enter into these relationships with prayer, godly advice, and the assurance that the person we are about to marry for life is truly the person God wants us to marry for life.

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14).

In the same way, men must choose their wives through prayer and godly counsel because "It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife (Proverbs 25:24)".

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?"
~Luke 12:25

We worry. A lot. People worry about their spouses, kids, jobs, bills, their health, car repairs, getting someplace on time...and the list goes on. In fact, studies show we spend nearly seven years of our lives worrying!

According to WebMD, excessive worrying causes a host of physical and psychological problems such as high anxiety and social disorders. Anxiety releases cortisol and triglycerides into the bloodstream, which raises blood sugar levels. In turn, these stressors can cause irritability, headaches, naseau, muscle tension, short term memory loss, digestive issues, coronary artery disease, and even heart attacks. So instead of solving anything by worrying, we actually create new problems.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? (Matthew 6:25)."

Jesus tells us not to worry about our daily lives because there is much more to life than our physical needs. Our spiritual lives need to be fed much more than our physical.  'Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35).'

Our lives, apart from Jesus become unmanageable. We begin to worry about things that we either can control, cannot control, or try to control. Our worry leads to anxiety and anxiety leads to more and more stress, which leads to depression and on to a host of physical and mental ailments, until eventually, worry has taken over our lives, yet our lives have not changed.

On the other hand, a life that blossoms out of our relationship with Jesus Christ is free from worry, free from stress, and free from anxiety. Our health flourishes, our lives flourish, and we have all that we need both physically and emotionally.

In this world there is enough trouble to last a lifetime -- several lifetimes -- and worrying about it isn't going to change any of it. When we truly believe that God is in control, then we will know that there is nothing here to worry about and we will have peace in our lives that can only come from Jesus Christ.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid (John 14:27)."