E-votional - Hope
July 23,
2001
Verse:
"
. . . if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not
moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you
heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of
which I, Paul, have become a servant."
- Colossians 1:23
(NIV)
http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?Colossians+1:15-23
Thought:
Hope.
Something we look for, anticipate and pray for. It is a foundation of
the Gospel. It gives us direction and even purpose.
Hear the Good News, the
Gospel is a message of hope, letting us know that there is another way to
live, to love and to experience life. Jesus was the embodiment of
hope. The way he reached out to the unlovable, the despised, rejected
and marginal. He offered a new direction regarding worship and
relationship with God. He offered hope in the light of the Law.
Do you know the Gospel as Hope? He reached out to children, to widows
to those that were regarded as being of little use and showed to everyone
how wrong such a thought was. Life and love, it is not complicated,
the walls we construct need not be in place, this He shows time and time
again. Hope. Hope is so powerful, people will leave what they
know to follow it. Look at Paul. Look to ministry.
Gracious
Father, You
offer to us hope, hope for life and
for living. Let us see and experience the Hope around us. Help
us to all be a living witness to the Gospel of Hope.
Thank you Father, for all You have
done and all You will continue to do in my life. Amen.