Is Changing My Life Just Some Empty Hope?

Can our hope to get our lives right ever be more than just a hope?

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3.

IN HIS GREAT MERCY

God is full of mercy, and to call it great mercy is an understatement.  He has shown mercy to every living person every day, allowing us all just to live and breathe.  His mercy must be the focus of our hope and not our own efforts.

HE HAS

This is the past tense of what has been done.  When God promises something, you can be assured of it.  So, "In his great mercy, he has given," suggests it is here today.  Salvation, new life, and heaven are not just a future dream but for those who have received it- it is present now.

GIVEN

Something given is not something earned.  This Bible verse says salvation and the new person we become are given away by God.  Salvation and this new birth are not a payment or reward that we earn by anything we can do, or else it would not be a free gift.

NEW BIRTH

God gives us more than heaven. He also gives us a new birth, a new identity; who you are is now ready and able to change.  Because we have a new birth, we can turn from the things that led to death and have success over things that ruined our lives.  We can turn around and be the people God meant for us to be.

INTO A LIVING HOPE

Our hope in Jesus is not some far off, maybe so- maybe not, a vain thing; it is something that is living, current, active, and engaged.  Our hope in Jesus is real.

Jesus did what no one else could do.  He died to pay for our sins.  The resurrection proves he has the power of life and power over death, that the judgment has been paid for, and it proves God is satisfied with what Jesus did on our behalf.  If he can rise from the dead, we can trust absolutely in his promise of eternal life and new birth.

When you come to Jesus, you come to the one who makes us new, and we become who and what we are meant to be.  God has given the gift, but he does not force it on us, he offers it, and each of us must decide to receive it.

If you want to know more about receiving God's offer of free salvation, see the tab above.

(c) Adron 8/17/15

Is Jesus All About The Here After, What About Life Now?

We live in the real world and though we think about what happens to us after we die we have needs for God's help today, and we need new life in us right now.  So does Jesus offer anything for me here and now?

JESUS SAID
"Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." John 7:38. NIV.*

A LITTLE CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
Many times Jesus spoke in word pictures to give power to his statements.  This statement was made at the end of the feast of the tabernacles, a time of celebration where one act of worship was to draw water and pour it out on the altar as a sacrifice.  Water is essential in the arid region and represented life.  The act of pouring water on the altar symbolized giving one's life to God.  It was also a memorial of the time that God provided water for the people in the wilderness by his miraculous powers.

WATER
Clearly, water represents life especially in such a dry region; it was sought, valued, and fought over.

RIVERS
Those who believe in the person and work of Christ are promised rivers- not just a tap, or a trickle, or a well, but plural rivers; and notice the absence of specific number given, there are countless rivers of blessing.

LIVING WATER
Water is life-giving and life-sustaining but this water is more, it is the Holy Spirit, (see vs 39).  Believing in Christ is like having life itself in us and it is busy; it is trying to bless us and others; it is trying to be life.  

WILL FLOW
Stagnate water is dead and even poisonous.  Flowing water is healthy, it is filtered and aerated by rolling over river rocks, and purified by the UV light of the sun. Flowing water is the best.

Flowing water is going somewhere; it has a direction, it can do things and take things with it. It leaves a mark on the landscape.

Flowing water is almost irresistible.

The water metaphor speaks of His Spirit entering our lives and becoming a force of abundant blessing to us and those around us.

FROM WITHIN THEM
When we come to Jesus we become a co-worker with him in blessing others.  We get his new life in us in exchange for our old life which he takes to the cross.   We become the sources of blessing that Jesus spoke of when he said, "You are the light of the world," and "You are the salt of the earth."   Jesus life is within us; we are his hands and his feet in this world.

ALL JESUS ASKS
His words were, "Whoever believes in me..."  Jesus asks us to believe in who he is and what he did for us when he died in our place for our sins.  We must believe not with an in your head knowledge way but with an in your heart and with all your soul way of believing.

Jesus offers us something now in this life; he said it like a promise that these rivers of living water will flow. It is a waste to delay coming to him and to delay the flow of blessing.

Spend time reading his words and reading the accounts of his life in the gospels to understand better who he is and what he has done for you.

To learn more about coming to Jesus click on the tab above for "The Gospel."

*There are many references in scripture to water that Jesus may have referred to such as Isaiah 58:11 Joel 3:18; Zechariah 14:8; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 55:1 and Zechariah 14:8, to name a few.

Thank you for visiting this blog. I hope these thoughts are helpful to you.

You can find more like this in the most helpful post list on the left sidebar.

(c) Adron 1/25/15