Tag Archives: Jesus

Hope…Heaven!

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It all starts with Jesus Christ. He is the Person of Hope that will never let us down.

There is also a Plan of Hope which is the fact the Jesus is Coming. He will come back for us!

But right now…Jesus is Constructing. He is in heaven right now, the Place of Hope!

John 14:1-6 is a passage that is filled with hope. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God ; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Next week, I am going to look at heaven more closely. For today, let’s agree that heaven is real.

heaven

This picture may or may not represent heaven but it helps us to know that God has a fantastic place in store for us.

BUT WAIT, THERE IS A CATCH…

There is sin in this world and in our hearts. 

That sin must be accounted for before a person can go to heaven.

Jesus died on the cross. That death is sufficient to pay for the sin. The penalty is paid.

Our part is simple. We must accept this gift from God by faith. See John 3:16.

Now a person can walk through this life with Jesus. 

There is now a Place of Hope.

So for this week, dwell on heaven. Think about spending eternity in heaven with your Creator. That should put a smile on your face. =-)

More Hope

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What do you hope for? That is the question I posed to my coworkers this past week. The answers were not surprising to me. They said things like financial stability, kids making good decisions, happiness etc. Those are all good things for which one can hope.

But like I posted last week, the one thing that does not disappoint is Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Person of Hope will always come through!

If we have the Person of Hope, Jesus Christ, then we can know that there is a Plan of Hope as well. It all starts with Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (click on the link to get the chapter), God has a plan. We are separated from God because of sin. But the Plan of Hope is that through Jesus, we can be reconciled back to God. Eventually, that leads us to heaven. We have a place in heaven because of being reconciled back to God! More on heaven next week!

The Person of Hope, Jesus Christ

The Plan of Hope, Jesus Coming

The bible gives us a definition of hope in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith and hope are closely related. In April, I will be posting about faith so please come back next month. =-)

Hope means that there is something out there that we don’t have but we know it is there. Faith gives us the action to keep us moving in that direction. Hope shows us the goal.

Here is an example that seems to make sense to me. You know those coin-push machines you see in gas stations? They are really a great way to exploit peoples’ hope in having a lot of money. Hope tells me that if I put a quarter in the machine, there will be some return. One quarter, or maybe even more, will fall into the hole and I will win! To be honest, I have spent $3 or $4 in the past year on these things. Faith means actually putting the quarter in the machine. Hope only tells us that there could possibly be a return. But this kind of hope is not good. Don’t waste your money. =-)

The culmination of this post is that my hope in Jesus is well-founded. Part of the Plan of Hope is that he will come back for me. He won’t leave me hanging. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 tells me about his return, the rapture.

Friends, Jesus is coming back. Are you ready? Do have your hope set on Him? He is the Person of Hope that will never disappoint us. His return is part of the Plan of Hope. That is really encouraging to me because some days, life sucks. It can be difficult to get through a day. I have issues and so do you.

problems

But let’s put our hope in Jesus. That way, all will end well. So be lifted up today. Hold your head up proud because Jesus is pretty much to most awesome person you have ever met. Spend time with Him today. He wants to hang with you. Don’t let your day slip by and not see Jesus.

Next week we will discover the Place of Hope.

 

Half Full

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I had to shovel today. Twice. Living in Wisconsin can be frustrating. We have all four seasons but they don’t seem to be equal in length. Winter (cold, snow, ice etc.) seems to last 10 months with the other two months being composed of the other three seasons. Yes, I exaggerate but not by much. =-)

But as I kept throwing snow over my shoulder today, I was thinking about the warm weather that is soon approaching. It won’t be too long before I am outside wearing shorts. I look forward to cutting the grass again. But some people call me an optimist.

Yes, I am an optimist. You know why? Hope. That one word is reason enough to be an optimist. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic (hopeful) in this world but we don’t have time to list them all here.

But hope can be fleeting. I mean that my hope in stuff, events, or even people can be broken or disappointed. That hurts. Generally speaking, no one tries to let me down or do something that would hurt the hope I have but it happens. Life can be filled with despair.

So what?

Romans 5:5 says, “And hope does not disappoint us,” The hope that is talked about here DOES NOT bring shame or disgrace. It DOES NOT put us to utter confusion. It DOES NOT disappoint. That is the kind of hope that never lets me down.

To really get the whole picture, read Romans 4 and 5. It will explain why there can be hope and what our hope is in. If my hope is correctly placed then I won’t need to live in despair anymore.

When my kids are fighting…I can have hope.

When my wife and I are in a disconnect moment…I can have hope.

When my job really sucks…I can have hope.

When my body hurts just because I am over 40…I can have hope.

When I have to shovel snow, again…I can have hope.

When my former addiction flares up…I can have hope.

When ________________…I can have hope.

I can have hope BECAUSE…of Jesus Christ. It is all about what He did. Whatever is happening right now is does not change the fact that Jesus loves me and died for my sins. Like I said, Romans 4 and 5, is a really good place when looking for hope.

For the rest of this month Hope is the topic.

So today, week 1, the Person of Hope is Jesus Christ

Until next week, have hope. Is your glass half full?

half full 2

Chemistry, Christ, and Colossians

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Today is the first day of Lent so I thought I would post my wonderings about it. To do this, I want to make a comparison from the realm of chemistry. Please keep reading even if you hate science! This will worth two minutes of your time. =-)

The Law of the Conservation of Mass states that mass cannot be created or destroyed; it is merely rearranged.

Here is a chemical equation with chemical symbols: CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O

Same equation in word form: methane gas + oxygen = carbon dioxide + water

Again but in picture form:

conservation of mass 3

If you look at all the atoms, they are the same on both sides of the equation. There are four different substances but the amount of matter is the same.

 

Now let’s take a look at the idea of giving up chocolate for Lent. Fred is pretend. I am using Fred as an example so anybody named Fred is not to be directly associated with this post. =-)

Fred has 100 units of energy to spend each day of his life. These 100 units can be divided up however he wants to divide them. Fred really likes chocolate. He devotes 10 units of energy to chocolate. Thinking, buying, making and the eating of chocolate takes up 10 units of the 100 units that Fred has each day. The other 90 units are spent on everything else. Fred is disciplined so he only devotes 10 units for chocolate. Never more and never less. For Lent, Fred decides that he will give up chocolate. It will be difficult be he thinks he can do it. Now, he has all 100 units of energy to delegate to whatever he wants. Just because he always gave 10 units for chocolate does not mean that he loses those 10 units when he gives up chocolate. He has 100 units and will always have 100 units to spend. This is the law of the conservation of mass working in his life.

Let’s see if we can put this all together.

I can pursue God however I would like. Reading my Bible, praying, going to church, worshipping, or having coffee with another believer are all ways I can do this. I have the same amount of time that everyone else has. There may be a myriad of ways to spend it but it is there everyday. For Lent, the idea is that I am supposed to give up something. Great! But now what do I do with the extra time I have? Fred has 10 units of energy (that he used to spend on chocolate) that he gets to spend on some other thing. Maybe he will read or write or play a board game.

If I give up something, what will I do in place of that thing?

 

Whatever you are doing this Lenten season, I hope it helps you to draw closer to God. If you need to fast or give something up for these weeks leading to Easter, than do it. Make an effort to find God in a new way. I think Lent is about clearing the clutter and listening for our Lord. Whatever actions that means for you, awesome.

Remember the law of the conservation of mass. You will spend your effort on something so you might as well make it something great.

Colossians 3:17 says “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

 

One Yard of Christmas, pt. 3

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Shepherds. They saw angels on the night of the birth of Jesus. Can you picture these smelly guys hanging around the fire? They could have been dreaming up stories for their families. Maybe they were thinking of how to make some money off of the angel visit. Perhaps a book deal was on their mind? Actually, we know that they were not doing any of those things. As with the first two parts, let’s go to the Word of God.

Luke 2:16-17 “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,”

Here is how Dictionary.com defines the word feet:

Noun, 1. a plural of foot.

Foot, noun, plural feet

  1. (in vertebrates) the terminal part of the leg, below the ankle joint, on which the body stands and moves.

 

One of the best parts about the gospel (or the story of Jesus) is that is forces us to make a decision. It seems that the shepherds were among the first to hear the story.

Once they heard, they moved. It was clear to them that what the angels were speaking of was for real. They had a choice and they made that choice without hesitation. It says the “hurried.” And when they saw the baby, another choice was to be made. They “spread the word.”

It is like having a can of paint. It must be spread in order to do the job. It won’t do any good to anyone if it stays in the can.

paint can

Friends, Christmas is all about God giving to us something unique. His son. The other part of that is us giving the world the same gift.

WE MUST TELL THE WORLD ABOUT JESUS. And it is my opinion that this “feet” is the most difficult of the three.

In conclusion,

  •  One Yard of Christmas
    • Feat
    • Fete
    • Feet

Will you wonder in the feat of God giving His son to us?

Will you celebrate the birth of Jesus instead of commercializing it?

Will you be like a paint brush and spread the truth about Jesus?

I hope you have enjoyed a One Yard of Christmas. It has been fun reliving Christmas this January.

Now go, spread the word and enjoy Jesus for the rest of 2015!