Here is a great outline on hope by Adrian Warnock "Abound in Hope"
I added a few points myself.
Intro
True hope is a uniquely Christian thing – like faith and love – we need the help of God’s Spirit as We seek to explain What the bible teach.
ABOUND IN HOPE!
Romans 15:13. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
WHERE DOES HOPE COME FROM?
Psalm 39:7. “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.”
Ephesians 2:12. “. . . remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
WHAT IS HOPE?
IT IS A LIFE OF JOY AND PEACE, NOT SORROW AND STRESS!
Hope is hunger for and confidence in God.
Hope is holding to a promise from a faithful God.
Proverbs 13:12. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Romans 8:23-25. “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
1 Peter 3:15-16. “....but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
1 Corinthians 15:19. “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
HOW DO WE GET HOPE?
1. By Believing Patiently.
Hebrews 6:11-20. “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
2. By the Word.
Romans 15:4. “. . . through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
3. By the Holy Spirit. (Rom 5:13)
His sovereign movement on our heart.
We can be sure that if we "want" to hope - that is the Spirit's working the first fruit of hope in you.
HOW MUCH HOPE IS ENOUGH?
Ephesians 3:20. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us …”
WHAT DOES HOPE LOOK LIKE?
2 Corinthians 3:12. “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold.”
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Why read to your children: a testimonial.
As most know I am dyslexic and a writer(want-a-be). I have a love hate relationship with words. One of my earliest memories is of my mother reading to me, "bible stories" and passages from, "Where the side walk ends." so when I read this quote from Pat Conroy i was deeply moved. I found myself in the passage like someone rests in their own bed after a long journey. You see, through all my hate of words, with there twisted posters and attempts to confuse, I found a love for the truth, and a desire for reality. I saw words as a sailor sees a boat. They carry us across the ageless, voiceless seas that separate people. They even make a way through our personal river Styx. On them we ride back from the dead into a land blossoming with meaning and life. Words gave me passage and my heart wings for by them I saw the world as a lover sees his love, and as God sees us all, purely, clearly, beautifully real.
Pat Conroy writes of how this same love of words came to him and he skillfully uses them to that end.
“I grew up a word-haunted boy. I felt words inside me and stored them wondrous as pearls. I mouthed them and fingered them and rolled them around my tongue.
My mother filled my bedtime hour with poetry that rang like Sanctus bells as she praised the ineffable loveliness of the English language with her Georgia-scented voice. I found that hive of words beautiful beyond all conveyance.
They clung to me and blistered my skin and made me happy to be alive in the land of crape myrtle, spot-tailed bass, and eastern diamondbacks. The precise naming of things served as my entryway into art.
The whole world could be sounded out. I could arrange each day into a tear sheet of music composed of words as pretty as flutes or the tail feathers of peacocks.
From my earliest memories, I felt impelled to form a unique relationship with the English language. I used words to fashion a world that made sense to me.”
–Pat Conroy, My Reading Life, (New York: Doubleday, 2010), 55.
Reading to your children is important, looking back, I can say it was a means of common grace on a uncommon boy. They did not just define my reality, line by line they beautified it with golden strains of meaning connecting all things in a tapestry I now call "faith". All because a mother, a book, and a boy, met every night before bed.
The word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)
Reading to your child can incarnate such a reality even in the most dogmatic enemy of words. It may even be God's way of preparing our little ones for the beauty of faith.
Merry Christmas --
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Pat Conroy writes of how this same love of words came to him and he skillfully uses them to that end.
“I grew up a word-haunted boy. I felt words inside me and stored them wondrous as pearls. I mouthed them and fingered them and rolled them around my tongue.
My mother filled my bedtime hour with poetry that rang like Sanctus bells as she praised the ineffable loveliness of the English language with her Georgia-scented voice. I found that hive of words beautiful beyond all conveyance.
They clung to me and blistered my skin and made me happy to be alive in the land of crape myrtle, spot-tailed bass, and eastern diamondbacks. The precise naming of things served as my entryway into art.
The whole world could be sounded out. I could arrange each day into a tear sheet of music composed of words as pretty as flutes or the tail feathers of peacocks.
From my earliest memories, I felt impelled to form a unique relationship with the English language. I used words to fashion a world that made sense to me.”
–Pat Conroy, My Reading Life, (New York: Doubleday, 2010), 55.
Reading to your children is important, looking back, I can say it was a means of common grace on a uncommon boy. They did not just define my reality, line by line they beautified it with golden strains of meaning connecting all things in a tapestry I now call "faith". All because a mother, a book, and a boy, met every night before bed.
The word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)
Reading to your child can incarnate such a reality even in the most dogmatic enemy of words. It may even be God's way of preparing our little ones for the beauty of faith.
Merry Christmas --
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Piper and the Baptism of the Spirit.
John Piper takes a refreshing perspectives on the fullness of the Holy Spirit in a sermon he gave last november. I have always desired the church to be open and I like how he sidesteps the major hinderance to openness; issue of identifying baptism with the Holy Spirit as either conversion or a second blessing. Piper encourages us all to be open to more infusions of the Holy Spirit whatever our theological position. This sermon is on John 1:25-34, where Jesus is described as the "one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." Piper writes/says/preaches:
Jesus immerses people in the Spirit. That’s what the word baptize means. There are pictures in the Bible of the Spirit being poured out. But when the idea of baptism (that is, dipping or immersion) is brought in, the point is that the Spirit is poured over us to such an extent that we are enveloped in him.
The point of this image is that the Spirit becomes profoundly and pervasively influential in our lives. When you are immersed in something, it touches you everywhere. So when John says that Jesus is going to baptize with the Spirit, he means that the day is coming when the lives of God’s people will be plunged into the life of the Spirit with profound and pervasive effects. . .
As I have tried to let John define for us what he means by baptism with the Spirit, it seems to me that the term is a broad, overarching one that includes the whole great saving, sanctifying, and empowering work of the Spirit in this age. I don’t think it is a technical term that refers to one part of the Christian life—say conversion, or speaking in tongues, or a bold act of witness. It is the continual, and sometimes extraordinary, outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s people. It immerses them not just in one or two, but in hundreds of his powerful influences.
In other words, if you are not born again, one way to describe your need is that you need to be baptized with the Spirit. That is, you need to be plunged into God’s Spirit with the effect that you will be born again and come to faith in Christ. If you are born again, but you are languishing in a season of weakness and fear and defeat, one way to describe what you need is to be baptized in the Spirit. That is, you need a fresh outpouring of his Christ-revealing, heart-awakening, sin-defeating, boldness-producing power. Every spiritual need that we have before and after conversion is supplied by Christ immersing us in greater and lesser degrees in the Holy Spirit.
Amen John - We all need fresh oil...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Jesus immerses people in the Spirit. That’s what the word baptize means. There are pictures in the Bible of the Spirit being poured out. But when the idea of baptism (that is, dipping or immersion) is brought in, the point is that the Spirit is poured over us to such an extent that we are enveloped in him.
The point of this image is that the Spirit becomes profoundly and pervasively influential in our lives. When you are immersed in something, it touches you everywhere. So when John says that Jesus is going to baptize with the Spirit, he means that the day is coming when the lives of God’s people will be plunged into the life of the Spirit with profound and pervasive effects. . .
As I have tried to let John define for us what he means by baptism with the Spirit, it seems to me that the term is a broad, overarching one that includes the whole great saving, sanctifying, and empowering work of the Spirit in this age. I don’t think it is a technical term that refers to one part of the Christian life—say conversion, or speaking in tongues, or a bold act of witness. It is the continual, and sometimes extraordinary, outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s people. It immerses them not just in one or two, but in hundreds of his powerful influences.
In other words, if you are not born again, one way to describe your need is that you need to be baptized with the Spirit. That is, you need to be plunged into God’s Spirit with the effect that you will be born again and come to faith in Christ. If you are born again, but you are languishing in a season of weakness and fear and defeat, one way to describe what you need is to be baptized in the Spirit. That is, you need a fresh outpouring of his Christ-revealing, heart-awakening, sin-defeating, boldness-producing power. Every spiritual need that we have before and after conversion is supplied by Christ immersing us in greater and lesser degrees in the Holy Spirit.
Amen John - We all need fresh oil...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, December 17, 2010
A Little insight on how American Christians think
Do Americans think theologically?
Jurgen moltmann a German theologian once contrasted his experience of teaches In American with that of Europe. Thought he is reflecting on an experience almost 50 years old It sheds light nature of theological thought.
moltmann: in Germany the students asked questions like "what is the church? That is to ask what is the essence of the church. In America the students asked questions like "how do you run a church?"
He is right most Christians do love our theology to be practical and not bogged down with things like truth. Theology in America has been guided for far to long by the forces of pragmatism and rugged individualism. I think we watch to much DIY TV.. (that is - Do It Yourself TV).
Lord, may one day our questions seek the deep "why" and our hearts long for solid answers and not just the temporary "how to" answers so common to most.. Amen.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Jurgen moltmann a German theologian once contrasted his experience of teaches In American with that of Europe. Thought he is reflecting on an experience almost 50 years old It sheds light nature of theological thought.
moltmann: in Germany the students asked questions like "what is the church? That is to ask what is the essence of the church. In America the students asked questions like "how do you run a church?"
He is right most Christians do love our theology to be practical and not bogged down with things like truth. Theology in America has been guided for far to long by the forces of pragmatism and rugged individualism. I think we watch to much DIY TV.. (that is - Do It Yourself TV).
Lord, may one day our questions seek the deep "why" and our hearts long for solid answers and not just the temporary "how to" answers so common to most.. Amen.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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