Closer Today Than Yesterday: Our Hope in God

Monday, July 6, 2009

Our Hope in God

The Word is first...

1 Peter 1:21 (NIV)

²¹Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984

God has given us many opportunities to believe in Him. For those who have no access to the Good News of Jesus Christ, there is evidence of God in creation. Even the most illiterate and simplistic people can look at the wonder of creation and know there is a God. Throughout history, God has proven his existence with signs and wonders. Yet at every opportunity, man turns aside from belief and puts his faith in things of this world. In an effort to win the hearts and minds of man, God sent his Son Jesus and allowed him to suffer on our behalf that we could be reconciled forever unto God. He even provided a literacy reference, The Bible, to share the facts of this truth and he has preserved The Bible across generations, causing it to be distributed throughout the world.

For us today, it is the story of Jesus and his sacrifice that moves our hearts to faith. We love him because he first loved us. And as we gather around the feet of Jesus, as we place our faith in him, he is continually pointing us to his Father. Thus, whatever faith and hope we find in Christ, is grounded to the Father. If we believe in The Son, we must necessarily believe in The Father.

There is no better vault to store the treasure of our faith and hope than God himself. So let us come to the Father through Christ the Son as it is the only path to salvation. Our faith and our hope are in God.

Shalom,
Carl

2 comments:

Bill said...: Good to have you back, blogging again, to add to my daily devotional discipline.

And you touch on one of the essence truths in our relationship with Christ.

Again, glad to see you back "in the groove," my brother! <'BB>><; July 8, 2009 at 8:17 AM
Bill said...: Carl ... Being back from your mission trip, I miss your blogs, which God uses to help me grow. Please don't fall prey to Satan's desire to keep you away from this place with personal or worldly urgencies. They call it "the tyranny of the urgent" for good reason. <'BB><; July 10, 2009 at 6:32 AM

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So I Stand Near The Gate

I read the below poem at a critical point in my life and it's message resonated with me. My ministry, "Near The Gate" was named in homage to this poem. When reading this poem, feel free to substitute the word 'gate' for the word 'door' and you'll have a little glimpse inside my head.

SO I STAY NEAR THE DOOR

By the Reverend Canon Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr., D.D., S.T.D.

I stay near the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world–
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside, and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it - - -
So I stay near the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door–the door to God.
The most important thing any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch–the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man’s own touch.
Men die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter–
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it–because they have found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him - - -
So I stay near the door.
Go in, great saints, go all the way in–
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics–
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, or sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms,
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture a little farther;
But my place seems closer to the opening - - -
So I stay near the door.
There is another reason why I stay there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia.
And want to get out. "Let me out!" they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled
For the old life, they have seen too much;
Once taste God, and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving–preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stay near the door.
I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door,
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply, and stay too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.
Where? Outside the door–
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But–more important for me–
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
For those I shall stay by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
"I had rather be a door-keeper . . . "
So I stay near the door

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Our Hope in God

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Our Hope in God

2 comments:

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So I Stand Near The Gate

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