TODAY COULD BE THE DAY! (HOW HOPE IN GOD CAN CHANGE OUR DAYS)

     The title of my post is “Today Could Be The Day! (How Hope In God Can Change Our Days)”. You might ask—“Today could be the day—for what?” I’ll tell you my thoughts in this post.
     I’ve always had a little difficulty getting up in the mornings, even during the fifty or so years that I worked. I’ll let you know, however, that I was never late to work one day that I can remember. I retired a little over six years ago, and now I have nothing pulling me to get out of bed most mornings, so it seems my difficulty getting out of bed has increased. This has been bothering me for some time now, and I have been thinking about and praying for a way to solve this problem. I think the solution is simply—“hope”.
     Dictionary.com defines hope as the following:

“The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.”

     Ephesians 2:12 encourages us to think about a time when we were all ‘hopeless’. According to Paul, it’s when we were “without Christ” and “without God in the world.” And then to contrast it to now, with God, where we have hope.
     The Bible, over one hundred times, references having hope. I could likely fill 10-20 pages with hope-filled verses, ones that will almost knock your socks off with joy—but I’ll only quote a couple here, some that we’ve likely heard often, but perhaps don’t think too much about:

1. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
2. “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.” Romans 15:13
3. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
4. "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 8:24-25
5. “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

     I could go on, and on, and on with Bible verses that mention ‘hope’, but I think you get the message. Hope is a foundation of our faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. What do we hope for then that will help us wake up each morning with anticipation for what lies ahead of us for that day, week, month, and year? Here’s a list that I came up with. Yours may, or may not, be different:

1. Hope that ‘today could be the day’ that God’s mighty Holy Spirit refreshes us anew.
2. Hope that ‘today could be the day’ that God, with His great wisdom and mystery, guides us on the path He has for us to share His wonderful love with others.
3. Hope that ‘today could be the day’ that God continues knocking on the doors of our loved ones to bring them to Himself.
4. Hope that ‘today could be the day’ that God starts a great revival where many people come to Him and don’t miss out on the wonderful joy of knowing Him.

     So, I’m praying that I keep in mind these things to help me get up every morning—and face each day with anticipation—and hope!

'THE WALKING DEAD' TO 'THE WALKING LIVING'!

     My wife, Dee, knows me as a Christian with a nearly incurable positive outlook associated with my Christian beliefs. For example: My Bible is filled with yellow highlighted positive parts of scripture—no negative parts. I also usually try to focus on positive topics about evangelism in my Soulwinnersr.us videos. Occasionally, however, I come across a topic that I deem very important that is not so positive. Today is one of those days.

     The title of my post today is “‘The Walking Dead’ To ‘The Walking Living’!” It’s based on a Bible verse that—I’ll be honest, startled me, that I had either never seen, or never noticed. It’s found in John 3, which is a very well-known Bible chapter with some very familiar verses like the following:

1. The first one in John 3:3, is where Jesus told Nicodemus he must be “born again”.
2. Another one is found in John 3:14-15 where Jesus said like the snake Moses “lifted up in the wilderness”, that he too “must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”.
3. Then almost everyone has heard John 3:16 where Jesus said the very familiar, “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

     But the verse that startled me is found in John 3:36. Here it is:

“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”

     So, in other words, people that don’t believe in Jesus, have God’s wrath on them. So, picture it. The thing that was startling to me—was that people all over—family members, coworkers, people that you see in the store, that you see on the streets—everywhere. If they don’t have Jesus—they are walking around with the wrath of God on them. That’s why I term them “the walking dead”. Only these walking dead aren’t zombies. They’re real live persons around us every day.

     John 3:17-18 explains it more explicitly. Here it is:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, cause he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.”

     This is a terrible outcome for our loved ones and friends. What drastic actions do we as Christians need to take about the “walking dead” people in our lives?

1. The first step is to pray like never before—like our very own lives depended on it!
2. The second step is to depend like never before on God’s great and mighty Holy Spirit to open up doors for us to share with our loved ones and friends how very much God loves them, and how much we love them.
3. Step three is to trust God from the bottom of our hearts that He knows everything in the heart of a person and will use any means possible to get that person, the subject of our prayers, to repent and give their hearts and lives to Jesus.

     Only then will many of “the walking dead”—switch ranks to “the walking living”.

CLIMBING THE ROMAN ROAD STEP 7 & 8 (LIVING SACRIFICE/HEAVEN WITH JESUS!)

     I’m very excited today to share my last Roman Road tract post because in it, we’re going to conclude with the ultimate goal of all Christians! I think I loved sharing these posts more than any other posts I've ever done--because they were about the essence of the Gospel that is so near and dear to my heart. OK, here we go.
     My last post, "Climbing the Roman Road Step 5 & 6 (The Response/A Restored Heart),” was about the response a person makes when he comes to the end of his rope. He then needs help from someone much bigger than himself, so he calls out for help from God. His prayer is one of desperation and urgency.
     God always responds to this call, and he gives that person a restored heart, free from sin. What’s next for the person who called out to God and has a restored heart?
     Steps 7 & 8 (Living Sacrifice/Heaven With Jesus!) give us a serious mandate, then a wonderful outcome. The serious mandate, Step 7, is found in Romans 12:1, where Paul wrote, 

"I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” 

     It’s a mandate to, instead of being a dead sacrifice, be a living one. This means that after we become Christians, we obey God’s calling for us to act as Jesus did, to do good works. No amount of good works will get us into heaven--but as Christians, good works are a response of gratitude for what He has done for us. Our good works for Jesus, in a sense, bring a little bit of heaven down here to earth.

     Step 8 isn’t depicted in The Roman Road picture in the tract, but I just had to add Step 8. What is Step 8 of the Roman Road tract? It's the ultimate goal of every born-again Christian. It's eternal life with Jesus in heaven. Paul explained it in Romans 5:21: 

“. . .so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

     It would have been difficult for The Roman Road artist to add a Step 8, “heaven”, onto the top of the picture, but I simply couldn’t leave out the final outcome or scene of the Christian story.
     My wife, Dee, will confirm that I love happy endings of stories like what happens in ALL Hallmark movies. I cry at most of them, and I even cry for joy at the end of action stories like Westerns when the hero wins the conflict and rides off into the sunset with the heroine.
     But what is the happiest ending of all time? It's when we enter the New Heavens, the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem with its streets of gold—and we live with Jesus there for the rest of eternity!