| Good Morning Everyone, Our theme for this month: “There is power in hope” Our Bible verse for today: “The one who has the Son has life.” 1 John 5:12 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Jesus is our hope” In his book “The Journey of Desire” author John Eldridge writes about the tendency of the church in our day to focus too much on simply communicating facts and transferring information. He writes: “Christianity is often presented as essentially a transfer of a body of knowledge. We learn about where the Philistines were from, and how much a drachma would be worth today, and all sorts of things about the original Greek. The information presented could not seem more irrelevant to our deepest desires.” And then there is also the excessive emphasis on modifying behavior: “Then there are systems aimed at getting our behavior in line, one way or another. Regardless of where you go to church, there is nearly always an unspoken list of what you shouldn’t do (tailored to your denomination and culture, but typically rather long) and a list of what you may do (usually much shorter – mostly religious activity that seems totally unrelated to our deepest desire and leaves us only exhausted).” Eldridge’s point is that although knowledge is helpful and behaviors matter, Jesus didn’t come primarily to teach us things and to give us a new list of do’s and don’ts. He came to give us life. He came to help us experience life as a child of God in a full and deep relationship with God. And, deep in our heart, that is what we truly desire. One of the major themes of Jesus’ teaching was that He came to help us experience life – really experience it, in all its fullness – both life eternal, and life now. “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10); “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25); “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6). Remembering our Biblical definition of hope: “A confident expectation of good things to come.”, we realize that as the people of God we have the hope, the confident expectation, of life as it was meant to be, life that is full and rich and complete. That’s life in Christ and it’s what Jesus came to bring. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Our hope, our confident expectation, is in Him. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
| Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. |
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Oak Hill Baptist Church 