A Living Hope!

I have been searching for two days in my heart for what to post on this blog. For the fourth straight day this week we are burying a devoted child of God.

I am so thankful that we have something to look forward to after this life! It would be unbearable to love and live for it to all end with one's last breath.

God's Word says "In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you". 1 Peter 1:3,4 NIV

Wow! Did you just get that? At the moment of salvation we are born into a living hope!
Let me do a quick word study on that from studylight.org.

Living here means: metaph. to be in full vigour, to be fresh, strong, efficient, as adj. active, powerful, efficacious.
What I found interesting is that in the original written Word, this word for living (NIV) is not an adjective describing a noun, in the Greek it is a verb. If you like English the way I do, you will eat that up!

We have this living, vivacious hope! Hope for what? Hope to spend eternity with the Savior!

Oh, to be in His presence. To see Him face to face. To breathe in His being.
While we grieve here on this earth for the dear departed ones, we have to rejoice with them for their eternal reward!

In this same chapter of 1 Peter in verse 13, Peter tells us to "set our hope FULLY on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."

What do I take from that? That the grace I am experiencing now, is nothing compared to what I'm getting!!!

Ms. Barton, Ms. Woodard, Bro. Frank and Bro. James are experiencing that grace because they are in HIS presence!

This living hope is what we have to hold on to during difficult times.

A LIVING hope. Not just a hope that is super inflated by man's words and man's dreams. This hope is living, full of vigor, strong and efficient!

To those of us in West Memphis with grieving hearts, let us hold on to this Word, let us set our hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed.

blessings,
dorinda