I Have Such Hope!

A few days ago I wrote about Good Friday and what that day means to Christians around the world. It is the day that our Savior, Jesus the Christ (Messiah) was unjustly accused and brutally murdered and hung on a cross to die. Because of His life and death, many came to know of His miracles. But His death isn’t the most important thing. Yes, it was a horrific way to die, and it had to be so in order to fulfill scripture. It wasn’t His crucifixion that changed the world, it was His resurrection!

Many people wear a crucifix to remind them that Jesus died for them. I myself, in another lifetime many years ago, also wore a crucifix, and a large one - about 2” for years and years. One day a friend asked me why I wore it. I explained that it signified that Jesus died for me. He replied, “Aren’t you aware that He rose for you? He isn’t still on that cross, dead. He is alive, and the empty cross and tomb proves that!”

What a revelation to me! His dying wasn’t the miracle, we all die. No, His rising was! We celebrate Easter because that is when He rose from the dead, the first to be “born again.” He overcame the grave, the veil that signified our separation from God split in two, the earth shook and darkness filled the skies. The light of the world had gone out. Or so Satan thought. I imagine he was thrilled, licking his filthy lips and wringing his ugly villainous hands together knowing the world was his alone. He had full control from that time on. Or so he imagined. His thoughts of devastation and death and hatred were only his. God had other plans.

Jesus rose! He defeated death and took away its sting. He took the grave’s victory (I Corinthians 15:55). We have the choice to live with Him for eternity because of the empty tomb! We have the opportunity to also be resurrected from the dead. Life isn’t over at death, oh no, not at all. Life can truly begin if you just believe.

I spent a good deal of the last year and a half in a depressed state. It was a spiritual depression. I felt separated from God. I couldn’t feel Him. There was no anointing at church anymore, and even though I knew He was right beside me and within me, I couldn’t help feeling like He was distant. My journaling became one sided where once it was a conversation between the two of us. My soul ached with longing for Him. I couldn’t bear it. I cried and cried for him, but I never felt satisfied. It didn’t matter what great things may have been going on around me here in the world, my spirit was crushed, and the loneliness overwhelmed me. It didn’t matter how many friends and loved ones I had, all I wanted was Him. No one and nothing else would do. Day after day I’d cry and plead through my tears for Him to come to me in a vision, let me see Him again. But there was nothing. The only way I knew how to describe it was that I was like an astronaut whose tether had broken and was drifting all alone with no hope through space just waiting to die. No one could save me but Him. It was the loneliest place I’ve ever been. And I couldn’t really tell anyone. There was nothing they could do; this was between Jesus and me.

Very slowly things began to change. Something happened within me, something that could only come from one place - the Throne of Grace. Shortly after the New Year began I started to feel hope arise in me. It started small, just a flicker. But as days and weeks went by, it grew. The little spark caught and just like when kindling gets to a certain point, ‘whoompf’ a roaring fire took over! That little inkling of hope became something inside me that spread quickly and with abandon.

I knew I would have to write once again. I had completely lost any desire to write. I had fallen into the trap of writing for the world’s reward, accolades and wonderful pats on the back because my words were so good. But there were no comments and it was as if I never wrote a blog or posted on Facebook. If no one commented, obviously I wasn’t reaching anyone, and if that was the case, why should I bother? It was an exercise in futility. Nobody cared.

You see, dear Reader, I forgot that it was my gifting, and we give gifts away. I had stopped writing in order to encourage the weary and help the blind see. I stopped writing for God, and wrote for me. I lost my way. It became about me, not Him and who He could reach through me. I had to start over and die to what bore me down and rise up once again for God’s sake!

The excitement that is in me today is almost physical. It takes my breath away with hope! We are living in a time unlike any ever before. We are separated from each other. We are in lockdown in many places. We can only venture out for the essentials. People are working from home, and children are learning via computer. The world is still revolving. The sun comes up and the moon rises in the evening sky.

And people are still complaining. Now it’s about being cooped up and the kids are driving moms nuts, and my internet connection isn’t fast enough. “There’s nothing to do!” the children complain. The streets are empty and parks are closed, and the Stock Market is diving and what will happen to my job? There are many legitimate things to complain about, yes, and worry about? Oh yeah. The media loves putting a death toll on the bottom right of the screen to remind us that covid-19=death, which of course is not true.

So why am I so hopeful? Because in the beginning of the year God placed joy back in my heart. Not happiness, sheer joy! The kind you have when you just know that something really, really good is going to happen! There is an excitement in me, something unlike anything I had ever known or seen before. Something more than I could imagine! I have believed for a few months now that God was going to do something that we can’t ignore. Throughout mankind’s history, God has made Himself known in many amazing ways. This time, I believe we are as privileged as the Israelites were when He lived among them and they heard His voice with their physical ears and saw the cloud that led them through the wilderness. I believe with all my heart that He is going to show us His glory here in the land of the living.

Yes, His glory is all around us and because of this period of isolation people in India are able to see the Himalayas for the first time in 30 years. The skies are blue once again over Los Angeles and Bangkok. Wars have ceased, if only temporarily. Crime is at an all-time low. The night sky is visible in places where smog and pollution have hidden stars for many years. It’s only ambient light now that is keeping us from actually seeing the Milky Way clearly. People are healing from allergies, they are eating better foods. And best of all, people are turning to God in prayer and hope. Our eyes are opening to see Him through His works.

So many of us have been praying for a new awakening and maybe this is it. Thousands have begun watching virtual church and found a place they can call home. Many have come to know what the floor feels like on the side of their beds for the first time as we come together, parents and child, husband and wife, and tell Almighty God our heart’s prayers. More and more we are praying for each other and for our medical personnel-nurses and doctors and first responders. We pray that scientists will find answers, and acknowledge that God is the source of their wisdom. We pray that people will grow to appreciate what they have and they understand that it all comes from God. We pray for an end to this isolation and a cure for all our diseases. We are praying more for the truth to be made known, that there is an end to the lies and deceit that the world’s media have been telling us for decades. It is a time when we can see more clearly what is and isn’t true.

So instead of finding things to complain about, use your ingenuity and begin to come back to the things you love the most. Do you write? Write a letter to an old friend! I love getting letters in the mail. It’s almost a lost way to communicate. If you dance, dance your heart out, and teach your children how. If you sing, glorify God with the voice He gave you. If you work with numbers, figure out a new budget. Have you put off getting things done around the house? One room at a time. Or just sit outside on your porch or balcony or go for a walk and notice things you’ve never seen before, even if it is the architecture of the buildings in your neighborhood. Thank God for the sunrise or sunset that takes your breath away! Make a wish on a dandelion or on the first star you see tonight. Watch something uplifting with your family, learn a new recipe, call a neighbor and see how they are. All of these things make God happy because it makes you happy. That’s right; He’s that kind of God. The One that smiles on you, cheers you on during your trials, and gets up and dances when you accomplish great things. He even loves you enough to hold each one of your tears in a jar. He is for you and not against you!

I hold you all up in prayer and place you in God’s capable hands to meet all your needs. We will get through this. This is a time of renewal in so many ways. The earth is being cleansed, relationships are being healed, and the Church is growing more every day. We are the Church, it’s not a building, it’s not a certain denomination, it’s us. We are the Bride of Christ and we will be together with Him forever if we are saved.

In John 3:3, Jesus tells Nicodemus, who had asked what he needed to do to get to heaven, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He goes on to say in verses 14-17, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man [Jesus] be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God [Jesus].” (brackets are mine for clarification.)

If you died today, would you go to Heaven? Do you know the awesome love of Jesus? If you have a desire in your heart to know Jesus, and to know true life, and life everlasting; or if you have fallen away from Him and wish to renew your relationship, please pray the following prayer of salvation. 

"Heavenly Father,
I come to You admitting that I am a sinner. Right now, I choose to turn away from sin, and ask You to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I believe that Your Son, Jesus, died on the cross to take away my sins. I also believe that He rose again from the dead so that I may be justified and made righteous through faith in Him. I call upon the name of Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of my life. Jesus, I choose to follow You, and I ask that You fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit. I declare right now that I am a born-again child of God. I am free from sin, and full of the righteousness of God. I am saved in Jesus' name, Amen."

Welcome (back) to the family of God! We are now in the same family!