A Living Hope in Christ

Today’s Scripture Threshing for Sunday, April 21, 2019

Today’s Text: 2 Corinthians 4:13-18

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 4:14 (ESV): “Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.”

When former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died. His widow carried out a silent protest in the glare of the whole world. She stood beside the coffin motionless and speechless until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, she performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest.

Whereas, the lifeless Brezhnev laid there, the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the widow hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband. The resurrection of Christ brings hope. Yet today hopelessness and despair are everywhere. We all wish for that, but our hope is not in our own ability, charity, goodness, physical strength, or science. Our hope is instilled in us by the resurrection of Christ.

Peter, who himself was given to despair during the episode of Calvary, writes in a triumphant note, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

There is hope that our sins can be forgiven. There is hope that we can have joy, peace, assurance, and security in the midst of the despair of this age. There is the blessed hope that Christ is coming soon. There is hope of eternal life with God, when the Kingdom of God will reign and triumph.

Quote for the Day: “The power of believers’ lively hope is more cherished in the face of current obvious hopelessness of all things without Christ.” (Simon Olatunji)

Prayer: Dear Lord,over all the other voices, please help me Lord, in my despair and desperation, to hear you say, "I am your hope!" For you are the hope for hopeless. I'm running to you with both hands stretched out and grabbing on to you, Lord, to fill me up with hope. Amen.

With all my Love and Prayer,

Rev Simon Wale Olatunji, PhD

The Darling Bishop (DaBishop),

2321 S Belt Line Rd., Suite 144,

Grand Prairie TX 75051 USA

Email: reachingout@hopeforallnations.org

BBMme: E3F988D2

[Today’s Scripture Threshing is a devotional guide of The House of Prayer Evangel Church USA. Feel free to use it in your family altar and personal quiet times; and to contact us for further enquiry, help and partnership.]

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