Hope

Hope can sound like a very week emotion, it is used most often in a wishful way - I hope this will happen or I hope things will turn out ok. It all sounds so desperate, like wishing on a star.
The Hope in Christ is not the same. It is in truth the knowledge that Christ stands for us and that our destiny is with Him. Our Hope is eternal and never changing, it is safe in His hands, it can not be lost and is unshakable.
When everything around us is being attacked, when it all looks lost, when it seems there is nowhere to go, there is God! In the midst of it all. He may let us go to our lowest point, but no matter how it appears, He is for us, His Hope in us and for us is assured.

Psalm 42

Prayer To Be Home Safe Again

1 As the deer desires rivers of water, so my soul desires You, O God.
2 My soul is thirsty for God, for the living God. When will I come and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with many people and lead them to the house of God, with the voice of thankful joy, among the many happy people.
5 Why are you sad, O my soul? Why have you become troubled within me? Hope in God, for I will praise Him again for His help of being near me.
6 O my God, my soul is troubled within me. So I remember You from the land of the Jordan and the tops of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Sea calls to sea at the sound of Your waterfalls. All Your waves have rolled over me.
8 The Lord will send His loving-kindness in the day. And His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I have sorrow because those who hate me come against me with power?"
10 As a breaking of my bones, those who hate me speak sharp words to me. All day long they say to me, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you sad, O my soul? Why have you become troubled within me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my help and my God.

Reputation

It is said in scripture that Jesus made of himself no reputation. This of course is not to say that he didn't have one, only that he made very few declaration of who he was, he let His actions speak for Him.
Even though he walked among the Pharisees and Sadducee's (the religious leaders of the time), He was condemned by them for His every action, yet his only motivation was to serve God, to bring freedom peace and love and definitely not to bring condemnation. There is no condemnation for those in Christ!
Those who sow condemnation and accusation in others merely reap it in their own lives (you reap what you sow). The Pharisees and Sadducee's wanted to control people and God with rules and regulations and they judged them when they didn't adhere to these rules. Finally they killed God!
Do not judge or you will be judged. It is Gods right to judge, no one else's. If we seek God in truth and love then whatever we do in truth and love is acceptable to God.
So, we have a choice, do we accept the move of God or do we, like the Pharisees judge and decide that we do not recognise God in someone’s actions because it doesn't fit our picture of God, it doesn't adhere to what we believe God would do or say. How presumptuous and arrogant of us to believe that we know how God moves.
Jesus seeked unity with all, but when they accused and denied the move of God in Him, He rebuked them.
Unity is vital in the Kingdom of God, but when it is rejected then the time has come to shake the dust from your shoes and leave. It is not possible to be in unity with someone that doesn't want to be in unity with you.
The Pharisees are still among us today, let us not be one of them. Let us be unified with each other in truth and love. Amen