Hope in the Promise

Scripture: And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts 26:6-9

Observation: All accusations against Paul - the reason he is persecuted now, and the reason he himself even originally persecuted the church - boils down to two points:

1) Faith in God includes with it the hope that there is eternal life.

2) The way for receiving that hope from God is through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, a.k.a. Messiah.

The Jews believed the first of these. However, they had surrendered their understanding of the second of these in favor of The Law and all the myriad of rules that had now formed around The Law. As a result, they persecuted Christians despite the fact that the primary message of Christians was that the prophets all stated that the hope of eternal life was found in the Messiah, and Messiah had now come.

Application: I am reminded that, today, there are really three kinds of people when it comes to faith in God and Jesus. Christians believe in God, and believe that faith in Jesus provides for eternal life. Agnostics reject the existence of God. However, in between is this ... a large spectrum of people who believe in SOMETHING related to possible eternal life related to some kind of more powerful and spiritual being, but have no idea how to get there.

Unfortunately, the real challenge for Christians isn't always to just tell people about Jesus, because the real "issue" is that people don't want an answer to their hope for eternal life ... at least not an answer that will force them to change their way of life. This is what some people mean when they say they don't want to change their lifestyle to become a Christian. At worst, that can mean they know some pretty hypocritical Christians and don't want to be like them. At best, though, it means that they have chosen to be completely embedded in the world and want nothing to do with any concept that may challenge the status quo of their lives.

What amazes me personally is when those same people say that their lives ... suck. I have seen that - people who talk about how terrible life is, but that they would never want to change it. That of course is the greatest lie of Satan - the lie where he disassociates cause and effect related to poor decision made related to God, and painful results of our lives, and ways of responding to and coping with those results.

Prayer: Lord, may I be part of your work to help others connect up points in their lives between their hope in eternity, and faith in Jesus. The connection is clear, solid, and unmistakable. I will seek to deliver the message of that connection daily. Amen.