Titus 2.13, Romans 15.13, 1 Peter 1.3-5
Jesus Christ is our Living Hope, because we have the hope of eternal life in Him.
Because of His resurrection from the dead, we have hope that we will also participate and share in eternal life with Him, through His blood.
If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would not have this hope; but as it is we have His great and precious promises that we will be raised to life with Him.
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”
Having overcome death, Jesus can now share what He achieved with us, His victory over sin and death, resulting in eternal life.
But, in rising on the third day, Jesus proved that death had no rightful claim on Him.
Sinners suffer the just sentence of death, and their bodies lie in the grave until the final judgement. (Genesis 2.15-17, Daniel 12.1-12, Romans 6.23)
But death had no rightful claim on Jesus because He was not a sinner.
The Father’s resurrection of Jesus from the dead proves that Jesus earned the perfect righteousness that we need in order to be declared righteous before God.
This is the Living Hope which is spoken about in 1 Peter 1.3-5.
Jesus’s perfect righteousness is real and given to us when we receive it through faith in Him.
We have a secure hope that we have been made right with God, because our Saviour is alive today and has secured a righteousness that He shares with all who put their trust in Him alone.
No other idols can share their place with Him, or merit or good works can earn you a place.
The Door of Hope
Contemporary English Version/Berean Standard Bible
I will return your vineyards, and then Trouble Valley (the Valley of Trouble-Achor), will become the Hopeful Valley (the Valley/Gateway of Hope, a doorway for an opening, an opportunity for hope).
And she shall sing there!
In that day”, declares the Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate), “you will call me “my Husband,” and no longer call me “my Master.”
Vs 19 “So I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice and in judgement, in loving devotion and compassion, in loving kindness and mercies. And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord (Messiah Pre-Incarnate).”
Jesus is our Door of Hope, in Hosea God says that he will make the Valley of Trouble a Door of Hope.
He gives us an opportunity to enter into a new valley of promised hope!
That we may sing there and our understanding may be opened and that we may be humbled there.
That is what I saw as I sat on my sofa that day and invited God to take over my life and he showed me that he was real!
That day a Door of Hope opened up before me, an opportunity for hope, so I walked through it and have never looked back!
My surroundings, my circumstances and my future changed completely and now I can sing in His presence!
From the terrible mistake I had been about to make, He gave me a Door of Hope, the ability to turn away and follow Him into a new life!
Jesus is the Door to God’s Sheepfold, He lets us go in and out and find pasture.
He gives us freedom from trouble when we take Him as our Saving Shepherd, he pulls us out of the ditch of sin and we accept His leading in our life.
This does not mean that in our life we will have no more troubles, but He will be with us in it. We give our burdens and troubles to Him, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
We lay our troubles at the Foot of the Cross, this is the Door of Hope!
When we come to Him we are clothed in His righteousness, and in this, we have hope.
As we look to Jesus in His Word, we find that it is a source of living hope, because God’s word is packed with hope!
God has provided everything we need, if we read it with His Spirit guiding us.
It is multi-layered and we find something new every time we come to it, unlocking new levels of meaning as we walk with Him, like an inner room, with multiple doors and corridors, being unlocked as we go further in.
Matthew 13.52 says,
“Therefore, every student of scripture instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who brings out of His storeroom what is new and what is old.”
There is a hope laid up for us in heaven, as a treasure.
When we talk about laying up treasure in heaven, our treasures are the things we value the most.
Jesus talked about the man who found treasure in a field and went and bought the field.
The Kingdom of God is described as a great treasure, a pearl of great price, which we will sell everything to obtain, we would sell everything we have to be in the Kingdom of God and live for it.
We invest our lives in it because of this hope. The hope that Jesus offers us is our treasure.
We value Him above all else, because of the things He has done for us.
He is our Great and Beloved Hope, our Beloved Husband, we are betrothed to Him and we are awaiting the Marriage Feast of the Lamb!
We love Him because of the provision He has made for us, planned for us before the foundation of the world.
We love Him for rescuing us.
Before He even started this little planet that we live on.
What a wonderful God we have!
The very reason that I am doing this blog, is because I want to dig in and unpack His precious gift of the hope He has given us, because it is so good.
I want to dive down the rabbit hole like Alice and never come out, because His love is so great and there is so much to discover!
It’s so good that I want to share it with you!
It’s like finding a stash of chocolate, so I want to share it and say to you, “taste and see that the Lord is good!”
If I kept this just my ‘secret stash’, when I find something good, how selfish would that be of me?!
I’m not sure I would share my chocolate…. 😉
LOL!