Our Hope

What Hope?

Of course we all hope for these things; for our families to be safe and secure; for our future to work out; to live a long and happy life. Who wouldn’t hope for such things.

In today’s world it can be easy to lose sights of hope; it can be a rare thing to find. Financial problems, wars, violence in our towns and cities and every other bad news story being fed into our homes from the web to the tv threaten the idea of hoping for such idylic lives.

For us we know that the only hope that really cuts through life with any clarity is the hope we have in Jesus. The act of his death on the cross all those years ago still enables us all to live and walk with God; it gives us the opportunity for relationship with Him and that gives us a hope for the future, wherever we are on life’s journey.

Of course this is easy to say and often very tough to live. There are many people living in desperate situations right here in our city and even for those in more balanced circumstances life can still just get on top of you. This is why we always want to be honest with each other and understand that we can only do this life, this faith with others around us. We want to stand with those in their situations and remind them of the hope we have that gets us through.

What the Bible has to say

Here are a small selection of bits from the Bible that we have found really powerful in our journey. They have spoken to many of us on numerous occasions and so we think they deserve a read. And they can say things so much better than we can…

“I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you. Plans to give you the future you hope for”
Jeremiah 20 : 11 – The Message

“If you hold on to me for dear life”, says God, “I’ll get you out of any trouble. I’ll give you the best of care if you’ll only get to know and trust me.”
Psalm 91 : 14 – The Message

“We are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us…but God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself, a pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did by means of Jesus Christ.”
Romans 3 : 23 & 24 – The Message

“This is that kind of love we are talking about – not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage that they’ve done to our relationship with God.”
_1 John 4 : 10 – The Message

“A whole, healed, put together life right now, with more life on it’s way.”
Romans 6 : 22 – The Message

“Obsession with self…is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.”
Romans 8 : 5 – The Message

“I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies, I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.”
Romans 9 – The Message