Archives For Hope

When God Asks Impossible Things of You

We tend to expect God to act in ways we can understand.

We work, and so God provides money. We pray, and so God answers prayer. We do this, and so God does that.

In other words, we see God as the effect and ourselves as the cause.

When God Asks of You Impossible Things When God Asks Impossible Things of You

(Photo by Photodune)

Life is all about God responding, it seems, and if we do nothing, neither will God.

This isn’t true, obviously. But it’s how we feel.

So what if we’re in a situation where we can do nothing? What happens when we can no longer be the cause?

When God asks impossible things of you?

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Trying to Understand God’s Plan for You

Tough circumstances of life always change our minds about God.

They either tempt us to doubt what He’s promised, or they draw us closer to Him in faith. But we never stay the same.

Trying to Understand Gods Plan for You Trying to Understand Gods Plan for You

(Photo by Photodune)

God’s plan for your life is revealed and tested in times of struggle.

If you’re struggling today, don’t miss the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of God’s plan for you.

Joseph shows you how.

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Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt

Any woman who has experienced childbirth understands it.

Any helpless man who has witnessed childbirth, like me (twice), understands it to a degree. That’s why the Bible uses the experience of childbirth as a metaphor of our lives.

Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt Your Life in Christ—It’s Supposed to Hurt

(Photo: By D. Sharon Pruitt from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA. CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves . . . groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. —Romans 8:22–23

We would all love to have an emotional epidural to where we didn’t feel the pain of life. But that won’t happen.

God doesn’t give us a way to avoid the hurt.

But He does tell us what to think so we can make it through the struggle.

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Good Friday Gives Your Shame a Choice

Good Friday wasn’t so good for Judas.

The guilt-ridden betrayer of Jesus hung himself and then fell headlong, spilling his innards. Hence, the residents later named the place where it happened, “Akeldema,” or “Field of Blood” (Acts 1:18-19).

Judas may have chosen this place to die for a specific reason.

Monastery of St Onuphrius traditional Akeldema entrance tb091306430 Good Friday Gives Your Shame a Choice

(Photo: Monastery of St Onuphrius, traditional Akeldema, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Today, the peaceful Monastery of St. Onuphrius at Akeldema offers no clue to the fact that Judas killed himself at that site—nor does it reveal the Hinnom Valley’s sordid history.

  • Horrific atrocities occurred in the Hinnom Valley during the days of Judah’s kings (2 Chronicles 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31).
  • In Jesus’ day, the city dump lay in this gorge. Some suggest that fires continually burned the trash, and so Jesus used the smoldering landfill of Gehenna as an illustration of hell’s eternal flames (Mark 9:43).

Because Jesus compared the Hinnom Valley to hell, one has to wonder if this is the reason Judas’s desperate regret led him to end his life in this ravine.

Like Judas, you have failed. But Judas’ shame doesn’t have to be yours.

Good Friday gives your shame a choice.

Peter shows us why.

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The Negev’s Sde Boker—The Lord Has Made Room for Us

It takes great vision to see something where there is nothing.

Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, saw the vast expanse of Israel’s Negev as something that offered great potential. In 1953, he settled in the kibbutz Sde Boker, urging Israelis to help him tame the Negev into a new society for Israel.

PikiWiki Israel 6610 Sculpture Garden The Negevs <i>Sde Boker</i>—The Lord Has Made Room for Us

(Photo: Sculpture garden at Sde Boker, by שי קסל CC-BY-2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)

To many, the idea seemed no more than a pipe dream. As a result, the plea fell on deaf ears, for the arid region receives barely eight inches of rain per year.

In the Negev, life has one uncompromising requirement: water. 

Through this simple need in the same land, God taught His people a life-giving lesson.

We can drink from it as well.

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Finding Hope in Jesus’ Transfiguration

Sometimes we need a good dose of hope and encouragement.

We can get so obsessed with the weight of our cross that we forget Jesus showed us what lies beyond it. Today’s hardships can distract us from tomorrow’s hope.

Finding Hope in Jesus Transfiguration1 Finding Hope in Jesus Transfiguration

(Photo by Andrew Storms Happiness CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Jesus’ Transfiguration wasn’t some sideshow He did one day for fun. It came at a point when the disciples desperately needed some hope.

Scripture records it to offer us the same thing.

Some hope when we need it most.

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Reconciling Pain and Prayer with God’s Love

Because God can stop our pain, we think He should.

So we pray. And pray. But nothing happens.

Sad Woman Reconciling Pain and Prayer with Gods Love

(Photo by Jiri Hodan. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

That’s what occurred with Mary and Martha. They sent a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus lay sick. But instead of immediately traveling to Bethany, Jesus stayed right where He was beyond the Jordan River. When He finally did arrive, Lazarus had been dead four days.

In other words, Jesus had taken His sweet time showing up.

From what happened next, I see several lessons to help us reconcile pain and prayer with God’s love.

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The Pool of Siloam—Connecting Sukkot and the Messiah

While enjoying the delightful movie, Ushpizin, I laughed out loud when the family’s uninvited guest sliced the expensive etrog—a citron reserved for Sukkot—and casually ate it. Clearly, he had no clue to its significance!

Although the movie’s English subtitles translate the Hebrew, the movie leaves the traditions of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, for the viewer to decode.

Pool of Siloam excavations from southeast tb070305456 The Pool of Siloam—Connecting Sukkot and the Messiah

(Photo: Pool of Siloam excavations. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.)

How puzzling the holiday must seem to those unacquainted with its modern customs—much less its biblical foundations.

Of all places, an ancient pool in Jerusalem helps us connect Sukkot with its ultimate fulfillment.

A statement made by Jesus—really, an invitation—makes it clear.

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The Secret to Untying Your 6-Ton Elephant

A man in an Arizona circus used to train animals for the movies. Somebody asked him: “Hey, how do you tie down that 6-ton elephant with the same sized stake you use for a baby elephant?”

“That’s easy,” the trainer answered.

Asian Elephant and Baby The Secret to Untying Your 6 Ton Elephant

Photo by SuperJew (CC-BY-SA-3.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

“When they’re babies, we stake them down. They pull and tug thousands of times until they figure out they can’t jerk loose. At that point, the elephant’s great memory kicks in, and they remember for the rest of their lives they can’t pull away. So they quit trying.”

I’ve discovered that you and I think a lot like elephants.

Especially when it comes to sin.

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Why Your Life of Faith Has Gaps

The Bible doesn’t tell us everything.

Not even close. That’s because there are huge gaps between most events.

vivozoom 74818566 w Why Your Life of Faith Has Gaps

Photo: The Zin Valley in the Aravah of Israel. Picture by Noam Armonn, via Vivozoom

Oh, to be sure, the Bible tells us all we need to know. But it leaves out most of the details that scratch our curious itches.

  • What did Jesus look like?
  • Was Nehemiah bowlegged?
  • Did Martha have a sidesplitting laugh?
  • Was David more handsome than Brad Pitt?

We’ll never know. And this offers a huge encouragement in our life of faith.

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