Bible, Devotional Reading, Gospel Spirituality, Missional Living

Bring Hope to Your Hopeless City

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. (Matthew 5:14)

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Ronald Reagan described America as a city on a hill because it is the hope of immigrants from for a better life. Do you remember the second Godfather film? There is a great scene after young Vito Corleone flees Italy. He comes through Ellis Island yet must be quarantined due to an illness. His little hospital room faces the Statue of Liberty. The sick little boy sits in his room looking at Lady Liberty and begins to sing a hopeful little Italian tune. Even in his sickness he was hopeful that America would provide him a better life. Lady Liberty was lighting the way!

 

A city on a hill is distinct from those below it. Further, its height communicates superiority in some way. The city above is better than the city below. But, how does the city above relate to the city below? The city above is a hopeful symbol to those below by beckoning them to something superior. Jesus is saying the city on a hill is a symbol of hope. The Statue of Liberty is about hope. Likewise, the church is to be a symbol of hope to the hopeless around us.

 

Our marriages don’t have to be perfect, but they should provide hope for the marriages around us. Our parenting doesn’t have to be perfect, but we should be able to give hopeful advice about how to do it according to the Bible. As employees we should provide a hopeful way forward by being more ethical and Christ-like than others in our office. Christians and the Church are to be symbols of hope for a hopeless world.

 

The gospel is the key to this hope. The gospel is how marriages parents and employees become symbols of hope. Couples dads and middle-managers should strive toward clean righteous living. They should carry out their duties with excellence and transparency and grace. Living according to the Law is a blessing and gives others hope. However, husbands mommies and clerks are all going to blow it. Yet, the good news of the gospel is that God forgives and restores bad husbands lazy parents and dishonest salesmen. As we transparently confess our sins to God we are also able to openly acknowledge our failings to others. We can walk in this freedom because God is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Living according to the gospel, especially when we fail, gives hope to those around us. Living according to the gospel enables us to be a city set on a hill! Neither unattainable perfection nor phony religion is going to bring hope to our city. Rather, walking in the light when we blow it highlights our hope on the gospel. Walking in the gospel is how we bring hope to our city.

 

Is there a part of your life you are keeping in the dark? Is there a failing that you are refusing to confess to the Lord or others? Have you blown it and now want to quit due to the condemnation you feel? Believe the gospel to the degree of bringing sin to the light. Bring hope to those around you by radically believing the gospel…especially when you fail!

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Bible, Devotional Reading, Gospel Spirituality, Jesus

Jesus is Deeper Still

Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Jesus is a lot of things. He is a King who sees into the future gives us direction on the way we should go. Jesus gives us order. He is also a Prophet who knows what is best and gives us teachings on how we should live. Jesus gives us the truth. But, he is also a Priest comforting us when we are in pain, giving us the right emotions and feelings when we need them.

 

 

The first glorious implication of God being with us is that when we are suffering through pain…we have a Jesus that will comfort us. We don’t just have a King who will bark orders at us, or a Prophet who will scream sermons at us, but a Priest who will sympathize with us and comfort our hurting souls.

 

When we are hurting, Jesus loves us to the degree that he will feel our pain with us. Jesus will identify with your situation when you are struggling. Please hear me, when you are in pain, Jesus feels compassion for you. Immanuel-Jesus is a co-sufferer with you.

 

 

But we don’t naturally believe this when we are in the middle of a painful moment. We don’t instinctively believe God is with us and for us and will comfort us when we suffer pain. This is the great act of faith through pain. Believing he is with us is the first step of surviving pain. Believing he will comfort us is how you not only survive but also mature through pain. At our weakest moments if we look up to him for aid he receives the glory. When we confess our need of him, he becomes the hero. We need him to survive pain.

 

 

Betsie ten Boom suffered through many painful moments in her life. She lost her mother while she was a child and lived with her father and siblings in Amsterdam. Many of you might have read of her family in her sister’s book titled “The Hiding Place.” The ten Booms’ were devout Christians and had a history of serving those in need in their community. When the Nazi’s invaded they converted a portion of one of their bedrooms into a hiding place for Jews fleeing for their lives. Eventually they were discovered and send to prison. Ten days after arriving in prison Betsie’s father died. Betsie and her sister Corrie were later sent to a concentration camp. Sadly Betsie’s struggles continued and she died in the Nazi concentration camp. Before Betsie passed her sister reports that she taught her, “there is no pit so deep that god is not deeper still.”

 

 

Do you believe that? Do you believe that in your deepest pains? Do you believe in your darkest moments, God will be right there pouring out compassion on top of your soul and thus seeing you through those sorrows?

 

 

But how? How does Priest Jesus comfort us in pain? Hebrews 4:16 teaches us to “draw near” to him in order to receive his gracious and merciful comfort. Drawing near is the opposite of pushing away. What Hebrews is saying is that when we are in pain we are to go towards Jesus not away from him. We shouldn’t push him away, but draw closer to him.

 

 

If you want to survive and even thrive through pain, you will only be able to do it if you believe he will comfort you…believe to the point that you draw closer to him rather than push him away. Do you believe that he will comfort you? If so, believe to the point of drawing near to him.

 

 

Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23). He is with us and for us. He is our comforting priest during seasons of pain. He will comfort you so draw closer to him rather than push him away.

 

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