The Amish Voice 8
The hope of the Gospel is an amazing thing.
In Hebrews 11:1 it says that
faith is the sub-
stance of things hoped for...
According to
this scripture, hope is the foundation of faith.
Psalms says,
“Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the
LORD his God
." and in Psalms 119,
“
Thou
art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in
thy word.”
And in Psalms71:5,
“
For thou
art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my
trust from my youth.”
And again in
Psalms130:5
,
“I wait for the LORD, my soul
doth wait, and in his word do I hope.”
The Bible has much to say about hope but
we, in today's world, sometimes misinterpret
the true biblical meaning of this word. A lot
of times we tend to think of this hope as a
wishful thinking kind of hope. Like some-
times we say, "I hope my mom comes over
today or I hope I can make it to town before
the store closes."
The true biblical definition of this word ac-
cording to the Strong's Greek dictionary
means
: expectation of good, hope, in the
Christian sense; joyful and confident ex-
pectation of eternal salvation
.
The entire New Testament was originally
written in Greek and it is very helpful to look
up the definition of some of these words in a
Greek/ English dictionary such as is found in
the back of the Strong's Exhaustive Concord-
ance. According to these definitions, hope is
something that we can have a confident ex-
pectation of attaining that which we are ex-
pecting to accomplish.
One reason that we can have this kind of
hope is because of what our hope is founded
on. According to the above quoted verses our
hope is in the Lord and in his Word. A per-
son's word is no better than the person's abil-
ity to fulfill those words. Now we know that
the Lord is able to do whatever he wants to
and that He is all powerful. Paul said,
"He
that has begun a good work in you is able to
complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ."
People, is our trust in the Lord and His fin-
ished work on the cross or is it based on our
own works? If it is based on our own works,
then it is just a wishful thinking kind of hope.
But if our hope is in the Lord and His
strength and power then we have the kind of
hope that will endure unto the end.
He is the one who created everything we
can see, smell, taste, feel and hear.
He is the eternal God who was and is and
is to come.
By him all things consist and in him we
live and move and have our being.
Even the very air that we breathe was
created by him, and according to Colos-
sians, everything is held together by Him.
This same God is the one who said that if we
believe in Jesus as our Savior then we have
eternal life. Do we truly believe this or do we
think we can add something to that?
Peter said we have a living hope. Now if we
have a living hope why do we still doubt?
We have a living hope because we have a
living, resurrected Savior and King. He is
able to save us to the uttermost, according to
Hebrews 7:25, because he is a high priest
after the order of Melchisedec and is seated
at the right hand of the Father interceding for
us.
According to Peter,
His divine power has
given unto us
ALL
things that pertain
unto life and Godliness through the
knowledge of Him that has called us to
glory and virtue: whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promis-
es: that by these we might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through
lust. —2 Peter 1:3-4
When we try to add to what God has sup-
plied us with, it is an abomination to him.
We must get rid of all idols in our lives and
put our hope in Him. This kind of hope will
not make us ashamed but we will, like Paul
wrote in Hebrews 6:17-20:
Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of the promise
the immutability of his counsel, con-
firmed it by an oath: That by two immu-
table things, in which it was impossible
for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to
lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Which hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and
which entereth into that within the veil;
Whither the forerunner is for us en-
tered, even Jesus, made an high Priest
for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
May God bless each and every one of you us
as we grow in faith and in the full assurance
of hope unto the end.
A fellow servant in Christ,
Jonathan Helmuth
4199 Old Rt. 14
Dundee, NY 14837
607-351-1593
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The Hope of the Gospel
—by Jonathan Helmuth