BRINGING THE KINGDOM NEAR (HOPE)

Last year Marlaena Cochran spoke at one of our CCC worship gatherings on the topic of hope. She referenced Eugene Peterson who describes hope with these words:

"Hope is imagination put in the harness of faith. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what He said He will do."

I love that description and it fits so well with Jesus announcement in Mark 1:15: "The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" A spiritual, economic, and political malaise had settled upon much for first century Palestine. Although in the back of their minds, the Jewish nation had a promise from God that one day His kingdom would be established, quite frankly there was very little expectation and even less confidence that God would actually do what He said he would, at least in their lifetime. When Jesus announced that the in Him the kingdom had come, he was declaring that God was now doing the very thing God said He would do. Jesus came to proclaim HOPE.

Hope is a powerful weapon in this kingdom revolution. Hope has the capacity to counteract, and even neutralize its arch rival, despair - that brooding, oppressive sense that things will never be any different. One of my favorite texts of Scripture comes from Ephesians:

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:20 -21)

Immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine - that's hope: imagination in the harness of faith!

Bringing the kingdom near means incarnating a message of hope - becoming and living day in and day out, as people of hope. Today let your faith in God run wild. Live with a confident and alert expectation that God will do what God said He will. And as a kingdom revolutionary, bring that message into the circles of despair that are all around us.

Let's keep hope alive!