Gospel of Hope - Gospel of Love
I have written about a Gospel of strength and passion, conviction and justification. A Gospel that offends and changes. This type of writing is meant to wake up the sleeping and the weak. Hopefully giving strength and vision for change. But now I turn to the desperate and the despondent. Those without hope and a clear vision for the future. Our Savior and our God is a God of love and hope and grace and mercy. The Scripture is full of examples of times when the Gospel was tough and convicting. But there are also times and examples of God's love and mercy. He has come to seek and save that which was lost. See all of us were lost. We all turned out backs on God. We broke communication and treated Him as though we didn't need Him. Only to realize the truth later in life.. that the goal and the journey and the pursuit of happiness is not only to find God but to find Him and still be searching for Him.
That is paradise.
I think that we all at times are ourselves despondent.. that is we feel without hope. At times even we who are Believers can get that way but only because we tend to forget that it is not our dreams and desires or especially our plans that fail that cause us to lose hope but it is more like our tendency to forget that God has a better way and a better plan for us that causes us to give up on hope. However, hope is not a frailty or a sense of comfort only in times of trouble. Hope is an neverending, everlasting, life-affirming gift. A gift that if we choose to accept it, lasts in the good times and in the not-so-good times. Hope stems from this Gospel that we speak of. Hope stems from the promise of a Savior. Hope grows with the anticipation of salvation. Hope is synonymous with the cross. It is the thread of the Gospel of Christ. Salvation that springs up from the ground with the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! This Gospel is a Gospel of Love - a Gospel of Peace.
That is paradise.
I think that we all at times are ourselves despondent.. that is we feel without hope. At times even we who are Believers can get that way but only because we tend to forget that it is not our dreams and desires or especially our plans that fail that cause us to lose hope but it is more like our tendency to forget that God has a better way and a better plan for us that causes us to give up on hope. However, hope is not a frailty or a sense of comfort only in times of trouble. Hope is an neverending, everlasting, life-affirming gift. A gift that if we choose to accept it, lasts in the good times and in the not-so-good times. Hope stems from this Gospel that we speak of. Hope stems from the promise of a Savior. Hope grows with the anticipation of salvation. Hope is synonymous with the cross. It is the thread of the Gospel of Christ. Salvation that springs up from the ground with the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! This Gospel is a Gospel of Love - a Gospel of Peace.
