“And now
abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest
of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
At Friday Study Ministries, the
First Church On The Net, we are very interested in
technological advances that will enable others to be a
part of our church. Wonderful devices allow those who
have lost the use of their bodies to be a part of our
ministry through the computer. Mouth wands, voice
programs, tracking systems – God has enabled
technological people to come up with devices that work
WONDERS for many.
I have a voice program on my
computer that enables me to speak a sentence into a
microphone and watch it appear on the computer screen.
It’s not perfect because of something called “ambient
noise.” It will hear my words, but it also hears
such things as the noise of a car in the street, the
barking of a dog, or an airplane passing over the
house. The program gets confused and sometimes the
wrong words will appear on screen as it tries to figure
out the sounds coming from the neighbor’s lawnmower.
We have the same problem. The
hopes we have for our lives in THIS world, can be like “ambient
noise,” distracting us from understanding that
our real need is the Lord. Yes we may have the good and
useful things of this world, like jobs, money, families,
and so on; but we can’t place our trust in them - our
faith, our hope and our love, must be in Him.
1st Corinthians Chapter
13 has been called the “love
chapter” because it contains a beautiful and
complete definition of what love should be. We learn
that “prophesy” without
love is just noise (verse 1). Mere “knowledge”
is “nothing” compared to love, and even great “faith”
is empty unless it is based in love (verse 2). Giving
to the poor, which we would all agree is wonderful, is “nothing”
in the absence of love, and martyrdom is a waste of time
compared to a heart filled with love (verse 3).
Chapter 13 continues with a
description of what love really is, and if you’ve never
read it, do it soon. Paul, the author of Corinthians,
ends with this statement: “And
now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the
greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
You could conclude that if you’re a
loving person, “faith”
and “hope” really don’t
matter and you can forget about them. That conclusion
is wrong. All three: “faith,
hope (and) love”
abide forever and it is impossible to imagine one
without the other. The prophet said of faith, “The
just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4)
which tells us this: to be JUST in the sight of God, to
be ALIVE in Him, you must have “faith”
in the Lord. And you need hope.
What would life be like without “hope?”
We could do NOTHING, for we would give up trying. We
would only see our bodies and minds weaken as life goes
on - but we don’t need be afraid! The present will
indeed not last, but God gives us life – forever.
David
said to (and about) God, “Lord…
My hope is in YOU” (Psalm 39:7). Have you felt
EMPTINESS? Look to God for He will fill you with all
that is good. A missing ingredient for many who are
labeled “clinically depressed,”
is simply that we all need to KNOW that God cares for us
and He will bring us through. Such awareness is called
“hope.”
Jesus gave us good looks at what “hope”
is all about. He said, “Do not
fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and
give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not
grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail,
where no thief approaches nor moth destroys”
(Luke 12:32-33). He’s telling us that looking to the
things of this earth is not enough. The billionaires
who are envied by many will lose it all, for you
literally “can’t take it with
you.” You need God’s love, His faith and the
hope that He gives to you. There is so much fear in
life, but we don’t need to be afraid when we BELIEVE in
our good Lord. Look to the One who offers you eternal
life. You and your loved ones have everything – in Him.
Many waste their lives devoting
themselves to acquiring goods, making a reputation, or
promoting some earthly cause. The cause might even be
noble, but mere earthly goals are ambient noise compared
to our real need. Some reject Christ because they don’t
want “a pie in the sky
religion.” Actually their real difficulty is not
“heaven,” but instead
their problem is unbelief. His Solution to our need is
higher than the ideas of humanity.
We’ve been reading in “Guideposts”
about the Season of “Advent,”
a commemorative time that leads to Christmas. The
themes of Advent Sundays are: “hope,”
then “love,” followed
by “joy” and finally “peace.”
We are touched with hope through His Word, and when we
turn to Him, we discover the LOVE of God in Christ
Jesus, and as His love spreads through us, we are filled
with joy; as we find peace with God through His Son.
I’ve “done” funeral services for
those who do not know the Lord personally, and it is
difficult, to say the least. It is important to look to
the family to find ANYTHING in the life of the deceased
that would suggest they might have somehow, at some
point, had faith in the Lord. There is an extra sadness
involved, for the loved one is simply – gone! But for
us who look to the Lord it is not like that. Billy
Graham, in “Hope for the
Troubled Heart,” said: “The
believing Christian has hope as he stands at the grave
of a loved one who is with the Lord, for he knows that
the separation is not forever. It is a glorious truth
that those who are in Christ never see each other for
the last time.” Death is temporary for those who
have looked past the ambient noise of this world and
placed their faith, their hope in Him.
Jesus is the lifeline to God.
NEVER lose hope, for He is with you. George Mueller,
that great man of God, said: “There
is never a time when we may not hope in God. Whatever
our necessities, however great our difficulties, and
though to all appearance help is impossible, yet our
business is to hope in God, and it will be found that it
is not in vain.” Whatever your problems in life,
you can safely look to the Lord – forever!
We’ve heard from Jesus Christ, Paul
the Apostle, David the King, Billy Graham, George
Mueller, the Lenten season and the Bible. They all say:
HOPE in God! Let’s do it now:
Father, let me look beyond the “ambient
noise” of my life and place my hope in Your Son.
Forgive my sins, and Lord, I trust in You now. I am
Yours. In Jesus Name. Amen.
