Tag: Hope

Laboring in Love

On By AaronIn Stuff About MeLeave a comment

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”  Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?  Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (Joh 3:1-15, ESV).”

I can’t believe it has already been a month since I watched the miracle of my daughter being born into this world.  It was a difficult delivery, and my wife was most impressive.  Have you ever wondered how you would hold up under adversity?  Have you ever wondered how far you would go under the influence of pain and discomfort?  Have you ever wondered what you would go through for another person?  I now know how far my wife will go for one she loves.  I suspect that she is capable of more but from this moment on I now know how far she went.  Who I see her to be and my understanding of what motivates her has changed in a big way.

I was again reminded of one of my favorite verses.  “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2).”  Women, since the Garden of Eden have endured childbirth for the joy that was set before them.  I witnessed my wife endure and I witnessed, no I shared, in the joy that her endurance produced.

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that to see the Kingdom of God you must be born again (Joh 3:4).  Of course, Nicodemus reacts with astonishment.  How can one be born again?  Jesus doubles down in His response, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again (Joh 3:5-7).’”

That got me thinking.  To be born of water, to be born into this world, requires the endurance of an ordeal that is difficult to match short of pointing to an act of intentional torture.  Does being born of the spirit require the endurance of an ordeal and if so, who must endure that ordeal?

The first obvious answer is to point to that which Christ endured on the Cross.  In Isaiah we read, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities (Isa 53:11).”  John A. Martin commenting on this passage notes, “his suffering, which included His death, led to life (His resurrection). Satisfied that His substitutionary work was completed (“It is finished,” John 19:30), He now can justify (declare righteous) those who believe (Walvoord and Zuck 2004).”  Jesus had to die for you and me to be accounted righteous.  “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (Joh 3:15).”

But I think there is second sense in which an ordeal must be endured. At the moment of belief, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior, it is a very clear fact that we are not whisked away to be at home with Him. We remain until He calls us home. God, for His own reasons, has asked us to participate in His work of salvation. From the moment you are saved, your life is no longer your own and your duty is to bring the Word of God, His good news, to the lost and the dying of this world. I am reminded of Corrie ten Boom, forced to survive a Nazi concentration camp for helping Jews to escape Germany, who came to count flees and lice a blessing. It was the flees and lice that kept the Nazis out of her barracks long enough for the prisoners to hold a small bible study. Is that not a difficult delivery? Was Corrie’s ability to count it a blessing not connected to the joy that was set before her, the joy of being present at the moment her fellow prisoners were born of the Spirit? The moment they accepted Jesus and were born again.

Paul, encouraging the Galatians writes, “…I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (Gal 4:19)!” At the time of my daughter’s delivery the labor seemed endless. But it was only for a little while and then our joy was made complete. Our labors for those who are lost are also for only a little while. I would encourage you Christian to continue in the knowledge that one day your joy will be complete. The joy of living in fellowship with your Christian brothers and sisters for eternity.

One last thought, those for who we labor are both the source of our pain and the source of our joy.  The passage in which Jesus tells Nikodemus that he must be born again has a small intro…

“Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man (Joh 2:23-25).”

It seemed to me to be a strange introduction to the encounter but now from the perspective that men are the source of our pain in labor it seems to me that Jesus is saying that He knows with whom we are struggling. He knew and knows how difficult our labor can be. Again, keep laboring on in humbleness and gentleness of Spirit and always in prayer for those that Jesus loves we must love also.

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Pregnancy, Punishment, and Prophecy

On By AaronIn Stuff About Me2 Comments

It is almost Thanksgiving and I wanted to give everyone an update on our expected Christmas gift.  We are getting closer!!! If you haven’t heard my wife and I are expecting a daughter towards the end of December.

I put the car seat in the car the other day.  There are two ways to anchor the seat to the frame.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to engage both systems when the instructions state you should only use one or the other.  Of course, as soon as you know you should only use one then installing the seat becomes a lot easier.

For the most part our hospital bag is packed.  I had not even considered that I might need some things in a bag as well.  We are not yet close enough that I worry that we could go to the hospital at any moment, but we are close enough that it is not outside of the realm of possibilities.  Soon, I will meet my daughter as she takes her first breaths.  I am excited!!!

“My hat is off to all those men and women who have been called to service in this endeavor we call childbirth.”

I do have to say that those portions of the birthing class that depict the details of the process, specifically the pain and pain management, are not comfortable.  At one point a scream could be heard in the video’s audio and I had to swallow hard.  And it is not just the pain.  Just about everything to do with childbirth and pregnancy is painful, uncomfortable and/or inconvenient.  I just learned about breastfeeding and it is not as easy as I thought.  There is such a thing as a breastfeeding consultant.  My hat is off to all those men and women who have been called to service in this endeavor we call childbirth.  Thank you!

Anyway, I have often wondered, “why are we being punished?  we didn’t eat the apple.”  That question has always existed, but it is very apparent for me today.

The reference is to the fall as recorded in Genesis.  Satan had convinced Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:1-5).  When she did, she gave a portion to Adam who was with her, implying that he heard the whole argument and could have stepped in at any time (Gen 3:6).  The ultimate consequence of this action is that sin is let loose on the creation and as a result death.  But the immediate consequences are that Satan, or the serpent, is cursed to crawl on his belly and eat dust, man is cursed to work a ground that will fight his efforts, and the travail of women in childbirth will be greatly increased.

“To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.”

Genesis 3:16

But is this a punishment for Adam and Eve’s sin or is there more to this?  Punishment in the bible comes from the idea of judgment.  It is what is owed for an offense.  It is both the recognition that something is not fair and the appeal that it be put right.  Adam and Eve have committed an offense and a judgment is owed.  But what is that judgment?  What is the cost?  Today we hear about the unjustness of a God who would punish someone for an eternity on the account of a finite offense.  But that is based on a misunderstanding of the offense (more on that here).  The cost of an offense has as much to do with who was offended against as it does with what the offense was.  Adam and Eve had offended against an infinite creator the judgment will carry in its value an infinite cost.

What this means is that Eve’s difficulty bearing her child can not be a punishment in that it can not pay the judgment owed.  It is finite.  It would be a finite payment in exchange for an infinite debt.  That check would be returned insufficient funds.  In fact, should all the difficult childbearing of every women down through time be offered in payment the check would still be returned insufficient funds.  That is why Jesus was required.  He is the only eternal man capable of paying that check.

“The sins that lead to the divorce can be forgiven by the atoning work of Jesus but, this side of His return, the consequences often remain; divided custody and the challenges of mixed marriages.”

It, childbirth, must be a consequence then.  Sometimes our sins bear consequences.  The brokenness of a home divided by divorce can be a good example.  The sins that lead to the divorce can be forgiven by the atoning work of Jesus but, this side of His return, the consequences often remain; divided custody and the challenges of mixed marriages. The payment is made but the scars remain.

Still, as a consequence, difficult childbirth is strange.  It does not appear to be connected to the crime.  It follows that an adolescence who commits a crime and comes out of years of prison as an older adult would have their development arrested.  Although they have paid for their crime, they now find themselves in a world without the skills that their peers, who did not go to prison, developed in that time.  It follows that a thief and an adulterer would not be trusted as readily, and a convicted child molester should not be put in charge of a daycare.  Most consequences follow from the sin, but a difficult childbirth does not seem to follow from the sin of disobedience to God.

“…that something is of great joy.”

Then the other day, our midwife reminded us to remember that every pain, every discomfort, is moving us towards something and that something is of great joy.  I was reminded of another great joy.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that we are to look, “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross (Heb 12:2).”  It is one of my regular “go to” verses because I am always reminded that Jesus did what we needed Him to do for us because we are the joy that is set before him.  The difficulty of childbirth is endured for the joy that is set before the parents.

Could it be then that the penalty placed on Eve and handed down through her was not meant to pay the judgment but rather to point to the necessity of a worthy payment and then to the results of that payment?  I think so.  Looking through the Bible the labor of childbirth is often synonymous with most of what we would call the result of the fall.  Jesus describes the coming of the end with wars and rumors of war, famines, and earthquakes as the beginning of the birth pains (Mat 24:6-8).  I have often wondered how we will recognize those birth pains from what we already see today.  The reality is that they are all the birth pains that could one day lead to great joy.

“In the midst of the nation’s sin Hosea pleads with the people of Israel to recognize their situation.”

But beware!  There are risks.  Hosea, writing in the Old Testament gives us a little more clarity.  In the midst of the nation’s sin Hosea pleads with the people of Israel to recognize their situation.  He writes, “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is kept in store.  The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb (Hos 13:12-13).”  Hosea is describing a still birth.  Ephraim has gone through a life under the consequences and influence of the fall and failed to come into real life.  You must be born of The Spirit offered freely by the blood of Jesus.

How difficult would childbirth have to be to be synonymous with the reality of sin?  If sin can be understood through the paradigm of difficult childbirth what would constitute the joy that is on the other side of the labor?  How great is the loss at spiritual still birth?  I don’t yet know why the fall was necessary but what I do know is that Jesus has paid the judgment price for my sin and the sins of the world and the day I believed that to be true I became an inheritor of the joy that was set before Him.  Do not go through this life to miss that!

“What would it take for a human being to be born into eternity?”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you (Joh 16:20-22).”

What would it take for a human being to be born into eternity?  A judgment equal to the penalty must be paid.  Jesus after telling Nikodemus that he must be born again, (Joh 3:1-8) concludes that in order to be born again you must believe that the Son of Man was lifted up to bear the sins of all (Joh 3:9-15).  It turns out that the difficulty of childbirth is one of those earthly things that God uses so that we can understand spiritual things.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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Good Cop, Bad Cop, …and 28 Jelly Beans

On By AaronIn Stuff About Me2 Comments

The other day I had the privilege of taking my adorable wife to our local clinic so that she could be tested for gestational diabetes. And it IS one of the great privileges of this life to be able to enjoy it walking beside her. Often I will chuckle and she will ask me, “what are you laughing at?” And often I will answer, “just you.” It is not a statement of condescension but rather a statement of incredulity. I love her tremendously and yet we are so different it is hard to believe that she agreed to partner with me. That God has chosen her as my help mate is something that I will be smiling about for eternity.

Anyway, our trip was short and as she sat with her small bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans reading the flavors to me I started to realize that we hadn’t properly prepared for this appointment. The doctor had informed her that she would need to bring twenty-eight beans for this particular test. She has a few allergies and it would be important that we select the flavors that are least likely to contain anything that will trigger those reactions. Additionally, while I could just grab the first twenty eight beans that came out of the bag that is not in my wife’s nature. It came to me that we probably should have selected our 28 beans prior to our departure. This is the kind of decision that my wife would consider heavily not just in terms of which beans will trigger her allergies, but which flavors she would prefer, and which flavors would complement versus those that would distract from the others. The time required to drive to the clinic proved insufficient for making these decisions and, as we are living in the days of COVID, I had to leave her at the door of the clinic to proceed on her own.

Later, as she related her story, I learned that there were two nurses in the clinic who had assisted her in this process. She dutifully proffered her bag of jelly beans and clearly one nurse was sympathetic to Sarah’s plight while the other was less so; the good cop and the bad cop. As she told me the story I imagined the good cop holding out her gloved hands as she patiently received each of Sarah’s decided beans while the bad cop forcefully pronounced, “you only have five minutes to get this done!” The whole event culminating in the bad cop saying, “just put them all in your mouth” and Sarah resolutely doing as she was told. I chuckled again as my wife explained to me that she thought five minutes would be enough time to “enjoy” 28 jelly beans. Of course she did.

“How did I marry someone so different or more precisely how did I convince someone so different to marry me?”

As it turned out it was barely enough time to select them and then chew the whole mass into submission. As she asked, “what are you laughing at” I was amazed at her completely different understanding and conception of time than mine. Now please, this is not a moral judgment except in that she and I are different. I am an army officer and planner who trains army officers in the planning process. I once synchronized a one week collection plan down to two minute intervals. I would have plotted it down to the minute but Excel wouldn’t let me have enough columns and rows! How did I marry someone so different or more precisely how did I convince someone so different to marry me? And yet, her differences are so incredibly attractive to me and they never cease to surprise me in new and amusing ways.

Most of my family has heard that Sarah and I are expecting. But this may be new to some of my friends and I do apologize if you are hearing this news for the first time in this blog. We are in a high risk category and we are trying to temper our excitement with our desire not to “jinx” anything. Today, I find myself worrying about almost everything. I pray that our daughter is healthy, and smart, and beautiful. But most important I pray that Sarah and I are able to give her everything she needs to be prepared. Everyday, the world seems to be moving faster and things, often distant things, that I don’t understand have an impact on the very local nature of our day to day lives. Will I be able to prepare her for a world in which I struggle just to keep up? How will we prepare her for the times and the challenges that her generation will have? What will those challenges be?

This morning as I was reading through First Samuel I was struck by the story of Hannah and her son as contrasted to the story of Levi and his sons. Both Hannah and Levi were committed and devoted to the Lord and yet Hannah’s son grew up to be a man of character who understood the moral nature of his standing before God while it was written of Levi’s sons that they, “were worthless men. They did not know the Lord (1Sa 2:12, ESV).” Hannah had been barren and had prayed, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life…(1Sa 1:11)”. She prayed so earnestly and passionately that her lips moved through her silent prayer that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk. Her prayers were heard and God answered with the birth of Samuel. Her prayer of response was, “For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord (1Sa 1:27-28).” In other words her prayer was that the Lord would raise Him. For another child I have prayed. A child that will soon arrive.

“I have no illusions that even if it were possible to be the “perfect” parent that the outcome is assured.”

I have no doubt that Levi prayed earnestly for his sons. I have no illusions that even if it were possible to be the “perfect” parent that the outcome is assured. But my prayer is that the Lord will use Sarah and I to raise His daughter that she will fear the Lord and come to love Him for what He has done for her. The salvation of her parents is assured I want her to know that, so that she will one day make a decision of her own will to place her trust in God for her salvation. What ever successes and failures that she has in this life, in those times that will be given to her, are insignificant in the absence of the one fact of her salvation.

“Why should Christians live obedient lives unto God?”

Adam Clarke, commenting on the worthlessness of Eli’s sons, writes, “These men were the principal cause of all the ungodliness of Israel. Their most execrable conduct… caused the people to abhor the Lord’s offering. An impious priesthood is the grand cause of the transgressions and ruin of any nation…” Why should Christians live obedient lives unto God? Because once our salvation is secure it is not about us anymore. Our obedience becomes a testimony before our nation and our world. Our obedience is about what everyone around us sees, that at the very best they would ask about our hope and our faith and at worse that we would not be the cause that brings anyone to, “abhor the Lord’s offering.”

I have learned much about God’s nature by trying to imitate Him within the context of my marriage. More often than not it only reveals not that I am a miserable husband but how much my flesh gets in the way of being the husband that I desire to be. I am confident that I will learn much about God’s nature as I struggle to be a father. It will probably reveal more ways in which my flesh will get in the way. But as long as I continue to persevere in my faith in God’s goodness towards the goodness that He has promised me He will not be ashamed to call Himself my God (Heb 11:16). And as one of His own my obedience will not hinder my daughter from drawing near to Him as well.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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Therefore…

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,   not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:19-26, ESV).”

It has been used so often that I cannot remember where I first heard the idea. Not to say that the idea is overused it is still truly relevant as we read God’s Word. The idea is usually expressed like this, “When ever you see a therefore in the text you have to ask the question, ‘what is it there for?’” Here the word is translated from the Greek οὖν and as a conjunction it means “and so” or “now then” and is being used to connect the first clause with a clause to come.

I love two things about this particular “therefore” in Hebrews. First, it is pointing back to a little over nine chapters of stuff; that is a big first clause. Because Jesus is the Son of God, because as the Son of God He is superior to Moses, Malchizedek and even to the angels, because Jesus is the founder of our salvation, because Jesus is the Great High Priests, because God’s promises are secure, because Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant, because we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, because of all these things, and more, all of which are found in Hebrews leading up to this “therefore” it is a big “therefore.” The first clause is so huge I am already anticipating the second clause. It is going to be equally huge!

Second, the writer of Hebrews sums up the first clause beginning with the word “since.” “…since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God… (Heb 10:19-21)” In other words, the blood of Jesus provides a way for you and I to enter into His presence in the holiest place where He resides as our atonement. Since all of this is true the writer of Hebrews is going to tell us that we ought to do something; that something is the second clause.

What ought we to do? How should we respond to what God has done for us? Are you sitting on the edge of your seat? Are you so awe struck by the selfless humility of the perfect and all-powerful God of the universe who has given all of Himself for you that your only desire is to know what you should do right now? Here it is… we are to draw near to God. We are to draw near to God and in that nearness, we are to be true in heart; true about ourselves, true about who God is, and true in our intentions towards Him. We are to trust, know, or have faith, that our consciences are clean, sprinkled with the blood of His sacrifice and our flesh purified through our baptism into His death. And, we are to encourage one another to the good works of love. I know, you probably thought that I was going to tell you that we ought to obey God’s commands or that we should live as better people. Nope, we are to abide in our faith, what we know about God, we are to abide in our hope, what we know God is going to do, and we are to abide in love, doing for others that which God has done for us (1Co 13:13). This is how we are to draw near to Him.

What is also astonishing is that is not a concept new to the New Testament and absent in the Old. The prophet Micah, writing to the Israelites around 750–700 B.C., writes, “[The LORD] has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Mic 6:8)?” Have faith in what is good, walk in the confidence of what God is going to do, and do justice and kindness from an attitude of love.

The men and women of the Old Testament knew that God was good and relied on His promises of redemption.  Today as men and women of the New Testament we know how God has redeemed us and we rely on His promises of eternal life, bodily resurrection, and ultimate glorification.  Adam Clarke writes that, “He is faithful that promised eternal life, which is the object of your hope, is promised to you by him who cannot lie; as he then is faithful who has given you this promise, hold fast the profession of your hope (Clarke 1810-1826, Heb 10:23).”  How wonderful is it that when we gaze into the heavens what we find is a God of love who is faithful first to His own word and then to the word He has given to His creation?  I shudder to think that we could gaze into the heavens and see anything else; anything less.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

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Faith, Hope, and Love

On By AaronIn Uncategorized2 Comments

“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Have you ever been reading through a passage and a question jumps into your mind that you just didn’t expect?  For example, “if the greatest of these is love then why isn’t it first?”  It happens to me all the time; and I love it!  The Bible, the word of God, is a mine filled with value that must be mined and experienced miners know when to get excited.  That first hint of gold, that moment when you know there might be more here and that more is the real vein of value.  These random questions are that moment and I have learned to get excited.  Just a little more digging and I am going to find something valuable.

So, what are we talking about when we are talking about faith, hope, and love?  I am not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, but I have come to recognize that I have to be careful when trying to clarify the meaning of words in the Bible.  Our contemporary understanding of a word might not be the understanding that the author intended to convey to his reader.  You and I today live in a culture that has come to view faith as blind.  It is something that we believe apart from evidence.  But this is the exact opposite of the meaning intended by this author.

The word used by the writer is the Greek word pistis.  According to Strongs, pistis comes from the Greek word pĕithō.  Pistis means a persuasion or conviction of the truthfulness of something.  This persuasion or conviction comes from pĕithō which is a verb that means to convince by argument that something is true or false.  It is to agree that something is true or false based on an argument that something is true or false.  So, the author of this passage understands that faith is the belief that something is true based on an argument.   To share the author’s faith is to agree with the author that something is true.

Regarding hope the author uses the Greek term ĕlpis.  Ĕlpis is the anticipation or, expectation of or convince in something.

Marty is one of my favorite examples of how these two terms work together.  He and I served together through two deployments and we are also avid video gamers.  In the years that we have served together I have seen repeatedly his competence in action.  Each of those observations is an argument for my conviction that Marty knows what he is doing.  If I explained them to you there is a good chance that we would agree that he is competent.  We would share faith in Marty’s competence.  I included that we are avid video gamers because in this aspect of our relationship I have also seen Marty snatch victory from the grasp of defeat when I thought victory was impossible.  Marty doesn’t give up and even when surrender might be warranted from my perspective, I know that if Marty is still working at victory we might have a chance.  This is how hope is connected to faith.  I know that Marty is both competent and tenacious.  If we were to find ourselves together on a real battlefield in which we were outnumbered, surrounded, and overmatched I would look to Marty.  I would look to Marty and as long as he was still working, I would have hope of victory.  But my hope is not a blind overly optimistic hope.  It is based on a faith in Marty that is built on a reasonable argument about who Marty is.  It is based on what I know.

When the author of Hebrews writes, “…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1, ESV)” he is reminding you that those things you already know of God are those things that that you can base your hope for the future on.  When we can’t see the future, we can rest upon who God is and know, as a conviction, that the future is good.

This is where love comes in.  The term the author is using here is agapē.  Agapē love is an affection or benevolence for the object of that love that results in active love, i.e. charity, or an affection or benevolence that results from the active love of another.  Therefore love is both first and last.  However, before we get there, this still hinges on two things that we have not discussed; the object of our faith and hope and what it means to the author to abide.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 John 4:7-8

First, let us abide.  Faith, hope, and love abide.  Abide is from the Greek word mĕnō.  Mĕnō is a verb which means to continue, to dwell, to endure, to be present, and to stand.  We are to dwell in faith, hope, and love.  We are to endure in faith, hope, and love.

Now, faith and hope are not enough in and of themselves; there must be an object of faith and an object of hope.  The author of First Corinthians was writing to the Corinthians regarding several disputes among the believers at the Corinthian church.  They wanted to know how to be the best Christians they could be.  After addressing those questions, the author describes the more excellent way, the way of love or more specifically the way of God’s love.  This way is central in that it is how we are to evaluate everything else that we, as the church, are doing.  The more excellent way is to abide in your faith in God’s love.  How has God demonstrated His love to you in the past?  Do you know that when you count your blessings you are really remembering all those times in which God has lavished His love on you?  The single greatest blessing of all time is that God gave His son on your behalf that one day you would be worthy to stand in His presence free of the judgment required for your own sins.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16

Each of those demonstrations is a reason for you to hope that His love for you will continue.  To hope that you will one day stand in His presence.  When you rest in that reality then you can stop living your life trying to make up for the mistakes that you have made.  You are free to live your life in such a way that it demonstrates the love of God.  Our faith, our hope, and our ability to love are built on the love that God has shown for us.  If you don’t believe that He loves you, then you can not hope that He will ever love you, and you are not free to love anyone past your own desires to get something in exchange for that love.

Anyway, all of that came as the result of one random question. A question I am sure was presented by the Holy Spirit and answers that came as the Holy Spirit taught me as I sought the meaning of each word. My hope is that my random thoughts might help you to answer some of your own or even better help us all to generate more random thoughts that will each lead to a rich, deep vein of the most eternal value. If you read anything else that I write do not hesitate to ask questions. Iron sharpens iron as we clarify and reclarify our understanding of God’s word. And if you have a random thought of your own on other topics, drop me a line and ask me if I know the answer. If I don’t well then… maybe, we can work God’s mine together. I am sure that what ever we find it will add to our faith and secure our hope that God will love us forever.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

Strong, James. A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009. Find this resource in the Faith, Hope Love (Life) Store

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