Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 27

                                              Hebrews 10:19-24


19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to Godwith a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

          As the Psalmist once said , "Forget not all His benefits" I've been pondering lately, What are the benefits of being "saved"? Certainly one of them is "hope". As Christians, we have a hope that the world doesn't have. We have a hope that there is a day approaching where all the wrongs will be made right. A day where death will be no more and we will live with the One who created us for that eternal life with Him. Without that hope we are just shining railings on The Titanic.

        Hollywood understands that futility of living without hope. In Castaway, Tom Hanks, upon realizing he has no hope and is destined to die alone on a deserted island tries to hang himself. I just watched Passengers and when Chris Pratt realizes he is destined to die alone on a space ship never reaching his destiny, he tries to kill himself by ejecting himself into space but doesn't have the courage to do it.

     Victor Frankl, a Jewish Psychologist placed in the concentration camps of Hitler writes in his memoirs,
        "... the prisoners who gave up on life, who had lost all hope for a future were inevitably the first to die. They died less from lack of food or medicine than from lack of hope. By contrast I was able to keep myself alive and keep hope alive by summoning up thoughts of my wife and the prospect of seeing her again and by the prospect of lecturing someday after the war on the lessons to be learned from the Auschwitz experience"...

     Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 15 that if there is no resurrection of the dead, we are to be most pitied. Mankind needs hope that there is something beyond this Earth and you can see that in all cultures, something is proposed about an afterlife. Eternity is in the hearts of all man and how great it is as Christians to have the certain hope of Heaven.

     John deals with this a lot.  Jesus, in John 11 says "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in Me, though he be dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." In John 3, Jesus says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life."  John also says in 1John 5, "These are written that you may know that you have eternal life..."

        I have hope. What a way to live! I can't imagine not having hope. What do you do? Obviously medication is the best answer like we see with those carrying toxic guilt. No wonder anti-depressives are the top selling drugs. Better yet, GIVE THEM JESUS!!