Hope for our future

I don’t know about you but I could use a little stimulus package of my own. It doesn’t matter if you make $250,000 or $25,000 a year, spending more money than you have is going to get you into trouble. Our problem right now is we have gotten ourselves into trouble. President Clinton encouraged banks to loan money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back and we are trying to cover those bad loans right now.

The late President Ronald Reagan in a speech in Indianapolis shared the following story;
A farmer took a piece of bad earth and made things flourish thereon. Proud of his accomplishments, he asked his minister to come by and see what he had done. The minister was impressed. “That’s the tallest corn I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anything as big as those melons. Praise the Lord!” He went on that way about every crop, praising the Lord for it all.
Finally the farmer couldn’t take it anymore. “Reverend,” he said, “I wish you could have seen this place when the Lord was doing it by himself.”

All too often in our world we feel like we are kings. We get our work done, we get paid, and we feel like we are in control of our world. Sometimes we get the carpet pulled out from under us and we realize that flesh and blood can actually fail. We lose a loved one or our health or we lose a job and we think the end will come but somehow we manage to muster the strength to carry on and overcome yet another obstacle. The United States is notorious for overcoming the worst of situations. Crossing the Atlantic to come here, fighting for our Independence, building industry, fighting two world wars, taking on the Cold War, and beating back a bunch of terrorist thugs. We are always ready for a fight.

One of the things that a fight reminds us of is our mortality. We remember that our forefathers knew they couldn’t do it on their own, every meeting and document that laid the foundation of our country was christened with prayer, even Benjamin Franklin who wasn’t a believer said “And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance?” In our strength we have walked away from the Friend that has delivered us and put our trust in men.

Our hope cannot be put in a man, men throughout history have failed. We need to put our hope in the Creator of the Universe, He has not let us down, He has not lost control, and He wasn't surprised by the outcome of the November 2008 elections. We must not let this crisis go by without capitalizing on it. In these times of uncertainty we need to share Jesus and His Hope with those who are hurting.

The Bible tells us that in the end times the church will experience a great awakening and we may very well be in those times. What does that mean to us? Who are we? We could quite possibly be the generation that is to reach out and be part of the Greatest Awakening in the history of mankind. There are 6.75 BILLION people on the planet. Who are you reaching? Asia is the most populous reign of our world. There are ministries reaching those people right now. Our own Pleasant Garden Baptist Church has a team in South America doing a “Fireproof” marriage conference to share the love of Jesus. We don’t have to get overwhelmed by lost people on the other side of the world, God will reach His children. When Jesus gave us our marching orders in Acts 1.8 He started with the town He was in and told His disciples to share Hope. We need to do the same thing. We need to reach our neighbors, co-workers, friends and family.

Jesus wrapped up the whole bible with this phrase, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important commandment. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mt 22:37-40) If you or your church is focused on anything other you need to get your heart right. If you feel far from God I would like to invite you to CrossPoint so you can get going in the right direction.

Do you feel far from God? Are you losing your hope? Do you need to know where to put your hope? Do you need answers? In these uncertain times I pray all of you out there are in church so you can find the Hope that I put my faith in.
If you need a church I take this opportunity to invite you to CrossPoint. We are a casual church that seeks to win the lost and bring those far from God, closer. Wear what you are comfortable to worship in and plan on a heartfelt experience. We are also looking for a contemporary worship leader.