“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3 NIV).

Have you ever eaten an apple from an apple tree you planted?

My guess is “no.” I know I haven’t. When it comes to apples, I’ve been the happy recipient of another’s “living hope.” Someone else had enough hope in the future to plant an apple tree.

What is this “living hope?” Maybe one way of answering this would be to ask what would “dead hope” be?

If we consider that the apostle James said there was a kind of faith without works that he called “dead faith,” then perhaps the same may be applied to hope. If dead faith is faith that has no effect, takes no action, bears no fruit, then living faith must be faith that works, faith that acts, faith that does bear fruit.

By analogy, “dead hope” would be hope without present result. This kind of “dead hope” might explain the spectator Christian who passively waits for heaven while watching the world go to hell. This hope bears no fruit. This hope has no “life” for today. This is not the hope of which Peter preaches.

When we have “living hope,” we plant today with a confidence that Christ will cause it to bear fruit tomorrow. This “living hope” is not made of thin, doubtful stuff. No, it is a certain expectancy that since Christ kept His promise to be raised from the dead, He will keep all of His other promises for us too, especially the one that we will be raised like Him.

This living hope should move us to bear fruit in our present world and with our present bodies, knowing that what we do by faith and by the power of the Spirit will be kept for us in eternity.

Christ’s resurrection means that we can finally get to taste an apple from a tree we planted.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:22-25 NIV).

This is a photo of my daughter-in-law, Nicole, at her baby shower last Sunday. Also pictured is my first grandson. What? You don’t see him? Oh, he’s there. Just ask Nicole. She’ll tell you that the baby boy is definitely there! She gets constant reminders that even though she doesn’t have him yet, he’s surely coming.

The apostle Paul said that our resurrection hope is like child labor and child birth. He said that all creation is “groaning as in the pains of childbirth.” You see, since Christ has defeated death and become the firstborn from among the dead, the Resurrected One, we now have this same hope. We have the hope of resurrection!

Creation awaits the resurrection of Christ’s followers because when we get our new bodies, the Lord will also make a new earth and a new heaven. Creation can’t wait for the Lord to come!

My wife and I can’t wait for our grandson to come. Sure, there will be some groaning between now and then. But our hope is that a new baby will be born. That will turn our groaning into glory.

We also eagerly hope that all the suffering, frustration and longing that we now experience, which is shared by creation itself, will soon be turned to glory at the return of our King.

He is risen. He is coming again.

“So everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ” (Colossians 1:28 NLT).

“Hey Dad! Did you notice who’s playing in the first round against UNC? It’s your old alma mater, Radford. So, who ya pullin for?” (I received this via text message from my son earlier this week. He enjoys teasing me. I don’t know where he gets this habit.)

“Aye, I’m a pullin for the Highlanders o’ course.” I responded with the appropriate Scottish burr in my thumbs as I “texted” (is texted a word?) him back.

We all know the score now. The number one ranked Tar Heels overwhelmed my Radford clan. I figured as much. This is only the second appearance Radford has made in the NCAA playoffs. The first time they drew Duke in the first round with similar results.

I believe that you have to pull for your team regardless of the odds though. I think most people agree. March Madness seems to bring everyone’s passion to the surface. Being a basketball fan is a way of life living in North Carolina. People are wearing their colors and proclaiming their team everywhere you go around here.

And speaking of “everywhere you go,” what about those first-century Christians? They were certainly passionate fans of Jesus. They wore their “colors” and proclaimed the Christ everywhere they went. They weren’t ashamed of the King’s team. For them, talking about Jesus was natural. It was a way of life.

I’ve noticed that the same people that paint their faces blue and yell fanatically can become strangely silent on the subject of faith. I wonder what it would look like if Christians learned to proclaim Christ as a way of life? Not screaming like a belligerent fan, but naturally talking about the King they love?

I wonder what it would look like for us to pull for the King everywhere we go as a way of life?

“So Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel counted all the Levites by their clans and families. All the men between thirty and fifty years of age who were eligible for service in the Tabernacle and for its transportation numbered 8,580. Each man was assigned his task and told what to carry, just as the Lord had commanded through Moses” (Numbers 4:46-49 NLT).

Numbers is an aptly named book. It is filled with counting. No one can say that God doesn’t care about the details because this book proves otherwise. God cares deeply about the details, especially in regards to His Tabernacle. He even had certain groups or tribes of Israelites specially set apart for setting up and tearing down their place of worship.

Many WCCers have committed to read through the Bible in a year again this year. Our Old Testament reading this week has taken us through very detailed descriptions of how God wanted Moses to divide the people into small groups for fellowship and service. As I read, I couldn’t help thinking about how much God still cares about who is in what group, and how important that group’s work is to Him.

One group that God told Moses to set apart for service was the tribe of Levi. He wanted the Levites to be in charge of setting up, tearing down, carrying and caring for the Tabernacle. He told Moses to divide the tribe into smaller groups with specific assignments within the Tabernacle. Every piece of furniture, every curtain, every pole and pedestal had a detailed way to be handled and an assigned tribe and person to handle it.

When I visited Wayne Cordeiro’s church in Oahu last year, I was overwhelmed with the number of workers it took to set up for their weekend services. Over 700 volunteers start working at Midnight every Friday evening and work all the way up until Saturday afternoon to prepare for their two Saturday night services and three Sunday morning ones. Appropriately, Wayne’s church calls these workers, “Levites.”

The pastor in charge of Wayne’s Levites said, “These guys don’t come out here with a sense of duty and dread. They love it! A cook who works at a restaurant gets off his shift and brings food for his crew. They set up and then they fellowship and pray together. Another group pauses to watch the sunrise and thank the Lord as they finish their setup shift. These people have a sense of calling.”

I think God is still calling us to join “Tabernacle tribes” that count. He still calls people together in small groups for fellowship and service. We’ve been a church of small groups for 17 years now. We’ve been setting up and tearing down and carrying the Tabernacle to the next location. And God has taken notice. What we do and how we do it counts.

I’m fired up about how so many of our people are answering God’s call to get into small groups and get busy doing God’s work. We don’t need 700 like Wayne or 8500 like Moses on our setup teams yet, but we’re growing.

One number that really counts is your number. Have you joined those that God numbers among the faithful? Are you in a “Tabernacle tribe” that counts?

 “Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind” (Psalm 26:2 NIV).

I just had my annual physical. I’ve never enjoyed going to the doctor. After my latest visit, I must say, I like it even less.

“Ahh you’ve had a birthday since your last visit.” My physician said with unexpected glee, while peeping over my chart and his glasses, a smile forming at the edge of his mouth.

“Yeah, I turned 50.” I muttered, while sitting uncomfortably on the white, krinkly paper covering his examination table.

“You know what that means?” He questioned. “It means we’re scheduling you for the works… colonoscopy, endoscopy, blood work… Yep, you’re 50 now. We’ve got to get you checked inside and out.”

“Great.” I replied.

So, it looks like I’m going to be examined “inside and out.” I suppose that’s a good thing. We want our bodies to stay healthy and productive for as long as possible. At least, until Jesus gives us new ones.

Regular physicals are important. But regular prayer is perhaps even more important. We need daily time alone with God asking Him to examine us “inside and out.” We need the regular rhythm of prayer to keep our souls tuned to God.

“Oh, I think I just found those extra ten pounds.” My doctor said as he prodded my stomach. “I see you picked up a little weight around the midsection since last year. Are you still exercising?”

Doctors visits are so encouraging.

Now, I think I need to do more prayer and fasting. Not only for my soul, but for my waistline as well.

“… he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, … It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees” (Deuteronomy 17:18-19 NIV).

A few years ago a I used to meet weekly with a friend for breakfast and Bible study. We decided to help each other memorize Scripture. So, week after week we enjoyed breakfast and rehearsing our Bible verses with one another.

You can buy Scripture memory cards and systems from several vendors. They’ve already done the printing for you. You just have to do the memorizing. But my friend, Ken, and I decided that we should make our own. We figured that the process of making them would help in the process of remembering them as well.

We stumbled on the idea of buying perforated business card sheets for desktop printers to use for our Scripture memory cards. They come 10 to a page, so, we’d pick out ten verses we wanted to memorize and then make our own. I still have nearly a hundred of these cards “rubber-banded” together in my top desk drawer.

But more importantly, I have them in my heart.

We’re not the first to realize the importance of copying, reading, and memorizing Scripture for ourselves. God told Moses that every Israelite king was to make a copy of the entire law for himself and read it daily. That way, he could rightly govern God’s people.

I like the feel of these old Bible-business cards. They have stains from breakfast and bent corners from handling. They remind me of God’s Word and of learning together with a friend.

 “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23 NIV).

“Daily.” There’s something about daily habits. What we do every day eventually adds up to weeks, months, years, and even a lifetime. Daily habits, while seemingly small and insignificant, add up. Our daily habits or disciplines tend to have a shaping affect on our character.

All of us have certain daily habits. We shower, brush our teeth, comb our hair, drink a cup of coffee, etc. These are the things we do to get our bodies ready for another day. We recognize the need for having clean, prepared bodies and faces before we “face” the public. We use a lot of products getting ready. One of them is soap. Whether it comes in a bar or a bottle, we use soap to help cleanse the dirt and odors of yesterday’s activity from our bodies.

Most of us learned this habit of daily cleansing from our parents. I still remember my mother saying, “Gary, come here! Let me look behind your ears!”

I always had trouble getting clean behind my ears, at least to my mother’s exacting standards. But after years of daily practice, I finally passed my mother’s scrutiny. I don’t know if all mothers are this strict, but my mother was always concerned that someone would notice her son’s dirty ears (Or underwear. Heaven forbid that you were in an accident and didn’t have on clean underwear.).

I wonder if our spiritual lives deserve the same “daily” attention? Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when He said, “Take up your cross daily.” Does taking up our cross, the instrument of dying to the old life, somehow become like the habit of using soap? Having received new life in Christ, how are we to grow up in our salvation? Does this involve certain daily disciplines?

I think it does. While developing spiritual habits or disciplines will not earn grace for us, these disciplines can cause us to grow in our desire and ability to live out of this grace, becoming more mature in our following of Christ.

With this in mind, I offer to you a daily habit of devotion that I learned from Pastor Wayne Cordeiro. He calls it S.O.A.P.

S – Scripture. Read a daily portion of the Bible, listening for God’s voice.

O – Observation. Ask questions like “who, what, where, how, when?”

A – Application. Ask “How does this apply to me?”

P – Prayer. Pray that God would help you apply His Word.

Maybe we could pray, “God, would You look behind my spiritual ears to make sure I haven’t overlooked anything. Reveal any area that I need to bring to the cross in order to find cleansing and transforming life there.”

Using spiritual S.O.A.P. makes for a great daily habit. Who knows what character might be shaped by a lifetime of such daily use?