{"id":4828,"date":"2016-03-24T17:24:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T21:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=3011"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:41:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:41:38","slug":"easter-means-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/easter-means-hope.html","title":{"rendered":"Easter means… hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"0278=278\"<\/a>\u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living\u00a0hope<\/strong>\u00a0through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead\u201d (1 Peter 1:3 ESV).<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy\u00a0hope<\/strong>\u00a0is built on nothing less<\/em>
\nThan Jesus\u2019 blood and righteousness.<\/em>
\nI dare not trust the sweetest frame,<\/em>
\nBut wholly lean on Jesus\u2019 Name\u201d (Edward Mote).<\/em><\/p>\n

In the dictionary\u2019s definition of the word \u201chope,\u201d it describes three aspects (I have put this into my own words):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Its basis.<\/strong>\u00a0That which makes up the foundation for our expectation\u00a0that our great desire will be satisfied.<\/li>\n
  2. Its nature.<\/strong>\u00a0That which describes the quality and strength of our future longing and its affect on us in the present.<\/li>\n
  3. Its object.<\/strong>\u00a0That which is the focus of our expectation. This is the future something or someone that we focus our desire upon obtaining.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I think Edward Mote (1797-1874), the founding pastor of\u00a0Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, West Sussex, England must have been contemplating these three aspects of hope when he penned the words to that great hymn, \u201cMy Hope Is Built On Nothing Less.\u201d Published in 1837, this hymn became an instant classic.<\/p>\n

    Mote declared, \u201cMy hope is built\u201d on Christ! Mote sees Christ\u2019s work on the cross, his \u201cblood and righteousness\u201d as the foundation, the basis of our hope. \u00a0I agree. But I would further add that which the apostle Peter proclaimed, that our hope is built on Christ\u2019s resurrection. In other words, the basis for Christian hope is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our hope is built on the historical reality of Christ\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

    Mote says that this hope is not mere \u201ctrust\u201d in a sweet \u201cframe\u201d of mind. No, it is based on the firm foundation of Christ\u2019s death, burial and resurrection. This also speaks to its nature. Christian hope is a \u201cliving hope\u201d as Peter described it. Its quality lies in its connection to the living Lord Jesus, who abides in those who believe on him. This hope is not merely an optimistic or positive \u201cframe\u201d of mind, but a strong conviction that all is well and that all will be well because of the living Christ. As Mote wrote in verse three of his hymn, \u201cWhen all around my soul gives way,\u00a0He then is all my Hope and Stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Christ\u2019s resurrection\u00a0is the basis of our hope. Christ\u2019s abiding Spirit within us is the nature of our hope. And Christ\u2019s return is the object of our hope. As Mote wrote in his final verse and chorus:<\/p>\n

    When He shall come with trumpet sound,
    \nOh may I then in Him be found.
    \nDressed in His righteousness alone,
    \nFaultless to stand before the throne.<\/p>\n

    On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
    \nAll other ground is sinking sand;
    \nAll other ground is sinking sand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Christ is our living hope!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living\u00a0hope\u00a0through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead\u201d (1 Peter 1:3 ESV). \u201cMy\u00a0hope\u00a0is built on nothing less Than Jesus\u2019 blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2069,2034,2070,2274,2052,2275,2105,2385],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-christ","tag-easter","tag-god","tag-hope","tag-jesus","tag-living-hope","tag-resurrection","tag-return"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4919,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions\/4919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4828"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}