Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

“Jesus comes as a Prophet”

John 12v49 “I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it.” (NLT)

In the Old Testament a Prophet typically did two things:

• God spoke through them (all prophets)
• God worked miracles through them (most significantly Moses, Elijah, Elisha, but also others)

Jesus clearly fulfils both of these criteria. But, for now, let’s focus on the God-speaking element.

Looking forward to Jesus, Moses wrote, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15). And in the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews wrote, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,”  (Hebrews 1:1-2).

Jesus is greater than all the Old Testament prophets – he is God’s Son. He communicates what is on God’s heart. We must listen to him.

In our world, there are many voices competing for our attention. The voices we listen to will impact our thoughts, decisions and emotions. We have to choose to listen to Jesus. It is a conscious decision to stop doing something else and listen to him. Are you taking time to listen to Jesus this Advent?

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

“Death has been swallowed up in victory”

1 Corinthians 15v54 “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

I hope you have been able to live this week in the light of what we looked at last Sunday: You will rise from the dead with a resurrection body which will never deteriorate. When this is accomplished, then Christ’s mission will be complete because he will have fully conquered the “final enemy” which is death (15v26).

The obvious result of this fact is that we no longer have reason to fear death. Paul uses the word “asleep” to emphasise that Jesus has made death temporary. Rather, it is the gateway to eternity, and for those who are in Christ, this is a significant upgrade on our current life.

May you know the answer to the prayer in the well known Welsh hymn, “Guide me O thou great Jehovah … bid my anxious fears subside”.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Powers and authorities disarmed!

Colossians 2v15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

What does Satan do? His name, Satan, means “Accuser”. It is a legal term for the person making charges in a court. Accusing is one of his chief activities. Satan wants to (and does) accuse you of stuff: he wants to bring anything you have done wrong or may have done wrong up in front of you. He wants to bring it up in front of God too, because he knows that sin separates us from God.

But, Jesus has made this tactic of Satan null and void. How? By taking our sin on his shoulders and being nailed to the cross. Your sin is now fully paid for. He cannot now accuse you because the punishment has already been paid. In the words of Colossians 2v13, “He forgave us all our sins.”

There is now no logical reason for allowing past sins to haunt you. We have to apply the logic of the cross to our thinking: we have been set free. “There is now no condemnation” “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

May God enable you to live in the true freedom that he has birthed you into.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Remembering!

Psalm 77v11 “I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.”

Today and this coming Sunday, we take time to remember: to remember those who have valiantly given their lives in conflict. Such people died doing what they were told to do for the sake of their country.

In our busy lives, how much time do we spend “remembering”. Thinking back and recalling the past. History is a valuable subject – over the last few millennia, human desires, dreams and motivations have not changed much, so we can learn a lot.

In the Psalm, the writer is in a difficult situation. He tells himself to remember what God had done in the past – not necessarily in his own life, but what others had recorded (eg v19-20). It is valuable for us too to read or listen to the accounts in the Bible of God’s dealings with people, and to read biographies of Christians who recount both their difficulties and their encounters with God. It encourages us as we remind ourselves how God works in people’s lives.

As we take time to remember the fallen and the injured in war, let us also remember the mighty hand of God. As we do so, may our faith in God increase for our own day.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Avoid foolish controversies!

Titus 3v9 “Avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless”

This Sunday, we are going to begin a short series on the “Last Days and the Second Coming of Christ”.

It is vital that we base what we believe on God’s Word in the Bible. However, it is even more important that we base what we do and how we live on God’s Word in the Bible (see Matthew 7v24-27 or James 1v22-25).

As we look at this of the 2^nd coming, it is possible to get caught up in all sorts of different opinions. For example, I have a book entitled “Four views: the Meaning of the Millennium” – and the truth is that within each of those 4 basic views, there are many “sub-views”.

In my twenties I was part of a church where the pastor would often say, “Major on the majors and minor on the minors”. As we come to look at this future theme together, it is vital that (i) we come with grace, (ii) we “major on the majors”, and (iii) we focus on how God is calling us to live. With that in mind, we will be looking at a different passage of Scripture each week.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

The result of prayer to God!

Daniel 9v3-4, 10v12-13  “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed … [He replied], “Since the day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days.”

There are several things we can notice Daniel’s prayer recorded in Daniel chapter 9:

• It was based on his familiarity with what God had said in the Bible (see v1-2).
• It was with passion (note the pleading and fasting etc above)
• It was with humility (note the confession above)
• It was answered, but not immediately and not in the way Daniel may have expected
• Answering it involved some shifting of spiritual powers in the heavenly realms.

What stirs you to passion in prayer?

The apostle Paul finishes his list of “spiritual armour” in Ephesians 6 with “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Put Daniel and Paul together and we see that God is able to secure spiritual victory, but he often only does it in response to our prayers.

Are you passionate for spiritual victory in your life, in the life of our church, in the life of those around us? There is one place to go and seek that victory.

May God fire a passion in our prayer.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

This is the end of the matter!

Daniel 7v27  “Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him. This is the end of the matter.”

I love that “this is the end of the matter”!

In our world there are various sovereignties, powers and ‘greatnesses’ – whether in the political realms of nations and international groupings; the empires of global business and media; or the kingdoms of philosophy and learning.

In the preceding verses, God has outlined to Daniel in a vision the rise and fall of various kingdoms. In the context the verse specifically relates to Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, but in practice the message can be applied to any age and any world power: they may be powerful and they may do what is wrong, but do not fear because God is the ultimate sovereign. He is going to bring all such powers before his “court” (v26) where he will exercise his authority and remove their power for ever.

The power and authority that will last for ever is Christ’s authority and you and I belong to His kingdom. In this we have hope, and in this we have a message for our community.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

PrisonsWeek

Luke 4v18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me … to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.”

This “Prisons week” charity leads a week of prayer for Prisons this week each year. Prisons week website

Our society can tend to consider those who are prisoners to be “scum”. As Christians, we recognize all prisoners to be people made in the image of God. We recognize that while many have done horrendous crimes, others may be there as miscarriages of justice or because of the way experiences have shaped them. But, whatever the reason, they each need the mercy of God and God loves each one and sent Jesus to save the lost. In Christ, he is able to forgive all their sin and crime and bring them into a wonderful relationship with Jesus.

Let’s this pray this evening for those who are in prison at present. Let’s pray for those Christian chaplains and others who are running Alpha courses and introducing prisoners to Jesus. There are incredible stories of prison conversions – let’s pray for God to pour out his Spirit on our prisons. Let’s pray too for wisdom for all those running prisons. Let’s pray for organisations such as Yellow Ribbon here in Telford who are seeking to support those coming out of prison.

For some prison is a physical reality, for others it is a metaphorical reality in their lives. The image of prison is used in scripture of our spiritual condition where we are held by Satan and his powers. May God bring spiritual release and freedom for us and many in our community.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Growing Love

Hebrews 10v24 “Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.”

A community cannot last long without some love. The Bible word “love” (“agape” in Greek) is about a care for someone that causes you to seek their interest rather than yours. It has a willingness to sacrifice oneself in order to enhance someone else. We see it supremely in God’s love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I want to highlight the following from the above verse from Hebrews:

• “towards love” – Love is something we are to continue to move towards. Grow in it. Is this something we are continuing to move towards or have we become stagnant?
• “spur one another on” – We can encourage one another to love more. We do this as we share about what Jesus has done; as we show by example what real love means; as we share stories of others showing love; as we help one another to see the opportunities there are to practice it. Do we make it our intention to encourage others in this?
• “Let us consider how …” It is worth thinking about and meditating on. How often do we do this?

May we each know the love of Christ flowing into us and out of us day by day.

With love and blessing,

Roland

Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

Growing Hope

Hebrews 6v19 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

We might say about something in the future “I hope so”. It can be an expression of desire without necessarily a high level of confidence. Christian hope is quite different: it is a firm and secure anchor which stops us from drifting in the ocean of life. This is confirmed in Hebrews 11v1 where faith is defined as being “sure of what we hope for.” Christian hope is therefore not only a positive view but also a certain view.

What is this hope? It is that Jesus Christ is now in the presence of God in the heavenly realms and is welcoming us in (see Hebrews 8-10). Our hope is not in the things of this world. We have so much – even the poorest of us have a lot. But as we look around the world we see that many Christians have nothing of this world: they face persecutions and sufferings, imprisonments and death. If our hope is the same hope as theirs, then it cannot be in the things of this world – either material, relational, academic or political ….

Our hope is in the heavenly realms where Jesus is right now. He has won victory on the cross; he is now implementing that victory, one soul at a time; and he is going to achieve full victory over evil on his return. This is an anchor for your soul, your inner self, the real you! It is a hope which overflows in love, joy and peace. Peace because we know what really matters is going to work out well as we are on Christ’s side; joy because we have so much in Christ and so much to look forward to; and love because this is all because He loved us and he pours out his love in our hearts.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope! (Romans 15v13).

With love and blessing,

Roland