Hope: Not Uncertain, but Certain

In an intersection of sermons from church and the book of Romans which I am reading through currently in New Testament Survey, I have come across Romans 5:1-5. This is not something new to me, it's scripture that I consistently confide and depend on as a promise from God.
It reads:

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our LORD Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Romans 5:1-5

This scripture is extremely powerful; particularly, verse 5 which reads "This hope will not disappoint...". I consistently find myself encouraging people, praying for people, hoping for people, expectant that their upcoming and current life circumstances will be recognized as blessing and that God will be given the glory. Often I might say, "I hope your interview goes well." or "Hope you have a great day."... these words become cliche and are received lacking a real heartfelt backing. This is nothing intentional from me, or from others who convey these phrases. The truth very well might be that deep inside I truly hope that specific event will be blessed, great, joyful, but that is not always how it comes across.

That brings me back to this scripture because it is so unique. You see... Paul makes the very powerful statement of "This hope will NOT disappoint...", why? "... because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Paul is talking here about having access to grace through Jesus Christ. He's talking about our hope for glory in Heaven with our LORD. He's talking about hoping that our life is not in vein!

One can adamantly say "I hope my life will not be lived in vein." But, Paul makes the valid point here, that the only hope that holds its own is that founded on faith through Jesus Christ. In order for a life to not be lived in Vein, we need the deposit of the Holy Spirit, that we have been declared righteous by faith. Now, we don't only have hope those aforementioned, but through Christ, we find hope in afflictions. Paul makes it clear as day that affliction happens do produce endurance, and endurance produces proven character. Why? Because our character, lived out in affliction, declares the power of hope in Jesus Christ our LORD. ...or maybe our character isn't declaring what we want it to?

There's a bit of a paradox that takes place here. Often the things that we might hope for are those which are non-afflicting. "I hope your interview goes well", "I hope you have a great day". This is rugged, because we have learned that the hope produced by faith in Christ can actually produces affliction in our life to the Glory of God. So there are two kinds of hope: Hope by faith in Christ, which Biblically defined produces proven character through affliction for the glory of God. And worldly hope, a somewhat cliche phrase that has good intention behind it but lacks the promise that comes from God, sealed by the Holy Spirit.

It's good to hope for people's benefit, but as I reflect on my 'hopings', ultimately I know that I want their benefit to be what God desires for them to produce proven character, even though it may hurt. These can be things that are what people view as happy and joyful, but it might also lead to affliction for the end result of God's glory.

So what are you hoping for and what is your hope in?

An arguement - The Day of the LORD has already come?

A couple weeks ago a friend shared with me in some amount of distress that her cousin was starting to get involved in religion. Unfortunately, this was the wrong kind of religion...
She shared that her cousin was following the "Church of God".. one of the main arguments of this church was that Jesus has already returned and we're living after the second coming right now. It also boasts of an entity known as "God the Mother". My friend shared their website with me to check it out: english.watv.org

As I talked to her, she was looking for ways to defend authentic Christian faith against false versions of Christianity. Given that one of their main arguments was regarding the time of the return of Christ, it was great that I was currently in the middle of reading 2 Thes because of chapter 2:1-12

The most specific section that defends our faith are verses 1-4:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: we ask you, brothers, not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For [that day] will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God's sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.

We can see here that Paul is assuring the Thessalonians not to get uptight about missing the second coming of Christ. There will be sure signs of it. We see that here, you can also find much about it in the end of Mark, as well as in parts of the book of Daniel. Specifically here, we can refute the Second Coming of Christ because we know that "the apostasy" comes first, and the man of lawlessness (the Anti-Christ) is revealed. This is described as a man who calls himself God though by scripture we will be able to disprove this. Unfortunately the Bible also says that many will be deceived, and because of this we should continue to know Christ better and to hide Scripture in our hearts so that we ourselves will not be deceived. There's much to be said about this, and how frightening it really is, but the purpose of this passage for this entry is to show a practical use of scripture to refute false religions here on earth that describe themselves good and even classify themselves as Christian.

Do you use scripture to analyze claims by religious groups and people?

Today I was reading an essay that was being written by a communications friend of mine and they were doing a study on Organizations and how far down the hierarchy their values and mission travels. All the way down to the farthest down end-users. As I read this paper my mind immediately moved to put it in the context of churches and religions (and like-wise, cults) -- how often do we as "believers" simpl tyake for fact those things which the higher organizational end of our systems teach us. I am not going to bash any specific religious sect or denomination here, but the matter of fact is that each of them carry traditions that are taught and accepted without proper testing of scripture. This "Church of God" mentioned above is exploiting this to the max. They use provocative media and compelling statements to lead people to false personal religion. This happens in the Bible on several occasions, but there is one group of people in the Bible that are exhorted for the fact that they took everything they heard and tested it to scripture. They are a group called the Bereans -- when Paul, Silas, and Timothy were proclaiming the Gospel in Acts 17:10-15 the Bereans "welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." This is a great model for us as we grow in our walk with Christ and continue to learn. Every religion, church, organization, while valuable, has the ability to lead us astray. An organization is only as strong and perfect as it's head. As Christians, the only organization leader which we should follow because HE IS PERFECT is Christ.
.... Read your Bible. End of Story.