hope

Who God Is

/ Sandra Bivens Smith / 1 Comment
Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com

Lately I have been troubled concerning how our world, even our Christian world, seems to have either forgotten, or chosen to ignore who God is.

In Revelation 2:4 Jesus reprimands the church at Ephesus for having forgotten their first love. As the scripture reads, they were doing all the “right things” but, apparently, not from the right motive. In his commentary, Adam Clarke writes – “They did not retain that strong and ardent affection for God and sacred things which they had when first brought to the knowledge of the truth, and justified by faith in Christ.

I believe we are experiencing this same problem both in our churches and in our personal lives.

For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. (Psalm 95:3-7)

We learn so much about God from these few verses.

We learn that the LORD is Jehovah God – The Self Existent, Eternal One. God is not a created being. He is our Alpha and Omega, He was always and will be always. In this we can be certain, God is not going anywhere.

We learn that He is EL God – a God of strength, power and might. Because He is EL, we can have great confidence for the trials of this life. Romans 8:31 reminds us, “What then shall we say, if God is for us, who can be against us?”  We have His word that whatever forces may come against us, no matter how strong, He is stronger.

We learn that He is Maker God – Creator of all things. The apostle John clearly affirms it when he writes “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  (John 1:3). There are two Hebrew words for Maker,  Asah and Bara. Both words mean to create, to choose, keep, maintain, commit. God is the absolute Master of universal nature. He is our absolute Master. Having created us, He has committed to keep us and has chosen to have a covenant relationship with us through His son Jesus.

We learn that He is El-Ohiym God – Supreme God who alone is worthy of our praise and worship.

There is something more to be learned from Psalm 95, we learn who we are to Christ. The Psalmist leaves us with a sweet reminder that this God, this Great and Mighty God, is also our gentle Shepherd. He will pasture us, lead us, feed us, shear us, protect us, and even die for us.

As we have learned, God’s names are His attributes. His essence, His strength, His creativity and His loving care should propel our hearts to worship Him. What we have learned about God should lead us, as the Psalmist says, to come and bow down, to kneel before the LORD for He alone if worthy.

Grace and Peace,

Sandra

Rejoicing in Hope

/ amyjomccranie

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12


On September 24, 2024 Hurricane Helene made landfall. Helene cut a 500-mile path across six states and left 250 dead. In the mountains of North Carolina, she dumped 1 ½ feet of rain on a land still trying to recover from the effects of the previous two days of flooding. Nearly one hundred deaths were reported in North Carolina alone; as of this writing fifty are still reported missing.


Lives were lost, homes were washed away from their foundations, towns were wiped off the map. Entire families clung to trees, waiting and hoping someone would save them.

Like you, I have been greatly moved by the devastation we have witnessed. Helene is the worst storm to hit our nation since the Great Flood of 1916. Despite the pain of so many, we’ve heard the many reports of hope from those who have the least reason to hope. They tell about the goodness of God that they have witnessed amid the sadness.


Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope Romans 5:3-4


Jewel Warrick has lived in a town, Relief, NC for fifty-five years. Helene tore through her small community and buried her home in mud. She and her son James evacuated just days before the storm. Six residents of Relief died, including two young boys. Jewel is quoted as saying “we’ll survive, we’re not giving up. We can’t. There’s hope and when you have hope, you move on”!


Jewel’s hope, and that of so many others, is not human hope or worldly hope, that kind of hope is merely a wish for what one desires to happen. No, the hope we’re talking about is a hope founded on that which is greater than what man can do. It is not an elusive hope, it is a living and sure hope. It is not based on the temporal or what is seen but what is eternal and unseen.


What is the source of this sure, eternal hope? It is the hope we can find only in God; He alone is the reason we can even dare to hope. It is a hope that binds His oneness to you.


May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13


My pawpaw was known for many things. He was a man of great wisdom and many of his words still ring in my ears today. “Just remember, no matter how bad off you think you are, you can always find somebody that’s worse off”. Now, he in no way was assigning a degree of suffering but rather pointing out the importance of perspective. Even when it feels like you have no where to go there is hope.


In a few days we will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. As we gather around the table with family and friends let’s determine to set our minds on the goodness of God and His great bounty. There is a sadness for certain. So many will have empty chairs at the table. But there is also a reason to rejoice. Our God is a God who loves. He is a God of mercy. He is a God of hope.

Blessed 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 hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1 Peter 1:3