The Living Hope of God Through Christ Jesus!

“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, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:3-9 NIV

Is there anyone who does not have hope at all? Yes, there are some people who do not have hope. Because of this, some of them think there is no point in life and they decide to suicide themselves. Nonetheless, I believe that there are more people who have hope in their lives, or renewing their hope to live in the world more effectively. As for me, I have to renew my hope a couple of times. First hope and dream that I want to be in the future was to be a doctor because I want to help people from their injuries and save them, to let them to continue in living their lives. This was very good hope that I had but I had to change it, due to the fact that I used to hate studying. Second dream that I had probably was to be a pro-gamer because I used to like video and computer games, especially StarCraft. Starcraft is probably the one of the most popular Korean games and I used to play it all the time when I was a teenager. My father, even, had spent a couple of hours to play it and sometimes, he played it overnight. It is highly addictive Korean war game. My father finally relised this, that he began to hate the game, so he was forcing me not to play it anymore. Therefore, I eventually gave up on StarCraft and when I finally relised what it is doing in my life, I began to hate in playing it as well, even though I liked and still like the war game very much. However, as soon as I became Christian and found my spiritual gift, I have been wanting to become a Christian Writer. This does not mean when we become Christian, we ought to become pastors, evangelists, or missionaries.

Nevertheless, the first and main hope of God that we should have is to praise the Lord until the end of the age. The main reason for this is that God has given us new living hope through Jesus Christ, because of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, if we have decided to believe in Him. God sent His only beloved Son, as an image of Himself (Colossians 1:15), to be crucified because He desperately wanted to save and free us spiritually from our sins (Colossians 2:13-15; Hebrews 2:14-15), that He decided to take all sins upon Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21). He was resurrected into life in three days (Luke 24:4-8). This is probably because He has wanted to give us hope and eternal life that is through Jesus Christ. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Therefore, if we want eternal life in Him, then we have to believe in Him (1 Peter 1:3-5) because He has said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Not only we ought to believe in Him until the end of the age, but we also have to know Him intimately (John 17:3). How can we believe in Jesus Christ and maintain the relationship with Him, if we do not know Him at all?

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1-5)

Next, the importance of having faith through Jesus is always rejoicing in Him, even though it can be hard to (Philippians 4:4-5). How can God be pleased with us if we do not rejoice in Jesus Christ and believe in Him legally? I hate to see my friend who has faith in me but do not believe in me from heart-to-heart. One friend of mine has betrayed me once, saying that she and I cannot be friends anymore. She did not say why but this is probably because I followed her everywhere when school finishes, even to the toilet and waited outside for her and my friends, even though I was not a girl stalker and I did not have a crush on her. In addition to this, another friend of mine, who I knew for a long time, has stopped talking to me, due to the fact that I probably bothered her while we are going through tough and hard times. I regret all of these things that I have done in the past and wish to change the past. Furthermore, every true and devoted follower of Jesus Christ has to make decision of endurance and perseverance all kinds of trials if they want to go to the kingdom of heaven at the end of the age, due to the fact that Romans 8:28 states that God is working all things for our good. If we deny Romans 8:28 and stop persevering trials, then we basically stop believing in Jesus (James 1:2-4). 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says that the eternal glory that would be revealed through Christ is much better than our earthly troubles and trials. Because of this, we are determined set our eyes to the above and the kingdom of heaven (Colossians 3:1-4). I believe that doing such thing would make life easier to endure problems. Although I have not experienced trials and troubles like what Apostle Paul and Timothy had experienced, I endured my schooling for over four months. I am not into Computer Servicing very much, that it sometimes gave me stress and I wanted to give up on my Christian life and schooling. The main reason for this was I knew that being a Christian Writer has been the will of God from ages ago. However, because of one issue, I endured. At that moment, doing Computer Servicing at Unitec felt like this was the will of God for me as Pastor Amanda Pilbrow had said that it is about people. In addition to this, my closest member of the church had said that being at Unitec and going to Unitec is part of theology as I can be Christ’s ambassador to the students.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:18-21)

Because the importance of having faith through Jesus is always rejoicing in Him, loving the Lord should be our first motivation to have and that we need to practice in our lives. The word of God, even, says it (Matthew 22:37-38). Otherwise, we could easily become self-centred as Colossians 1:15-20 says that everything comes through and for Him. I have to say that Colossians 1:15-23 is one of my favourite bible verses. Not only these verses tell me that everything comes through and for Jesus Christ, but the also tell me the reason why we are on the Earth—to continue in our faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think the reason that we are on this world rather than at the kingdom of heaven straight away gives us more meaning and make life more interesting, due to the fact that we get to know more about Him, to maintain the right relationship with Him. I do not know if this is just for me, but I love gaining the knowledge of God.Because of this, I often read eight devotionals a day, including Windsor Park Baptist Church’s daily readings, and I get three weekly devotionals in my e-mail. Since I have finished Unitec, I should get back on reading Christian books as well. I believe Christian books may give me concepts on how to write more effectively as well as they give me more knowledge of God. I am hoping that I can manage my times between reading Christian books and studying theology in the future.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7-14)