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This is the 2nd message in the series - we are going to learn from the letter of Peter to the churches of what is now modern day Turkey. Peter was writing just before Emperor Nero's persecutions of Christians all over the Roman Empire were to begin. He was preparing them for a hard time, and giving them the hope which only Jesus Christ can provide beyond the hard time.
Here's our text for Sunday, April 13, 2008:
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 - 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 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 your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
WHY??!!
That's the hardest and most asked question I receive.
Why did she have to die? Why did I lose my job? Why can't I just get well?
And the second most asked question I get is, "What did I do to deserve this?" Hey, I've asked that one too!
When I was 14 I took a part time job as an usher in a low budget neighborhood theatre. The pay was $10.00 a week and all the movies I could see. Popcorn I had to pay for. For this job I was expected to change the marquee signs once a week, help run the projectors when the regular guy was getting a drink in his little office, and chase any disruptive people from the theatre. It was during one of the latter tasks that I gashed my knee with a scar visible to this day.
Long story short I told the disruptive teen he had to leave the theatre, he stood up, towered over me, and I ran...right THROUGH one of the plate glass doors at the entrance of the theatre.
I had to have 8 stitches, and ultimately had to pay for the glass. "WHY ME Lord?" It took me a long time to figure that out, but I never again ran through a closed door without first checking to see if it was locked.
My little story is trite compared with some of the awful trials you have probably gone through, and I've had a few perhaps similar to yours myself that time and space do not allow to be shared here. However, I always ask the person asking WHY to pray about and consider just what God might be teaching us through the pains of life we do bear. Even the most awful pain; or sometimes, try as we might, we can't find another worse off than us at the moment and that only infuriates us more at God.
Oh yes, we'll be talking about getting angry at God this weekend too.
So come to Hope this weekend, and see if you will not FIND hope yourself. Perhaps through the message, if it is offered truly as God's Word and not mine, and definitely through the people, who, like you and I, are all struggling to make sense of a trial filled world.
Meanwhile, may we all declare, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!" who is God, Son, and Holy Ghost, three in one, for us all.
Pastor Ken
NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, all Bible verses quoted in this website are from the New International Version (NIV). Any words from those verses that are in "red" are words spoken by Jesus.
Pastor Ken sends a Weekly Newsletter that includes his devotional message for the week and an update of the current happenings at Hope Church. If you would like to receive his newsletter, just click below and he'll add your email address to his list of subscribers.