Like the Hope of a Tree

I sense a shortage of hope these days. The news is filled with virus reports, tallying up the infected, the dead, and those recovering from it. But we who follow Christ have an enduring hope which can't be stolen.

Many people today are like those in Job's time. They figure there's no life after death. But we truly are like the way Job 14:7-9 (BBE) describes a revived tree. "For there is hope of a tree; if it is cut down, it will come to life again, and its branches will not come to an end. Though its root may be old in the earth, and its cut-off end may be dead in the dust; Still, at the smell of water, it will make buds,
and put out branches like a young plant."

Even in the time of The Old Testament, people knew about resurrection. We read in Jude 1:14 and 15 BBE) of his mention of an ancient scripture about resurrection. "The prophet Enoch, who was the seventh after Adam, said of these men, 'The Lord came with tens of thousands of his saints, To be the judge of all, and to give a decision against all those whose lives are unpleasing to him, because of the evil acts which they have done, and because of all the hard things which sinners without fear of God have said against him."

In the oldest book in the Bible, we find this glorious statement on the resurrection. Job 19:26 (KJV) proclaims, "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:"

In the New Testament, we have Christ's awesome revelation to Thomas. John 14:6 (BBE)reads, "Jesus said to him, 'I am the true and living way: no one comes to the Father but by me.'"

Since that is so, we know he will raise us up at the last day. Romans 8:11 (BBE) promises, "But if the Spirit of him who made Jesus come again from the dead is in you, he who made Christ Jesus come again from the dead will in the same way, through his Spirit which is in you, give life to your bodies which now are under the power of death."

Though things may seem hopeless these days, our great hope is in Christ. Let's live like we believe that.

On Thursday, if Christ hasn't returned by then, I hope to publish another post about our hope in the Lord.

How To Protect Yourself Now From Judgement Day

What a terrifying time it will be when Christ returns. For those who rejected him, it'll be their worst nightmare come true.

We read of how powerfully the Lord will punish the wicked in Jude 1:14 and 15 (BBE) when he wrote, "The prophet Enoch, who was the seventh after Adam, said of these men, 'The Lord came with tens of thousands of his saints, To be the judge of all, and to give a decision against all those whose lives are unpleasing to him, because of the evil acts which they have done, and because of all the hard things which sinners without fear of God have said against him."

Even worse for rich, wicked people, Everything they accumulated will be destroyed. As we see in 2 Peter 3:10 (BBE), "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; and in that day the heavens will be rolled up with a great noise, and the substance of the earth will be changed by violent heat, and the world and everything in it will be burned up."

Revelation 20:12 (BBE) shows that neither will anybody be able to avoid God's courtroom. "And I saw the dead, great and small, taking their places before the high seat; and the books were open, and another book was open, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged by the things which were in the books, even by their works."

This Book of Life contains all the names of those who yielded up control of their lives to Christ. Revelation 21:27 (BBE) warns that only those who have their names in the book will be in God's new Jerusalem. "And nothing unclean may come into it, or anyone whose works are cursed or false; but only those whose names are in the Lamb's book of life."

But Revelation 20:15 (BBE) declares the fate of those who refuse Christ's plan for their salvation. "And if anyone's name was not in the book of life, he went down into the sea of fire."

Fortunately, there is a way to escape God's wrath. Romans 10:9 and 10 (BBE) explains how to become a child of the King of Kings: Jesus Christ. "Because, if you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and have faith in your heart that God has made him come back from the dead, you will have salvation: For with the heart man has faith to get righteousness, and with the mouth he says that Jesus is Lord to get salvation."

This is the central theme of my next book, You Think You're Going to Heaven? We should be glad that God has made a way for us to be saved from his justifiable wrath. Jesus took the punishment for those of us who have surrendered ourselves to his rulership.

On Saturday, providing the Lord doesn't return before then, I hope to post about being under house arrest and how the Apostle Paul made good come out of his imprisonment.