Where Is Your Hope?

No matter what the world brings our way or what we bring into the world every day, things sure can go better and outcomes can bring peace when we live in hope.


Where is your HOPE?

Do we go through our week living in chance or some wishful thinking or do we base our thoughts, feelings and actions on something and someone far greater and stronger than anything we will face?

Hope is the assurance we carry when we know that the Bible is true and what God says to us about forgiveness, love and resurrection is true for us and for all.


There is HOPE for you this week. Hope from God is stronger than all our fear and even conquers our greatest darkness and doubt. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we know that we are moving each day closer to our own resurrection to eternal life, healing and peace.

It's called the GOSPEL. The story of God forgiving us, coming to us,living within us and guding us to a better day in a better way. AND THIS will give you hope.


Live in hope this week.

Blessings

Reverend Bill Mcbride

At The Crossroads

Realize for just a minute that you stand at a crossroads. AND you get to choose which road you follow and the destination you incur. This is both a blessing and a challenge.
BLESSING - We are free to choose, no manipulation or force placed on us.
CHALLENGE - Choose wisely because you must live with the results. Choices are not always that easy. Temptations happen.


I like what this author has to say about choosing and how God wants the very best for us.

The author, Tom Long writes, "It has been my observation that somewhere deep in the forest of life many Christians come to a fork in the path. Some head in one direction, traveling their last few days in bitterness, shouting at the world for its iniquity, wagging their heads over the sad plight of our time, cursing 'what this world has come to nowadays.' Others, however, are given the gift of traveling the other way, the path of a cheerful confidence in providence...This is the path that knows that a banquet table awaits at the end and that a house of music and dancing can already be heard in the distance. This is the path that sees a world full of miracles. This is the way of blessing, the path of gratitude.

I am convinced that it is the risen Christ who stands at this parting of the ways. If the good news of Easter is true, then we have hope, and it is hope that sustains us when we face our darkest hours. We each have to choose which path we will travel. God loves us enough to point us in the right direction; but will allow us to choose.

Easter. Resurrection. New Life. Alive Again. from Calvary Church on Vimeo.

Easter. Resurrection. New Life. Alive Again. That is what we celebrate. We have died with Christ, died to self...only to live again in Him, to rise with Him! We are a new creation. We are alive again. On Easter we boldly proclaimed that reality. We too have walked from the tomb. The tomb is empty!

God guide you in your choosing and God bless you as you choose life and faith and HOPE!!

Reverend Bill McBride

Faith and Hope Together

Faith and Hope are like sisters that need and depend on each other. A lot of times in studying the scriptures we go past faith and hope and move on to the importance of love. "Faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)

But for this week consider how significant your faith and hope is to your love.


"Faith is the assurance of things you hope for" (Hebrews 11)
FAITH is belief in your mind


HOPE is feeling that conviction in your heart Feel your hope. It gives energy to your faith. Hope gives your faith a fighting chance.


See how well they go together and need each other?

Have a faith-filled and hopeful week.

Rev. Bill McBride

Any New Things Lately?

Seen any new things happening in your life today? If your answer is no, you need to wake up and smell the roses. There are "new things" happening all the time all around you. and most of them are GOOD! Sure bad stuff does happen to good people, but most of the time good things are happening, we just fail to see them and learn and appreciate them. What a shame!

God is re-creating your world almost every moment. Our challenge is to look ahead with hope and promise. Sometimes though, we are afraid to look ahead with promise and possibility because we wonder if life today or tomorrow will be any better than life yesterday?

In Isaiah 43 God is about to bring His chosen people back to their land from captivity in Babylon. On the doorstep of freedom they think back to when God released them from captivity in Egypt. They wonder if things will ever be as good as they were in the past?

Isaiah 43:16-21 (The Message) This is what God says,  the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can't get up; they're snuffed out like so many candles:"Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say 'Thank you!' —the coyotes and the buzzards—Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose,  the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.

God has to remind them through the prophet Isaiah, that their Creator is always in the process of making things new for those who trust and believe.

This is our contemporary lesson form this peak into history.

• Do you believe that today can be a new day for you?
• Do you enter into the day with the expectation that there is something useful and helpful to learn, if you simply look around you and observe?

If you do and if you can, you are well on your way to attracting all the good you deserve. Go for it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Blessings

Rev. Bill McBride

Small Beginings-Larger Outcomes

In the Bible we find revealing and hopeful stories about how small beginnings can lead to larger outcomes. This should give everyone a renewed measure of hope, that their lives can certainly lead to some very fulfilling results.

In Luke 17 and Matthew 17 we have a tiny object, mustard seed used to illustrate our faith, when put into action can produce huge results; move a mountain (Matthew 17:20) or uproot and move a tree (Luke 17:6).

All too often, when we have something big in front of us; a project, a problem, an assignment, a relationship that needs immediate attention, etc., we tend to look at the entire scope of the thing looming before us and conclude we do not have what it takes to handle it or accomplish it.

We then ask God to give us more faith so we can deal with it completely all at once. Notice in Luke 17:5-10 that when the followers of Christ asked him to increase their faith Jesus then told them about the tiny mustard seed uprooting and moving an entire tree. He did not magically answer their request. He was seeking to teach them that they had enough faith to do what was in front of them right now.

I believe the message here is for each of us to take action, one small step at a time, accomplishing what is right in front of us and not let the entire scope of the event stop us in our tracks. We each have enough faith for today to do what needs to be done today.

Jesus did not increase his disciples faith, he told them immediately about their role as servants of God and their place to trust and obey. Your small faith today, even though it feels tiny, can bring about larger outcomes over time. All you have to do is act now. Your faith is not measured so much by how much you have, but by what you do with what you already have.

Blessings

Rev. Bill McBride