Reverend Robert Hudson, Littleby Baptist Church
“So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.” – Ephesians 2:11-12
Before we choose to follow Jesus, before we learned to praise our Lord, before we humbled ourselves, before we were convicted of the sin in our lives, before we were made innocent in God’s eyes, we were sinners. Before we knew Jesus, we were lost. Before we received the awesome gift that our Lord has given us, we had no hope.
Without Jesus we are without Hope. Without Hope we have no direction and may wonder what the purpose of life is.
“But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” – Ephesians 2:13
Without the gift of salvation from, we cannot draw near to Him. It is through His sacrifice that those who choose to follow Him are brought near to Him. As we draw near to our Lord, things begin to fall into place. We begin to realize that we are not alone, that we are no longer lost and that we have the Hope of Jesus in us.
This is a hope without limits. A hope that breaks through all barriers. A hope that is only found by those who follow Jesus. Some reading this may question if there is such thing as hope. Things may seem bleak, you may feel alone, and as you watch the news you may question how bad is it going to get. There are times in all of our lives that we may question if God is too busy to care about our troubles. Our tendency is to put our hope in things that we can see or touch, to put our hope into what we can accomplish on our own.
For the complete column, see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard
