Faith is the opposite of fear. Hope is the forerunner of faith. When we find faith we can believe hope was there first. Hope generates a vision of transformation.

Hope is the expectation of becoming and overcoming, and every believer in Christ has an expectation, in one fashion or another, of being a “becomer” and an “overcomer”! Hope must have an object to act on, and the object of Hope is Expectation.

Hope is a character trait of the righteous, they have an attitude of anticipation with an expectation that something will happen to further fulfill the vision of transformation. Among many causes, our hope is based on God’s faithfulness, and He is always, eternally faithful. Our hope is a result of trusting God. Our hope is from remembering what God has done. Hope lifts our face, and in opposition, despair causes our face to drop.

We are silent when the enemy threatens to expose our past. We are silent for fear of rejection. We are silent in the face of persecution, being marginalized or minimized. We are silent many times to justify our own behavior while citing someone else’s. We are silent when words are about to be spoken and should not. Being silent without making a move towards resolve, like giving someone “the silent treatment”, is a power struggle in pain tolerance … the “silent treatment” means whoever wins shows they could care less the most.

Can we silence our conscience? We can be silent to others, and possibly silence our state of mind, but we cannot so easily silence our conscience … the only conscience which is silent is a reprobate conscience. Without a conscience, conviction has no foothold, and condemnation has full run of the field! Paul speaks many times, for a good reason, about the value of owning a conscience that is not silent.

Being silent for the right reasons is righteous, but i believe, by far and large, most of us are often silent for all the wrong reasons. Silence is truly golden, but it is not always the best choice. Let us believe God, take Him at His word, and put our foot on the neck of fear which drives us to silence so often.

Jonathan Edwards wrote of Heaven:
“No inhabitants of that blessed world will ever be grieved with the thought that they are slighted by those whom they love, or that their love is not fully and fondly returned …. There shall be no such thing as flattery or insincerity in Heaven, but there perfect sincerity shall reign through all in all. Everyone will be just what they seem to be, and they’ll really have all the love that they seem to have. It will not be as in this world, where comparatively few things are what they seem to be, and where professions are often made lightly and without meaning. But there, every expression of love shall come from the bottom of the heart, and all that is professed shall be real and truly felt.”

Once at home in Heaven, the hungry will fill up, those who weep will laugh, and those who suffer tragedy will be compensated the victory.

i realize this is a lot of very positive and wonderful stuff about something that isn’t in the here and now. And i realize most of us might be far more interested in things we can do in the now to help our present circumstances or situations….. BUT, in putting the idea of home on the table and talking about being at home with Jesus, eating and talking with God, family, friends, and all the participants of the entire salvation message from beginning to end, it generates hope, the anticipation of becoming and overcoming….. and i believe hope is in very short supply in our world.

Revelation 21:3-5
“3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.””

Those are the words of Jesus and we can take it to the bank. Live everyday in light of them. Let me encourage you to make every choice in light of God’s promises. C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man who has been in another world does not come back unchanged. A man who gives sustained thought to God and his future Home in Heaven, does not remain the same. He smells the banquet being prepared for him and he’ll never be the same, in Jesus Name.”

Randy Alcorn wrote in his book titled “Heaven”, “We were all made for a person and a place. Jesus is that person. Heaven is that place. If you know Jesus, i’ll be with you in that resurrected world. With the Lord we love and with the friends we cherish, we’ll embark together on the ultimate adventure, in a spectacular new universe awaiting our exploration and dominion. Jesus will be the center of all things, and joy will be the air we breathe. And right when we think it all couldn’t get any better …. it will!”

There are many, many stories and characters in the Bible at crossroads – places of decision. Joel 3:14 speaks of the sea of mankind who are in a difficult place, desperately in need of a decision, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”

We don’t have to be alone in coming to resolve over any issue. The Lord assures us that if we will prefer Him, if we will let Jesus teach us how to live, honesty and truth will be our preference. The Lord wants us to grow up and make godly decisions based on our living relationship with Christ, not “Jesus at a distance”, but “Jesus up close and personal”. We don’t have to be alone at the crossroads.

Don’t you know Jesus is also Lord of the crossroads too? He sits patiently at all your crossroads, waiting for you. Yes, that’s right, He’s already at your future place where two roads meet, poised to assist you in wise counsel.

Without the Lord sitting in the command position in the decision making machine within us, we are subject to every whim and wind of this chaotic world, easily swept to sea on a rip tide of chance.

Hey…..listen, before you plant those seeds, consider (ponder to resolve) carefully if it is going to be a harvest you’re willing for? Really? There is no such thing as an “unsend” button for email, there is no such thing as an “unsay” button for our words. There is no “undo” or “do overs” for our actions. Before you plant those seeds, carefully consider, is it a harvest you’re willing for? Really? Is it a betrayal of your conscience you’re willing to live with?
If you plant those seeds, short of God’s intervention, they will grow. When they grow, short of God’s intervention, they will mature. And when they mature, short of God’s intervention, they will bear fruit. Before you plant those seeds, consider if it is a harvest you’re willing to gather? Trust me, if you plant it, the fruit of your begatting will find you like lost children who have gone in search of and have found their parents, and the fruit of your sowings will be in your front yard, in your kitchen making food, sitting on your couch watching your TV, laying in your bed, refusing to leave. It will be like pouring paint through a running fan and there is no “undo” button. Is it a betrayal of your righteous conscience that your willing to live with? Really? Play the movie, or Selah.

In our lives, at every crossroad, at every intersection where we must choose either the Lord or the world, the potential for divine intervention is astounding. In the Hebrew word for “purity” the letters themselves carry the idea of choosing, meaning purity is more about how you came to your decision to not wound your conscience, rather than just doing the right thing.

In our American, English speaking culture we think of a crossroads where two roads cross paths, the physical roads are primary and what to do there is secondary. With the Hebrew words used to describe a crossroads, the decision that must be made is primary, and the physical intersection itself is secondary. That says to me that how we come to our conclusions, how we decide our everyday actions is more primary to God than what we actually do. Of course what we do is important to the Lord, but i believe He’s more interested in our decision making machine and what fuels it.

At that, i want to encourage everyone to never ever take someone else’s word for what the Bible says or what God means …. you look it up, you find out for yourself, it is your responsibility to know for yourself. Look beyond the pastor, look beyond the pulpit in your church, and look far and above to hear the Lord above all. No man ever set you free. No man ever healed you. No man understands you like Jesus.

Who is at the root of your decision making process? What is important to you, the drugs/alcohol/sex/self-indulgence or your peace with God? When at the crossroads of making a decision to go partying and living a life of violence or to keep your peace with Jesus, which will it be? These are the days that if you will ask God, He will answer. You may have to be patient and wait, but He WILL answer. i can assure you, the Lord stands ready at all our crossroads to help and to bring us where we need to be. An’ right there is a big “think about it.”

When i was growing up my sister had an old Brownie camera, and then one Christmas she got a Polaroid. You know, the one which, after you take a picture, it slides out the film that develops right in front of your eyes. i think i’ve got thousands and thousands of Polaroid pictures in my head – the time the neighbor boys, myself and my brother played football all afternoon. In my head is a snap shot of us all laughing, dirty, skinned up, but laughing – forever in my mind as a good time. Or my son’s favorite hunting dog when it tree’d his first raccoon. i’ve got a snap shot in my head of that moment! i can still see the pleasure on my son’s face and the dog’s face. Or my wife’s eyes reflecting in the stripe of sun light coming through the shades in the morning.

Leviticus 23:40 has a Polaroid picture in it of a bright accent. “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook;” Hmmmm….beautiful trees. Does just saying that inspire the vision in your mind? It’s as if the Lord is pointing out beauty. He calls them “beautiful trees”. Do we notice? Do you remember the big old tree in the park, or behind your house? The bark, the leaves, the shade? Remember how it looked and when you played near it or in it? Can you see it?

All through the Bible God speaks of beautiful things, like He’s pointing them out for us to notice also. God does not tell us things or point things out to us just so we can know. “Seeing” is very different than “purposefully taking note of”, and then there is the idea of “seeing” meaning “to look with eyes wide open in amazement”. Can you see?

Take note of beautiful words like in Gen 49:21, beautiful cities in Deuteronomy 6:10, beautiful houses in Deuteronomy 8:12, beautiful children, women, or men, Queen Vashti in Esther 1:11, “was beautiful to behold”. Psalms says the city of our God is beautiful the way it is positioned, that praise is beautiful, that holiness not only is beautiful but make us beautiful, and that God makes all things beautiful in it’s time. God points out to us that Moses was a beautiful child. 1 Peter 3:5 speaks of a beauty not necessarily seen with our eyes, it speaks of an inner beauty that was gentle and gracious. Colossians 3:11-12 reveals to us that the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, 12 thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.”

What is beautiful in your life? All through out the Bible, God is pointing out these types of things that we would take notice of the beautiful, the bright, the accented, His highlights. Star filled skies, sun rise, sun set, little girls eyes, seasons – like winter and spring, holidays, eating together, good companionship, the smell of the forest and the flowers, fresh cut lawns, evenings on the front porch. Do we notice that God is highlighting those things to us, or are we so neck deep in the mire of the world we constantly miss the bright and beautiful around us?

His name is Jesus. He is the tree planted in living water, He is the one who yields fruit in season and out and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does … prospers. Can there be any seed God plants which does not grow? Can there be any dream He gives which He does not frame, build, and bears much fruit? He is the completetion of redemption and the balance of reconciliation.

He is the One who gives us images to familiarize us with Himself. He is God who whispers us to sleep when we are restless, then stirs His God-fingers against the earth until it rains love in our lives, making wet parched hearts to sing again, even in the moments when we would have preferred to stop living.

Jesus is the one who knows your stories before you were born, who draws you into the truth to meet your self, to resolve your self, and to love Him without fear. He is God who walks without moving, He dreams without sleeping and calls us, each to Himself without speaking. Psalm32:8 says He guides us with His eyes. He is the One who has been speaking to you before you knew it was Him speaking to you, long before you knew Him as you know Him now. Remember. His intent was calling you, even when you were a child. He is there. It was Jesus all along.

Every time we bump the life of another, Christ is spoken in our moment of connection, He is the One who overcomes our inertia , our “indisposition to change”, our resistance to a change in direction. He is the picture that is beyond the frame – He knows no limitations of righteousness and is the unfailing brightness of reality which no eye can hear and more than words can see.

i am like a blank page, and He is the letters, like blue water touching white shores by the Tree of Life at the Crystal Sea. He is like a shining hand writing shimmering words upon my heart, writing emerald and sapphire thoughts, God thoughts shining. He is God who sparks ideas in me, and God who dreams His dreams upon creation like an open hand offering His hope and salvation. Jesus is the All in All, abundant, and beyond our beyond – The One King and Ever Lord.