Hope in God: The Source of Our Strength

1 JANUARY 2 015 Hope in God: The Source of Our StrengthYo u are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day 25:5 Moody Bible Institute Founder s Week 2015 This conference, held every year in Chicago since 1901, features an outstanding lineup of prominent Christian teachers, speakers, and musicians offering life-transforming Bible teaching. Free and open to the public, this year s conference takes place on February 2 6 and will focus on the inspiring theme of Running the more information, please call 1-800-DL MOODY or visit and on the AirIf you can t join us in person, we invite you to watch conference sessions live online at or listen on your local Moody Radio station.

2 To see a list of Moody Radio stations, visit Audio and video recordings of conference sessions will be available online after the conference ends. Uplifting Worship and Biblical MessagesGrow in your knowledge and love for Jesus Christ as you learn from some of the best Christian leaders and expository Bible preachers. Be energized and inspired to live more fully for the BauchamPastor of Teaching Grace Family Baptist Church Spring, TXMike FabarezSenior Pastor Compass Bible Church Aliso Viejo, CAPam MacRaeAssociate Professor Moody Bible Institute Chicago, ILPhil VischerFounder Jellyfish Labs Wheaton, ILChristopher BrooksCampus Dean Moody Theological Seminary Plymouth, MIRon HutchcraftPresident Ron Hutchcraft Ministries Harrison, ARJosh McDowellFounder Josh McDowell Ministry Plano, TXTim StaffordPastor of Music Ministries The Moody Church Chicago, ILDaniel CarrollProfessor of Old Testament Denver Seminary Denver.

3 COBilly KimChairman, Far East Broadcasting Company Suwon, South KoreaPaul NyquistPresident Moody Bible Institute Chicago, ILBryan ClarkSenior Pastor Lincoln Berean Church Lincoln, NEDavid JeremiahSenior Pastor Shadow Mountain Community Church El Cajon, CARamesh RichardPresident, Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Health Dallas, TXNancy Leigh DeMossAuthor and Radio Host Revive Our Hearts Niles, MIErwin LutzerSenior Pastor The Moody Church Chicago, ILJohn TrentGary D. Chapman Chair of Marriage and Family Ministry Moody Theological SeminaryMusic provided by Tim Stafford, Moody Bible Institute Music department ensembles, Sara Groves, and Rend WITH PAUL NYQUISTP resident of Moody Bible InstituteFor professional baseball player Josh Hamilton, life was a rollercoaster ride from success to hopelessness.

4 His MLB career and personal relation-ships were being destroyed by alcohol and drug addiction. He entered rehab six times before Jesus changed his life. I m proof that hope is never lost, said Josh in an interview with ESPN. I have a mission n o w. My mission is to be the ray of hope .. the guy who lets people know i t s never completely hopeless. When interacting with fans after a g am e, Josh uses the oppor tunit y to talk about Jesus. In the Bible, the word hope is not merely a wish to get our lives under control. Hope is defined as the trust we place in God. The object of our hope is impor-tant. We place our hope in God and rely on His promises to the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for hope is yachal.

5 It conveys the idea of waiting, being patient, enduring. Again and again, God s people needed to wait and trust in the Lord to act on their behalf. The Israelites relied on God to deliver them from enemies and assure victory in bat tle. The Psalms contain many expressions of hope in which God s people ask Him to remember His promise to be present and faithful. In Psalm 40:1, David expresses this kind of steadfast hope: I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my c r y. In the New Testament the Greek word for h o p e, elpis, is often associated with looking toward Christ s return and the security we have in knowing that Jesus sacrifice has secured our eternal future.

6 We place our hope in Christ and look forward, with assurance and joy, to what the apostle Paul describes as the hope laid up for you in heaven (Col. 1:5). This kind of hope will change our lives. Our lives are no longer marked by weariness, doubt, f e a r, and self-destruction. Even when we go through difficult circumstances, we can be assured of the hope we place and find in Christ alone. Scripture tells us this type of hope results in joy (Rom. 12:12) and boldness (2 C o r. 3:12). The more we cling to J e s us, the more our lives will be characterized by hope. When we live each day in the hope of Christ s return, it impacts our words, our actions, even our state of mind.

7 In Christ, we find a hope that pulls people out of addiction and despair. This hope can repair relationships. God, our hope and our redeemer, never changes. As the writer of Hebrews so well expresses, This hope we have as an anchor of the soul (6:19). Finding Hope1-800-356-6639 Few statements in the Gospels are as chilling as Jesus cry from the cross recorded in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These words seem to be a cry of despair. But upon closer examina-tion, the context reveals that they are actually an expression of hope. The fourth of seven utterances from the cross, this is actually a quotation of Psalm 22:1.

8 By identifying Himself with the suffering of the one described t h e re, Jesus also implicitly identified with the affirma-tion of Psalm 22:24: For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. The psalm is a cry of anguish, but it is also a confession of faith that expresses the psalmist s expectation of deliverance (Ps. 22:25). When Jesus made these words His o w n, He pointed to the hope of resurrection. This theme of hope is also reflected in several of the other sayings that surround Christ s quotation of Psalm 22:1. Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who crucified Him, a request that not only revealed His pit y but also acknowledged that God Himself was at work in some mysterious way in their actions (Luke 23:34; cf.)

9 Acts 4:27 28). Jesus promise to the repentant thief that he would join Him in paradise that very day is proof that Jesus was confident of life after death (Luke 23:43). What is m o re, it is evi-dence of Jesus power to grant eternal life and confer a kingdom. This song of faith rises to a crescendo with the last two statements. One is a shout of victory: It is finished (John 19:30). Some commentators point out that accountants used this same term to mean p a i d in full. Perhaps it also alludes to Genesis 2:2, linking Christ s suffering with the work of God in creation and pointing to His role as t he Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world ( R e v.

10 13:8). Jesus last words from the cross were an expression of trust by which He commit ted His spirit into the hands of the Father (Luke 23:46). Now that Christ has completed His work, His prayer has become our prayer. We can commend our lives into the hands of the Father because we have the example of J e s us, and we know that God was faithful to deliver Him through the resurrection. We can have hope as we breathe our last because Jesus was faithful to His last breath. To learn more about Christ s sayings from the cross, read The Seven Last Words from the Cross by Fleming Rutledge (Eerdmans). For Fur ther StudyTHEOLOGY MATTERSby John KoesslerWords of THE EDITORSby Elena Mafter1-800-356-6639 Through the Years with To d a y in the Wo r dIt seems that only recently we celebrated the 25th anniversary of To d a y in the Wo r d.