-WE NEED
HOPE

-Colossians 1:3-14
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Blessed is the man
who trusts in the
LORD, and whose
hope is the LORD.
--Jeremiah 17:7 cross
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Adam and Even didn't need hope because they didn't lack anything. And they had every reason to think that life would go on as pleasantly as it started--with every good thing that God had given them to enjoy. But they put it all at risk for the one thing the serpent said that God had withheld: The knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17; 3:5). So when the serpent came with his offer, Eve was quick to indulge and Adam quick to follow (3:6). They got what they wanted: knowledge. But they lost what they had: innocence. With the loss of innocence came the need for hope--that their guilt and shame could be removed and goodness restored.

Our greatest hope is that Jesus, the "Desire of All Nations" (Hag. 2:7), has come! He has "delivered us from the power darkness," bought our redemption, and forgiven our sins (Col. 1:13-14). He even made it possible for us to be wise about what is good and innocent about evil (Rom. 16:19). Christ in us gives us the hope of glory.

Praise God for the hope of our soon to come, Jesus the Christ!

What are the prospects for this earth?
What hope is there for man?
A world restored through Jesus Christ
In whom we see God's plan.
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-Hope for the Christian is a certainty--
because it's basis is Christ.~
-ODB/JAL

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]