Living in the Hope

Hi this is breathing welcome to the Salvation Army's words of life.

Happy new year and welcome to the words of life.

I'm still hungry day, every new year.

Most of us have some golf some resolution to somehow improve who we will be this year over last in this final episode with Commissioner Phil Needham.

He reminds us that we can live each day with purpose. If we allow God's kingdom to impact how we live. That day I think just about every resolution could be realized if we can wrap our heads around how to live this way and just the idea that we could have purpose to a day.

I think I got a friend that's doing nothing. Now each day really take pictures or thoughts of five things that they're thankful for the toe they start their day and I know we don't have to live our life on social media, but one way that they're sharing, or helping other people realize the gratefulness kind of living is by putting on social media that's kinda cool.

You know my resolution last year was to try to be more intentional and I think because of technology. In spite of the pandemic. I was able to do that and I feel better for now. I want to do even more, knowing 2922 is being purposeful. May God help us all to live that way every day. Yeah. How do you find purpose. How you start your day. I start my day with a cup of coffee and just man, Jesus, and I wake up and there's several things I do. Sometimes I read I do it's called Alexia 365 just really centering my thoughts in my mind.

My motives my attention upon Jesus and allowing his spirit to speak into me to to settle my heart you know if I have any anxiousness or anything like that really give me direction for the day. That's how I start every day was just one room of the listeners that were kind of out of excuses when it comes to technology. Got applications.

We can put our phone the Bible applications.

There's some angels. The Bible app I know has done over half a billion downloads because you know some people have access to the word of God and at the end of the day God's asking us even just to be still, so we can hear his voice right in that I think you'll find purpose and that's a big message of the day because there's so much going around us that can distract us and so just to be still and know that he is God. But we have to be intentional about that. Some may that be a New Year's resolution for each of us. We hope that you enjoyed this series in a very special thank you to our friend Commissioner Phil Needham for sharing his heart in this time of this talent with us this Christmas season. As a reminder, you can find his book, Christmas break through on Amazon and will have links on our website as well. Salvation Army's Comcast.org. Happy new year and will see you next week with our new series and hello this is Phil Needham again today we conclude the series running through Advent and Christmas to at the beginning of this new year. Let's talk about living in the hope Scripture to refer to would be Revelation 21 five. We usually begin the new year with good intentions, whether or not we have a specific list of New Year's resolutions.

We may hope to do better with our lives. Or, perhaps, our fortunes, we may be sufficiently satisfied if the new year proves not to be as bad as the one that that just ended. We may hope to be better people in the new year.

Many people do have a kind of clean slate feeling even a sense of a new start as they begin a new year at the least. Most of us wonder what will be different in our world and in how we will live our lives in it. In today's meditation we will emphasize how each day has meaning for us. If we allow God's kingdom to affect how we live that day. This is living in the hope not narrowly, with the hope.

Our hope is a point-blank confrontation carried out by Christians who refuse to compromise with the ways of hatred and unrighteousness and to insist on living a holiness of radical compassion, righteousness and justice. Living in the hope is living the hope now for a follower of Jesus hope this is strategy for today. You and I are the implementers of that strategy. Many Christians however have missed the point and settled into a comfortable complacency. They may wonder why God has waited so long to send Christ back for the second Advent. They may have settled down and become willing waiters for Christ to come clean up the world's mess, which they themselves have done so little to clean up some of fallen prey to elaborate last times schemes combing their insurgency by embracing predictions based on questionable data forced interpretations of Scripture or some would be modern prophets claims predictably.

Predictions never do pan out. It's worth remembering that Jesus himself claimed he didn't know the time of its coming either. I imagine God himself is wondering why so many Christians are content to live in a cloud of despair and self-imposed powerlessness while clinging to the prospect that someday when God's kingdom comes their problems will be resolved in life will be happy. Did they forget that Jesus announced the kingdom had come, and was already living among them his disciples that the kingdom was similar to living seeds. Someone else planted in the ground seeds that his disciples were to nurture and harvest that they themselves were to be bearers of gospel lights so convincingly by their good works that others would see the glory of God in their midst that in Revelation 21 five John Saul Jesus saying in the present tense look, I am making all things new. Perhaps the return of Christ has been delayed for so long because we Christians have not taken the kingdom of God seriously is a reality already implanted in the world by Jesus, a kingdom in which and by which he actually expects us to live our daily lives.

We have caught L by postponing it and endlessly future predicting it. The good news is that the kingdom is present today and we have the privilege of living in it by following Jesus. He gives us the confidence to refuse to live by the royalties and values of the present world order he makes is equal to the associating challenge of choosing love over hate humility overpower addiction reckless faith in him over our timid plans reconciliation over alienation.

He shows us the way. By gathering the poor and oppressed and inviting them to accept the privilege of living in a kingdom. They never thought possible for the likes of them. He has the gall to love his enemies. He cowers before no earthly power. He loves those we wouldn't think deserve to be loved. He lives the kingdom of God in the world order where it doesn't fit and invites and trusts us to do the same because after all he is our rabbi teacher guide, after whom we, as his disciples are called to mold our lives. Here are some prayer requests for the empowering, and equipping.

We need to live in God's kingdom today prayed to receive courage, the kind behind Jeremiah's prophetic persistence in the face of endless rejection and persecution prayed to receive a holy passion like that exuded by Martin Luther, John Calvin in the Wesley's who saw a corrupt and compromise church and put their lives and reputations on the line to reform and renew it, prayed to receive a vision like that of William and Catherine Booth who walk through the squalor of the East End of London dared to see hope and set out to bring some of God's kingdom to such a seemingly unlikely place. Pray for compassion like that of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa who risks their lives every day to advance the beloved community and to delegitimize every form of inhumanity, live God's future.

Today, if you want this new year of your life to give God pleasure and make a significant contribution to the advancement of his kingdom fully and prayerfully resolve to take the risk of actually living in his kingdom.

Don't make self-help resolutions take revolutionary steps don't seek for a few little improvements here and there, take one or two steps that challenge the very order of the fallen world in which you live.

Decide on one or two simple radical changes you're going to make to confront the demons you are no longer willing to allow to hold sway in the world around you, or perhaps within you. If you and I do just one thing this year to challenge or upset the unrighteous order by which the world in which we live operates. We may well have given people a convincing glimpse of God's kingdom a happy new year for us disciples of Jesus is a year during which are unusual actions reveal to the world the power and beauty of the kingdom of God's God's future in our present join me in prayer dear God, Lord of new beginnings.

I enter this new year as a disciple of your Jesus wanting to bear sufficient resemblance to him to point others his way. I begin also as a builder of your kingdom. Not to advance any cause or benefit of mine, but to live courageously bike Jesus compassion for others to walk in holiness of life and to fight for the cause of righteousness. I ask you to honor me with courage motivate me with your love and guide me with your vision. May the life I live. This year expose those whose lives I touch to the beauty and joy of your kingdom. I ask this in the name of Jesus your son Emmanuel who brought us your kingdom and showed us how to live in it a myth. The Salvation Army's mission doing the most good means helping people with material and spiritual needs to become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army visit Salvation Army USA.org to offer your support and love to hear from you. Email us at radio@uss.salvationarmy.org or call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at PO Box 29972, Atlanta, GA 30359 tell us how we can help share prayer request or share your testimony. Would love to use your story on the air. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes favorite podcast store and be sure to give us a rating. Just search for the Salvation Army's words of life. Follow us on social media for the latest episodes extended interviews and more. And if you don't have a church home. We invite you to visit your local Salvation Army worship center will be glad to see you.

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