Searching For Hope The Way


for it is impossible for God to tell a lie

Hebrews 6:13-20 For instance, there was God's promise to Abraham: God took an oath in his own name, since there was no one greater to swear by,

that he would bless Abraham again and again, and give him a son and make him the father of a great nation of people.

Then Abraham waited patiently until finally God gave him a son, Isaac, just as he had promised.

When a man takes an oath, he is calling upon someone greater than himself to force him to do what he has promised, or punish him if he later refuses to do it; the oath ends all argument about it.

God also bound himself with an oath, so that those he promised to help would be perfectly sure and never need to wonder whether he might change his plans.

He has given us both his promise and his oath, two things we can completely count on, for it is impossible for God to tell a lie.

Now all those who flee to him to save them can take new courage when they hear such assurances from God; now they can know without doubt that he will give them the salvation he has promised them.

This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God himself behind the sacred curtains of heaven,

where Christ has gone ahead to plead for us from his position as our High Priest, with the honor and rank of Melchizedek.

our Lord--our only hope

1 Timothy 1:1 FROM PAUL, A missionary of Jesus Christ, sent out by the direct command of God our Savior and by Jesus Christ our Lord--our only hope.

priceless gift of eternal life; it is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled

1 Peter 1:3-10 All honor to God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is his boundless mercy that he has given us the privilege of being born again, so that we are now members of God's own family. Now we live in the hope of eternal life because Christ rose again from the dead.

and God has reserved for his children the priceless gift of eternal life; it is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

And God, in his mighty power, will make sure that you get there safely to receive it, because you are trusting him. It will be yours in that coming last day for all to see.

So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though the going is rough for a while down here.

These trails are only to test our faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it--and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold; so if your faith remains strong after being tried in the test tube of fiery trails, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day of his return.

You love him even though you have never seen him; though not seeing him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with the inexpressible joy that comes from heaven itself.

and your further reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

This salvation was something the prophets did not fully understand. Though they wrote about it, they had many questions as to what it all could mean.

looking forward to the joys of heaven

Colossians 1:3-10 Whenever we pray for you we always begin by giving thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

for we have heard how much you trust the Lord, and how much you love his people.

And you are looking forward to the joys of heaven, and have been ever since the Gospel was first preached to you.

The same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world and changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard it and understood about God's great kindness to sinners.

Epaphras, our much-loved fellow worker, was the one who brought you this Good News. He is Jesus Christ's faithful slave, here to help us in your place.

And he is the one who has told us about the great love for others which the Holy spirit has given you.

So ever since we first heard about you we have kept of praying and asking God to help you understand what he wants you to do; asking him to make you wise about spiritual things;

and asking that the way you live will always please the Lord and honor him; so that you will always be doing good, kind things for others, while all the time you are learning to know God better and better.

hold our heads high no mater what happens and know that all is well