Living in the Hope

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. Welcome to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Happy New Year and welcome to Words of Life.

I'm Cheryl Gillum and I'm with- Hey, I'm Bernie Dake. Happy New Year, everybody. Every new year, most of us have some goal, 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 could wrap our heads around how to live this way. And just the idea that we could have purpose to a day. I think I've got a friend that's doing a thing now each day where they take pictures or thoughts of five things that they're thankful for. That's how they start their day. Now, I know we don't have to live our life on social media, but one way that they're sharing that or helping other people realize the gratefulness kind of living is by putting it on social media.

And it's kind of 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 it. And now I want to do even more.

You know, in 2022. It is being purposeful. May God help us all to live that way every day.

Yeah. How do you find purpose? How do you start your day? I start my day with a cup of coffee and just me and Jesus.

Amen. I mean, I wake up and there's several things I do. Sometimes I read or I do what's called Lectio 365. Just really centering my thoughts and my mind, my motives, my intention upon Jesus and allowing His Spirit to speak into me, to settle my heart, you know, if I have any anxiousness or anything like that and really give me direction for the day.

So that's how I start every day. Well, I just want to remind the listeners that we're kind of out of excuses when it comes to technology, right? We've got applications we can put on our phone. There's Bible applications.

So many tools. The Bible app I know has done over a half a billion downloads, you know, so 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. And 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. So may that be a New Year's resolution for each of us.

Amen. Well, we hope that you've enjoyed this series and a very special thank you to our friend, Commissioner Phil Needham, for sharing his heart and his time and his talent with us this Christmas season. As a reminder, you can find his book Christmas Breakthrough on Amazon and we'll have links on our website as well.

Salvation Army Soundcast dot org. Happy New Year. And we'll see you next week with our new series.

God bless you. Hello, this is Phil Needham again. And today we conclude the series running through Advent and Christmastide. 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 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 then 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 merely 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 who 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 is a 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 and clean up the world's mess, which they themselves have done so little to clean up. Some have fallen prey to elaborate last-times schemes, calming their uncertainty by embracing predictions based on questionable data, forced interpretations of Scripture, or some would-be modern prophets' claims.

Predictably, the 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 and 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 light so convincingly by their good works that others would see the glory of God in their midst? That in Revelation 21 5, John saw 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 as 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 copped out 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 loyalties and values of the present world order. He makes us equal to the soul-shaping challenge of choosing love over hate, humility over power 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 a world order where it doesn't fit. And he 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. Pray to receive courage, the kind behind Jeremiah's prophetic persistence in the face of endless rejection and persecution. Pray to receive a holy passion like that exuded by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the Wesleys who saw a corrupt and compromised church and put their lives and reputations on the line to reform and renew it. Pray to receive a vision like that of William and Catherine Booth, who walked 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 risked 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 but 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 our unusual actions reveal to the world the power and beauty of the kingdom of God, 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 by Jesus' compassion for others, to walk in holiness of life, and to fight for the cause of righteousness. I ask you to arm 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.

Amen. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support, and we'd love to hear from you. Email us at radioatuss.salvationarmy.org, call 1-800-229-9965, or write us at P.O.

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