1^st Peter 1: 3

 When  I opened my   Adult quarterly Sunday School  lesson  to 1^st Peter 1: 3: go ahead,  read   It;  these  words  caught my  attention,  and  I  knew  there  was something special for “Our Comfort Zone.”  Let us look at the hope,  the Bible calls it a "living hope." It's a "living hope" because it's based on the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead.  But not all hopes are living.  Some are dead.  And  when  hope  is dead, man ceases to act.

 

When I was pastor at the “Enon Cumberland Presbyterian Church,”  I often walked through the Enon cemetery; I like to think of the time when the dead shall rise from their graves. Thank God, our Christian friends aren't buried. They're only sown.  "What manner of communication are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?" (Lk. 24:17) The two Emmaus disciples, their faces full of gloom;  and one told Jesus about the crucifixion, and how they had hoped He'd redeem Israel. Then their eyes were opened, and all this darkness of doubt and despair was dissipated by the resurrection. Now everyone who takes hold of this living, loving Lord by faith is electrified by the life-giving Savior, and is given “A living Hope.”

 

Now let's take a look at our “inheritance”. It's described in 1st Peter 1:4 as being "incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." The word "inheritance" means "a settled and secure possession," and it refers to a place and a possession in heaven.  Our inheritance is death-proof, for it's incorruptible. Thank God "There'll never be crepe on the door knob, no funeral train in the sky;  No graves on the hillsides of glory, for there we shall never more die.

The old will be young there forever, transformed in a moment of time; Immortal we'll stand in His likeness, the stars and the sun to outshine." Our inheritance is dirt-proof, for it's undefiled. It's beyond the taint of sin and its sorrow, wickedness and its weariness, transgression and its trouble.  Bless God.

 

I read just recently about a  wealthy man who said to his clerk, "I've put your name in my will, and you'll get ten thousand dollars when I die. Now I'm in good health, and I don't intend to die soon. So I'll help in the meantime by paying you legal interest on the amount. Here's a check for $600 to pay for the first year's interest." This, but in a far higher sense, is our position. Day by day the Lord pays on the interest by providing grace for our trials, a solution for our problems, and supplies for our needs. Do you, my friend, have this hope and inheritance?  You may - by coming to Jesus now.

 Thank God, Thank God for our "Living Hope."                                         

 

 ><))):> In "HIS" Service
             Bro. Roy