Not Wishing on a Star

I didn’t grow up in a church that observed Advent.   Being Pentecostal, they didn’t follow the liturgical calendar.   It wasn’t until a few years ago when I was pastoring a church that I plunged into the concept of the liturgical calendar, lectionary preaching, and of course, advent.

The theology of the season is so rich.  Here is a short clip to help you understand it.

The theme this week is hope.  I recently heard a saying:  The last thing to die is hope.  Wow!  That hit me.  You see, I know what it is to lose hope.  You can lose many things but when your hope is dead, so are you.  I was a walking zombie.  Once I was the proverbial optimist.  Life would always get better.  When it didn’t and it kept crashing in on me, my hope was gone, and I became a pessimist.

Sadly, the pessimistic tendencies have lingered.  I fight at time to hold on to hope   With tenacity, I hold on to it determined to never lose hope again.  It is because of the power of hope that I felt led of the Lord to name the ministry I felt He wanted to birth in me, The Age of Hope Ministries…

The scripture the Lord gave me was Romans 8:24… Hope that is seen is not hope at all…

Hope is not wishing upon a star.  Hope is that inner drive that tells us to keep going.  It is that thing that even against all hope, we hope – why? Because we know Jesus.  It is clinging to what the old timer’s called the Blessed Hope – the hope in the return of Jesus.  No not just the day He comes again and changes everything for the whole world, but when He comes to me in my despair, sadness, and despite my pessimism helps me get up.

When all else fails, that’s what I cling to… I hold on to it and scrape myself off the floor of despair and broken dreams and keep moving.


Monday, November 28, 2011: Colossians 1:3-27

Tuesday, November 29, 2011: Psalms 130

Wednesday, November 30, 2011: Lamentations 3:21-33

Thursday, December 1, 2011: Ephesians 1:3-15

Friday, December 2, 2011: Hebrews 7:11-28