Romans 15:13
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Tonight we will unlock the doors....
Turn on the lights...
Set the equipment up for the worship team....
Make coffee.....
Put out the chairs....
Another Saturday night at Vineyard ReCovery.
Another Saturday night on Broad Street.
If you walk up and down Broad Street, you will see different shops and stores...
Bars, pubs, eateries....
All offering something different. Something to catch the attention of passing patrons, enticing them to come into their establishment.
We too offer something to those who walk up and down Broad Street. But what we offer, you won't find in any other store. We have the exclusive rights to our offer...no one else downtown offers it on Saturday night. As they use to say on certain commercials, "not available in any other store!" Besides there isn't any charge for what we offer. What is this incredible gift that is free? Simple HOPE!
The Oxford dictionary defines hope as being " (Noun) A person or thing that may help save someone". Hope is the one thing that we can offer to anyone who is drowning in life.
Hope that Jesus truly will lay hold of those who surrender will and life to His care, and in this laying hold, He will change the focus and direction of a life that was headed to death and destruction.
Hope, here and now, seals our fate and destiny once we shed this body in death and move over into the presence of Jesus. Can't explain it....Don't know all the in's and out's of life after death. I just know that deep inside me it is true. I guess you could call it a knowing beyond knowing. Maybe that is what Hope truly is....knowing beyond knowing. Knowing something with your heart that your mind can't make sense of. Works for me. This is the very essence of Hope.
I John 3:2-3
Dear friends, we are already God's children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. And all who have this HOPE will keep themselves pure, just as He is pure.
Hope is from God....given to those who will not walk through their daily life being driven by what they see, hear, smell, feel and taste. In other words, we do not make decisions through our own senses. This hope that has been given to me softly whispers to me (and sometimes screams at me) "Seek out God for an answer to what I am going through". I look to Him because my hope tells me that His will be the best answer...the right answer. Sometimes I believe that Hope and faith are first cousins....You can't separate one from the other. They coexist in harmony to aid us in our daily choices.
So if you find yourself downtown Gadsden tonight, drop on by 419 Broad Street...
we have a chair waiting for you...and, oh yeah...more hope than you could ever imagine.
God on you...
mbb
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