Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Not By, But By

"Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, " says the Lord Almighty."  Zechariah 4:6.  I think that says enough all by itself. 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Hope

Hebrews 6:16-20 (NIV)

16"People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf."
  
In this passage hope is referred to as an anchor.  But it is not an anchor that is dropped to the bottom of the sea to hold a ship in one place, as we might imagine.  The anchor that is being referenced here is one that does not hold us steady, but moves us forward.  The image the biblical writer is calling his readers to picture is that of a ship coming into a tight harbor.  An anchor would be cast to a solid point in the rocks on the shore.  Once the anchor was secured to the shore, the ship would be safely pulled into and docked in the harbor.   

Hebrews 6 is not calling us to let down an anchor so that we may stay put in the storms of life, but is calling us to cast an anchor on the shore, which we are daily and even moment by moment allowing to pull us into the "inner sanctuary."  The inner sanctuary of the Jewish temple was the place of God's dwelling presence.  As such, the writer is letting us in on a promise. As we fix our anchor in Jesus, he pulls us where he is...into the harbor of God's realized, powerful, amazing, overwhelming, eternal and unchanging presence.  

 If we anchor our hope in people or money or health or appearances or a career or the results of an election (regardless of which side you are on) then we have given ourselves over to wishful thinking, but have not yet anchored ourselves in a hope that pulls us forward irregardless of anyone or anything else. 

Perhaps this is why the world is not interested in what we say we have in Christ.  They see us rising and falling in the same happiness and sadness they have found without Christ by dropping our anchor in the same temporal stuff as everyone else. What if today, just for one day even, we made up our minds that we would show the world that hope is only found in that which is continually pulling one into the presence of God?  One thing is for sure...even if it convinces no one else, you and I will be pulled into a harbor that does not rise and fall with the winds and waves that the rest of the world allows to determine their hope.  No better than that, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf."