Power Verses……  “He (Jesus) came unto His  own, and His own did not receive Him. But as man y as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name......" (John 1:11, 12)

 In last week's Power Surge as we embarked on thoughts related to the Christmas season we considered opening the arms of “Christmas love” as an act of forgiveness or reconciliation towards a family member or friend. The words of the carol below helped to focus our thoughts on the theme.

“Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love divine;

Love was born at Christmas

Star and angel gave the sign.”

This week our thoughts turn to the word HOPE, not only relevant to Christmas but to these difficult times of global financial and economic uncertainty. The last four lines of the verse from the popular carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is as relevant today as it was on that first Christmas morning and, in the second half of the 19^th century, when the carol was written.

“Yet in the dark streets shineth

The everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years

Are met in Thee tonight.”

There is a condition of the mind that is essential for us to live the kind of lives we are longing for. Call it hope, trust or confidence. It is the single greatest difference between those who try and those who give up.

·          Hope is the fuel that the human heart runs on. A car crash or a diving accident can paralyse a body, but the death of hope paralyses the spirit.

·          Hope is what prompts a young man and a young woman to stand before a preacher and promise “I do” even although they have no guarantees.

·          Hope is what fuels the same couple, many years later, after broken promises, dreams and hearts, to give their promises another go.

·          Hope is why human beings keep bringing children into a fallen, angry world.

·          Hope is why there are hospitals and universities.

·          Hope is why there are churches, A.A. and counselling.

·          Hope is why there are Aids clinics and drugs companies.

No composer would agonise over a score without the hope that some glimmer of beauty would emerge from the struggle.

No parent would agonise over a child without the hope that the child might live a better, nobler, happier and a more fulfilled life than they did.

When he was an old man the master painter Henri Matisse was crippled with arthritis. Wrapping his fingers around the paint brush was painful; painting for him was pure agony. Someone asked him why he kept painting. He answered, “The pain goes away, the beauty endures.” That is hope.

Pablo Cassals continued to practice the cello five hours each day even although he was recognised as the world’s greatest cellist, even when he had grown ancient enough that the effort exhausted him. Someone asked the great man what made him do it. His reply, “I think I’m getting better.” That is hope.

It is said of Michelangelo that when he was labouring day after day painting the Sistine Chapel, he grew so discouraged that he resolved to quit.
One writer states that as dusk darkened the always-shadowed Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, weary, sore and doubtful, climbed down the latter from his scaffolding where he’s been lying on his back since dawn painting the chapel ceiling. After eating a lonely dinner, he wrote a sonnet to his aching body. The last line said……!’m no painter.

But when the sun rose again, Michelangelo got up from his bed, climbed up the scaffold, and laboured another day on his magnificent vision of the Creation.
What pushed him up the ladder? Hope.

Very few Jews on that first Christmas morning recognized the Babe of Bethlehem as their long awaited Messiah promised and prophesized hundreds of years earlier. They had lost their hope.

One of the great verses on hope in the Bible is found in Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (New International Version)

When I think of that verse I am reminded that;

·          God is the source of all hope;

·          He is even now seeking to fill my body with not just joy and peace, but ALL joy and peace:

·          His desire is that I should not just contain hope, but overflow with hope;

·          This experience is dependent not on my power, but God’s power at work in me.

As you contemplate the significance of the Christmas story consider this………

The Babe of Bethlehem became the Christ of Calvary………

embrace that truth and you will have ETERNAL HOPE.

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