LIVELY HOPE OR DEAD HOPE?
"Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which... hath begoten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead" (I Pet 1:3).
Here St.Peter speaks about a lively or living hope.There are two types of hope - living hope and dead hope.
If you want to become rich, great or famous in this world, yours is a dead hope; all the hopes that you build up to become great will come to an end with your death.
What is the lively hope we get by the resurrection of Jesus Christ? "If Jesus comes when I am alive, by the grace of God I shall be changed or transformed!" Even in the matter of getting caught up at the Rapture, some people have a dead hope. They think they can never be ready if Jesus comes in their lifetime. Their miserable hope is that they must lie in the sickbed and get sanctified and die if they are to be caught up when Jesus comes. This certainly is a dead hope. Look at what St.Paul says: 'We which are alive and remain unto the Coming of the Lord... shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air' ( I Thess 4:15, 17). In other words, we who remain on earth and are lively i.e. those of us who live with the hope of translation or transformation will meet the Lord in the air.
Dear child of God, what type of hope do you have? Is it a lively hope or a dead hope?
"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope" (Tit 2:11-13). When the grace of God fills our life, we will have a lively hope. And only those who have a lively hope can be lively Christians.
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