Living in Hope
Hope and the Resurrection Community
The amazing good news of Easter is that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead has altered life both in the present and the future. Those of us who trust in Jesus become a people who are living a life of hope and abundance before death, and are called to point others to the hope that is available to them right now through Jesus. Through Jesus, we can have hope for ourselves and our families, for our immediate church community, for our city and region, and even hope for the entire globe. And we can be that hope, too. For the next seven weeks we'll be working through the book of 1 Peter in a teaching series called “Living in Hope,” exploring how the resurrection of Jesus ushers us into a life of hope for the here and now, and how Jesus calls us to be a community of hope for the world.
Through the power of the Spirit, we can even have hope in the midst of the difficulties that seem to pervade the modern world: suffering, injustice, confusion and anxiety. Are our hopes that big right now? Is hope something you are experiencing as a promise fulfilled, or as a kind of spiritual "consolation prize" in tough circumstances? What are you hoping for right now, today?
As we come to this new series and season of renewal, let's pray that we will experience more and more of the hope of Jesus’ resurrection, and that God would use us to make known this hope to others!
Much love and hope in the resurrection of Jesus,
Corey Widmer
“According to his great mercy, God has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! ”
What Do You Hope For?
As a way to "take the pulse" of our church community and share the hopes we have right now with each other as part of our worship on Sunday morning, we'd like you to use the form below to answer five questions about your own personal, community, and city-wide hopes. All answers will be anonymous. Please limit your answers to 4 words or fewer!