Anchor Of Hope Christian Reformed Church

Jesus is life! Jesus is light! Without being made alive in Jesus Christ we are dead and lost in darkness. Everyone needs God's light to shine on him or her for them to be saved. Thank you, Jesus, that you died on the cross so that we could have light and go from darkness to light. Amen!

The Word Became Flesh1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

God pours out His Spirit on all who are His- all chosen, precious, loved, elected, foreknown by Him. This is our only hope! It is only through the substitutionary and sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on our behalf and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we can be saved. Thank you Father for making us alive in your Son Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit! Amen!

We did not seek God; God sought us! We did not love God, God first loved us and enabled us to love Him! We were condemned because of the guilt of our sin and rebellion and Jesus took our sin on His perfect, holy self so that we could by faith receive His righteousness! In Christ God has removed our sins! This is what we give thanks for! Amen!

"Redeemed"— The Hebrew for this word means to ransom by a price paid to free captives. God the Creator, Former, Caller, Redeemer, Savior is making a new holy people through the ransom of His holy Son Jesus Christ. As God makes clear in Isaiah 43:11-12 "I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. (12) I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God." Jesus is the only Way, Truth, and Life!Amen!

Isaiah 42 makes clear in verses 6-8 that the LORD alone is creator, savior, and the only source of righteousness and hope for sinners. (6) "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, (7) to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. (8) I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Praise the Lord that he has shone the light of Jesus Christ into our darkness and given us eyes to see, ears to hear and new heart to trust and believe in Jesus Christ as our righteousness!Amen!

We are bombarded at times by the lies and deceptions of the World, the Devil, and our old fallen flesh. At the center of these lies and deceptions is that we can find strength, pleasure, joy, hope, security... outside of God and His will and His ways. We are constantly offered idols from within our fallen hearts and minds and form the fallen world outside. God makes clear that strength and salvation can only be found in His righteous right hand and in the Holy one of Israel, Jesus Christ. Jesus Crucified is our only hope of forgiveness rather then the condemnation we deserve. Jesus Christ risen is our only hope of eternal life in the blessings of God's good pleasure. Amen!

Who is so prideful that they think they know more or better than God? Everyone, unless God humbles them by making alive and giving them the gift of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. God is God and we are not! God is our strength, wisdom, hope, comfort and salvation! Praise the Lord! Amen.

The rebellious world, the father of all lies the Devil, and our old fallen flesh continue offer us false comforts in sin and disobedience to God. This is why we are so dependent on God's word and the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. The World is passing away along with its rebellion, The Devil and all the demonic will be thrown in to lake of fire along with all who remain in unbelief, and our old fallen flesh has been crucified, killed, and buried with Christ. God's word and promises, however, are eternal life and will last forever! Amen!

Jesus Christ has paid it all, all to Him we owe. He died on the cross in our place so that God's elect could have forgiveness, his righteousness, and eternal life. This truth is to lead us to lives of gratitude, thanksgiving and praise. This truth is not to lead to complacency, presumption, pride in ourselves or any forms of self-righteousness. Let us never forget that he have been saved ultimately for God's glory and His glory alone!

Isaiah 38 verse 17 gives us a powerful depiction of salvation "Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back." Though in our sins we were all children of disobedience, children of wrath, under condemnation and deserving eternal conscious torment in hell God has completely removed our sins from us and from His sight due to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Praise the Lord for His grace and love! Amen!

God is stronger than all our enemies! We can trust God at all times knowing His ways and will is perfect. We are weak yet He is strong! Thank you Lord that you have saved us by and for your son Jesus Christ and His saving work on the Cross!Amen!

To know, believe in, trust, live according to, and proclaim the Salvation that we have in Jesus Christ is to leap for and sing with joy and shout with praise because we have went from death to life! The world, the devil, and our fallen flesh with its sinful desires can not offer us one note of true peace and joy and hope and love. Only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit satisfies with overflowing! Amen!

There will be a judgement! God will bring to an end all rebellion and disobedience. There will be punishment for sin; Eternal conscious torment in hell for all who die in unbelief and with out faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Believe in Jesus and you will no longer be under judgment, because of you believe in Jesus then He has already taken your judgment on Himself on the Cross! Repent and believe in Jesus and live for ever. Refuse to repent and believe in Jesus and you will experience the full wrath and anger and hatred of God for ever! To God be the glory!

As Isiah 33:22 makes clear, "For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us." It means eternal life to know, believe and live in accordance to these truths. It means eternal judgment and wrath to not know, believe, and live in accordance to these truths. The Lord is Righteous and we must be righteous. This is only possible by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and have His righteousness reckoned to us! What a good and loving King of kings and Lord of lords!

What a wonderful truth and promise given Christians in Isaiah 32:17 "And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever." The only source of righteousness, peace, and eternal life with God is in and from Jesus Christ. Let us rest and trust in the crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and return of Jesus Christ as our peace that passes understanding! Amen!

In whom or what do you put your ultimate trust, hope, security, peace, faith, belief, and joy? If you put them in anyone or anything of creation he or it will fail you for he or it is passing away. If you put them in God who is eternal, all powerful, all know, and perfectly holy and good then you will abide forever in love and peace. Jesus Christ crucified is our gospel and our only trust, hope, security, peace, faith, belief, and joy!Amen!

It is sin, rebellion, deception, and deadly to put our hope, trust, and security in anything other than the Lord. Only the Lord is all knowing, all powerful, perfectly good, absolutely holy, always righteous and just. Let us cry out to and worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

The Lord desires your "heart" your all! We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We are to love, trust, worship, be devoted, fear God alone. Christ did not die on the cross to make people superficial hypocrites who speak words of faith yet live unrepentant lives of rebellion. Christ died so that by God's grace we can be made new in His righteousness and have new living hearts that beat with the love of God! Amen!

No one can escape God's holiness! No one can escape God's just judgement! Jesus Christ is the only Way, Truth, and Life; no one gets to the father [can have forgiveness, peace, love, life...] except through Jesus Christ. We must put no confidence, security, or hope in anything of creation, only in the Creator, redeemer, sustainer Lord of host! Amen!