ASSIGNMENTS

1. Daily read over this material and read or sing the song.

2. Place the scripture where you will see it each day.

3. Think about a time you had lost hope and what helped you regain it.

4. Write about a time when hope sustained you through a difficult situation.

5. Plan to tell the class how having hope has changed your life.

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DAILY BIBLE VERSES AND PRAYER THOUGHTS

MONDAY - VERSES: Job 8:11-15; Jeremiah 2:25-28; 3:22-23
PRAYER THOUGHT: God, help me to not hope in the wrong things or for the wrong things.

TUESDAY - VERSES: Psalm 119:147; 130:5-7 PRAYER THOUGHT: Father, help my hope to be in You and Your promises to me.

WEDNESDAY - VERSES: Jeremiah 18:12; Ezekiel 37:11-12 PRAYER THOUGHT: Master, help me to never give up my hope.

THURSDAY - VERSES: Lamentations 3:14-19	PRAYER THOUGHT: Merciful One, forgive me for times I have failed to hope.

FRIDAY - VERSES: Ecclesiastes 9:4; Jeremiah 17:7 PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, thank you for the times my hope has been rewarded.

SATURDAY - VERSES: Lamentations 3:21-26	PRAYER THOUGHT: Judge of All, help me to share my hope with others and encourage them to have hope in you as well.

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Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. - G.K. Chesterton, Signs of the Times, April 1993, p. 6.

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Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today. - Thich Nhat Hanh

SPIRITUAL HEALTH REGIMEN - WEEK 103

HOPE - 8-3-14 to 8-9-14

SCRIPTURE - Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

COMMENT - Hope is powerful. We must have hope. We are not to just wish like in a fairy tale for some magical fix. Our hope is based on a reasonable desire and expectation.

SONG - MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS

1. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain: On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.

2. When Darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

3. His oath, his covenant, his blood supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.

4. When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found! Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne!

THOUGHTS

From Parade magazine comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart. "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition for every one of you." At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. Said one student, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling." Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.

We are much like those students. Before Christ we had no hope and no way to pay our way forward, but after Christ we have His promise that He will pay our way for us and provide us a beautiful, perfect place to live forever. With that hope we should be able to stay on course and look forward with anticipation to a better life than the one we currently have.

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Here it appears either Paul or Barnabas went too far. It must have been a violent disagreement to separate two associates who were so closely united. Indeed, the text indicates as much.

Such examples are written for our consolation: for it is a great comfort to us to hear that great saints, who have the Spirit of God, also struggle. Those who say that saints do not sin would deprive us of this comfort.

Samson, David, and many other celebrated men full of the Holy Spirit fell into grievous sins. Job and Jeremiah cursed the day of their birth; Elijah and Jonah were weary of life and desired death.

No one has ever fallen so grievously that he may not rise again. Conversely, no one stands so firmly that he may not fall. If Peter (and Paul and Barnabas) fell, I too may fall. If they rose again, I too may rise again. - Martin Luther

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Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. - Joseph Addison

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We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

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There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. - Clare Boothe Luce

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A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope!

Those animals somehow hoped that if they could stay afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them. If hope holds such power for unthinking rodents, how much greater should its effect be on our lives. - Today in the Word, May, 1990, p. 34

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A man sentenced to death obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within the year--on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. "Within a year," the man explained later, "the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly." - Bernard M. Baruch.

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___________ IN CHRIST

INTRODUCTION - 1 TIMOTHY 1:1

L.S. - REAL _________ IN CHRIST . . .

I. __________ - 1 CORINTHIANS 13:13; 1 PETER 1:13; HEBREWS 6:18-19

II. IS BASED ON THE ______________ - ACTS 23:6; 1 PETER 1:3; 1 PETER 1:21

III. ANTICIPATES HIS ___________ - TITUS 2:13; ACTS 24:15

IV. BELONGS ONLY TO GOD'S ____________ - EPHESIANS 4:4; 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-14; TITUS 3:7; EPHESIANS 2:12

V. CHANGES THE WAY WE __________ - 1 JOHN 3:3; COLOSSIANS 1:23; PETER 3:15

VI. CHANGES THE WAY WE VIEW __________ - COLOSSIANS 1:5; 1 CORINTHIANS 15:19; PHILIPPIANS 1:20-21

CONCLUSION - HEBREWS 7:19; PROVERBS 13:12

HOPE IN CHRIST

INTRODUCTION

A. DEFINED- n. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best:

n. something that is hoped for:

v. to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.

B. Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man. - Pliny the Elder

Hope is patience with the lamp lit. - Tertullian

C. HOPE IS USED TO MEAN WISH, BUT THAT IS NOT BIBLICAL HOPE.

D. 1 TIMOTHY 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

L.S. - REAL HOPE IN CHRIST . . .

I. ABIDES - 1 CORINTHIANS 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

A. 1 PETER 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

B. HEBREWS 6:18-19 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: {19} Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

II. IS BASED ON THE RESURRECTION - ACTS 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

A. 1 PETER 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

B. 1 PETER 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

III. ANTICIPATES HIS RETURN - TITUS 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

C. ACTS 24:15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

IV. BELONGS ONLY TO GOD'S CHILDREN - EPHESIANS 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

A. 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-14 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

B. TITUS 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

C. EPHESIANS 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

V. CHANGES THE WAY WE LIVE - 1 JOHN 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

A. COLOSSIANS 1:23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

B. 1 PETER 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

VI. CHANGES THE WAY WE VIEW DEATH - COLOSSIANS 1:5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

A. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

B. PHILIPPIANS 1:20-21 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. {21} For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

CONCLUSION

A. Hebrews 7:19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

B. Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

C. During WWII in a Nazi concentration camp one of the prisoners dreamed of being rescued. He dreamed that the rescue would occur on a specific day and began to tell the other prisoners about it. He brought them hope, and many fought for life because of that hope. The day he had dreamed of came and went with no rescue. He gave up all hope and died just days before the actual rescue did come.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Romans 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.