Hope

Course Summary

Eschatology

 

Foreword

"The message of hope in Jesus is so simple, and remains timeless," Amy Grant.
"When the dream is big enough, the facts do not count!"


Dexter Yager shared this wisdom thousands of times while building a multi-billion dollar international business. He and his wife Birdie led—by the power of the Holy Spirit—many to Christ in their Sunday morning worship services held in conjunction with weekend business conferences. Dexter adamantly spoke about, inspired, and led people to develop a "BIG DREAM!!!" In other words, when "Hope" is big enough, the facts do not count. The dream and hope overcome the facts, only to the extent of their truth. Conversely, deceptive promises and false hope yield destructive discouragement.


As Christians, our greatest hope and dream originates with an eternal relationship—eternal life—with God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This dream enables us to overcome the emotional effects from the facts of sickness, death, financial challenges, hunger, cold, hot, floods, droughts, loneliness, and all the other effects of total depravity on us as humans. Biblical eschatology illuminates this hope from Genesis to Revelation; Adam to Noah to Abraham to Melchizedek to Moses to David to Christ in the flesh and his ultimate return and our serving Him. These present God's love, grace, faithfulness, sovereignty and provision. Thus our hope grows on the diamond—non-erodible—base of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


Hope in Christ and the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit enhances our internally overcoming sin's physical manifestation. Their presence and hope internalizes our spiritual and emotional peace despite the aforementioned effects of depravity. Additionally, the eschatological, eternal, perspective magnanimously shrinks the time and price of any earthly suffering.

Introduction

My immediate and eschatological hope increases proportionately, perhaps exponentially, with increased faith. Faith increases with each hearing and acquisition of greater understanding of God's word. Logically, knowledge of the holy, omniscient, omnipotent, Creator of the Universe and Savior of all who believe should yield increased hope. Our deepest, innermost yearnings—apart from sin—long for God's presence, character and attributes. This course increases my knowledge—thus belief—of God's fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled promises, as well as His sovereignty and provision. Consequently, increasing my hope and optimism increases the enthusiasm with which I am able to convey the message of hope and knowledge to the world. This past weekend I wrote and posted an article, "Holy Spirit in YOU!", prompted while pondering this paper and studying for this course's second exam. This courses' journey from Genesis to Revelation, studying the conditional and unconditional covenants and promises, along with God's men of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, Moses, and David provides amazing perspective in considering this same God indwells all believers in the Trinitarian person of the Holy Spirit. Even though I have long had this knowledge, and some degree of understanding, I became amazingly overwhelmed Friday while studying and pondering the significance of this gift—another layer of my understanding crystalized for greater revelation. As a result, this blog quickly transformed from thoughts to words: Holy Spirit in YOU! This course, and DTS, inspires and enables me to share hope with others, especially in the MarketPlace. I seek to convey the message of hope as emphasized in the course notes and material in an impactful dialogue with businessmen and women. Greater recognition of God's sovereignty and provision increases my cognizance of His working through me to impact men, women, families and business. I am humbled! God willing, I plan to continue this type of applied ministry. Holy Spirit The consideration of the indwelling Holy Spirit leads to the following rhetorical inquisitions: What does this relationship entail on an immediate personal level—how does the Holy Spirit affect my daily thoughts, words and actions? How does having the indwelling Holy Spirit affect my God-confidence, as opposed to self-confidence? What does this provide in my life, moment to moment, in relationships of all natures, work and studying? What does the presence of Holy Spirit enable in my life, how might understanding and acting on this understanding affect families, communities, states, nations, churches, organizations and businesses? How does this affect my immediate, mid-term and long-term perspective? How does the indwelling Holy Spirit affect my Goals? How does this affect my Effort and Performance? Do I have an excuse for submitting anything less than my best effort to Him? How does the presence of the Holy Spirit in me, affect my Attitude? Am I fully, or at least to the best of my ability, submitting to His presence and power? How does His presence, guidance, sovereignty, provision and wisdom affect my hope and the hope of those whom God places in my life's path?

Christ

The message of hope begins with Creation, and the first suggestion of the trinity (Gen 1). Continuing with God creating man in "our" (God's) image. God's sovereignty, while continually evident shines through with Melchizedek whose name, 'king of righteousness' and place of kingship, Salem, 'king of peace' foreshadow Christ.

Semester Blogs

While pondering this course and this paper due at the end of the semester, I wrote several blogs in response to the material, reflecting application to my ministry.
Hope = Joy

"Hope is empty, unless Joy follows. Joy always follows authentic Hope. A person's Joy reflects their placement of Hope." ~ Charles M. Gibbs (My mentor from Little Rock, AR)


Prayer Yields Joy (Joy derives from Spirit filled Hope)
Be joyful
always; pray
continually, give thanks
in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (NIV))

Leader Servant: Encouragement

(Encouragement generates Hope to the encourage and encourager)

"If we can encourage others, we should encourage them. If we can give, we should be generous. If we are leaders, we should do our best." (Romans 12:8)
"Encouragement is an instrument of divine change." ~ Charles M. Gibbs
Leader Servant: Hope and Joy

As Leader Servants, how do we generate infectious hope and joy in ourselves and organization? Let's examine scripture, the pure word of God. Wisdom originates from God.

    ^"aAnd not only this, but ¹we also ^bexult in our tribulations (afflictions), knowing that tribulation (affliction) brings about ^cperseverance; and ^aperseverance, ^bproven character; and proven character, hope; and hope

^adoes not disappoint, because the love of God has been ^bpoured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

  
 

    "^aConsider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter ^bvarious ¹trials, knowing that ^athe testing of your ^bfaith produces ^1cendurance. And let ^1aendurance have its perfect ²result, so that you may be ^3bperfect and

complete, lacking in nothing."

    "^aRejoice (Be Joyful (NIV)) always; ^apray without ceasing; in everything ^agive thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. ^aDo not quench the Spirit; do not despise ^aprophetic ¹utterances. But ^aexamine

everything carefully;
^bhold fast to that which is good; abstain from every ¹form of evil. "

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult

in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1–2 (NASB95))."

Summary

This course instills greater hope in both the immediate present, the rest of earthly life, and eternal life. My relationship with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit continually deepens as a result of greater knowledge and understanding. Just when I begin errantly thinking that I understand a great deal in my relationship with God, He reveals greater depths of understanding. To be clear, I never thought I knew everything, rather this course helps me understand how little I knew before. The underlying message of God's sovereignty and provision throughout history and eternity magnifies my hope. I have submitted my running to the Lord many times, and achieved success as a result.


Yet, for some reason, I lack this same level of submission in most other areas of my life. I no longer have to doubt whether I am a capable speaker, writer, minister, friend, son, brother or any other area I am asked to serve. Rather, acknowledge that it is not me, rather Christ who is in me, knowing that I can't, He (Christ) can, We (Christ and I) are. Yes, I must exert myself physically, emotionally and spiritually to the best of my ability. However, submission assures that God provides all the sufficiency. This course enabled deeper understanding and relationship provides the God-confidence to speak and provide God-led counsel to international business leaders.


I better understand that I don't have to have all the answers of how I will support myself after completing my degree in December. I better understand that the same God who led and interacted with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, Moses, David, all the apostles and disciples and who will return again for His people, lives in me. Wow—Powerful Hope!!! The God of provision and sovereignty past is the God of provision and sovereignty present, future and eternal.


Furthermore, His unfulfilled promises in the Abrahamic Covenant provide powerful reminders that He remains active and Christ will return—Powerful Hope! This course helps me better understand the realness of God's love and activity in our lives. This continual growth of greater understanding provides excitement and hope in future growth and hope in the Lord. What will I understand this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year that I fail to consider or comprehend now? This consideration yields significant hope in my growth, and the ability to serve the Lord in helping others grow.


An additional gain of this course consists in the reminder to allow God, through His Word and Spirit, to mold my views instead of attempting to mold His Word to my preferences in any one moment. This includes the lesson from those who would like to change their minds but refuse to because they are published under an opposing position. This course content magnifies the need to remain humble, saying "As I now understand…" or "To the best of my ability, I view this position this way because—or based on…." Writing this reminds me of one professor stating last semester that he changed his understanding regarding a particular point he stated in a well-known Bible commentary. I hope to continue as a just fraction of this type of life-long student!


This course helps me better understand and comprehend personal hope in God as existing in a foundation of diamonds—non-erodible—for personal growth and relationship. My HOPE overflows.

 

See Christ, Believe Christ, Achieve with Christ!
Rick E. Meyer
See, Believe, Achieve Inc.
www.rickEmeyer.com