HOPE for the Holidays - Day 2

Geneva and Clara
(our farm kitties)

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5)
        
          Because he took pity on two skinny, stray kitties living in the woods of our farm, my Phillip bought a bag of cat food a few of months ago. Clara, who used to hide in the underbrush until we were a safe distance away, now runs to our feet when we get to the farm. (She hasn't let us pet her yet, but I'm confident that day will come.) Geneva, on the other hand, is our "Miss-social-butterfly" and constantly searches for a lap to sit in.

          Because of His great mercy, Father God sent His Son Jesus to seek and save spiritually, destitute people from every tongue, tribe, and nation (Luke 19:10)! Through faith in the resurrected Christ, God offers new life into a living, eternal HOPE that no hardship, trial, or tribulation can ever take away!!!!

Story of HOPE:
          As an eleven year old girl, I was spiritually destitute even though I was in Sunday School and church most Sundays. I believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but I had never trusted in His death, burial, and resurrection as payment for my own many sins.
         After a Billy Graham film at the Dekalb Theatre in Fort Payne, Alabama, a young pastor invited the audience to accept God's free gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith in Jesus. Jesus saved me that day. He rescued me from having to pay for my own sins in the eternal fiery furnace of hell. So no matter what happens on this earth, I have a living HOPE in heaven, and He offers that same living HOPE to you today!

Jesus said, "...I go to prepare a place for you...I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also...I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:2-6)