it is gone…

some of you if you if the truth were known feel pretty hopeless today.  maybe you feel hopeless about a marriage situation and you think it’s just not getting any better.  maybe you feel hopeless that you’re ever going to get married.  some of you feel hopeless about am i ever going to have child.  many of you feel hopeless about the child you had.  you may feel hopeless about a financial situation, about an illness.  maybe you feel hopeless that you’re in a situation that’s just never going to change or someone is never going to change. 

many people no longer hope for the best...they just try to avoid the worst.

ephesians 2.12-13 tells us the reason for hope.  in the past you were without CHRIST and you had no part in the promises GOD made to HIS people.  you had no hope and you didn’t know GOD.  but now you are in CHRIST JESUS. 

because of what GOD has promised in CHRIST i can always be hopeful for one, because HIS pardon erases my guilt. 

romans 8.1 (nlt), there is no condemnation for those who belong to CHRIST JESUS. 

it says, “no”.  that word in greek is the strongest negative you can get in the greek language.  it means no, no, no, no, no way jose, not in a million years, you can bet your life on it, it’s never going to happen!  no!  no condemnation.  if there was no such thing as heaven it would be worth it becoming a CHRISTian just having a clear conscious.  i can live guilt free, without condemnation. 

is that good news?  absolutely it’s good news.  the number one cause of hopelessness is hidden guilt and hidden shame.  we violate GOD’s standards, much less our own.  then we think, “i could never be forgiven for that.  i’m going to carry it with me the rest of my life.” 

that’s why there’s no perfect crime because you can’t run away from your conscious.  it’s always with you.  there was an old colombo.  johnny cash was the bad guy.  at the end he gets caught and he says, “thank GOD i got caught because the guilt was killing me.”  but that guilt can be erased. 

just a thought from the front porch…