A Closing

9 minutes ago

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We have come to the final Lord’s Day Sunday in this month, which marked the beginning of the new Ecclesiastical and Scholastic Year 2026 - 2027. However this new time has started for us, we are alive today, to give God thanks for choosing to give us life. With life in Christ, there is hope. In our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, we have persevered and continue to persevere through life’s formidable battles. Why do we persevere? We do so because we believe and trust the Immutable Word of God, which is hope-feeding, hope-building and hope-sustaining. As we are told in Romans 5: 3b – 5, Tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Our hope in God is sure and solid, and when hope is unmoved, we receive peace, which only the Lord gives. We listen to Paul as he writes to the Church at Rome. He makes it abundantly clear that the Gentiles shall have their hope in Jesus. Her, he is quoting Scripture, as he speaks of what Isaiah prophesied, a long time before. And again, Isaiah says: There shall be a root of Jesse; and He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. In Him the Gentiles shall hope. Now may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15: 12 - 13

In Jesus, a person who is not a Jew, need not feel disadvantaged, left out, or in any way ineligible for all the hope and peace which comes in Jesus, from Jesus and through Jesus. Jesus, though His human lineage is Jewish, came to be Saviour of Gentiles also. We are told, in this most trustworthy text, that in believing in Jesus, we are filled with joy and peace. Paul writes and declares this clearly and boldly. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Romans 1: 16.

What we are stating, when we repeat this, is that all of us, believers in Jesus, have been granted sure, undeniable hope and peace in Him. In the midst of our trials, disappointments, misgivings, heartaches and trespasses, may each one of us, with the enabling of God the Holy Spirit, know peace, which brings inner calm and assurance in turmoil. There is joy, there is hope and there is peace in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

With this mind and attitude, we wait on God’s Peace, as He is Peace.

This week, we will be looking at the peace and the power there is in the Word of Peace.