Sunday 28th September, 2014.

FROM THE GENERAL OVERSEER,

Pastor (Dr) E. O. Abina

GOFAMINT

CHRIST IS OUR HOPE AND WE ARE ALSO HIS HOPE

Sunday 28th September, 2014.

“For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. You must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them. You have the authority to correct them when necessary, so don’t let anyone disregard what you say… And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come” (Titus 2:11-15, Mt.24:14 NLT)

Without any iota of doubt we can boldly say that our hope and the hope of the world for the kingdom of peace, tranquility, righteousness, fair play, equity and all the likes, hangs on the second coming and glorious appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the hope of the entire world; nothing can world leaders do to give us a peaceful world. The news from around the world is full of tragedies such as civil unrest, terrorism, kidnapping and all that. Believe it or not the world cannot enjoy the perfect peace until the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Moreover, as Jesus Christ is our hope and the hope of the entire world, we, believers are also the hope of Christ to perform that responsibility assigned to us in this present world. Believers’ responsibilities are twofold in this regard.

First, we are to live the life of that kingdom now in this present world for unbelievers to see it and change. Our scripture passage says that we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in the evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, will be revealed (Verses 12,13).

The instructions given to us in verse 12 are not just ordinary advice; they are what we are on earth for, as the salt and light of the world. The world cannot live this kind of life but we are saved to make a difference in this evil world wherever we are. This will convince the ungodly world, that the kingdom of Christ is surely different from the secular world. Believers, called Christians, are Christ’s hope to make a convincing change. Second, is that we have the responsibility to preach the Good News- the gospel. God has no other agency saddled with this responsibility. The business of the church in this present world is the great commission.

Christ’s words in Matthew 24:14 imply that Christ will not return until the whole nations of the world hear the gospel. That is another reason why we are His hope –to evangelize the present world, to tell the whole world all about the gospel. We must put all our weight and resources behind this task, individually and collectively. We cannot afford to disappoint our Lord. Let us rise up to this task now the Lord will bless us as we do His work- Amen