Georgia Lee Ministries

Hebrews 10:23 says: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

There are two words in that verse which I want to examine-confession and hope.  Before I learned how to walk by faith, all my wife and I lived on was hope.  But hope will not change your circumstances.  It takes faith to release the power of God to change your circumstances.  Hope will only keep you alive until things change.  If you never bring faith to bear upon your circumstances, all you will do is live in hope.  Your circumstances will never change.

However, in order to really walk by faith, you have to have hope.  Hope is a goal setter.  What’s your goal?  My goal or objective is to reach the top of the mountain in all areas of life.  Everybody should have a goal.  If you do not set a goal you will never reach one.  This is one reason why many people, and even many Christians, never achieve anything.  They never set goals.  They have nothing for their faith to obtain.  Hope sets the goal and faith achieves it.

Hebrews 11:1 says: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hope by itself has no substance.  Faith adds substance to your hope.  If you do not have hope then you have nothing for your faith to obtain.  On the other hand, if you have hope and do not have faith then you have nothing by which to obtain that which you hope for.

I want to challenge each of you to high hopes this New Year.  I have high hopes and I obtain the goals I set.  Though there still are some that have yet to manifest.  I know that some things take more time than others.

I want to challenge you to have high hopes, to set some goals for 2009.  If you do not set any goals you will never reach any.  Now be careful and use wisdom when you set your goals.  Do not set them so high that you become frustrated and lose hope.  If you do, it will cause you to give up and do nothing.

Have you set goals concerning your financial and spiritual needs?  Do you have any goals with regard to your desires, your family, your husband, your wife, your children, your job, your career, your education, your ministry or your physical health?

You need to have high hopes and there are steps you can take to obtain any goal.  The first one is to remain steadfast, as it says in Hebrews 10:23.  You have to be tenacious and hold on to your goals.  Do not let go until your goal manifests.  It takes that kind of attitude.  Stay with it even if it takes forever.  It may take a while for your goal to come to pass, but if you remain steadfast sooner or later it will manifest.

First Corinthians 15:58 says: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

If you want to reach your high hopes you have to be steadfast.  Even if hell rises up against you, if the water rises, you stick with the goal.  This is what steadfast means.  It takes discipline and commitment to be constant.

Jesus said in John 15:18-19: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

The enemy will put pressure on you when you attempt to reach your goal.  But you can handle it.  Jesus did.  You are in good company.  In fact, you are running with the best.  He has already warned you.  If they persecuted Him they will persecute you.

Situations may arise in which you are unable to figure out what to do.  We all have encountered this at one time or another in our lives.  When you are walking in the Word and by the Holy Spirit you have divine, inside information to meet your goal.

Second Corinthians 4:8-9 says: “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

If you are steadfast, standing through the persecution, deliverance is at hand.  You can obtain your High Hopes.
This devotional was excerpted from Dr. Price’s audio teaching, “High Hopes.”  Please call us at (800) 927-3436 or visit our website: www.faithdome.org for a complete list of his products.

Dr. Frederick K.C. Price is the founder and pastor of Crenshaw Christian Center West in Los Angeles and CCC East in Manhattan.  To obtain more information about his ministry, please call (800) 927-3436 or visit www.faithdome.org. Click here to browse and purchase MP3 sermons by Dr. Frederick K.C. Price!

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Milan FordWell, here we are.
Today is Wednesday, December 31st.

The very last day of the year 2008.
And what a year it was.

Question: Do you remember where you were last year around this time?
Better Question: Do you remember what you heard last year around this time?

On December 31st (2007), you may have been one of the millions of people across this nation, who gathered together inside their local church for its annual Watch Night Service.

And although there are times when the variations of our church annual themes and proclamations can make God look a bit schizoid in the eye of the unbeliever, for the most part,  millions of people across the nation heard a message that evening about the significance of the year 2008.

2008. The year of (yep, that’s right)…
…New Beginnings.

After 365 days, I think I probably heard every message imaginable about the number eight (8).

From areas of relationships to finance, issues of health and areas of leadership, the hope for a New Beginning was indeed high on the hearts and minds of believers both young and old this year.

Now I am not in any way what you call a great practitioner of biblical numerology, but I took a few moments out the other day to research the significance of the number nine (9). Just seemed like a cool thing to do on the eve of 2009. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised at what I discovered.

The number nine (9) literally means: to bring to an end.
In fact, in one instance, I found that the number (9) means: to bring a judgment (or conclusion) to.

Not exactly the kind of words you’d expect people to pack out a sanctuary or tear up a few pews in order to hear this evening.

To bring to an end.
To bring to a conclusion.
To bring a judgment to.

Pretty far cry from the usual New Year phrases we’ve coined and embraced in the past like…

The Year of Divine Favor.
The Year of a New Beginning.
The Year of Release.

I actually heard that one church already coined the phrase: All Will Be Fine…in 2009!

It kinda makes you wonder…
…what will God say (about 2009) on tonight?

Well, while millions across the nation prepare themselves to hear the answer, I want to leave you with a quote I came across recently that summarizes what I want my 2009 to look like.

“The oppression of the poor isn’t driven by the power of the oppressor, but (rather) the vulnerability of the oppressed.” - Gary Haugen

As you prepare for tonight, it is my prayer that 2009 will be a year that you and I will put an end to our excuses. A year that you and I will no longer blame any oppressor, spiritual or natural, for the things we desire to accomplish in our lives next year.

2009 is indeed going to be a great year.
But it may be one that involves will bringing an end to some things.

2009 is not a year for to be lazy and vulnerable. We can no longer wait on God to bring a conclusion to something He has already empowered us to do.

This year involves succeeding at obtainable goals, just as much as it involves reaching for some impossible ones. This year, you and I must become (sorry for the dirty word here)…responsible.

Tonight, be careful not to become too consumed with asking God (yet again) to begin some new things in your life, without examining the things He has also told you to bring to an end.

Although it may not be comfortable and popular, it is time.

Happy New Year!
(In fact, make it more than happy. Make it productive!!)

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The Truth of the Nativity
John MacarthurThe story of the first Christmas is so beloved that singers and storytellers across the centuries have embellished and elaborated and mythologized the story in celebration. However, most people now don’t know which details are biblical and which are fabricated. People usually imagine the manger scene with snow, singing angels, many worshipers, and a little drummer boy. None of that is found in the biblical account.

Christmas has become the product of an odd mixture of pagan ideas, superstition, fanciful legends, and plain ignorance. Add to that the commercialization of Christmas by marketers and the politicization of Christmas in the culture wars, and you’re left with one big mess. Let’s try to sort it out. The place to begin is in God’s Word, the Bible. Here we find not only the source of the original account of Christmas, but also God’s commentary on it.

We can’t know Jesus if we don’t understand He is real. The story of His birth is no allegory. We dare not romanticize it or settle for a fanciful legend that renders the whole story meaningless. Mary and Joseph were real people. Their dilemma on finding no room at the inn surely was as frightening for them as it would be for you or me. The manger in which Mary laid Jesus must have reeked of animal smells. So did the shepherds, in all probability. That first Christmas was anything but picturesque.

But that makes it all the more wondrous. That baby in the manger is God! Immanuel!

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That’s the heart and soul of the Christmas message. There weren’t many worshipers around the original manger-only a handful of shepherds. That’s intriguing because shepherds were among the lowest and most despised social groups.

The very nature of shepherds’ work kept them from entering into the mainstream of Israel’s society. They couldn’t maintain the ceremonial washings and observe all the religious festivals and feasts, yet these shepherds, just a few miles from Jerusalem, were undoubtedly caring for sheep that someday would be used as sacrifices in the temple. How fitting it is that they were the first to know of the Lamb of God!

More significant, they came to see Him the night he was born. No one else did. Though the shepherds went back and told everyone what they had seen and heard, and though “all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds” (v. 18), not one other person came to see firsthand.

Scripture doesn’t describe how the shepherds’ search for the baby Jesus actually unfolded, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that they entered Bethlehem and asked questions: “Does anybody know about a baby being born here in town tonight?”

The shepherds might have knocked on several doors and seen other newborn babies before they found the special Child lying in the feeding trough. At that moment, those humble men knew for certain that the angels’ announcement was a word from God. After their encounter with Joseph and Mary and Jesus, the shepherds couldn’t help but tell others about what the angels had told them. They became, in effect, the first New Testament evangelists.

The shepherd’s story is a good illustration of the Christian life. You first hear the revelation of the gospel and believe it (Romans 10:9-10). Then you pursue and embrace Christ. And having become a witness to your glorious conversion, you begin to tell others about it (Luke 2:17).

May God grant you the life-changing spiritual experiences and the ongoing attitude of enthusiasm and responsiveness that causes you to tell others that you, too, have seen Christ the Lord.

John MacArthur is Widely known for his thorough, candid approach to teaching God’s Word, John MacArthur is a fifth-generation pastor, a popular author and conference speaker, and has served as pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969. John is the president of The Master’s College and The Master’s Seminary, and he has written hundreds of books and study bibles. For more information on John, log onto www.gtv.org.

© John MacArthur all rights reserved.

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