Resurrection -- The Power of Hope
Rev. Jim Henry, Pastor
1 Peter 1:3-5
04/16/95
George Swanson, at the age of 71, had a great desire to keep on living when death came. On his death bed a few weeks ago, near Adamsburg, Pennsylvania, he called his wife, Carolyn, to his bedside and said, "Now Honey, promise me you'll do what I ask you to do." She said, "I promise." Here was his will and her promise. After his death, he was to be cremated and his remains to be put into an urn. George had purchased twelve lots in the city cemetery and he had a 1984 Corvette. They are going to drop the Corvette into those twelve lots with George behind the wheel with a license tag that says "Hi Pal" for his ride through eternity.
I think George, and a lot of other people, have that deep desire to keep on keeping on. That has been something that has been as far back as the human race. The Pharaohs in the Pyramids were buried with their chariots and their jewels. The Native American was to be buried with his favorite horse and his weapons of war. Today we hate to give death any room so we embalm the remains of our loved ones and seal them in caskets that are double sealed and put them away, knowing and feeling somehow there has to be an Easter. It is in the human heart. It is built in. We want to believe in Easter. There is more beyond. There is an eternity. There is life after this. No one can stop that sense of forever.
But sometimes we use that word of hope and expectancy in the wrong way. When we talk about hope today, many people think about it in words like this: bad news from the doctor, we just got laid off, problems with our children or marriage and we wonder if there is any hope. Hope, instead of meaning assurance and confidence, usually means a lack of assurance or a lack of confidence. It is so desperate that nothing is left.
That is not what the Bible says. It uses hope in a sense of the power of life. The Apostle Peter, who had n ...
Rev. Jim Henry, Pastor
1 Peter 1:3-5
04/16/95
George Swanson, at the age of 71, had a great desire to keep on living when death came. On his death bed a few weeks ago, near Adamsburg, Pennsylvania, he called his wife, Carolyn, to his bedside and said, "Now Honey, promise me you'll do what I ask you to do." She said, "I promise." Here was his will and her promise. After his death, he was to be cremated and his remains to be put into an urn. George had purchased twelve lots in the city cemetery and he had a 1984 Corvette. They are going to drop the Corvette into those twelve lots with George behind the wheel with a license tag that says "Hi Pal" for his ride through eternity.
I think George, and a lot of other people, have that deep desire to keep on keeping on. That has been something that has been as far back as the human race. The Pharaohs in the Pyramids were buried with their chariots and their jewels. The Native American was to be buried with his favorite horse and his weapons of war. Today we hate to give death any room so we embalm the remains of our loved ones and seal them in caskets that are double sealed and put them away, knowing and feeling somehow there has to be an Easter. It is in the human heart. It is built in. We want to believe in Easter. There is more beyond. There is an eternity. There is life after this. No one can stop that sense of forever.
But sometimes we use that word of hope and expectancy in the wrong way. When we talk about hope today, many people think about it in words like this: bad news from the doctor, we just got laid off, problems with our children or marriage and we wonder if there is any hope. Hope, instead of meaning assurance and confidence, usually means a lack of assurance or a lack of confidence. It is so desperate that nothing is left.
That is not what the Bible says. It uses hope in a sense of the power of life. The Apostle Peter, who had n ...
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