expectancy | Discipleship at Messiah

We Wait

Posted on 11/30/21 by On the road with Jesus.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13 (TLB)

On Sunday, churches all over the world began the season of Advent by lighting the first candle in an Advent wreath. It is called the candle of hope. Nothing could be more timely for us. Because, one of the pervasive characteristics of this age is hopelessness. It is not new but it certainly hangs like a cloud over our world. Robert Heilbroner, one social critic, says that we are suffering from “civilization malaise,” or a dread of the future. He thinks there is good reason for that—“We must resign ourselves to the bearing of an intolerable burden. Human beings are like helpless chips driven hither and thither.” Heilbroner asks the question, “Is there hope…?” and concludes there is not.

And in the midst of all this is the gospel message of hope. Let’s be clear, hope as it’s so often used, means “I wish,” or “I desire.” Which is little more than wishful thinking. But the hope projected in the Bible carries the sense of expectancy, anticipation, certainty, get ready for it. It is based on what God has promised. It is eye-opening when you think about how much of Scripture rests on promise. Recently in our small group, the task was given to share a promise from the Bible. Now that was intended to introduce a lesson on hope. However, we never got past that. For over an hour, we thought and talked about God’s promises, many of which have been fulfilled in history and our personal lives.

The New Testament word about hope is that it is central to the Christian life. As we were reminded by someone in our Saturday Men’s group, it makes up part of the triangle of the work of God’s grace in our life. Faith, hope and love interact with each other to make us more like Jesus. And though it is future oriented, much of it is still to come, it is certain because it is based on what God has done in Christ Jesus.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,… -Titus 2:11-13 (NIV)

Filed under: The Journey | Tagged: Discipleship, encouragement, expectancy, hope, Spiritual progress | Comments Off on We Wait

Disappointment

Posted on 8/28/19 by On the road with Jesus.

We rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. ^…And hope does not disappoint. -Romans 5:2, 5

Have you ever been disappointed? If not, I would like to meet you.

It’s no fun. It can be devastating. So no one likes it.

For followers of Jesus (Christians) disappointment can be especially problematic. We can be disappointed with circumstances and events. But the disappointments often are in people. A close friend, a husband, a wife, other family members disappoint us. That can be especially painful. The church can disappoint us. But the most difficult of all disappointments is disappointment with/in God.

But have you ever thought about the first cause of disappointment? What precedes any such experience? What is a prior necessity to your being disappointed? It begins with expectation. That is the prerequisite to disappointment.

Sometime ago I wrote about the place expectations play in the Christian gospel and life. God’s promises form a foundation for Christian understanding and living. But wrong expectations and the resulting disappointments are a great danger to faith.

Expectations that God will shield you from all difficulties, make you successful, and such are inevitably pathways to disappointment with God. And disappointment with God is of all things the worst. It can easily shut the door to real faith and confidence. God is not a cosmic Santa Claus that fulfills all our childish and sinful desires. He does not rescue us from disappointments resulting from wrong expectations.

But our hope in what God has done for us in Jesus will not disappoint us.

Filed under: belief, Discipleship, Faith, The Journey | Tagged: anticipation, Christian, disappointment, expectancy | Comments Off on Disappointment

Great Expectations

Posted on 1/1/19 by On the road with Jesus.

The people were waiting expectantly… -Luke 3:15

“Great Expectations”

I read about a man who left a relative $1 million. In return, the relative thoroughly cursed the man. The reason—the man was Andrew Carnegie and he left $365 million to public charities.
This was a problem of expectations—he expected more.

One day a father told his son,
“Don’t swim in that canal.”
“O.K. Dad”
That evening he came home caring a wet bathing suit.
“Where have you been?” demanded the father.
“Swimming in the canal,” answered the boy.
“Didn’t I tell you not to swim there?” asked the father.
“Yes, sir.”
“Why did you?”
“Well, Dad,” he explained, “I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn’t resist the temptation.”
“Why did you take your bathing suit with you?” he asked.
“So I’d be prepared to swim, in case I was tempted,”…

To a great extent, our actions are determined by expectations.
So, our expectations affect our satisfaction with life and with people and how we act. Therefore it should not surprise us that expectations play a large role in our lives—spiritually. Notice the words of our text, “As the people were in expectation.”

It is no accident that promises play such a large role in God’s dealings with people and his plan. Every major event in the history of God’s redemptive action is preceded by a promise. People were told over and over to expect certain actions on God’s part—at times against overwhelming odds.

God is THE God of Promise,
His People, THE people of Expectancy

The expectation often had bearing on the event. Expectation has a close relationship to desire and is an element of faith. How much do we want God? What do we expect from him are important factors in our spiritual health.
It is of course true that what happened was different from the details of what was expected—God’s surprises—but it was believing God would, as we say, “do God’s thing.”

As we have already seen, there are good and bad expectations—we might say holy and unholy ones. The unholy ones when frustrated can cause bitterness, disappointment, frustration, and anger. Perhaps the most common form of unholy expectation is worry. Robert Frost once said, “The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.”

But there are the holy ones—the real “Great Expectations” and they make a profound difference in our lives. Here are some of the most basic for the believer:

EXPECT TO BE RID OF YOUR SINS. That is God’s ultimate goal for you. The angel said to Joseph, “you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
EXPECT RESISTANCE/OPPOSITION (In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”-John 16:33)
EXPECT TO GROW (Romans 5:3-5) God will take you to another stage in your journey.
EXPECT TO SEE GOD WORK. He promises daily renewal and final victory.

So in 2019, worship God with heart and mind, and spirit. Tell Him you love him. Praise His glory, His goodness. Keep on singing, praying and listening. Do all of this with Great Expectations.

Filed under: belief, Discipleship, Faith, Hope | Tagged: anticipation, Discipleship, encouragement, expectancy, hope | Comments Off on Great Expectations

Unbelievable?

Posted on 4/1/18 by On the road with Jesus.

“they did not believe the women, because their words seemed…like nonsense.” (Luke 24:11, NIV)

Those are some of the most telling words in the New Testament concerning the resurrection of Jesus. Forever they should dispel the notion that Easter was created by the wishful thinking of gullible, unlearned, poor fishermen and such. The first reports that Jesus was alive did not seem credible to them.

These people had to be convinced that what seemed impossible to them was really true. Only when they saw him with their own eyes did they believe it. And this Jesus, once dead but now alive for ever, changed their lives and the world. He has changed me and he can change you too. Because he lives, he offers life to anyone willing to follow him.

He is risen!
He is risen indeed!

Hallelujah!

Filed under: Discipleship, Easter, Faith, Jesus, The Journey | Tagged: Conversion, Easter, expectancy, Faith, hope, Life | Comments Off on Unbelievable?

“Things To Come”

Posted on 3/10/16 by On the road with Jesus.

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. -Jeremiah 29:11-NRSV

These days we hear a lot about living in the present—“go with the flow,” “seize the day,” “enjoy the moment,” “have it now.” And while, in the right context, these ideas have merit, they also can muddy our efforts to live full lives.

It is not without significance that when God reveals his plan for our life, an inescapable characteristic is that much of it is about the future. It is promise. So, much of the experience is anticipation. Anticipation is a powerful thing. Looking ahead to some desired event, a trip, a family get together can bring as much or more pleasure than the actual event. Negative anticipation can create dread, fear that is worse than what we actually encounter.

God has done a lot to help us have a holy anticipation. And if we don’t pay attention, we can really get in trouble with false assumptions and expectations about what God is doing in our lives and the world.

Joel Barker in his book, Future Edge tells about a man driving on a curvey, dangerous mountain road. As he comes around a curve, he sees this red convertible, careening back and forth across the road. The driver is a pretty, young, blond woman.
He slams on the brakes, and heads for the shoulder to avoid her. At the last minute she swerves and narrowly misses him. As she passes, the woman driver screams at him, PIG!
His face red with anger, he yells back at her, WENCH!” Muttering to himself he steps on the accelerator hits the curve at full speed and crashes into the biggest pig he has ever seen standing in the middle of the road. (as told by Maxi Dunnam)

Anticipation lets us risk as we break out of such assumptions to see a new vision of the world and the future. It will enable us to see beyond ourselves and beyond the obstacles.

God’s word to us warns us that things are not always what they seem to be. Looking around us doesn’t give us a whole lot of evidence for what we are told the final outcome will be.

In Birmingham, England, there is a store called Louis’. It’s a great chain store in one of the main streets, and it wanted to expand. But a little chapel of Quakers, a Friends Meeting House stood in the way. The store sent a letter to the leaders of this Friends Meeting house:

“Dear Sirs,
We wish to extend our premises. We see that your building is right in the way. We wish therefore to buy your building and demolish it so that we might expand our store. We will pay you any price you care to name. If you will name a price we will settle the matter as quickly as possible.
Yours, Sincerely.

They got this letter back:

Dear Sirs:
We in the Friends Meeting House note the desire of Louis’ to extend. We observe that our building is right in your way. We would point out, however, that we have been on our site longer than you’ve been on yours, and we are so determined to stay where we are that we will happily buy Louis’. If therefore you would like to name a suitable price we will settle the matter as quickly as possible. –by Donald English

Can you imagine how the person from Lewis who read that letter must have been laughing? A little Quaker Meeting House will buy Lewis’! All of that would change when they saw, “Signed, Cadbury.”

Yep. Cadbury, as in England’s Cadbury chocolate candy. They are Quakers. Who signs the letter makes all the difference.

The promise of heaven, eternal life is signed by God.

Filed under: Discipleship, Faith, Heaven, Hope, Obstacles, The Journey | Tagged: anticipation, Christian, discouragement, expectancy, Faith, hope | 1 Comment »

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