The Place of Beauty

~~~ Acts of the Apostles 13:26-33 ~~~ Psalm 2 ~~~ John 14:1-6 ~~~

Darkness lurked about freely in Jerusalem...

the leaders failed to recognize Jesus...they found
 no grounds for a conviction

...still they condemned him to death....

They laid his body to rest in the dark tomb,

but out of this darkness he was raised and glorified;

appearing to many in the following days.

The glory of his resurrection radiated to each one he met.
There is no darkness in Resurrection.
Jesus is the light of the world.

I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.

God sent Jesus to save us, we all know this,
but he also came to give us hope.
His death on the cross was not the end.
His death on the cross was the realization
 of his promise to come back for us.

Jesus had to leave so that it would be possible
for him to came back for us.
Three days after his death he came back to the apostles
giving them sufficient cause to have hope.

Hope is what keeps us moving forward in the right direction.
Without the possibility of Jesus
 coming back for us, can there be any hope? 

We have hope because Jesus gave it to us.
Hope gives us a reason...a purpose.
Our greatest hope is for Jesus to return, to take us unto himself.

It is a nice thought to think he has prepared a place just for us.

But in reality it is not the place that gives us hope,
it is the promise to be with him for eternity.

I would go to a landfill if that was where
I could spend all of eternity with God.

The place he prepares for us can be nothing less than a place of beauty,
because God is the creator of all that is good and beautiful.

Faith...Hope...Love
Notice that hope is in the middle...
between faith and love.

Faith leads us to hope, hope increases our desire to love more perfectly.

Inside hope lies the most beautiful place of all.
H..heartfelt...O...openness...P...possibilities...E...existence

He has prepared a place for you.
Blessed today with hope.

~~~Peace~~~