My son is with Homeland Security and just completed four months of advanced training. At his recent graduation, the speaker said, \u201cHope is not a survival strategy.\u201d We Christians talk much of hope. To hear it spoken in a negative context got my attention. So I thought through it again. Paul wrote, \u201cHope that is seen is not hope\u201d (Rom. 8:24). The writer of Hebrews added, \u201cFaith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen\u201d (Heb. 11:1). So while we hope in the unseen, we prepare within the context of the visible. That\u2019s why a visible profession of faith in Christ is necessary for eternal life in heaven (also called \u201cthe blessed hope\u201d in Titus 2:13). You can\u2019t simply \u201chope\u201d to go to heaven. You\u2019ve got to prepare by taking a step of visible faith. You can\u2019t simply hope to live a Christian life. You\u2019ve got to employ discipline. If hope is not a survival strategy, what is? Faith is. Faith in your preparation, your plan of survival. For the Christian, faith in Jesus Christ, who has done for us, all that we cannot do for ourselves.<\/p>\n
Join me in praying for the following global concerns:
\n\u2022 Pray for Ignatius as he speaks at a camp in Cyprus on August 7-17.
\n\u2022 Pray for those who minister to the more than 200,000 Greek Cypriots who have settled in the major cities of England.
\n\u2022 Pray for those who are ministering in the aftermath of flooding that killed more than 1,400 people and affected at least 3 million more in northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.
\n\u2022 RAMADAN (the holy month of fasting in Islam) begins this week on August 11. Pray for those who minister among Muslims.
\n\u2022 Pray for Rich, Suzanne, Craig & Ellen as they prepare to minister during the upcoming school year at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My son is with Homeland Security and just completed four months of advanced training. At his recent graduation, the speaker said, \u201cHope is not a survival strategy.\u201d We Christians talk much of hope. To hear it spoken in a negative context got my attention. So I thought through it again. Paul wrote, \u201cHope that is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}