This has been a bittersweet week for me.  Easter, resurection Sunday, is the ultimate day of hope and rejoicing for those of us that know Christ.  As I lay in bed this morning, not wanting to get up for church, I started praying.  I was thanking God for the day and for the sacrifice of His son, when it suddenly hit me.  I realized today was the day he conquered death, hell, and the grave. 

Friday was a day of pain and suffering for Christ, a day when He was beaten and bruised, and hung on a cross to die the most shameful death possible.  It was a day when God the Father watched His only son give His life for creation-bittersweet.  It was a day when those who had followed Christ mourned the loss of their leader and friend.  And Satan, in his foolishness, for just a moment was allowed to believe he actual killed the Son of God.

Oh, but then came Sunday!  The day that Jesus rose from the grave, conquering death once and for all.  The Father raised the Son and the Son was reunited with the Father.  And Satan was defeated!  That was the day that I, along with the entire world, was given a second chance to know God, and to be with Him forever.

I hold on to this hope.  It is what makes life worth living.  He is my hope both here and now, and for eternity.

This week I found out that someone I know in Indiana ran out of hope.  He put a gun to his head and ended his life here on earth.  My heart breaks for him.  He was 23.  I'm 23.  I have had times of sorrow and pain, because I am human and live on earth.  But I cannot imagine the feelings of hopelessness and despair he must have felt.

I have once agian realized how important it is that I share this hope that I have found with those who have no hope.  I must be salt and light.  Yet even in that, I know that not everyone will recieve this hope.  That is the hardest thing for me-watching people suffer needlessly because they don't want truth.  Still, I must tell of the hope that resides in me.  In Acts Peter and John said, "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Romans 8 MSG

 12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

 15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

18-21That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation (hope) deepens.