The Power of HopeSample

A Preview of Hope Because of Jesus, we can have hope that the future will be brighter and better than the past, and that we have a part to play in making it happen. As redeemed and forgiven people who have been adopted into a new family, we have been called to be a present preview of God’s future kingdom. Because there will come a day when Jesus returns to finish what He started. When every wrong will be made right, every hurt will be healed, every tear will be wiped away, death and suffering will be no more, and all things are made new. Until that day, we have been chosen by God to be a picture to the world of what the future will be like. A future where God is all in all. When heaven and earth are one. When the Kingdom of God is here in full. So how do we do that? We live as if what we say we believe is really true. Something you may not know is that the early Church Fathers (leaders of the early Church) defended the truth of Christianity, not by presenting philosophical arguments or scientific evidence, but by pointing to the Church itself. Because the early Christians took their faith so seriously. They were committed not just to claim the name of Jesus, but to actually follow the way of Jesus. So much so, that when critics and skeptics tried to deny that Jesus was the Messiah, these Church Fathers would point to Christians as the living proof that Jesus really was who He said He was. How different is that from our world today? Today, the witness of the Church is not used to defend the claims of Christianity but is one of the biggest arguments used to try to disprove the claims of Christianity! What would happen if we, the Church, the people of God, filled by the Spirit of God, living out the will of God, actually played our part in bringing hope to our hurting world? Let’s find out together. > “The crowning evidence that He lives is not a vacant grave, but a Spirit-filled fellowship; not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.” —Clarence Jordan To find out more about what it means to be the people of God, filled with the Spirit of God, living out the will of God, read the Switch Bible Plan, [ Kingdom People ](https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/22285-kingdom-people "Kingdom People" ) , or one of the other Plans from the [ Switch collection ](https://www.bible.com/reading-plans-collection/5394-switch "Switch collection" ) .