John 1:14 (MSG) // The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood
- “Hope is to our spirits what oxygen is to our lungs. Lose hope and you die. They may not bury you for awhile, but without hope, you are dead inside. The only way to face the future is to fly into it on the wings of hope… Hope is the energy of the soul.” - Louis Smedes
- "Abandon all hope ye who enter here." — Dante's Inferno
- Is there a hope that can hold you up?
- Independence
- Indignant
- Indifferent
Isaiah 9:2 // The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
- Light doesn’t point at DARKNESS. Light invades DARKNESS.
Isaiah 53:1 (MSG) // Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
- Jerusalem not Bethlehem
- A palace not a stable
- Princess not a peasant
- Royalty not shepherds
- Influencer not a carpenter
- Because He can.
Isaiah 53:2-6 (NLT) // My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
4 We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.
- A thrill of hope / the weary world rejoices
