Leader: Hope. Hope is a funny word used so flippantly in our every day lives …
Reader One: I hope my car will start today.
Reader Two: I hope they still have that peanut butter crunch ice cream.
Reader Three: I hope my check comes in the mail.
Leader: The word hope means so much more. Hope is more than wishing for something that will make our lives less complicated. Hope is knowing, deep down, that He who holds this day and each tomorrow is good, perfect and loving in all that He does.
Reader One: I hope …
Reader Two: I choose to put my hope in him, our Lord Jesus Christ. For in his great mercy he gave each one of us a new birth. Like a tiny babe, I hold tightly to this powerful and living hope made possible by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Reader Three: Because of Christ we have been given an inheritance that will never decay, is perfect in every way and will never lose its wondrous beauty.
Leader: I hope …
Reader One: I can experience real joy, when my hope is fixed on Jesus.
Reader Two: I hope …
Reader Three: Though the world may disappoint me my hope is in what lies beyond this existence of flesh and blood.
Leader: Hope does not disappoint. God's love has been poured into my heart and spills over into my every day living.
Reader One: There are times I stumble, I fall, I fail, I sin. But God has promised that Jesus will go before me and plead my righteousness before the Father.
Reader Two: And that is my hope, a sure and steadfast anchor, in the stormy sea of life's uncertainties.
Reader Three: Whatever I suffer now is in dim comparison to the wonders God has in store for me. It is as though all creation is standing on tiptoe longing to see an unforgettable vision.
Leader: Each one of us is a child of God being created anew into complete wholeness. Therein lies our secret hope: a day will come when we will be rescued from the pain of our limitation and incompleteness and we will be given total freedom from that which so fiercely holds us in captivity.
Reader One: At this moment all of creation moans as if in the throes of childbirth.
Reader Two: But we peer into the future with eyes that barely comprehend tomorrow.
Reader Three: We cannot imagine what we are destined to be …
Leader: Yet we believe because of the hope we carry so deep within.
All Readers: Our hope is fixed on Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:3, Romans 15:4, Romans 5:5, Hebrews 6:19, Romans 8:18-25
