We can do this.

 "Be not disappointed in coming home with the same set of beliefs you held when you exited prior; the truth is that you had no wish to change, no impetus to correction or the acceptance of others." -Epictetus

People are the most cruel when they are unaware of it, and in the offing, their extensive sharing. Generosity of spirit is what it must be, the dissemination of utter filth.  Their anxieties.  Every slight the butterfly flap that precipitated the destruction of many villages on some far shore.

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."  Hebrews 11:13(of Abel, Enoch and Noah)  

Sustaining hope keeps life flourishing.

Hope.

Sip coffee whilst awaiting the next disappointment.

A message with hope?

A setting of the table for the next shoe: 

In the meantime, we approximate to return of Jesus Christ in our words, in our actions—speaking and walking in truth, mercy, forgiveness, patience.

490 opportunities to be wretched and humble before those that would overtake us.

490 opportunities to give the residue of our faith.

490 opportunities to show them.

For the people around us, the people that troll us on social media, those that hear scant mentionings of us outside our circle--

let our lives be that residue of faith--

and give them ample reasons for your hope when asked, fret not in the defense of the faith.

sliding into being a human...

Because we have our own unique ministry, and we have received mercy—seeing that we also have hope—we come to you in the plainest of speech, renouncing the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, and in fear of hell: not handling God’s word in deceit.

Nay, but with our open faces beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and changed into the near image from glory to glory that we may manifest the the truth as witnessed in the conscience of man, and towards the purpose of the common universal God.[2 Corinthians 3, 4]

<mike>

Watching black become grey become blue—the implacable, unstoppable slide into being human. As more learned men said, what was intended by God happens with or without our own ordination. His mercy is given where it is given, and we were, each of the faithful, imputed our measure of faith from the first day.

Its a temporal glimmer yielding to futility. But that's very human: us of proudest individual impermanence, or self-defeating humanism—yielding to futility, and that after we are assured so often in the scriptures of our special nature, our special axial placement into nature--

because of the love of God.

Remember: God loves them, too.

God said “every knee”.

Exuent.

</mike>

That they may know the rising of the sun, and from the west, there is none besides Me.[Isaiah 45] 

The workers, the harvest: Faith, hope and love has its perfect way.

Awakened to a Lively Hope:

The clouds this morning parted like a curtain as the sun neared breaching the horizon; it was cosmic, almost miraculous, almost too perfect, and left in the sky after were joyous downy wisps.

“Be prepared to give a reason for your hope, but do so with gentleness and respect.”

“…He removed the scales from [Saul’s] eyes...”

Indeed, if we believe in more, then there is something more to be serviced than a fixed object of belief, and it is reflected, filtered into our words, that there is something set and real in the universe, and all is not a dream--

However, in the flesh form, is not truly--communion with God--a walk into a fog of sublimination empowered by faith, trust and love?

The end of harvest, in many quarters, with fields turning empty, and many farms turning-in, anticipating the winter season: 

Historically, there are harvest festivals, in celebration, along with each having its own traditions, such as bonfires and things.

We have to stop worshiping the past sometime, and then killing ourselves for the future; these things accounted for, the future then begins to occur before our very eyes, bloomings, and leaves turning—hearts loosening boundaries, minds and attitudes changing.

We will have known heaven spiritually, but the physicality will be transposed into eternity in whatever form, at the end of Christ’s foretold harvest. When the last possible human believer turns his mind and heart to God, the music stops and the harvest is complete—”well done, good and faithful servant.” 

Jesus awaits and God gives freely.

 "Thou hast delivered my from the strivings of the people; and thou has made me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve me..... the strangers shall fade away, and be fearful from their hiding places.  

The Lord lives, and blessed be my cornerstone; and the salvation of God will be exalted.   

It is the working of God that delivers me, and frustrates my enemies."

It is not by my machinations that you succeed, because I'm quite imperfect, but instead by your own relationship with God you will find the way and stay true.

...the gate is straight, and the way is narrow--but the light is always on, and the words of the Lord will point you in the right direction.

"His grace extends so far that even when we turn away from Him, Christ waits patiently and lovingly for us to turn back to him.  

Thank you, God, that Your grace has set me free and given me new hope for tomorrow."

I am an imperfect person:  safely and without fear of error, you may freely assume the very worst about it me.  However, as the angels in heaven, and demons in hell, I have faith in God.

Do not let my weakest moments discredit God and His son--God has made the very worst endurable, and He has made the best better still.

You may be sure that anything good that comes from me is a product of faith in God.  The rest of my mess is time-wasting and self-destruction: that is the mercy of God, that he looked at my sins and knew I desperately needed forgiveness.

Possessing salvation is a wondrous conundrum:  something so precious, yet freely given.

Forgive yourself, within reason, and forgive others--while being tougher on yourself than the standard by which you judge others.  But guard your salvation from the wiles of a "lost and falling world", lest you find your own soul becomes one with that "lost and falling world"....

Invest in your faith by study and prayer time, alone-time with God.

"we have been awakened to a lively hope"

A dose of the pursuit of perfection in the good book:                         

"...that which you see to, see to well...."                                                

if you hope, "be prepared to give a reason for your hope..." 

We are after all, not just the "salesmen of the Gospel", but also clients of the Lord, and thus, we have our own relationship with God to maintain.

Paul explains that our own lack of effort on the backend, in establishing and being able to argue for our faith, is a way of embarrassing the Gospel.

If we get out there and get flustered or stammer, or even in frustration lash out in anger, we have embarrassed the Gospel for our own selfish reasons.

As they say, "we have been awakened to a lively hope", and with "gentleness and respect", we can "give a reason for our hope".

-Invest in your faith by study and prayer time, alone-time with God.  

As they say, "we have been awakened to a lively hope", and with "gentleness and respect", we can "give a reason for our hope".

In the modern translations, 1 Peter 3:15, we are exhorted to share the message, spread the message with others, but to defend the faith and share with "gentleness and respect."

It's a boon to have something greater than this world to hope for, something more intangible and immeasurable--

-this something, salvation, is called riches in the pages of the New Testament---

-God's love, also, is referred to as riches in the NT.

scriptural readings:

1 Corinthians 7

Ephesians 2

Psalm 21 

giving thanks and praying for you, from Col 1.

"...that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding...."

In the "elegant" King James Version:

Colossians 1:3-8 is a whopping 128 word single sentence that expresses love and wishes for the Colossian believers.  Colossians 1:9-17 is also a single sentence at an even more impressive 194 words! 

Therein, Paul expresses his hopes for the Colossian believers and in so many words expresses the need for the Gospel, how to become saved, and the fruits of belief, and does both pretty much TWICE in two long statements, "pillar to post", respectively, 128 and 194 words.

"We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit."  

-Colossians 1:3-8 KJV (128 words- pillar to post)

Likewise, I give thanks for the body of believers, especially, along with the sum total of mankind.  God is good to us all, and in faith we are bolstered in our times of need.  God's mercy and wisdom to you all as we finish-out this week in the various things that occupy us, and a measure of faith to you all, for your good.

Was spiritually weak, but mercy and hope had its perfect work.

Were turned away from things spiritually weak of prior times.

~Therefore, relent not now, and remember the Narrow Way, the teachings of Christ: not only how all things are compassed by the plan of God, and that all serve God, but we have reason for having believed, that we should honor the days and rightly divide the word in His cause.

Self-destruction and hatred, the lack of mercy are the paraphernalia of sin.  Those are our only restraints in this world, spiritual restraints.  We did, before times, enough to injure ourselves and each other, our neighbors, our colleagues, and our friends.

The best is yet to come: continue on in belief, that the poor will be helped, the miserable consoled, and that yet the least among us light the path to our best times ahead.

An enemy to you now, for speaking the truth? Certainly not!(Galatians 4)

~Paul had suffered many afflictions, and sometimes don’t we all? Is there not that small element of self-doubt sometimes, that some mishap or bad luck in our daily lives might be something of God stopping us short? Stuck in traffic? Bad weather? Illness? It happens to all of us, as one version so eloquently puts it, “it’s rained on the just and the unjust”. 

The Galatians were not judgmental, not thinking his ailments to be some sort of rebuke from God. There have been times when people were not so lucky, such as Job, who was said by his own friends to have been punished again and again by God, when it was really Satan that was tormenting him.  He had never lost faith or love for God.  The Galatian believers brought Paul among them in acceptance, hearing his words, the teachings of God’s mercy.

Bless any you meet and pray for Mercy for ourselves and others, friends.

1. Our only restraints are spiritual: self-destruction and lack of mercy.

2. With mercy in mind, be accepting whenever possible—err on the side of love, hope and mercy.