Shattering Humanity-Chapter 404: The Path That Inspired Jesse James Part 1/2 : Who is Hope?
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations.
No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery, cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead.
Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.
Though these nations you are about to drive out listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do this." - Deuteronomy 18:9-14
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[4 Years Before Leviathan’s Invasion]
Within a church not full, but two dozen or so faithful people, one of which being Jesse James herself.
She is sitting alone in a back pew, her pink hair is shorter but her eyes are still sad with tired bags underneath.
A well dressed man steps up for the sermon.
Well Dressed Man: "Good morning everyone.
Today I’m going to be talking about the word ’Hope’.
Hope is a highly used word across the world. Most of us use the word Hope everyday.
Hope has many different meanings and can be used in many different ways. It can be used as a noun, verb, or an adjective. You’ll have to excuse me as some of the intellect in this room is rubbing off on me."
There are a few chuckles from the small audience. Jesse James, out of the loop, doesn’t laugh at the honesty.
Well-Dressed Man: "We use Hope on a daily basis, but are we putting our Hope in the right place?
Everyday we venture into the world with the hope that we will return safely to our homes and not have anything devastating happen.
Well I hope that too.
Having hope is a good thing, but are we using the word hope in selfish ways to get what we want?"
The question catches the pink eyed woman’s attention.
Well-Dressed Man: "When we say things like I hope to get the job.
I hope to get a new car.
I hope my children get straight A’s.
I hope I win the lottery.
That sounds more like a wish list than a hope list.
Are we using hope correctly?"
The future Sheriff of Vinland squints her eyes at the man standing in the front of the small church crowd.
Jesse James(thinking): *’Are we using hope correctly’?*
Well-Dressed Man: "I’m not saying that any of these are bad things. But when we use hope in a way that we put our hope in material things it becomes a wish list and not what hope was intended for.
Are we forgetting who is our hope?
Who do we put our hope in?
Yes, of the many names of Jesus. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Hope is one of them."
The man dressed in clean, freshly ironed dress clothes puts both his hands up in defense.
Well-Dressed Man: "Now I could stand up here and read a 100 plus verses in the Bible about hope, but I won’t, well not today.
Fun facts.
Did you know?
The word hope is used 130 times in 121 verses in the original KJV. It’s also printed 143 times 134 verses in the NKJV and it’s used 167 times in 159 verses in the NIV in front of you. Little fun facts I learn in my free time. I would like to share a couple of verses with you. If you’d like to read along, I’m in Romans 15:4. My guy Paul writes, ’For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. So that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have ’Hope’.
That makes this book of books ’Hope’.
What Paul’s saying is that this..."
He closes his Bible and shows it to the small group of goers.
Well-Dressed Man: "...This book was written for us, to teach us how to live.
No, it won’t teach us how to tie our shoes or dress ourselves, that’s our parents or wife’s job. No, it doesn’t teach us how to read or write. That’s our teacher’s job. Most importantly, it teaches us love, but it also teaches us joy and peace.
It can teach us kindness and gentleness.
It will teach us faithfulness and goodness, self-control and even patience.
I say even patience because you can’t teach someone patience. We have to learn patience and one way to learn is by reading. I don’t know if anybody noticed but I just recited the fruits of the spirit found in Galatians 5:22,23 if you’d like to look that up later."
There are murmurs coming from the crowd. Everyone quite impressed with how well versed the man is in their language of religion.
Jesse James looks left to right, witnessing the impression the man is able to give off simply by knowing verses from scripture.
Well-Dressed Man: "So that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have ’Hope’.
Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or adversity. Take a look at all the hardship and adversity in the Bible, all they had to endure.
I could talk for hours, but I won’t.
We could talk about David or Ruth or Noah. Maybe Matthew.
Ohh Job, who could forget about Job with all the adversity and hardship he went through. And even Jesus , but that was part of ’His Plan or Plot’.
This is the endurance Paul is talking about all this hardship, all this adversity, all this pain and humiliation they endured. It’s all taught in the scriptures.
Let’s just take a look at Matthew.
Here’s this guy taught very well by his parents and scholars. But became a tax collector hated and picked on most of his life. Then one day Jesus says follow me. Now just because he followed Jesus doesn’t mean the harassment and the ridicule stopped, it may have even gotten worse."
Jesse James looks down at her hands, lime green Seiõr covers them.
She starts linking the words of the sermon to her own situation in life.
Jesse James(whispers): "Am I...?"
Well-Dressed Man: "Matthew had put his Hope in Jesus and though he still endured all this punishment and pain and harassment, he had become one of the world’s most famous writers of all time.
In the Bible taking the number one spot in the New Testament. And you know why?
He put his hope in Jesus!!!
Jesus says it best in John 16:33,’I have told you these things, so that in me you will have peace in this world. You will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Isn’t that good news, Isn’t that encouraging.
Doesn’t that give you hope?!"
The crowd starts getting loud in the encouraging words of the extremely spiritual man. Some shout ’Amen!’ in response.
Jesse James looks around at the elderly couple in the front row. The elderly woman in her wheelchair and her husband lean on each other happily.
Well-Dressed Man: "As I was writing this message. I was sick from a cold that kept me out of work for a few days. I was barely able to move without pain and I slept a lot. But on the first day of being bedridden, my friend and mentor sent me something to read.
Later that morning I read the same thing. It was written by Paul David Tripp, ’You see, Hope is not a situation, a location, a feeling or a relationship. Hope is a person and his name is Jesus’."
Jesse James: "’Hope...is a person’..."
Well-Dressed Man: "He goes on to say ’Jesus is your Hope as you live in a world where Hope is a precious and rare commodity.
After reading this, I didn’t hope to get better for my illness. I started to thank Jesus for giving me the necessary time that was needed to heal my body from my physically demanding work."
