Your Amazing Future, Purchased on the Cross // Merchants of Hope, Part 4

<p>Easter isn’t just a time for looking back at what Jesus did, but forward at what He purchased for those who believe in Him. The amazing eternity that we have to look forward to and three new things, that will be ours. A new body, a new heaven and a new earth. Now that deserves a Hallelujah!</p> <h4 class="p1"><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>No More Tears</strong></span></h4> <p class="p1">Over the past little while on the program we’ve been talking about the importance of having hope in our lives. Hope is like a photo album in our hearts and in our minds … images of the good things that we hope are going to happen to us and for us in the future. And when we run out of positive images, that’s called … hopelessness.</p> <p class="p1">But the important thing that I’ve learned over the course of this series is this: that the sort of hope that the Bible talks about is entirely different to the sort of hope that we talk about. For us, hope has a dimension of uncertainty to it.</p> <p class="p1">You’re sitting in the doctor’s surgery, you’re waiting to go in to be told whether the x–rays reveal cancer or not. You hope that it’s going to be okay, but … well, you just don’t know. Or you hope that next week, you’ll receive that promotion at work. The bosses are getting together over the next couple of days, to evaluate the candidates. You’re hoping that your name will be at the top of the pile, but … you just don’t know.</p> <p class="p1">There’s a kind of a tension involved in the way that we think about hope. I hope it’s going to be okay. I hope it’s going to be great. I hope my marriage doesn’t fall apart. I hope my teenage kids are going to be okay at the party tonight.</p> <p class="p1">And when things don’t turn out the way we want, often there are tears. The disappointment that ensues when the hope that we had proves to be misplaced, is really, really tough. It often leads to tears. Think about the last time that you shed tears. What was it about? A betrayal? A relationship breakdown? Missing out on that pr