Daily Encouragement

Friday, October 28, 2022

Lancaster County rural scene
(Photo by Doug Hoover and used with permission*)

Click on photo to enlarge

"Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor"

(Part 5)

Personal Note: This morning I am headed out to San Francisco to visit my oldest brother Mike for several days. My other older brother Pat, who also lives here in Pennsylvania, will be meeting us out there as well. Mike has been a widower for many years. His daughter and family lives in Saint Louis. I'm planning that all three Weber brothers will walk through the doors of Pastor Will Nelken's church in San Rafael this coming Lord's day. I became acquainted with Pastor Will about 23 years ago when my mother was recovering from a major fall in a rehabilitation facility in Marin County. He was a great encouragement to me during that very difficult time.

We plan to continue sharing Daily Encouragement messages next week but the timing may be different due to the time zone. (Although Brooksyne won't be with me we can collaborate using Dropbox.) We will not be preparing a podcast.

Message summary: All this week we have used both the same verse and theme song as we consider twelve types of hope we have in Christ, highlighting three each day. Place your hope in Christ the sure and steady Anchor, an overflowing, living and eternal hope! Today we consider the last three ways in which Jesus Christ is our sure and steady anchor of hope. Points 1-3 were shared in Tuesday's message and 4-6 in Wednesday's message and 7-9 in Thursday's message. Today is our final message in this series and due to quoting from some songs it's a bit longer.

Listen to this message on your audio player.

"We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19).

10) "Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor" is an overflowing hope.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13).

This is the verse I have used all year as the sig line on each email I send. Bible teacher Ray Stedman comments on this verse:

"What a magnificent verse! Whenever I am asked to give an autograph, I almost always include this verse in it. It is such a beautiful expression. Look how much you have got going for you. All the great words of the Christian faith appear here: hope, twice (once it is called "overflowing hope"); and joy, great joy; and peace, calmness and confidence; and trust, belief in a living God; and finally, the power of the Holy Spirit, the invisible force that can open doors and no man shuts them, and can shut and no man opens -- the power of God released among us....What the apostle is urging us to do is to unite on the great positive words of our faith, and that we allow these qualities of hope, and joy, and peace, and trust, and power to be visible when others see us gathered together as Christians. When they hear us talking about each other we are to reflect these qualities, rather than the miniscule divisions and arguments that many of us have."

11) "Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor" is a living hope.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). Jesus said in Revelation, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore" (Revelation 1:17,18).

For several years we have enjoyed singing a song about Christ, our living hope:

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope

12) "Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor" is an eternal hope.

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13). The great contrast in the following verses is that those who die in Christ have hope!!! "We who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them (the dead in Christ) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:17,18).

We appreciate that several modern songs face the reality and inevitability of death head on. Death is something we need to talk about and sing about. Paul says, "death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:54)

Matt Redman's song "Ten Thousand Reasons" ends with this verse:

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore

CityAlight's currently popular song "Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me" ends with this verse:

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus
All the glory evermore to Him
When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat:
Yet not I, but through Christ in me!

The song we have been featuring this week, "Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor" ends with this verse:

Christ the sure and steady anchor
As we face the wave of death
When these trials give way to glory
As we draw our ﬁnal breath

We will cross that great horizon
Clouds behind and life secure
And the calm will be the better
For the storms that we endure

Place your hope in Christ the sure and steady Anchor, an overflowing, living and eternal hope!

Christ the sure of our salvation,
Ever faithful, ever true!
We will hold fast to the anchor,
It shall never be removed.

Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, I'm so grateful that through the power of Your Holy Spirit You pour out joy and peace to us through the hope You so generously supply, so much so that we overflow, and spill it out on others as well. It's a living hope based upon Jesus, the living One who rose from the dead, and took away the sting of death. It is not only powerful and living, but it is eternal, not earthbound. Hope is with us as we cross that great horizon and it is with us one thousand or one million years later as we reside in our forever home in heaven. Until we cross that great divide we will hold fast to the sure and steady anchor of Christ and the hope He provides for us here and now. Amen.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor" Video The Wondrous Mystery This will be the final time (at least for now) that we post this as our featured song. This version features a female vocalist backed up by a choir.

"Living Hope" Video Phil Wickham

"10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)" Video Matt Redman

"Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me" Video CityAlight

* Brooksyne's note: Doug Hoover is a local photographer who frequently posts outstanding photos of farm scenes, the Amish community, sunsets, etc. on a Facebook group page, "Lancaster County Photography". Doug has a great love and zeal for God and enjoys sharing his photos with others.

Colorful shoreline from Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York. This photo was taken by our longtime friend Chris Mansfield. She and her husband Jack, along with their three young children, attended the church we served in upstate PA over 30 years ago.

John Thomas, a local reader and friend shared this photo and comment: "Was walking the dog this past Monday morning and saw this water-collecting spider web on a bush. It was a neat picture but I didn't realize how "neat" until I later magnified it somewhat. Now it is visible not only that the web cradles raindrops without them bursting but that raindrops sit and or hang on single strands without bursting. God is more wonderful than our words can express or our thoughts absorb! John"

My cousin, Peggy Stepp, took this photograph. I (Brooksyne) visited Mountain Top, Arkansas early this month where my grandparents lived and where many relatives still live. It was my first visit to the mountain in the autumn since I was a child and I so enjoyed the beautiful crisp weather and fall foliage.

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