Lent Words Day 40: 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

At the beginning of the week I shared a quote from a book about Lent by Charles Erdman, which I left unfinished, to be continued today. As Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story:

"On Saturday His body rested in the tomb. With this the last day of Holy Week, Lent, strictly speaking, is ended; but no proper review of the Lenten season would be complete without reaching a climax by including the Sunday which follows and which, as "Easter," celebrates the glorious resurrection of Christ."

Today is the official last day of Lent. The end of a season of repentance and mourning over sin. Tomorrow we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our mourning turns to joy! This great event ushers in our hope. As today's Scripture verse says, God, in His great mercy, has given us new birth into a living hope THROUGH the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the dead. This verse is so theologically rich and meaningful.

• God the Father has given us new birth. He has caused it to happen and gifted us with it. There is nothing we do to make this new birth happen, it is a work of God that we accept by faith. This new birth makes us children of God.
• We receive this new birth as a result of God's great mercy. God is compassionate and rich in mercy. In His mercy He made a way for us to be restored to favor with Him through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
• Our new birth is into a living hope. As Christ-followers we have a hope that is not wishful thinking, but rather, a hope that has power. Power that changes lives! That same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us! (Romans 8:11)
• This hope is living because it comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Because He lives, we live! "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:22

And so, as we look forward to celebrating on Resurrection Sunday, we can join Peter in His praise to God the Father for this new birth into a living hope. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

Today is our last day of the Lent Words Creative Challenge. Thank you all for joining along with me as we read daily Scripture passages and responded to them creatively. I want to once again thank those who wrote guest posts for our journey:

Bernice Hopper @ http://www.newlycreative.com/

Ellen Etzler @ https://www.ellenetzlerart.com/

Valerie Sjodin @ http://valeriesjodin.com/blog/

Kris Camealy @ http://kriscamealy.com/blog/

Christine Hiester @ https://www.instagram.com/barebranchblooming/?hl=en

Christina Hubbard @ http://www.creativeandfree.com/

Thank you all so much! We appreciated your words and your art in the many different ways your creativity was expressed and shared with us!

You can continue following my journey through the year here on my blog and in the Everyday Journals group on Facebook. In April we are exploring Verse Mapping!

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Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I are using one journal to record events, experiences and relationships and  to explore our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We are each blogging about our experiences and our art. If you would like to connect with others about creatively organizing your word, your ideas, thoughts, prayers, events, or your projects all in one journal, you are invited to join our Facebook group: Everyday Journals – Living Your Word of the Year.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

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