Faith Radio
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Life Changing!

Hope is a Constant Theme on Faith Radio!

    Hope. We hear a lot about it these days. We hope we’ll get that big promotion, we hope our team will win the championship, and my kids hope they will get a snow day this year. But this hoping for something, this wishing for something, is not a biblical hope. So what is a biblical hope?
Jesus is the only person in history who provides hope beyond this life. - Dr. David Jeremiah
      Recently, that question was addressed by one of our Faith Radio programmers who spoke at a special event in our listening area. John Stonestreet, Executive Director of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview and co-host of “Breakpoint,” which is heard daily on Faith Radio, discussed the hope we are to have as believers. Stonestreet said hope is not optional for the believer, and everything we do in the culture should be characterized by hope. Biblical hope, he said, is not hope for, it is hope in.
John Stonestreet explained the hope we should have as believers at a special Faith Radio event hosted by First Baptist Church in Montgomery. 
Pictured, to the right, is Stonestreet joined by First Baptist’s pastor, Jay Wolf, and Faith Radio’s Billy Irvin. Breakpoint can be heard daily on Faith Radio.
In 1 Peter 3:15, Peter wrote to Christians in a culture much like our own and told them not to fear, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Stonestreet explained that hope for the believer is not wishful thinking (i.e. hope for something), it is certainty in an actual event that is the centerpiece of history – the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is in this resurrection that believers choose to put our hope. No matter what happens in this world or in our individual lives, we can choose to respond “Christ is risen.” That is something we cannot just hope for, but that we can hope in.
False hope is thinking another person can fix our problems. True hope is knowing God can fix them. - Ravi Zacharias
Stonestreet elaborated on this point when he appeared on Focus on the Family, heard weekdays on Faith Radio. There, he told host Jim Daly, “The most true thing about our cultural moment, any cultural moment that any person has ever lived, is this: Christ is risen . . .  It is a truth of the universe.” “Things are getting uncomfortable, the cultural pressure is increasing, [but] . . . hope is not an option; hope is a command.”
Hope is a constant theme on Faith Radio’s programming. On Family Life with Dennis Rainey, Barbara Rainey was recently asked if there was a way to strengthen our hope as believers. Barbara said, “Yes. I think it’s where we put our gaze. So if we’re looking at the circumstances, and we’re discouraged and losing hope because of what we see, we need to stop looking at that. We need to look at God, and we need to read His story.”
The world desperately needs to know the hope that there is Someone who has everything under control. - Anne Graham Lotz
Hope also permeates the music on Faith Radio. While many songs come to mind, one song in particular sticks out. The Getty’s oft-sung lyric says “in Christ alone my hope is found,” “this cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.” As believers, we can confidently sing that Christ is indeed our hope. No matter what life may bring, we must choose to hope in Christ alone. We don’t hope for something, but we hope in the resurrected Christ.
In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
In Christ Alone, Authors Keith Getty and Stuart Townend; Copyright 2001 Thankyou Music
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