If you want to“hold fast” to God’s hope; you need the Church, you need to stand unswervingly on your profession of faith and you need keep a wary eye towards that which would loosen your grip on God’s promise.

We are all drawing near to something, the question is what are you drawing near too?

If we are honest about this scripture, you and I will find that those three commands require us to be right in the middle of justice, kindness and humility but perhaps more critically the Bible tells us that we can only have real Justice, kindness and humility when God joins us in these commands.

There are all kinds of Bible verses that talk about what Christians are to wear. No, not telling us to wear suits to church or to avoid other garments, but to get spiritually dressed.

Kindness is evaporating out of our culture. We are more divided than ever, we are more stressed than ever; you and I need peace, safety, flourishing life, we need beauty instead of ugly bitterness.

Biblical kindness is the doorway out of the distrust, division and cruelty of our times.

Be the best version of you, loved by God, redeemed by Christ, we do this by setting our minds on the things above and knowing who we are in Christ and that Christ is our life.

Today I want you to know that you can have life that is full and satisfying, it comes from grabbing ahold of Jesus and your belief in him. Let's look together at the story of Thomas, a disciple in crisis. He cannot comprehend the death of Jesus, let alone the resurrection of Jesus. Thomas may doubt but he faces those doubts down resulting in a mighty faith.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ should fill us with a holy fear of God, It should fill us with hope for the future and it should fill us with confidence in the task that God has set before in proclaiming Christ.

We can learn a lot from Bartimaeus about how to seize the moment and the blessing of God. Bartimaeus does not miss his moment, he is relentless in pursuit, appeals to true authority, knows his need for mercy, desires restoration and responds with discipleship loyalty.

Children are wonderful, they approach life with wonder, endless curiosity and a frankness that can be quite refreshing. Its no wonder that Jesus asks us to be like children when it comes to the kingdom of God.