Concerning This Salvation Then...

This is a poem for we who believe to persevere with joy

for once we were lost!

...and for those who choose to live without Hope, to count the cost! 

Faith feels its way along the grace

That leads us to hope’s resting place

The battleground of righteousness

Is plagued with enemy’s 'success'

Yet hedged in by One who sustains

And counts earth’s loss for heaven’s gains

Do not despair where cynics lie

God hears our prayer and heeds our cry

And He for Whom we hope and hurt

For whom we sacrifice and work

For whom we know we have believed

Is able; victory achieved

Therefore, armed with triumph foretold

We are called to be strong and bold

For we serve, not some Unsure Thing

We serve a risen Lord and King

…where hope that is seen is not hope

And without it, how could we cope

How could we bear care’s dust-to-dust

If man was all man had to trust

Then hope would be a cheerless tryst

For godless hope cannot exist

And life would be Death’s dreadful toll

Without Hope’s Lord that saves the soul

Concerning this salvation then

Exalt the Living Hope of men

Where Time cannot undo the Truth

As we wait for hope’s living proof

When stars will fall like figs and hail

And all the earth will mourn and wail

As faith beholds The Proven Word

Upon the throne of Christ the Lord

© Janet Martin

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,  

 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,  

 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation

 that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while 

you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  

 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—

of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—

may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  

 Though you have not seen him, you love him; 

and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him 

and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,  

 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, 

searched intently and with the greatest care...

1 Peter 1:3-10