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
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
