Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2018 September 13

“But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 6:9-20).

Today’s Morsel:  Are you feeling hopeless?  Why do people seem to lose hope?  I have often heard people when they lose a loved one, a home, or vehicle say, "I don’t know what I’m going to do."  Why are they shaken in their hope? Paul told the church at Thessalonica, “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).  He wrote in Hebrews 6 that we have an anchor of hope for the soul, Jesus Christ.  The anchor is designed to hold the ship in place, and Jesus who is our anchor will hold us.  

Sing:  It’s the old ship of Zion, it’s the hope for the lost and the dying.  It’s the soul-saving station, it's the tower of salvation.  Well, it’s the church triumphant, O Lord and it’s built by the hand of the Lord.  

I’m talking about the church in the Book of Revelation, it’s built on the Rock, it’s got a firm foundation; it’s been through the flood and it’s been through the fire, but one of these days the church is gonna move up a little higher.  It’s the church triumphant, O’ Lord, and it’s built by the hand of the Lord.

Thought For Today:  “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).