DOOR OF HOPE
Man came into this world with nothing and he will leave this world with nothing, for there are no pockets in a shroud, as they say. It is between those 'nothings' that mankind enters the most "nothing" of all, the desert of no hope.
"And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a
door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth,
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt."
We have all been there at one time or another; the walls came crashing down around us, and for those in terrible earthquake areas, it was literal. For the rest of us, we have seen our times of trouble and our dry desert places. But, as it was for Israel, so it is for us. In Hosea, the Lord was speaking of Israel and His many blessings He would give her as a result of her repentance. The Valley of Achor was a large fruitful and pleasant valley near Jericho, at the entrance into the land of Canaan. It was a door of hope to the Israel He once knew, as in the days of her youth, when He espoused her.
The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, but their shoes never wore out; they received "manna" from heaven for food; they drank water from gushing rocks; they were covered with a cloud by day and a fire by night. They escaped Egypt and ended up in a desert. They grumbled and murmured, not realizing that their desert had the makings of a song.
God will always make a way of escape and show us that there is reason to go on. He whispers sweet peace in the stormy midnights and He breathes hope into weary lonesome hearts plodding through the briars and the thickets of life. No matter what you are going through, our Lord Jesus Christ and His Word have the answer. He will sustain you and give you a song to sing, even as He gave His people of Israel when they came "up" out of Egypt. The greatest of songs are written in the dry desert places, the places where the soul dives into the deep for the pearls of glory, and surfaces with gems of splendor and treasures of beauty.
We have all been there at one time or another; the walls came crashing down around us, and for those in terrible earthquake areas, it was literal. For the rest of us, we have seen our times of trouble and our dry desert places. But, as it was for Israel, so it is for us. In Hosea, the Lord was speaking of Israel and His many blessings He would give her as a result of her repentance. The Valley of Achor was a large fruitful and pleasant valley near Jericho, at the entrance into the land of Canaan. It was a door of hope to the Israel He once knew, as in the days of her youth, when He espoused her.
The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, but their shoes never wore out; they received "manna" from heaven for food; they drank water from gushing rocks; they were covered with a cloud by day and a fire by night. They escaped Egypt and ended up in a desert. They grumbled and murmured, not realizing that their desert had the makings of a song.
God will always make a way of escape and show us that there is reason to go on. He whispers sweet peace in the stormy midnights and He breathes hope into weary lonesome hearts plodding through the briars and the thickets of life. No matter what you are going through, our Lord Jesus Christ and His Word have the answer. He will sustain you and give you a song to sing, even as He gave His people of Israel when they came "up" out of Egypt. The greatest of songs are written in the dry desert places, the places where the soul dives into the deep for the pearls of glory, and surfaces with gems of splendor and treasures of beauty.
Who sings in the desert, you ask? People like Paul in his desert cell, because he understood that the "song" brought the angels. Angels always gather at the first strains of "Holy, Holy, Holy!" The people of Israel sang; they had much to sing about after leaving the captivity of Egypt. Leaving Egypt always makes one sing; "Egypt" is a type of sin; leaving sin ushers one into the corridors of newfound innocence, guiltless inexplicable joy, and peace like a river; a song leaps from the soul like hinds feet on a mountain!
Almighty God, Jesus Christ our Lord, is an all-consuming, indescribable, everlasting, desert-filling light. Light will not be stopped, will not be smothered, will not be contained; it trickles under stoops, edges through shutters, creeps amidst the fog, fills the deepest canyon, dispels the blackest sky, illuminates the tallest flame, forever brightens the eternal heavens, ... but there's only one thing it will not do; it will never grace the pits of Hell.
Your Valley of Achor awaits; find your way through that desert to your "Open Door of Hope." Doors don't open for just anybody, but only for those who "walk in the light as He is in the light" .... that's how you 'find' the door!
By Sheryl Fowler
(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com. PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, "Austin In Love," Pastor Kenneth Phillips)
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