"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."   Titus 2:11-14

What are you hoping in?  Is our hope in a new president?  Is our hope in our job?  Is our hope in our family?  Where is our hope?

Our hope is in the promise that Jesus Christ gave to His body, the church, that He would return for us one day. 

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."   John 14:1-3

Where is your hope?  Is it in President Barack Obama?  In whom do you put your trust and hope?  Is it in man, or is it in Jesus Christ alone?

Jesus spoke of the signs of His return.  No one knows the day or the hour, but Jesus wanted His own to know the season.  I believe that the season is upon us.  I believe that Jesus is going to return soon.  Are you ready?  Where is your hope?

One of the reasons that most "professing" Christians are confused in these times is that there is a lack of teaching of God's Word in the church today.  This is also spoken of, and warned against, in the Bible. 

"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the LORD.  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east, they shall run to and fro, seeking the Word of the LORD, but shall not find it."  Amos 8:11-12

The church has been seduced.  The church has been led to the slaughter house of the Purpose Driven / Emergent Church model, where the emphasis is not on the Word of God, but on building large churches or having experiences.  The true Gospel is no longer preached or taught.  Since there are a vast number of churches who have been compromised in this way, there has been created a great famine of the Word of the Lord.

"Where there is no revelation (prophetic vision) the people cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law (God's Word)."  Proverbs 29:18

This lack of prophetic vision refers to that famine which is created where there are few, if any, faithful shepherds of the Word of God in the pulpit, or there is an inability to hear it by those in the seats.  Both of these are the result of disobedience:

"Preach the Word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort,  with all longsuffering and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."   2 Timothy 4:2-4 

What does it mean, in Proverbs 29:18, when it says "the people cast off restraint"?  It means that the people decay or perish.  The lack of teaching of God's Word causes rebellion and a 'falling away' from Him.  When the ministers of the Word teach the Word, and the people hear God's Word, then the Holy Spirit is at work causing the people to repent of their sin and obey the Word, and the people are happy..or blessed.

If you are being fed God's Word, then you are not suffering a famine, and your hope will be in Christ alone.  But, if you are placing your hope in a mere man, then you are starving....in the midst of the famine that replaces God's Word with the words of men.

Where is your hope?