Beyond Hope?

I watched a teaching by Francis Chan this morning that really impacted me. He was speaking about the passage in Exodus 34:6, where Moses passionately desires to see God. In the translation Chan used, he said that "the Lord descended and stood beside Moses," saying, "I am the Lord, merciful and gracious." There is so much to say about what is happening here, but what moved my heart so strongly was that of Almighty God coming down to where Moses was and standing right there with him. It was what Moses desperately wanted and needed, and God, in His gracious mercy, came to Him. No, it was not a bodily presence, but a spiritual one. Moses beheld the glory of God. This moved my heart to think of all those who need such an encounter with Him today. All those who need the God and Savior who comes down to us in our deepest darkness, valley, and need. Christ came down to us that He might live for us, die for us, and rise for us, but He has never ceased to come down to us wherever we are, whatever our need, and whatever we've done or has been done to us. There is something so powerful about this truth, and the instances in His Word where it happened abound; when Paul stood before Nero, the Roman emperor, alone and abandoned by all, but "Christ stood with me." He comes, wherever we are, whatever the need. He comes as He is and nothing can keep Him away...if we truly desire His presence. Joni Eareckson Tada said that, "Jesus goes where no medicine, no surgery, no counselor can go." We may be in the place considered to be "beyond hope," but it will never be beyond Him and His ministry to us. Beyond His promises to us. God is a merciful and gracious God, and He shows it perfectly in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. Wherever you are today, however deep or seemingly hopeless your situation, He will come down to you. He will stand with you. He will go where no one and nothing else can go....and He will minister His life to you there. Call upon Him. He will come....and leave the means of His coming to Him. There is no place that is beyond our hope in Him. Blessings, Pastor O