Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, to those who have been called according to his purpose.
When all our plans fail, when all our work seems to be for nothing, when all our dreams and the desires of our hearts (placed there by God), fall apart and we are left feeling persecuted, abandoned, and worn, how can we hold to the truth that God is still doing a good thing?
Hang onto Hope Ministries (The Knowles Team) is moving... again. I know! We just got here almost a year ago. Why? We followed God's direction and clear call from him to 5810 Montgomery Road, put our everything into getting the place up and running, and served him with all we were while here. And we saw God open the doors to so many groups and events. Fellowship was had, the gospel was shared, real friendships made, missionaries encouraged, supported, and sent out, and lives were saved. And through it all our 501-C-3 papers have officially been filed with the United States.
This seems like one step forward and three steps back, and its easy to ask,
"Why God? We gave everything we had. This doesn't make any sense and it looks unstable to our partners, the people we serve, and our supporters."
It's easy to feel hopeless in this life when we loose our footing. But then God's truth breaks through. His truth is unchanging and it is our grounding. His word tells us,
Psalm 23:1-3
The Lord is my Shephard; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
In the mess of our lives we can hang onto hope if we will just look up to him like a sunflower looks up towards the sun. Do you know why the Shepherd brings his sheep to lie down in green pastures and not a barren wasteland?, why he leads them beside still waters and not a rushing river? A good shepherd takes his sheep exactly where they need to be to be nourished with green grass, to eat and be full. He leads them to still waters so they can drink and be satisfied. It turns out sheep can't eat dirt for dinner and they won't drink from a rushing creek because the fast moving water scares them.
Our good Shephard is doing a good thing too. He allows circumstances into our lives; moves, victories, failures, changing relationships and partnerships, heartbreak, sickness, even persecution, not to put chains on us and crush us. He allows all things in our lives to bring us to the exact place we are at, for such a time as this, where we can be nourished and satisfied completely by him. His good for us, Romans 8:28 is talking about, is not always a happy and carefree life. In fact, the opposite is true many times and the good may hurt a lot. But the good is to know him more, to know his love over us so that we might become more like him.
His righteousness is what covers us and it is what restores our soul, but we can't understand the awesomeness of that righteousness, his love over us, if we don't know him. The way to truly know someone is not just to celebrate the good things in life, but to suffer through the hardest things in life with them. The hard things that our sin brought to this world and our sin that Jesus bore on himself at Calvary.
To know him in the fellowship of sufferings, is to know the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10) and is what gives true satisfaction; true life abundant. This is how we are anointed with oil and our cup overflows freely (Psalm 23:5).
Surrendering to the call is not easy and it is not for those who rely on the stability of this world. Look at Jesus's life. He was unstable to everyone, except his Father. So yes, Hang onto Hope is moving. We are thankful for the last year here and all God has done in us and through us at this property. We are thankful to the owner for allowing us the honor of caring for this event center and serve the community from here, and we pray blessings over his property and event center in the future.
The repurposing of this property continues, and the picture it paints, of Jesus repurposing our lives into something good, is beautiful. Our prayer is that in all things here, that picture would continue to be painted and that God would be glorified. Now we surrender and walk forward to follow the Son, who is our way, our truth, and our life. This is hard, but it is good because God is sovereign and good in all things to his children.
We will be packing and moving over the next two weeks and could use all your prayers through this transition. Our new home is less than one mile down the road, but will not be ready for us until October. We are looking into possible places to stay at during the in-between time, and are learning to trust God even more in this great adventure.
We hold fast the confession of our faith and our calling to bring the hope of Jesus to the outcast youth (the ones who don't quite fit in and feel they are always on the outside looking in) in our community, so that they might live on purpose with purpose in all things. We will continue Hang onto Hope Ministries wherever we are, as our Lord leads. We are confident that our good Shepherd is faithful and surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. We may not know what our story looks like from here, but we do know his story. Our, "on purpose with purpose," in all things is his story and it is good. It is the greatest reason worth living for.
Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Yes, God did, does, and continues to do a good thing.
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