Proverbs 11

***Proverbs 11*** Verse 7 "Hope placed in mortals die with them." If I were alive 50 years ago, I imagine that I would have voted for JFK. I like what he had to say; I think he was politician that placed the best interest of the country before his own. I imagine that a lot of people put their hopes for a brighter future in him. He was elected at a time when the world and country was changing. The civil rights movement was exploding, Vietnam was becoming an issue and the US and Russia were entrenched in a decades long battle of democracy v. communism. JFK was young, had young kids, had fresh ideas and some progressive beliefs. And then he was gone... a day so many will never forget. When my mom heard that I was going to Dallas for internship 3 years ago, her first thought was "that's where JFK was killed." The hopes of a generation destroyed on a November morning in 1963. Then Dr. Martin Luther King, then JFK's brother Bobby. With their deaths, a lot of hopes died too...................................................................................................... In Acts 5, some of the apostles were put on trial when a pharisee named Gamaliel stood up and gave examples of previous movements that were started by humans that failed after the leader was gone. Then he said, "Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them." Jesus started a movement, a church. People put their hopes in him, and he too was assinated. But our hope is not in his life, but in his death and resurrection, in his eternal life. People ask why I believe in Jesus. Among many reasons is Gamaliel's argument, if this movement was begun by a man then it would have failed a long time ago. This church came about becuase God worked through 12 men... 12 men started a church that over the past 2,000 years has included bilions and billions of people. And God is still working... come and visit Abiding Grace and see what God has done in 8 short months.