Tuesday Brief
General Superintendent Max Edwards & Judy
October 13, 2026 The Christian Life is Bright with Hope and Expectation “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.” 1 Peter 1:3-4 nlt God created this world in beautiful splendor. He set the stars in place and said it was good. He created the earth and the moon, setting boundaries for the oceans and seas, and it was good. He brought forth animal and plant life in incredible diversity, and said it was good. And in a culminating crescendo, he created man and woman, setting them in a spectacular garden, and it was all very, very good. But then something happened that shattered the pristine beauty and peace of creation. That something was sin. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, in essence choosing self-worship and self-satisfaction over obedience, darkness and death entered the world – spiritual death. And every person born from that day until this was born into the darkness of death. In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, he wrote: “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.” Ephesians 2:1-2 nlt Dead. Dark. Hopeless. But then Jesus Christ came to shatter that darkness and offer a brand new life. I can personally testify to that dark emptiness. It wasn’t an allegorical concept, or theoretical truth, but an absolute reality. I was living life my own way, making my own choices, but like King Soloman discovered and wrote in Ecclesiastes, it was complete emptiness. He wrote “I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 2:17 nlt) But God has not left us without hope. Everyone who genuinely opens their heart to the Savior finds themselves celebrating a new birthday! Mine was April of 1980. Beams of light and life blazed into my darkness and nothing has been the same since. I have a bright future in heaven and hope in my heart today. This new hope does not mean the adsence of problems from time to time. It means the presence of an anticipated inheritance! It means I can look to the future with joy and expectation, even when things are difficult to endure. And Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, rightly says that our inheritance in heaven is an incorruptable one. It cannot be tarnished by evil. It cannot be defiled. It is beyond the reach of our enemy. The world did not give me this hope, and the world cannot take it away. That heavenly inheritance is closer each passing day, Praise Jesus!!!