Hope

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering,

for He who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:23

He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation;

because by Him everything was created,

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-

all things have been created

through Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.

He is also the head of the body,

the church;

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,

so that He might come to have 

first place in everything.

For God was pleased [to have]

all His fullness dwell in Him,

and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself

by making peace through the blood of His cross-

whether things on earth or things in heaven.

And you were once alienated and hostile in mind because of your evil actions.  

But now He has reconciled you by His physical body

through His death, 

to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him-

if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast

in the faith,

and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.

[This gospel] has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven,

and I, Paul, have become a minister of it.

Colossians 1:15-23