Scripture Readings:"Mark 1:1-4, Isaiah 9:6-7" HOPE and Wait,  WAIT and Hope The first Advent reading each year is usually about hope. Have you ever stopped to think about HOPE, what it means, what is required?  Hebrews 6:19 calls hope an anchor saying “ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Hope is an anchor for our soul. Hope is what keeps us going when things are tough. Hope is the engine that makes us want to persevere. But hope requires waiting.   Hope is the anticipation of a future something. Without waiting there is no hope. We wait for visits from family or friends.   We wait for test results from the doctor. we wait for the birth of a new grandchild.   And we hope. For fun times, good outcomes, a beautiful baby. We have hope in our waiting. But waiting is required . Wait a minute. Wait a month. Or even years or lifetimes. We don’t like to wait, whether it’s in traffic or the waiting room, or in line at the store....

Daniel 7 :7- 19... "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast....... I approached one of those standing there and asked him the true meaning of all this. So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 'The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth........"Then I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others....." I've studied the book of Daniel before. From that I remember that there is a lot of prophecy - or perhaps a better word would be foretelling in Daniel, where there are statements made about things that will happen in the future (of when Daniel wrote it).   Some of those things foretold in Daniel have already come to pass, i.e. the fall of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar living as an animal for a time before becoming sane again, etc. Some have not taken place yet.   Such is the above chapter in Daniel. I am not an expert on bib...