Category Archives: Hope

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The Joy of Christmas

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“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”   Romans 15:13

Christmastime in our culture can be a tough time of year.  As Christians, we struggle with those who miss the whole point of the celebration because they do not believe in Christ.  Beyond that, there can be many hurdles to our joy shining through in this season.  The holiday schedule can get hectic which often leads to stress.  For those of us with illness, we often have enough trouble managing our heath without the additional burden of the social obligations that can exacerbate our symptoms in various ways.  For some, it will be the first Christmas without a loved one…or a few.  Others may have learned that this may be the last Christmas that they celebrate with a loved one as disease advances.  The opportunities for Satan to jump in and help us lose our joy are varied and endless, but if we are truly going to celebrate and maintain our joy, we need to intentionally focus on why we are celebrating…the incarnation of Christ.  This declaration of love bestowed upon us that brings us both joy and hope now and for eternity is the single source of our reason to celebrate.  We celebrate because He came, He rules and He is righteous.

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If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: “God with us.” We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!

John MacArthur
www.christianquotes.info
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The Hope of Christmas

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Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.  Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.  Proverbs 13:12

Have you ever felt hopeless?  As the passage above says, hopelessness makes the heart sick and the world becomes a very dark place.  When I first became ill, that was very true in my life.  The pain I was enduring was relentless and creating a sense of fear and dread in our family.  The anxiety and uncertainty that it produced were intolerable.  If that wasn’t enough, I couldn’t reconcile God’s love with my illness.  I certainly didn’t see how any part of it could be working to my good, or to God’s glory.  Further, the Christians in my life at the time focused on my physical wellbeing, but never asked about my soul and did not attempt to present God’s spiritual truths that might apply.  As a result, I greatly desired my death.  Honestly, I desired it more for my wife and children than for myself.  As much as I wanted the pain and frustration to stop, I was most concerned about the damage that my illness and my inability to handle it were doing to them.  Daily I begged God to end my life.  In short, I was hopeless and my hopelessness was creating an adverse atmosphere in our home.  Thankfully it did not end there.  Eventually I learned to manage my illness somewhat, we became part of a church body that sought God’s will in all things and surrounded us with those who encouraged us in our faith, and the passage of time gave me the confidence that I could make peace with my circumstances.  However, the greatest change came when the word of God and the impact of Christians seeking to encourage me on a spiritual level invaded my illness and helped me to see that God had purpose in my pain and that it truly would work for my good and, more importantly, for the glory of God.  While I still struggle with the frustrations that come with living in a fallen world, it is the contrast between those dark days and the change that came with truth of scripture and the promises of God that keeps me going, points me to God and gives me hope.  One of the things that we celebrate as a part of the Christmas season is the hope that we have…hope in our God, hope in the salvation the Christ provides, and the hope of eternity.

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Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.

Corrie ten Boom
https://www.christianquotes.info
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Thanksgiving Part 5

Thankful for Salvation

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Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!  2 Corinthians 9:15

As we move from the celebration of Thanksgiving to the celebration of Christmas, I can think of no better way to conclude the series about thankfulness than to consider being thankful for the salvation provided by Christ our Lord.  While there is much that can be, should be and has been said about this gift, I’d like to focus on the act of love, the ongoing gift and the benefit yet to be received.

One of the first verses we learn as Christians is John 3:16 and it is certainly a great passage to know for it speaks of the love that is the backdrop for this indescribable gift.  The Father has done what He has never asked of any of us in that He has sacrificed His only son.  However, to truly put it into perspective we need to also look to Romans 5:7-8.

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Thanksgiving Part 3

Thankful for Our Circumstances

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Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Most people are fairly comfortable being thankful for God’s provisions and for the people in their lives.  While we may not feel that our circumstances are quite as perfect as those depicted in Norm Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want”, we can generally muster a fairly strong attitude of thankfulness.  Certainly when we feel that things are going relatively well, we are filled with thankfulness, but what about when the times are tough.  Thanksgiving of 1992 I woke up in the hospital after having an ERCP the previous day.  I was in pain and groggy; I barely remember celebrating the holiday, let alone being thankful. 

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Questions, doubts, and struggles are not the antithesis of faith.  The opposite of faith is a decision to not trust God.  The man who cried out to Jesus, ‘I do believe; help me overcome  my unbelief’  did not demonstrate faith with zero doubts but a willful decision to trust in God even in the midst of questions  and doubts.

John Burke
No Perfect People Allowed (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 57
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Misdirection

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Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.  Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established.  Do not turn to the right nor to the left; turn your foot from evil.  Proverbs 4:25-27

I’ve been on the road the last couple of days.  While I basically know my route, I haven’t driven it enough nor have I driven the area my mother-in-law lives in often enough to navigate without a bit of effort.  Heading home, I needed to take route 95 south to the toll road.  The last time I left, I went north to toward the beach instead of south toward our home.  This time I had a series of wrong turns that cost me some time and took me into the heart of Boston which is not a particularly easy drive.  Even though I knew where to go, in the moment that I should have turned, I only saw half of the signage that reported the northern part of the route and chose not to turn as I didn’t want to repeat my last mistake.  I wasn’t terribly worried as the next road would take me to route 1 south which was the reverse of how I had come on the trip north.  What I didn’t know was that getting from route 1 south to 95 south was not as easy as going north.  Consequently, I missed another opportunity to take the correct path.  I had another chance to get back on track, but because I was totally ignorant of the path, the signage and the lane changes, I missed it as well despite using GPS.  Finally, by following the instructions that GPS was providing and being able to see on the map what I was to do, I got back on track.  I lost about 45 minutes in time, but I was finally where I needed to be.  As I reflected on my errors, I couldn’t help but see the parallel in our spiritual lives.

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“God, like a father, doesn’t just give advice. He gives himself. He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5). He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isaiah 54:1). He becomes the father of the orphaned (Psalm 10:14). He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5). He is the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26). He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6). This is what you do when someone you love is in anguish; you respond to the plea of their heart by giving them your heart. If”

Joni Eareckson Tada
When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty (Zondervan, 1997)
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Belonging to God

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The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all it contains, You have founded them.  Psalm 89:11

I spent most of the last two days driving.  It’s not something I do easily, but God was gracious in providing the needed strength and endurance.  Knowing that I would be traveling and my time would be limited, I was considering what I would write about this week.  As I drove, the song “I am Yours” started playing.  It echoed the quote from Charles Spurgeon that I shared earlier in the week and is shown at the top of this post.  The common theme was not lost on me.  Given the calamity due to hurricanes, earth quakes, threats of war, prayer requests, etc., it seemed appropriate to consider the concept that we belong to God and what that means.

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