|
When we were down in Florida last week I was reminded of something that happened a few years ago when were visiting down there. At that time I came up with the brilliant idea that my father, my brothers, and Michael should all go deep sea fishing. We found a deal where for about $30 you could go ten miles out to sea for six hours. We went to the boat, joined the other passengers on board and got set for a beautiful day on the ocean. Just us, the fish, the sun, and the water. We got all set with our poles and our bait, just riding the waves, up and down, and up and down, and up and down. What I hadn’t prepared for was the motion of the ocean. I set the record for barfing first and most. While I was turning sea green from the constant motion sickness one of the crew members yelled out, “Don’t worry, no one's ever died of seasickness yet." And I thought to myself “Don't say that! Dying is the only hope I have.”
Of course I wasn’t serious. There are far worse things than sea sickness.Scores of people are confronted with messages like these: There is no hope for your marriage.There is no hope for you to recover from cancer.There is no hope for you to succeed in your job.There is no hope for your child's drug addiction.There is no hope.... no hope... no hope.... We live in a day and age when many people feel trapped in their circumstances, depressed in their outlook, and hopeless in their possibilities. Toynbee said, "Most men live their lives in quiet desperation."
When I opened the Des Moines Register this week I was sickened by the story of the Sueppel family: “Iowa City residents Sheryl Sueppel and her four children died from blunt force trauma to their upper torsos and heads consistent with the use of a baseball bat, according to autopsy results released this morning. Steven Sueppel, 42, who is believed to have killed his family late Sunday or early Monday before crashing his minivan into a concrete pillar on Interstate 80, died of blunt force trauma caused by the crash, the autopsy revealed."How desperate does a person have to be to come to the point where he takes the life of his whole family with such brutality?Thank the Lord that most people do not cross such moral boundaries as Steve Sueppel. Never the less we live in a world where people often have an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. For example, the primary reason why people commit suicide is a feeling of being trapped in despair, feeling like there is no hope.Dante put it well in his "Divine Comedy. He put the issue about as straight forward as you can get when he wrote, "Life without hope is hell."
The truth of the matter is that there is no hope except God who comes to you bringing hope. 1 Pet. 1:3-7 tells us why, as believers in Jesus Christ, we can have a hope that transcends our circumstances. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:3-7).
The difference between a believer and an unbeliever is that a believer always has reason for hope. No matter how hopeless our circumstances may be or may seem to be we always have hope. The good news is that God has given us a hope that transcends our circumstances. No matter how bad things may be there is a purpose that God wants to fulfill in your life and through your life. That is cause for hope.
|
|
|
A few years ago Charles Colson was in India. As usual, the crowds he spoke to wanted to hear the testimony of the Watergate criminal turned prison evangelist. Most of you remember that Charles Colson was called the Hatchet Man on Richard Nixon's cabinet. In the midst of the Watergate turmoil Charles Colson was born again. He eventually wrote a book with that very title, "Born Again." Since that day Charles Colson has shared his testimony in many places on many occasions as he did in India a few years ago. Here's the way he described one ministry encounter.
"When I was in India last fall I had many opportunities to tell what Christ has done in my life. The thousands of faces in those predominantly Hindu crowds would nod and smile as I shared my experience. Hindus believe all roads lead to God -- if Jesus was my guru, that was fine. They all had their gurus, too. But when I spoke of the reason for my faith, the resurrection of Christ, the nods would stop. People's expressions changed and they listened intently. The fact of the resurrection demands a choice, one that reduces all other religions to mere philosophies.
The point that Colson is making is that many people have religious feelings and experiences. But feelings and experiences themselves are not sufficient to establish truth. Feelings must be established on rational explanations. Otherwise, they're only feelings, nothing more, and nothing less.
Christianity is not just polite religious discussion. It's a call to a decision about Jesus Christ. This is what Charles Colson was talking about. Easter is not just a marvelous spring feeling. It's a decision about what took place over a weekend in Jerusalem. Did Jesus rise from the dead or did he not? Can the Bible be trusted as historical evidence or can it not? What is true and what is not? Furthermore, just because you have some tentative answers to these questions does not mean that you have thoroughly studied the questions or investigated good resources to answer the questions. Send an email to me, and I can offer you one of hundreds of good resources for your investigation. You have a decision to make.
|
|
|
