156 Sermon Illustrations on Hope

In his book, {A Gift of Hope} author Robert Veninga

describes this transforming experience, which took place in the life

of a 41-year-old man after he prayed:

I left work early after hearing that I would lose my job. I got in

my car and and went to my church. Unfortunately the minister was not

there. But the chapel was open. I went in and stared at the cross.

I started to cry. I told God that I didn't have the strength to get

through this mess. And I asked for help. I must have sat there for

a couple of hours. I brushed away my tears. Suddenly a whole load

went off my shoulders. I can't explain it, but I went into that

chapel crushed and I came out feeling strong. I actually felt that I

could make it.

- {The Lookout, }January 7, 1996.

1. My hope is in the Lord

Who gave Himself for me,

And paid the price of all my sin

at Calvary

Chorus

For me He died,

For me He lives;

And everlasting life and light

He freely gives.

2. No merit of my own

His anger to suppress:

My only hope is found

in Jesus' righteousness.

3. And now for me He stands

Before the Father's throne:

He shows His wounded hands and

names me as His own.

4. His grace has planned it all —

’This mine but to believe,

And recognize His work of love,

and Christ receive.

*

January 3, 1999 the $156 million Mars Polar Lander left earth. The project with a $356 million budget left earth with great hope for exploring Mars for future manned flights to Mars. 12 minutes from touchdown on December 3,1999 the Lander lost contact with earth and is now presumed lost. Scientists speculate that the Lander crashed and was destroyed on impact. Years of effort, lots of teamwork, much money and research were sent airborne at the beginning of the year. The months of waiting for the Lander to reach Mars were only moments from being realized when disaster occurred.

TS--We begin a new year and with it we launch our dreams, hopes and anticipations. We work hard, plan and get busy with all the things life offers us. What we don't expect is for our dreams to become disappointments, but it can happen. What do we hang onto then? Where is our hope? Have we included God in our lives or will we be left trying to put together broken dreams by ourselves?

Vaclav Havel, the president of Czechoslovakia, who was a prisoner for many years, was asked if he saw any grounds for hope in this world. He answered:

I should probably say that the kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation… I think the deepest and most important form of hope, the only one that can keep us above water and urges us to good works, and the only true source of the breathtaking dimension of the human spirit and its efforts, is something we get, as it were, from “elsewhere.”

________

John Shea, Starlight (New York: Crossroad, 1992), pp. 10-11.

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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #386]

Lewis Smedes tells the story of a pastor’s wife named Tammy Kramer who worked at an AIDS clinic in Los Angeles. One day a young man who came in for his weekly treatment, but this time he faced a new doctor. Without so much as looking at the patient, the doctor said casually, “You know, don’t you, that you won’t live out the year?”

As the man left the clinic, he stopped at Tammy’s desk and sobbed, “He took away my hope!”

“I guess he did,” Tammy answered. “Do you have another one?”

Do you have a hope that can sustain you no matter what the world throws at you? The only hope worth having is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The rescue worker whose story is being syndicated in newspapers around the world sought out Florida Baptist volunteers to help share what he believes is a miracle amid the rubble of the World Trade Center.

In the process of removing debris from a fallen crosswalk that connected the North Tower to Building Three two days after the disaster, recovery worker Frank Silecchia found two steel beams in the perfect shape of a cross.

The beams, at least six feet high and four feet wide, were naturally bolted together as part of the total structure. When the other beams were ripped away, they were all that remained. The edges of the beams bear no markings of being cut or welded to make the shape. In fact, some of the bolts that once attached the edges to other beams are still intact.

The most heartwrenching discovery was that a silver object melted onto the cross's left side was the remains of a firefighter's jacket who died in the blast. Firefighters say the fire-resistant jacket turned silver and took on the look and consistency of metal when it encountered extreme heat and fire. Now, it is wrapped around the left arm of the cross.

This revelation, along with several smaller crosses found amid the rubble of Building Six, has led Silecchia on a crusade to save the metal crosses from demolition. He has petitioned Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to spare the crosses so they can be included in a memorial to the victims.

The discovery also has led Silecchia, a Christian, to lead fellow rescue workers to the crosses to pray with them. Since then, the firefighter's cross has been filled with yellow and red writings made by rescue workers in memory of their colleagues. The most visible of these markings runs down one side, "God bless our fallen brothers."

Near the pile of rubble where the other crosses stand, Silecchia spraypainted "God's House" on an inside shell of a building and drew an arrow pointing to the crosses.

"It looks like Calvary down there," Silecchia told Floridian Fred Edwards, pastor of Suwannee Baptist Church in Suwannee. "It took me back a little bit when I found it. I couldn't believe it and I just had to stare for a while.

"For the terrorists, terror is their faith. For us, God is our faith. Who's going to win? God is. He's going to have the last word. And he did here, through his presence revealed in the crosses.

"I bring people to it who need encouragement when they are depressed or sad. It helps restore their faith in God, because the crosses couldn't just be a coincidence. It doesn't happen like that. They are there for a reason. He never leaves us. He is here right in the midst of us."

*

Concluding his famous discourse on Christ's resurrection, the apostle Paul asks rhetorically, "Where, O death, is thy sting? Where is thy victory?" In reference to the resurrection, the answer is obvious. Death has been overcome - in Paul's words, "swallowed up in life."

Billy Graham told of a meeting he had with German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, former mayor of Cologne, imprisoned by Hitler for opposing the Nazi regime, and later chancellor of the West German Federal Republic. Adenauer truly deserves the title of "statesman" as he picked up the broken pieces of his country and helped to rebuild it in a fractured world. On this occasion, he looked the evangelist in the eye and said, "Mr. Graham, do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?" Graham, somewhat surprised by his question answered, "Of course I do." Replied Chancellor Adenauer, "Mr. Graham, outside of the resurrection of Jesus, I do not know of any other hope for this world."

I have personally heard this same sentiment echoed in two other nations in drastic transition. I sat around a table with six Russian generals as they acknowledged that there was no hope for their country apart from God. And as I finished a lectureship in Johannesburg, South Africa, the framers of the Peace Accord expressed the same. I believe that Chancellor Adenauer and the others were surely correct. It is the resurrection of Jesus that brings hope to our fallen world, and, may I add, to each individual life.

Philosopher Walter Kaufmann wrote a book ironically titled THE FAITH OF A HERETIC. After explaining our cosmic insignificance, he concluded: "What I want to do and would advise others to do is to make the most of [life]: put into it all you have got, and live, and, if possible, die with some measure of nobility."

May I say, my friend, that to tell us to die with nobility when there is no hope beyond the grave is farcical at best. Compare Kaufmann's platitude to Christ's words: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live." These profound words, spoken to Lazarus's sister Martha, were proven true moments later when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Christ's resurrection not only satisfies our longing for life beyond the grave and provides life's fulfillment, but also justifies that very longing, giving us, in the words of the great hymn, "strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow."

_________________________

Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

“Therefore [it is] of faith that [it might be] according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” (Romans 4:16-18 NKJV)

The Reason Of Faith

• faith…grace — Rom 3:24, Gal 3:22 — or free unmerited favour

• sure, being the result of the Divine promise; not of human obedience

• all…seed — Rom 9:8 — all true believers

• written — Gen 17:5 — Scripture warranty

• nations — not of one nation — the Jews — only

• who…dead — and can therefore perform His word

• calleth…were — all time being present with the great I AM — Acts 15:18, Rom 8:29

• against hope — when those was no human ground for hope

• believed — that the promise would be fulfilled — Gen 15:5

• in hope — the hope inspired by the promise

The father of the faithful — Anon

I. The object of the patriarch’s faith –God, who

1. “Quickeneth the dead,” — giveth life to dead matter;

2. Always fulfils His promises — “And calleth those things which be not,” etc.

II. Its pre-eminent vigour and efficiency — “Who against hope,” etc. Three things belong to hope:

1. It has always reference to that which is future;

2. Its object must be something good or desirable;

3. Something attainable.

III. The important results which followed:

1. The fact stated in reference to Abraham;

2. The application made of it to ourselves.

Acceptance through Christ — A lady called to see a sick child who had been seized with croup in the night, and thought that he should die. “Oh, mother,” he said, “I’m frightened to go before such a good God!” Then suddenly he added, “but I have prayed to Him to make me a better boy; and, mother, there’s the navvies’ prayer, that they pray beside their beds in the next room.” And then the little child knelt up in his bed, and, amidst paroxysms of coughing, prayed, “Oh, God wash me from all my sins in my Saviour’s blood, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Almost directly afterwards, with the simplicity of childhood’s eager faith, he said, “Now, mother, I need not mind dying, because I am washed, you see, in the blood of Jesus Christ.” — Bible Treasury

“The salvation of believers is so much the more sure by how much it has its foundation in the Divine covenant of grace.” — Howe

“Faith, the foundation of salvation; Hope, the rising edifice ; Charity, the topstone and perfection.” — Origen

“The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.” — Auqustine

Jurgen Moltmann, one of the premier theologians of the last century, recounts, in the slim book Experiences of God, his personal journey toward hope. Drafted as a teenager in World War II, he was sent to the German front, where the British soon captured him. The next three years he spent in detention, shuttled from prison camp to prison camp in Belgium, Scotland, and England. Meanwhile Hitler’s empire collapsed, exposing the moral rot at the center of the Third Reich, and all around him Moltmann saw how other Germans “collapsed inwardly, how they gave up all hope, sickening for the lack of it, some of them dying. The same thing almost happened to me. What kept me from it was a rebirth to new life…”

Apart from the cultural trappings of Christmas and other holidays, Moltmann had no Christian background. He had brought just two books with him into battle: Goethe’s poems and the complete works of Nietzshe, in editions that Hitler had distributed to his troops. Neither nourished hope, to put it mildly. But a chaplain gave him a NT, which included the Psalms in an appendix.

Moltmann leafed through some pages, landing on Psalm 139, “If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there” (vs 8). Could God be present in that dark night? “I was dumb with silence, I held my peace…” As he read, Moltmann found words that perfectly captured his own feelings of desolation. He became convinced that God “was present even behind the barbed wire — no, most of all behind the barbed wire.”

As Moltmann kept reading, he also found something new in Psalm 139: hope. Walking the perimeter of the barbed wire at night for exercise, he would circle a small hill in the center of the camp, on which stood a hut that served as a chapel. For him the hut became a symbol of God’s presence radiating in the midst of suffering, and out of that symbol grew hope.

~~~~~~~~~~

Quoted in Yancey, Philip. 2000. Reaching For The Invisible God. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company. Pg. 77

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” (Romans 8:18-19 NKJV)

Present Suffering And Future Glory

• reckon [consider] — calculate, with an eye to the future

• sufferings — 2 Cor 4:17-18 — in mind, body, estate, with sufficient grace

• present time — only of the present; short, uncertain, disciplinary

• not…compared — placed by side of, as a matter that should influence our judgment of the Christian life

• glory — 1 Cor 2:9-10, Ps 16:11 — perfection of character, of joy, etc.

• revealed — developed

• in us — 1 Jn 3:2, 2 Tim 2:10, 2 Th 2:14, 2 Cor 12:4 — in us, the heirs of that glory. Our souls, the seat of conflict and suffering, shall become the seat of heavenly joy and perfection

• for…expectation — from the classical karadokein, to watch as with outstretched head — longing desire, sense of want and imperfection

• creature — creation

• manifestation [revealing] — full, open display of their completed number, and perfected glory

• sons…God — “creation’s future bound up with that of the sons of God” (Robinson)

The good man’s estimate of life — J. H. Hill

This estimate indicates that a good man –

I. Is subject to great trials in this life.

II. Anticipates a destiny of unparalleled honour.

III. Must not compare his present suffering with his future glory:

1. The great capacity of the human soul for enjoyment;

2. The modified character of earthly suffering;

3. Its comparatively momentary duration.

Prophetic intimations of future glory — Munkel

To be discerned in the longing of:

I. The creature.

1. Finding ourselves not alone in suffering, we should recognise our high calling as the head of the visible creation;

2. This visible creation may become a source of comfort to us in our suffering.

II. The children of God. This is not a mere prophecy of future glory, like the struggling of the creature, but it opens the way to that glory, and is the preparation for it; and He who has begun the good work within us will also perfect it.

Present sufferings and future glory — “I was called upon, some years ago, to visit an individual in the State of New York, from Ireland, who had resided for many years in that city. Part of his face had been eaten away by a most loathsome cancer. Fixing my eyes on this man in his sufferings and in his agony, I said, ‘Supposing that Almighty God were to give you your choice whether would you prefer your cancer, your pain, and your sufferings, with a certainty of death before you, but of immortality hereafter; or, would you prefer health, prosperity, long life in the world, and run the risk of losing your immortal soul?’ ‘Ah, sir!’ said the man in the midst of his agony, ‘give me the cancer, the pain, the Bible, the hope of heaven; and others may take the world, long life, and prosperity!’” Rev. Mr Trefil

“Be contented with a mean condition; this is not the time for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Though others that are wicked may have a larger portion and allowance than you, yet God doth not misplace His hands, as Joseph thought his father did, but puts them upon the right heads, and assigns temporal blessings to the right persons” — Manton

“He that loses hope, may part with anything.” — Congreve

The hurt and the pain drives him into a park,

He seats in his car staring into the dark,

The last rays shine through the tall trees,

Looking like long hands stretching by threes.

The sun disappears into the land untold,

The stars form patterns beautiful to behold,

The illuminated patches of clouds speak silently,

Of the pretty designs of creation arranged so perfectly.

He seats there struck by the awesomeness,

He lays back and stares into the sky’s oneness,

Momentarily his pain seems to drown away,

For beyond the sadness he sees hope not far away.

He thinks, God must be really great,

He never meant for me to get this treat,

The desperation, the desolation, the pain,

For the truth of His love is displayed so plain.

Touch me again Lord, he whispers to Him,

Caress me with your gentle love, he cries to Him,

Give me peace within no matter the chaos outside,

Give me commitment, your kindness to hold inside.

My friend is a man with a heart of love,

In the midst of hatred he’s calm as a dove,

In discouragement he’s shown the strength to hope,

Believing in the salvation of the Lord at the end of the rope.

It was April in the mountains of the West - which means you can experience any and all of the four seasons during one trip. We had actually started our journey in warm temperatures, but by the time we hit that mountain pass, it started to snow - I mean the thick, big flakes kind of snow. All of us actually started singing Christmas carols, even though it was just a few days before Easter. We were racing a deadline, so the snow was a mixed blessing. It was incredibly beautiful, but it was almost blinding at times, making our trip slower and more treacherous. And then we saw it: a thin line of sunshine between the bottom of the snow clouds and the tops of the mountains ahead. And we were excited because that was our future.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Brighter Skies Ahead.”

It was tough driving, and the journey was getting more difficult and more dangerous. But we were okay with that because we knew there were brighter skies ahead. And soon we actually were basking in sunshine everywhere.

It could be that you're driving a stretch in your life-journey right now that is pretty rough. You're getting tired of how hard it is to keep moving. You're anxious about what could happen and wondering how long it's going to be like this. You need to see some sunshine. And there is some. I love this simple reassurance of Psalm 30:5, our word for today from the Word of God, where He says, “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” The Bible never denies that we will have seasons of hurt and weeping - but God wants us to see the sun beneath the clouds ahead. It won't always be this way. He promises that. He says that after tears in the night, there will be joy in the morning.

My wife was driving when we hit that heavy snow in the mountains. But when she saw that line of sunlight ahead, she said, “If I knew I had to drive like this all night, it would be tough. But I know there's better road ahead.” That is God's guarantee for every child of His. Whenever I think I've got a heavy burden, it helps me to think about the load the Apostle Paul carried - shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonments, rejection, death threats. Major storms. Perilous journey.

But he said, “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all.” Paul calls all those painful times “light and momentary” - even though he's in the middle of some of that pain. He's comparing it to the sunshine ahead, knowing that compared to how good and how long the good times are going to be, this junk is light and momentary. So, he says, “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Temporary. This too shall pass. And the day on the other side of this night is going to be awesome!

The difference is what you choose to fix your eyes on. If you focus on the storm you're in, you'll lose hope. You'll give up. But if you keep your eyes on the sun on the horizon - the rewards for your faithfulness, the deepening of your relationship with your Lord, the better thing God will give you in place of what you have lost - then there will be joy in this journey. So, keep on driving. Drive carefully and look down the road at the beauty that's on ahead. For just like us on that snowy, stormy day, you'll soon be celebrating a break in the clouds and a day that is flooded with glorious sunlight. No matter how dark it looks now, there are brighter skies ahead!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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Over the years, I've had the honor and the pleasure of speaking for many professional football chapels. You should have seen me with the New York Giants. I was like the New York dwarf! I guess I'm tall inside, you know. But anyway, their “thank-you” for speaking was two tickets for the game. And they had great seats reserved for the chapel speaker, midfield under cover. Of course, any time you go to a public event like a game or a concert or a show, you hope for great seats. On occasion, I've even looked up a seating chart for the facility where an event was being held so I knew what seats to ask for. Unfortunately, you have to pay a little for the best seats, but you get a view most folks can't see.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Best Seats in the House.”

For nearly forty years, Joni Eareckson Tada's view has been from a wheelchair. She has been a quadriplegic since a horrible diving accident at the age of 17. And after some early battles with bitterness and despondency, Joni found in Almighty God her source of joy and hope. Today, her ministry of compassion and hope reaches around the world. She has represented her Lord again and again in major arenas with Christian leaders like Billy Graham, and her radio ministry has a powerful impact on countless lives. But she lives with constant pain, in need of help just to get through each day, - imprisoned, some might say, in her wheelchair and her broken body.

In her book, “The God I Love,” Joni says this to God. “I know I wouldn't know You ... I wouldn't love and trust You ... were it not for this wheelchair.” Joni believes that the wheelchair she has often wished she didn't need has actually given her a front row seat on the love and greatness of God. Those who have suffered painfully, those who have been hurt deeply, they are the people who have - or can have - a view of the awesomeness of God that others never see. And if you are going through a long, dark valley right now, there's hope here for you in seeing beyond the hurt to what can happen if you let your big need open you up to a big God.

In Romans 5, beginning with verse 2, our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord shows us the view that will redeem our pain and turn it into something very beautiful. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”

Suffering surrendered to the Master Potter is the wheel on which He can make you into a masterpiece. And you will experience a depth of hope, a strength of character, and a flood of God's love and grace that can only be experienced by those who need Him desperately. There's no way to really, really know Him until you really, really need Him.

If this is such a time, thank Him for it, and don't miss the view because you're all focused on yourself. Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor to President George Bush, said in a church where she spoke on “The Privilege of Struggle”: “How else, but through struggle are we to get to know the full measure of the Lord's capability for intervention in our lives? If there are no burdens, how can we know that He can be there to lift them?” Or, as in Joni Tada's life, you might never know the Lord, you might never love the Lord, you might never trust the Lord if it were not for your heavy burden.

Yes, you do have to pay a price for the best seats in the house, but you have a view of the grace and greatness of God that others cannot see. The price you pay will last a little while. The view will last forever.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

Hope is the thing that turns the heart upside-down in the middle of grief. Hope is the embers burning after the fire has gone out. Hope is the healthy spare tire in the trunk of the car with a flat.

Unlike the above examples, our modern use of the word “hope” no longer carries the biblical notion. It now carries a heart-cry of whimsical uncertainty or anxious waiting. As children we hope for a bicycle on Christmas morning. As adults we hope the colonoscopy brings back negative cancer results. In neither is there a promise.

When the Bible talks about hope, it often carries certainty with it. And, like faith, it is necessary that the one making the promises has the kind of character that can deliver on those promises.

What about Israel's King David? Where was his hope? God spoke to him in an ancient land. “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” David holds the hope and replies, “Your servant has found courage” because of the bold promise of God. David knew God's character was one that did not lie.

Then a thousand years later, the New Testament writers shatter the silence and exclaim that, among many other prophecies, David's hope was born in his own city. The angel, unhindered by the sentimentality of many holiday cards, moves to proclaim the mystery of the incarnation to a young virgin girl. Borrowing the same wording that God spoke to David, the angel comes to a lone individual to speak forth the fulfilled promise that consummated David's hope, “The Lord God will give [Jesus] the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32-33).

But the hope God gives in his promises are not solely for kings in ancient days. Jesus Christ uttered the certainty to his followers, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3).

There are, no doubt, many ready skeptics who find pleasure in calling this “wishful thinking.” And there's a certain texture of joy in hope that is similar to the excitement of “wishful thinking.” But isn't that just the point? Why does my heart long so deeply for eternal hope and confidence if it is never to be gained? Why do longings for future glory have to be merely “wishful”? The skeptic who says such things about hope is often the one who has been burned by bad promises told by bad people. Does a broken promise mean the heart's desire is broken too? The heart still reaches for the right promise from an eternally unchanging character.

The writer of Hebrews understood this when he wrote, “We... have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:18-19). The hope in Jesus Christ!

Go with Mary into the place where the angel announces Jesus. Hear the angel tell of kept promises to David and the world. Go with the disciples into the room where Jesus promises his return. Go with the writer of Hebrews into the refuge that is found in the anchor of hope. And anticipate with wonder that God indeed visited our planet as a carpenter near Galilee and will come again without any disguises. May hope turn your heart upside-down this celebration season because of God's unbendable promises.

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Copyright © 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

In a major newspaper, full, as newspapers are, of active images, lively debate, and the steady buzz of daily life, a seemingly out of place essay brought my own morning routine to an introspective halt. It was a short article found in the editorial section, though it seemed out of place even there. It did not suggest a refutable opinion, or a thought to stir action, but a silent picture of my own frail existence, a quiet look at sleep-needing humans. The writer describes the nightly scene on a commuter train, after workday armor has been mentally laid aside, and one can see pajamas in homebound eyes. Notes the author, “As long as I've been riding trains into New York — some 25 years by now — I'm still struck by the collective intimacy of a passenger car full of sleeping strangers.”

It was a picture that was, for me, worth many words. Something in that scene that I was easily transported to reminded me of my weakness, of life's frailty, of my need. “I am poor and needy,” says the psalmist. “Remind me that my days are fleeting.”

The human condition is inescapable; it is that which we all share. Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who devoted his life to tracking down those responsible for the mass murdering of Jews in World War II, recently announced that at age 94, he has ended his search. In an interview, he told reporters, “If there's a few I didn't look for, they are now too old and too fragile to stand trial.” What a massive indication of our days. “All are from the dust, and to dust all return” (Ecclesiastes 3:20).

In the Garden of Gethsemane, minutes before Jesus would be in the grip of those who would hand him over to die, the disciples were sleeping. He was sweating blood, but they felt the heaviness of their eyes instead of the heaviness of the moment. He asked them to stay awake and pray, but they could not. It is such a sincere look at humanity: weak and unaware, asleep, unseeing, and in need.

The ashes of Ash Wednesday remind us similarly. The days of Lent urge us to remember our condition throughout our days. “Day by day,” instructs the Rule of Saint Benedict, “remind yourself that you are going to die.” To keep the reality of our weakness before us, is to seek and to see God. As the Apostle Paul writes, “Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: 'Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you'“ (Ephesians 5:13-14). “As for me,” the psalmist writes, “I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought of me” (40:17).

On a cross beside Jesus as he was crucified, a criminal uttered some of the most human words in all of Scripture. Minutes before death, before his last breath in this life, he asked the One beside him to take thought of him. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” There is perhaps no prayer that can be more sincerely uttered. As Christ responded to the one beside him, so he responds to the needy soul, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He who watches over us neither sleeps nor slumbers. Let us arise and follow.

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Copyright © 2004 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

On December 24, Christians all over the world will gather together for candlelit Christmas Eve services. The carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” seems to be a perennial favorite at these services for good reason. The hymn makes a bold claim, which can easily be lost in its familiarity, saying of Bethlehem: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” This is a sweeping statement; the hymnodist did not simply say that Christ's birth met the hopes and fears of Israel, or of those who put their trust in him. Rather, all hopes and all fears ever felt on this earth somehow find their answer in Jesus.

It is easy to see how Christ's coming meets our hopes. He is Emmanuel, God with us, and He meets our hope that we are not alone in this struggle. His coming confirms to us that there is more to life than what is seen. Christ's presence is the fulfillment of all God's promises. Of Jesus, Paul writes, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Cor. 1:20, ESV). Jesus is the hoped-for Messiah and Redeemer, the King and the Lamb. Hundreds of years before, Jeremiah had cried out, “O you hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?” (14:8). The Incarnation proved to Israel that God was not a stranger, but walked in their midst.

Likewise, the fears of all the ages are met in Christ's coming. For those who fear that God is merely a figment of their imagination, or doubt that He cares for us, He has stepped into history. Jesus met the fears of those who dread sickness and death. He proved his sovereignty over illness by healing those who were incurable. He proved his power over death by dying and living to tell about it! For those who fear losing those they love, Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). For those who fear they will never be worthy of love, Jesus' coming showed that we do not have to be worthy, because He himself is worthy. Jesus can confidently enter the presence of his father, and we gain our access to God through Him.

Yet there are other fears that are met in Jesus, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they are realized. Some feared the coming of the Messiah. Herod is a prime example. His hunger for power made any other king his rival. He professed to want to worship Jesus, but truly desired to kill him. For many like Herod, Jesus' coming is a threat, the realization of lifelong fears. Those who want to be lord of their own life see Jesus as a rival competing for the throne. His coming realizes their fears that there may be someone more glorious than they. His coming confirms that earthly power and success are not the ultimate goal of life; for those who have spent their lives striving for success, this is bad news. For those who want to earn favor with God, Jesus is a threat because he is more righteous than they could ever hope to be. He destroys all hope that we may be able to save ourselves. His coming reminds us that we are sinful people, in desperate need of a savior. Some hear this not as good news, but as the realization of their fears.

Let us not be these people. Let us willingly surrender our lives to Jesus. Let us freely confess the sinfulness of our hearts, and greet him as our cherished savior. Let us seek Him as the realization of our hopes and the one who meets our fears. If we do this, Christ's coming will truly be good news to us. As the carol concludes,

No ear may hear his coming,

But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive Him still

The dear Christ enters in.

When you feel hopes or fears rising within you, stop to consider how Christ meets these. Fix your thoughts on Him and your hope will increase and your fear will subside. This Christmas, may you hope in God and find yourself joyfully satisfied in Jesus.

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Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was deleted]

A story is told of a young man who learned of Christ entirely by listening to the maids who sang hymns as they went about their day. The child had never been to church, seen a Bible, or heard anyone mention God. But in the singing that filled the hallways, he found an unknown desire in his heart confronted. Though as a child he knew several by memory, the hymn he chose most as his own seems to confess with stirring appropriateness his own reality: “I love to tell the story/ of unseen things above.” What was unseen in his life became the certainty that moved him most.

The writer of Hebrews gives us a definition of faith in similar terms. The chapter begins, “Now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see” (11:1). If I am being honest, this definition has always somewhat eluded me. As John Wesley once observed of the same words, “There appears to be a depth in them which I am in no wise able to fathom.” In the examples of faith in the verses to follow, we find exactly that — an unfathomable depth of belief. We find faith moving across the pages of history, the gift of God sparkling in the eyes of the faithful, and the unseen, a certainty by which countless lives were guided. “By faith,” writes the author of Hebrews, “Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country... For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (11:8-10).

Near the end of Abraham's story in Genesis — after God had promised that his descendants would outnumber the stars and his people would dwell in the richness of the promised land — Abraham buries his wife, his only son is yet unmarried, and he owns only a small plot of land in a world in which he is still living as a foreigner. Yet what was unseen was the certainty that moved him; what he was looking forward to was a vision for which to live and die.

In C.S. Lewis' THE SILVER CHAIR, Eustace, Jill, Prince Rilian (who is the prince of Narnia) and Puddleglum (who is a marsh-wiggle) are trapped beneath Narnia in the land called Underworld. The Queen of Underworld, who is really a witch, has thrown a green powder into the fire that produces a sweet and drowsy smell. In the enchanting haze, she convinces the group that Narnia does not exist; like the sun, moon, and Aslan, the great lion, Narnia is all a dream. The children and the two Narnians try their hardest to describe the things they are certain exist. Yet with each argument the Witch makes it all seem more and more foolish.

It is at this moment of despair that Puddleglum makes a brave move. With his bare foot he stomps on the fire, sobering the sweet and heavy air with the unenchanting smell of marsh-wiggle. Boldly he turns to the Witch, “One word, Ma'am,” he says coming back from the fire, limping, because of the pain. “One word... Suppose we have only dreamed, or made-up, all those things — trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself... Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one... We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side, even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as much like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's a small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say.”

In a world where faith is defined as foolish and irrelevant, the definition of faith in Scripture stands by the better country. For the faithful admit like Abraham that we are like strangers on earth, setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for a country of our own, telling the story of things unseen. It is in this depth of certainty by which Abraham lived and died, knowing that He who promised is faithful, knowing that the small family he could gather together in his final days would yet one day outshine the starry sky. Let us therefore hold onto the hope we profess, looking forward with Abraham to the city with foundations, the city of the living God. For with our eyes fixed on Christ, the light born out of Abraham's promise, we shall see.

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Copyright © 2004 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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“One death is a tragedy,” said Josef Stalin, “a million is a statistic.” He was wrong. Any decent person cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the suffering caused by last month's tsunami. The thousands of dead aren't statistics; they are people made in the image of God — victims of a catastrophe that has spurred the world to action and left many in a state of despair.

One of these people in despair is David Brooks of the NEW YORK TIMES. In his New Year's Day column, he called the world's generosity “amazing,” while wondering if this response was a “self-enveloping fog to obscure our view of the abyss.” The “abyss” he's referring to is the sense that nature, contrary to what the Romantics have told us, is neither “a nurse [nor] a friend.”

On the contrary, the events of late December 2004 remind us that, for all our technological prowess, we are subject to the natural elements, not their master.

Unlike the pre-moderns who lived with this knowledge, Brooks finds himself unable to take comfort from biblical faith. The events in South Asia left him thinking that instead of an “active,” albeit mysterious, God, there was only “nature's awful lottery.” That being the case, we should not only mourn for the dead, but also for “those of us who have no explanation,” wrote Brooks, referring to himself.

There is, however, a Christian response to Brooks's despair. Theologian David B. Hart wrote in the WALL STREET JOURNAL that we live in the “the long melancholy aftermath of a primordial catastrophe” — the Fall, something we humans brought upon ourselves as a result of God giving us a free will and our choosing to go our way, not His. But as a result of this “catastrophe,” ours is a “broken and wounded world.” The “universe languishes in bondage to 'powers' and 'principalities' — spiritual and terrestrial — alien to God.”

We see evidence of the Fall all around us: not only in natural disasters, but in illness and death. While you don't have to be a Christian to know that something has gone terribly wrong, you do have to be a Christian to understand God's remedy: In His incarnation, passion, and resurrection, God's Son both judged and rescued creation “from the torments of fallen nature.” Now “all creation groans in anguished anticipation of the day when God's glory will transfigure all things” (Romans 8:19-22).

Until then, says Hart, we are to “to hate death and waste and the imbecile forces of chance that shatter living souls” — not in despair, as Brooks and others do, but in hope.

Hard to believe? Of course it is, even for some Christians. But we continue to live by faith. And so until the day that Christ returns and our faith is completely vindicated, we are to cling to this Gospel and preach it. Its truth and the acts of kindness and mercy it inspires are the only alternative to the abyss of despair.

So Christians now have an opportunity to help the victims of the tsunami, the suffering masses in Asia, and, no less, the confused and despairing masses on every continent. We uniquely can offer hope to both victims.

FOR FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:

• “Child Sponsors needed for tsunami hit areas,” Mission Network News.

• David Brooks, “A Time to Mourn,” New York Times, 1 January 2005. (Free registration required. After two weeks, costs $2.95 to retrieve.)

• David B. Hart, “Tremors of Doubt,” Wall Street Journal, 31 December 2004.

• Mark Steyn, “On tsunami's shore,” Washington Times, 4 January 2005.

• Daniel Henninger, “Why We Need Politics: The tsunami's sorrows will need more than pity,” Wall Street Journal, 31 December 2004.

• Cal Thomas, “God and suffering,” Townhall.com, 4 January 2005.

• Michael Novak, “Blaming God First,” National Review Online, 5 January 2005.

• Rob Moll and Ted Olsen, “Tsunami Weblog: The World Seeks Meaning,” Christianity Today, 5 January 2005.

• Dean Yates and Tomi Soetjipto, “Rescue choppers cheered in Aceh, children suffer,” Reuters, 3 January 2005.

• Patrick Lannin and Stephen Brown, “Tsunami victims prey to crime from Asia to Europe,” Reuters, 3 January 2005.

• “Traffickers threaten Aceh orphans,” CNN, 5 January 2005.

• “Christians ready to reach closed Muslim countries with Christ's love,” Mission Network News.

• See the “Worldview for Parents” page “Where Did Evil Come From?“

• Daniel Sarewitz and Roger A. Pielke, Jr., “Rising Tide: The Tsunami's Real Cause,” New Republic, 6 January 2005.

• Allen Hertzke, Freeing God's Children (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).

• Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, The Problem of Evil (Tyndale, 1999).

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Copyright © 2005 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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“Hope is the heart's deepest longing,” says David Aikman. The notion of hope, like many words today, requires clarification. The word is often spoken of as if synonymous with wishing. We use the term to denote a vague longing for something that we want but find unlikely to happen. We hope our problems disappear, our bank accounts multiply, and our children turn out perfect.

Yet hope as it is defined in Scripture is more robust than a wish, more fixed and sure than a vague longing. It carries the idea of delayed but guaranteed fulfillment. It is the kind of assurance that something set in motion will, in due time, come to fruition. The farmer sows in hope that the seed, though buried, will produce a sure crop. Similarly, the Scriptures ground the concept of hope in the nature of who God is, what God has done, what He has promised.

In the cultural milieu of the New Testament times, the Gospel dawned with a power and force that challenged the prevailing worldviews and burst in with a vision of life that transformed the world: if the Gospel is anything, it is a message and way of hope. It is therefore imperative that we explore the nature of hope and concentrate on the nurture of hope in our lives.

The apostle Paul and many other New Testament writers describe God as the “God of hope.” The word “hope” itself is used 85 times in the New Testament alone, and throughout the Scriptures it is stressed repeatedly that relationship to and with God is the ultimate ground of hope. In Romans 8 Paul declares, “For in this hope we were saved... And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:24,28). The apostle anchors us in the certainty of hope and in the need to wait. The end will come, and until then we trust in God and lean on the Holy Spirit and his promises.

The effects of modernity and secularization are seen most clearly in our inability to see beyond the present, to think outside of our own circumstances, or to believe God for sustenance or change. This life, this world — the now and the immediate — come to shape and control our focus, our wishes, and our concerns. Paul sets our earthbound lives beside the eternal purpose that should inform all we are and do. Becoming a people of hope means cultivating an eternal perspective, the ability to see God in the midst of trials, to persevere in the face of despair and pressure.

The point is not to undervalue life in this world, but to set it in context. Afflictions must be weighed in the light of eternity. Our hopes and expectations are anchored in a greater and ultimate reality that is both certain and transforming. Afflictions do not become less real, nor are they unimportant or less painful, but they are limited in their reach and possibilities by the knowledge that they, too, shall pass.

The three prongs of Christian life are faith, hope, and love. Sadly, we often tend to emphasize faith and love whilst ignoring or neglecting hope. Yet hope is essential and unyielding. As the writer of Hebrews proclaimed, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf” (6:19). Christian hope is infectious; it is real, and it can be a valuable signal to a world full of shallow hopes or no hope. Therefore, be strong and take heart all you who hope in the LORD.

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Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

The venerable R.G. Lee preached “The Roses Will Bloom Again” from the pulpit of First Baptist Church in New Orleans, during the early 1920s.

Today, as the city of New Orleans rebuilds in the devastating wake of Hurricane Katrina, these prophetic words, uttered over three-quarters of a century ago, continue to offer hope.

Lee, born in a log cabin on Nov. 11, 1886, became one of the most renowned preachers in the modern Christian world. He served in a number of pastorates, including Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., but he had strong ties to the Crescent City. As pastor of FBC New Orleans, he witnessed over 1,000 new members come to his church, mostly by baptism. He also strongly supported the Baptist Bible Institute, which later became the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

In 1948, messengers elected Lee to the first of three consecutive terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and by the end of his life, millions of people revered him as one of the greatest Baptist preachers since Charles Spurgeon.

R.G. Lee was not immune to violent and uncertain times. During his lifetime, the United States saw five gruesome wars. Against this backdrop of darkness, Lee championed the light of God. During his ministry in New Orleans, he preached “The Roses Will Bloom Again,” a sermon that still offers encouragement in the face of the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina tore through the city of New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. When the storm subsided, broken levees resulted in flooding most of New Orleans. In the end, the catastrophe was enormous: Lives were lost and families displaced; property damages tallied in multiple billions. It looked like the roses would never bloom again.

Lee’s former church was among the first congregations to provide relief efforts after Katrina struck.

Working in cooperation with the Salvation Army and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, church members brought hot meals into the flood zone, gutted flooded homes and cut trees away from damaged buildings. Prayers, volunteers, and financial gifts are welcome as First Baptist Church continues to be the hands of Christ for the city of New Orleans.

“It excites me greatly that God’s people have been so engaged since the storm occurred,” said David Crosby, current pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans.

Crosby and his church started the Baptist Crossroads project, the first building blitz in the New Orleans flood zone. Partnering with Habitat for Humanity, FBC New Orleans has raised more than $3 million and recruited more than 3,000 volunteers to build 40 new homes in the Upper Ninth Ward of the city, an area heavily affected by the storm.

“Our evangelism in the past has been mighty in words,” Crosby said, “but this is a chance to be mighty in deeds. There are great doors of opportunity here for the Gospel, and we need to live the Gospel and do the Gospel.”

“I am excited to see God’s people everywhere responding to the call,” Crosby said, “and I am certainly hoping that they will not forget New Orleans.”

R.G. Lee once said, “The disciples thought the roses would never bloom again when they knew that Jesus was in the grave. But the roses did bloom! And after the stress, after the stress and storm, the roses bloomed. After the storm, the sun shone. And after the night, the dawn. And after the trial, the glory ... the roses bloom again!”

“Our only real hope is in Christ,” Crosby said. “All our building efforts are futile unless we build in Him. I want this city to be rebuilt by God’s people so that He will receive the glory for what happens here, and so that there will be a new spiritual foundation undergirding the new city of New Orleans.”

R.G. Lee died in 1978, but his words still remind us that hope hangs on the horizon. Thorns are not without their roses, and pain is not without its purpose. The winter is gone, the spring is here, and the Crescent City will smile once more. Indeed, the roses will bloom again.

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Christian George is a preacher and writer, pursuing an M.Div. at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama.

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In John Bunyan's abiding allegory, PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, hope is personified in two ways. Hopeful is the traveling companion of Christian, the story's protagonist, along the winding journey toward the Celestial City. Hopeful was born in the town of Vanity, and grew up with great expectations of the things of the fair -- honor and title, ownership and ease were his great hopes. But he had suffered bitter disappointment in these pursuits and found only shipwrecks of his own optimism. In this valley of emptiness, Hopeful was able to recognize the full and solid quest of Christian. And thus, Hopeful's drastic conversion of hope begins with joining Christian in pilgrimage.

The other character marked by hope in Bunyan's tale is encountered near the river one must cross on foot in order to enter the Celestial City. Vain-Hope is a ferryman, who offers to ferry travelers across the River of Death so that they don't have to cross on their own. Yet as one man discovers, it is a promise that gets him across the river, but destroys all hope of staying there. In the end, Vain-Hope is a deadly end.

With these two lucid pictures, Bunyan divides hope in two categories: the life-giving and the destructive. Considering all the ways in which we use the word, it seems at first an oversimplification. Hope is a word I have often wished we had several different options from which to choose (much like “love” in Greek, which puts at our disposal four completely different pictures). Regrettably, we use the same word whether we are hoping for light traffic or longing for a cure. We speak of hope with a sense of whimsical curiosity (like Herod who had heard of Jesus and hoped to see him perform a miracle), and with a sense of dread or uncertainty (like those who hope cancer will not strike anyone near them). We propose hope with a sense of joy (like Paul who longed that he should see the Thessalonians again) as well as other motivators (like the teachers of the law who hoped they would catch Jesus in something he said). In this mess of motive and intensity, Bunyan's two pictures offer some clarification. Hope is not a static thing. Like Hopeful and Vain-Hope, our hopes move us toward SOMETHING -- toward God or something else.

Along the way, we will, of course, carry longings both weighted and light-hearted. And we will undoubtedly grieve the death of certain hopes throughout our lifetimes, hopes that failed to move us in the directions we were anticipating. But these are not always dead ends. Sometimes hope must rise from the ashes of lifeless dreams in order to redirect us. But we are always moving, and in this, Paul's admonishment to the Roman church is a helpful compass. We cannot “be joyful in hope” if we are living in fear of the alternative (Romans 12:12). Hopeful would not have been a helpful companion if he despaired at their chances of getting to the Celestial City. Yet neither would Christian and Hopeful have made it to those shores, if the Celestial City were not real. Even when joy is our motivator, it must lead us to hope upon pathways of truth.

I was startled recently by the thought that all hope, whether vain or rightful, will come to an end. Vain-Hope and Hopeful have this in common. One carried a hope that ended in death, the other a hope that ended at the gates of the Celestial City. “I sink in deep waters,” cried Christian in the river, as his sins came to his mind -- sins he committed both since and before he came to be a pilgrim. “But I see the gate,” said Hopeful, “and men standing at it ready to receive us.” Hope took them across the River of Death and then died itself -- in fruition -- at the shore.

It is this sort of hope that Paul bids to take hold of in joy and in certainty as an anchor for the soul. As pilgrims through this world, we are led by someone greater than ourselves, by Christ who has gone before us and Christ who will come again. We labor toward his promises, toward a Holy City where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. There he will stand before us, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and our hope, then materialized, will bow to its rightful end.

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Copyright © 2006 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

One night when I was crossing the Atlantic, an officer of our boat told me that we had just passed over the spot where the Titanic went down. And I thought of all that life and wreckage beyond the power of man to recover and redeem. And I thought of the great bed of the deep sea, with all its held treasure, too far down for man to reach and restore. "Too far down!" And then I thought of all the human wreckage engulfed and sunk in oceanic depths of nameless sin. Too far gone! For what? Too far down! For what? Not too far down for the love of God! Listen to this: He descended into hell, and He will descend again if you are there. "If I make my bed in hell, thou art there" (Psalm 139:8). "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20). "He bore our sin" (see 1 Peter 2:24); then He got beneath it; down to it and beneath it; and there is no human wreckage lying in the ooze of the deepest sea of iniquity that His deep love cannot reach and redeem. What a Gospel! However far down, God's love can get beneath it!

Kumar, a Christian in South India, was grieved because none of the 13 people he had invited came to watch a Billy Graham evangelistic broadcast at his home on December 23rd. He began to pray, and around 9 p.m. he felt God compelling him to invite his wife’s sister’s family to watch the next night’s broadcast. Immediately he set about to contact them.

It wasn’t easy. His sister-in-law’s family had no phone, so Kumar had to call their neighbor and plead with him to go and bring them to the phone for an urgent message. When his brother-in-law, Satish, reached the phone, Kumar asked him and his family to catch a bus to his city as soon as possible. Satish said he had no money. Kumar encouraged him to borrow the money and said that he would reimburse Satish for the tickets.

Satish consented, and at 4 a.m. he and his family boarded a bus for the long trip to Kumar’s house. They arrived at 5 p.m., and an hour later they watched the My Hope telecast from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Afterward, Kumar gave his testimony and asked if the others wanted to put their faith in Christ. They were all looking at one another, and Kumar wondered what they were thinking. Then Satish, noticeably distressed, stood and explained that he had lost his job because the tea factory that he worked for had closed. Further, the company was demanding that the family vacate their company-owned house. Seeing no hope, the family had decided that on December 25 they were all going to commit suicide.

Now they saw that through Jesus there is hope, and they prayed with Kumar to accept Christ. Satish said he felt like a new man, and, after staying several more days with Kumar, the family returned home ready to face the future with Christ.

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This excerpt was taken from Bob Paulson, “My Hope: India,” Decision (March 2006), p. 10-11; © 2006 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; all rights reserved.

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. –Proverbs 16:18

Thomas á Kempis (1380-1471), compiled a book of thoughts about what is really most important in life: living like Christ. This selection is taken from Kempis’ book The Imitation of Christ. –DO

When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and greedy man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace.

An unmortified man [not dead to self] is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak . . . and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence, it makes him sad to forgo them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought.

True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them. There is no peace in the carnal man, in the man given to vain attractions, but there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man. . . .

Vain is the man who puts his trust in men, in created things.

Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus Christ and to seem poor in this world. Do not be self-sufficient but place your trust in God. Do what lies in your power, and God will aid your goodwill. Put no trust in your own learning nor in the cunning of any man, but rather in the grace of God who helps the humble and humbles the proud.

If you have wealth, do not glory in it, nor in friends because they are powerful, but in God who gives all things and who desires above all to give Himself. Do not boast of personal stature or of physical beauty, qualities which are marred and destroyed by a little sickness. Do not take pride in your talent or ability, lest you displease God to whom belong all the natural gifts that you have. Do not think yourself better than others, lest perhaps you be accounted worse before God who knows what is in man. Do not take pride in your good deeds, for God’s judgments differ from those of men and what pleases them often displeases Him.

If there is good in you, see more good in others, so that you may remain humble. It does no harm to esteem yourself less than anyone else, but it is very harmful to think yourself better than even one. The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger. –Thomas á Kempis

REFLECTION — Am I always aware of the fact that all good things in my life are there only because of the mercy and grace of God?

Looking out for No. 1 is asking for trouble.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. — 2 Corinthians 5:1.

The knowledge of the Christian embraces not only the things of time and sense, but reaches out into that which lies beyond. Paul was looking onward to the glorious body he would receive at the resurrection of the just when the Lord Jesus returns for His own. May we be looking for and loving His appearing; but should death claim us before He comes, we have a wonderful prospect. — G. M. Landis

“Should we die, then resurrection,

Then the glorious mystery,

Raised to know a long perfection,

In Thy likeness we shall be;

In a moment raised to immortality.”