Revival of Hope

I don’t know about where you live, but where I live it seems like a lot of people are feeling pretty hopeless about their futures. Everywhere they look bad things are happening, and they don’t feel like they have any control over their own lives and their own futures.

According to Tara Parker-Pope of the The New York Times (May 2013), "suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have risen sharply in the past decade." Here are the stats behind this trend:

“From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent.
“More Americans now die of suicide (38,364) than car accidents (33,687). That's 3,026 more people who die from suicide each year than in car crashes.
“The most pronounced increases were seen among men in their 50s, a group in which suicides jumped by nearly 50 percent.
“The suicide rate for middle-aged men was three times higher than for middle-aged women.
“Researchers claim that the reasons for suicide are often complex, but this article focused on two factors—the stress of the economic downturn and the widespread availability of prescription painkillers. But it also hinted that deeper issues like failed expectations and a loss of hope might be a root cause for the increase in suicides. Dr. Julie Phillips, a researcher from Rutgers University, says, ‘The boomers had great expectations for what their life would look like, but … it hasn't turned out that way.’ Dr. Phillips warns that future generations will be facing the same conditions that lead to this sense of despair.”[1]

How do you feel about your future? Do you ever feel hopeless? I think most of us do from time to time. What I find though, is that those hopeless feelings catch up with me when I start looking at my life here on earth and forget that Jesus has promised something better.

I often wonder how it would be to live without the hope of Jesus and Heaven. Have you ever thought about that? It’s hard for me to imagine because I don’t remember I time when I didn’t know Jesus – I am grateful for that blessing. There are many of you, though, who have come to know Jesus later and have had to live without that hope.

I read a story about a man named Laureano and his wife, Consuelo. In 1966, they decided they had had enough of Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

They spent several months collecting bits and pieces of scrap metal that they could put together to make themselves a little boat … a very little boat. It was hardly big enough for the both of them – more of a kayak, really. It was powered by a little lawn mower engine.

They left Cuba in September, sitting back to back in their boat, just wearing their swimming suits. They could only fit enough food and water for one or two days.

It turned out that they floated out in the middle of the Straits of Florida for more than 70 hours before the U.S. Coast Guard finally rescued them somewhere in the Florida Keys.

Why would two people take such a risk? They could have starved to death, or drowned, or been eaten by sharks.

When someone asked Laureano that question many years later, this is what he said,

“When one has grown up in liberty, [you] realize it is important to have [freedom]. We lived in the enormous prison which is Cuba, where one's life is not worth one crumb. Where one goes out into the street and does not know whether or not one will return to one's home, because the political police can arrest you without any warning and put you in prison. Before this could happen to us, we thought that going into the ocean, and risking death or being eaten by sharks, is a million times better than to stay suffering under [political oppression].”[2]

Laureano and Consuelo had no hope of a future in Cuba; they had to get to a place where they could have hope.

You and I don’t have any hope of a future on this earth. We are living under the cruel and unreasonable government of Satan. Under his regime, there is no hope for anyone. Our only hope for any kind of future is through Jesus.

Zechariah paints a beautiful picture of our lives in the New Earth in Zechariah 8 (yes the whole chapter – it’s not that long, you can read it.)

Here are some of my favorite parts:

“Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’
“Thus says the Lord of hosts:  ‘Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age.
The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.’” Zechariah 8:3-5

Isn’t that a great picture? Jesus living with us in a new place where there is no sin. That is certainly something that I hope for.

When this world gets too much for us, there’s something we need to remember.
Sometimes it feels like I'm watching from the outside
Sometimes it feels like I'm breathing but am I alive
I won't keep searching for answers that aren't here to find
All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong
So when the walls come falling down on me
And when I'm lost in the current of a raging sea
I have this blessed assurance holding me.
All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong
When the earth shakes I wanna be found in You
When the lights fade I wanna be found in You
All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong.”[3]

My hope is in Jesus. Is yours?

---

[1] Tara Parker-Pope, "Suicide Rates Rise Sharply in U.S.," The New York Times (5-2-13)

[2] Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; source: From a plaque and display in the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia

[3] Jason Roy, Where I Belong, Listen to the Sound, 2011

Picture This --

Samson is sitting in s therapist’s office, right after the whole Delilah episode.  See, the prison where the Philistines have put Samson, provides psychological services for the inmates.  Who’d a thunk it?

Anyway, Samson’s sitting there, blind, chained, and humiliated.  His head is in his hands.  “How did I end up here?”  he asks. “I was the strongest, most powerful man in the country.”

The therapist starts his (or her) search, “Well, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?  Tell me the first thing you remember.”

SAMSON: “The first thing?  Hmmm.  That would have to be my mom and dad teaching me the conditions of being a Nazirite; how God had chosen me for a very special purpose.  They told me the same things everyday.”

THERAPIST: “Nazirite?  I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of that before.  Can you tell me more about that?”

SAMSON: “Sorry, I forget that most folks haven’t heard about nazirites.  Anyway, every morning and evening, my parents sat down with me and told me about the day an angel of the Lord came and spoke to my mother.  The angel told her that I was supposed to be a nazirite for my whole life.  That is a person who is set apart for a special job.  My job was to work toward delivering the Jews from the Philistines.”

THERAPIST: “That sounds like a huge responsibility.  What are the conditions of being a nazirite you mentioned?”

SAMSON: “Oh, well, I can’t touch a dead body of any kind; I’m not to drink any wine or strong drink or even have any contact with grapes in it; and I was never supposed to cut my hair.”

THERAPIST: “Oh, well, that last one seems to have been compromised, how did you do on the other two?”

SAMSON: “Funny you should ask.  I guess I spent a bunch of time trying to show God that I was in control of me and that He wasn’t.”

THERAPIST: “You were asserting your independence.  That’s a healthy response to a restrictive home situation.  Experts tell us that…”

SAMSON: “Hey! Whoa, wait a minute.  I didn’t say my home situation was ‘restrictive’.  Those experts don’t know what they’re talking about.”

THERAPIST: “Well, you implied that your parents implemented overly strict rules and expected unwavering adherence to those rules.  That certainly doesn’t sound like a home where you were loved unconditionally.  It appears to me that your parents expected way to much from such a young person and withheld their love when you didn’t attain their expectations for you.”

SAMSON: “Trust me, you don’t understand anything about my parents or me.  I’m the one who messed up here, not them.  And they’ve always loved me, no matter what stupid thing I got myself into.  So, don’t even go there, okay?

“I just thought I could have things both ways.  I kind of wanted to be God’s instrument to free the Jews, but only as long as it didn’t interfere with me having fun, ya know?

“That’s really the whole thing.  I liked the attention I got for being really strong and having long hair.  I liked the attention the girls gave me.  I liked messing with the philistines and tormenting them.  But it looked like being ‘God’s instrument’ was going to be pretty dull.  So, I went to the next town to parties and stuff and had fun.

“When I think about it now, I hate how much I must have made my mom and dad worry.  I was really awful to them.  It breaks my heart.  I wish I could change that.”

THERAPIST:  “So, what will you do now?”

SAMSON:  “Talk to God.  Do the work the best I can, and wait for God to show me what He wants me to do.”

THERAPIST: “God?!  But He’s the reason you’re here, isn’t He?  He let the Philistines capture you and blind you.  Don’t you think it’s time for you to get your own revenge?”

SAMSON:  “Have you been listening to me at all?  God didn’t leave me; I left Him.  I don’t have time to think about revenge.  I just need to find my way back to God.

I think we’re done here.”

Have you ever experienced anything like Samson?  Well, you know, not the tearing apart the lion and killing the Philistines and all, but waking up one morning and realizing that you’re a million miles away from where you thought you were going?   About all you can do is shake your head and wonder how you got there…and how you can get back to where you started going the wrong direction.  It feels like a hopeless situation doesn’t it?  But it’s not.  Samson’s story shows us that it’s never hopeless to try to find God again.  A song that used to be on the Christian radio station (if I could remember anything about it but this one line, I could find it and print all the words for you, but anyway) that said that no matter how far we’ve run away from God, it’s only one step back.  Wow!

Isn’t that amazing?  God doesn’t make us crawl hundreds of miles back to Him or swim great oceans, or fly over canyons; we just have to change our direction…and He’s right there.  What a comfort.

The truth is that He never once abandoned us; we thought we were abandoning Him.  In The Ministry of Healing we read this: 

“Even when we are in a relationship that is ungodly, God does not abandon us.  Instead, he provides a way of escape from the situation.“Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord.  Your spirit will be braced for endurance.  The way will be open for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty.  The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength.  The heavier your burdents, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon you Burden Bearer.”

God not only CAN rescue us; He WANTS to rescue us.  And as soon as we are rescued, we are “set apart” for a special purpose.  And, according to an author named David H. Roper, we, like Samson, have three conditions for our “set apart-ness”.  #1–Don’t look back…that part of our lives is dead.  We don’t want to have anything to do with our old lives.  #2–Don’t try to find joy or our sense of well-being anywhere except the spirit of God; not in wine or any other earthly source.  #3–Admit that we are weak beings who cannot do anything except with God’s help. (The nazirites long hair was supposed to by a symbol of weakness.)

Remember this: 

“…for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”  

And the point is, like with Samson, David, Solomon, Mary Magdalene or you and me, that how many times we fall isn’t nearly as important as how many times we get back up and get back on track with Jesus.  How else could we find Samson’s name in the faith chapter: 

“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”  Hebrews 11:32

“Faith is trusting God--believing that He loves us and knows best what is for our good. Thus,…, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, have been pointed out as secrets of life's success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these principles.

“Every good impulse or aspiration is the gift of God; faith receives from God the life that alone can produce true growth and efficiency.“… To every promise of God there are conditions. If we are willing to do His will, all His strength is ours. … As surely as the oak is in the acorn, so surely is the gift of God in His promise. If we receive the promise, we have the gift.     Faith that enables us to receive God's gifts is itself a gift, of which some measure is imparted to every human being. It grows as exercised in appropriating the Word of God. In order to strengthen faith, we must often bring it in contact with the Word.” {Ye Shall Receive Power, p.196}

In The Moment…

“Just live in the moment.”  Have you ever heard anybody say that?  Do you think that’s really possible?  Now, I listen to The Dog Whisperer (because my dog needs him), and he says that dogs “live in the moment.”  I believe that because dogs have no self-awareness.  They know who feeds them, that it’s time to take a nap, and that something needs to be barked at.  That’s about it.  But dogs don’t plan what to make for dinner, what to wear to church tomorrow, or where they want to go on Saturday night.  But people do…I don’t think we can help it!  Can you think of anybody, no matter what he (or she) says, that truly lives “in the moment”?

The problem is, we, as humans, have to make plans!  In fact, what happens to people who don’t make plans?  They have a really hard time, don’t they?   It’s kind of a depressing way to live when you think about it.  If you live “in the moment”, you’re kind of denying that the future exists.  As Christians, we absolutely can’t live like that because the future is what gets us through the moments.  The future is our hope; it’s what we live for – our future with Jesus.

The thing is, if somebody can convince himself that all that’s important is right here and now, then he can ignore any consequences for what he chooses to do at any particular moment.  Things that happen become luck or coincidence rather than the leading or chastening of God.  I do know several people who think like that.  But if we have no choice about what happens in our lives, then we are helpless victims living in a hopeless world.  If we are at the mercy of circumstance, then what’s the point?  We might as well be animals because they don’t have any control over their lives either.

That’s the natural progression of a society that has taken the God of Creation out of life.  I don’t believe that Solomon went so far as to deny that God exists…he just lost sight of Him for a while.  The effect was the same though.  Solomon came to the conclusion that there wasn’t much point in anything because we are all going to wind up dead, so why bother.

Well, for one thing, God told us in Genesis that we aren’t like the animals, that we are like Him and better than the animals. 

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”  Genesis 1:26-30 KJV

How wonderful!  We don’t need to look for meaning in each moment, because God, by creating us in His image, worked meaning into our DNA.  We don’t have to search for meaning, find excitement or build a legacy because God has given it to us.  Our legacy has almost nothing to do with right now and everything to do with eternity.  Look at these quotes from Ellen White:

Next to the angelic beings, the human family, formed in the image of God, are the noblest of His created works.--RH Dec. 3, 1908. {TA 48.2} The Lord . . . had endowed Adam with powers of mind superior to any living creature that He had made. His mental powers were but little lower than those of the angels.--RH Feb. 24, 1874. {TA 48.3} God created man for His own glory, that after test and trial the human family might become one with the heavenly family. It was God's purpose to repopulate heaven with the human family.--1BC 1082. {TA 48.7} The vacancies made in heaven by the fall of Satan and his angels will be filled by the redeemed of the Lord.--RH May 29, 1900. {TA 49.1}

So, let’s not live “in the moment”, let’s live for eternity!!!