Tue
Sep
29
Bro. Joe Notes
One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Sat
Apr
11
Is there hope?
Patrick Butler from the Tyler Morning Telegraph asked me to contribute a short (~250 words) answer to the question, “Is there hope?” for this morning’s (4/11/09) paper. Here’s what I wrote:
Yes, there IS hope. It may sound odd, but I find hope because of suffering, not just in spite of it.
The bible does not present an idealized world where everyone who loves and seeks to serve God is perpetually healthy and wealthy and wise. The men and women of faith that I read about in the Bible and have known personally have experienced suffering and sorrow just like I have, and in many cases they have suffered more than I have.
And they often had conflicts with others and their efforts were not always crowned with success.
When I’m hurting, that means that I’m in good company.
The ultimate example, of course, is the Lord Jesus himself. He lived a perfect life and his life was characterized, not by ease and comfort, but by a steady faithfulness in the midst of suffering.
Romans 8:32 asks the question, “If God did not spare his own son, how could he not give us anything we need?” So Christ’s suffering proves the lengths that God will go to on my behalf.
His suffering also means that when I suffer, he understands.
In fact, when I experience hardship and difficulty, it just might mean that I’m doing something right.
“In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” the hope that he gives is not wishful thinking but it is based on reality because he has walked this path ahead of me. The hope that we have is not in our circumstances but in the faithfulness of God in Christ Jesus.