HOPE: It’s a good word, a great promise, and a difference maker

The play Thunder Rock flopped in New York City, but in London, England, in the fall of 1940 it became a sensation. In the story, a lighthouse-keeper on Lake Michigan reflects on the passengers whose ship went down near there in 1848. Throughout endless days and lonely nights, he re-creates these forlorn passengers who had fled Europe as immigrants and now in this wreck had lost what little they owned. They were discouraged, the world was against them, their hope was used up.

The lighthouse-keeper imagines he is personally addressing the passengers. He urges them to hold on. There is plenty of reason for hope, he assures them, because at that very moment in Illinois there is a young man named Abraham Lincoln. Madame Curie has been born. Florence Nightingale is alive. Pasteur is in Paris. Lift up your spirits, he calls to them. There is good news just ahead.

In his 1941 book on war-time London, I Saw England, CBS newsman Ben Robertson tells that story. He adds, “The citizens of London went to that show, night after night, and wept. It was a play for a city that had prepared itself to die.”

When we are facing death every day, hope is more than an emotion. It’s a difference-maker.

When Scripture speaks of hope, it means an expectation and a desire. We want it, we have reason to expect it.

The Old Testament prophets had an interesting assignment. They were sometimes called on to preach doom and disaster until the events actually occurred. From then on, they were reassigned to give hope to the people, to assure them that the future held brighter prospects, that they should not despair, but should fix their hopes on the Lord and serve Him. Human nature being what it is, I suspect some of those preachers were better at the negative than the positive. Likewise, I imagine the people in the depth of despair found it difficult to lift up their heads and their spirits and start believing again.

Hope is not a term most of us grapple with on a daily basis. If you are living comfortably, able to afford whatever you need, your bills are paid, and the family is doing well, you do not sit around dreaming of a day when things will be better. If you’re not careful, you will give no thought to tomorrow at all. When the preacher (this one!) says to you that bad times are coming and we shall all stand before the Maker at Judgment and give account, you turn him off as a nay-sayer. So, let me put it this way.

We are all going to die someday. Sorry, but it’s true. Statistics show that one out of one person dies.

Not a single person born in the 1800s remains alive on the entire planet. They were born, they lived and did the things living people do, and then what? They died.

Writer William Saroyan once said, “I always knew everybody has got to die, but I just always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?” He died in 1981 at the age of 73.

No exceptions, friend.

What will you do then? Do you have hope that you will be in good hands? Do you look forward to life beyond this life?

Next question: if you do have hope, what are you basing it on?

I know people who are basing their eternity on the teachings of a religious charlatan who claims to have had a vision and the testimony of a convicted con man who says he read a message from Heaven in some golden plates which no one has seen since. Their prophet is dead, his word is worthless, and the plates are non-existent. Theirs is a dead hope and we pray they wake up.

As I type this, we are coming up on Easter Sunday. Easter celebrates the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ when He rose from the dead, never to die again.

If it’s true, someone has said, it’s the ultimate difference-maker.

As it is.

And let me interrupt myself here long enough to say there is a world of evidence that it is true, that Jesus Christ really did come back from the dead. If you are not familiar with that evidence, please check it out.  Start with any book Lee Strobel has written. You’ll probably want to read them all, but just choose one and get started.

Here are a few choice scriptures on the subject–

–We have been born again to a LIVING HOPE by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (I Peter 1:3). Since Jesus Christ is alive, we have a living hope.

–In hope WE HAVE BEEN SAVED. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one also hope for what he sees?(Romans 8:24)

–This hope we have as AN ANCHOR FOR OUR SOULS (Hebrews 6:19). The Apostle Paul wrote to some early believers that he had heard of their “faith in Christ Jesus, and their love for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for them in Heaven.” (Colossians 1:4-5)

Joe McKeever has been preaching the Gospel since 1961. He pastored for 42 years in various Southern Baptist Churches. He has also served as director of missions for the SBC churches of metro New Orleans. Joe has a BA from Birmingham-Southern College, and a masters & doctorate from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. For over 20 years, Joe has drawn a daily cartoon for the Baptist Press (www.bpnews.net/comics).  He writes columns for a variety of publications. He and his wife, Bertha, have published numerous books including, “Help! I’m a Deacon” (2015) and “Sixty and Better: Making the Most of Our Golden Years” (2017). As a blended family, Joe and Bertha share fourteen grandchildren. They live in Ridgeland, MS and enjoy telling friends they are “living happily ever after.” Joe’s life verse is Job 4:4, “Your words have stood men on their feet.” To discover more about Joe, visit his website. 

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