Hope is the precondition of effective action. The farmer exemplifies it when he sows his seed, especially if he is hungry and weeps to see the seed corn thrown onto the ground when he would much rather eat it. Without hope based on past experience he would sow nothing.
The New Testament hope was focused on a day of fulfillment beyond the range of world history, but the fact that their hope looked beyond death did not make New Testament Christians indifferent to the present and the future of the world we know. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was, for them, evidence that the end of Israel's long road was in sight, but the Spirit of God reached back to them from the risen Christ to sustain them in the continuing pilgrimage. Hebrews 6:19 speaks of hope as an anchor that is fastened securely in the invisible world.
Indeed, the purpose that constitutes the ground of all human hope is one which transcends even humanity. Nature itself is caught up in the great forward movement. This does not lead to a belief in the inevitability of human improvement. It does mean that even human failure and suffering cannot frustrate the purpose with which we are invited to identify ourselves through faith, hope, and love - Saint Paul's list of the three things which endure/last.
The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible does not say that what you fear will not happen. It does say that, even if the worst happens, there is beyond that a good that will be wrung from it and in which you will find the true fulfillment of your hope. Oddly, this does not made peoples resigned to the threatening evil. On the contrary, it gives them more heart to fight against it. Hope is a better spur than desperation.
Our generation, threatened by vast and destructive forces, is often said to be particularly in need of hope. But hope cannot be had just because it would be a useful contribution to mental stability. Nor can it be had on its own. Faith and love are inseparable from it, and they must be used to dig deeper into events and experience in order to find the underlying purposes with which hope can be aligned. Hope is not optimism. It is realism - but realism on a scale large enough to encompass the possibility of tragedy.
So far then we have seen that, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God's glory. But that is not all we can boast about; we can boast about our sufferings. These sufferings bring patience, as we know, and patience brings perseverance, and perseverance brings hope, and this hope is not deceptive because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. - Rom. 5:1-5 -
But as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet - it is something we must wait for with patience. - Rom. 8:25 -
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away because it is being kept for you in the heavens. - 1Peter 1:3-4 -
Free your minds, then, of encumbrances; control them, and put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. - 1Peter 1:13 -
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Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
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Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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