TheSower Volume 16 Issue 3 | 3rd Quarter 2014
The quarterly magazine of Spirit & Truth Fellowship International速
Living Hope
Opening Letter
3rd Quarter 2014
Living Hope “In a world of limited love, we need something that brings us joy and puts excitement in our lives, and that something is hope” In 1965 Hal Davis wrote the song lyrics, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love,” and the song caught the popular imagination and has since been recorded or performed live by over 100 artists. While it’s nice to know that the world needs love, the truth is that this world will never be a loving place. There is just too much sin and evil. In fact, Jesus told us that the days were coming when the world would become a harsher place to live and “because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of the many will grow cold” (Matt. 24:12). In a world of limited love, we need something that brings us joy and puts excitement in our lives, and that something is hope – most specifically, our Hope that God tells about in His Word. There are seven billion people in the world today, and the social, political, and economic forces at work are so huge and so complex that it is easy to feel helpless and hopeless, alone and powerless. Even if we do not set our sights on “fixing the world,” a good number of people are overwhelmed by just their own personal lives, and feel their lives are out of control. We know that depression is rampant in the United States, and the sale of anti-depressants and sleep medications is booming, but worse, lots of people who are not technically
depressed are simply so overwhelmed by life that they are just sad—their life is a burden, not a joy. There are usually lots of little things we can do to make life less overwhelming. Simplifying what we own, getting out of debt, setting healthy boundaries in relationships, and other such things can help make life more of a blessing. But what we all really need is hope, a solid assurance that the future will be better. Each one of us could make it through our toughest day if we knew for sure that tomorrow would be totally different, totally better. Well, we may have to muddle through more than a day here on earth, but we do in fact have the promise from God that the future will be different and wonderful. God knows that we need hope to be joyful and excited in life, so a lot of verses speak of the future Hope that God has in store for believers. In this issue of the Sower we focus on the Hope of what God promises in the future, and how to make it real in our lives. We may not be able to dramatically change the world, but knowing the details and surety of our Hope can dramatically change our perspective of life and be a source of joy and excitement.
John W. Schoenheit
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Credits Publisher Spirit & Truth Fellowship International
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Contents
17 REV Hardback
Volume 16 - Issue 3 - Jul/Aug/Sep 2014
26 Dear Sower
18 Audio Podcast 27 REV Commentary
Executive Editors John W. Schoenheit Dan Gallagher Editors Janet Speakes Renee Dugan Magazine Designers Ryan Maher Travis Williams Staff Writers John W. Schoenheit Dan Gallagher Production Coordinator Dustin Williams
Research Websites TruthOrTradition.com Over one thousand articles pertaining to many biblical issues. BiblicalUnitarian.com Explore an entire website dedicated to the truth of One God & One Lord.
Home Office
Our Wonderful Hope
Making the Hope Real
by John Schoenheit
by Dan Gallagher
Page 4
Page 12
Keeping Hope Alive– Overcoming Hopelessness
Learning to use my “GPS”
Keeping the more enjoyable aspects of the Hope in mind gives us joy, peace, patience and the perseverance we need in life.
hope in the heart of a person gives him or her the strength to overcome obstacles and endure the hardships of life.
180 Robert Curry Drive Martinsville, IN 46151 888.255.6189 or 765.349.2330 M-F 9 to 5 (ET) Fax: 765.342.8430 STF@STFonline.org STFonline.org You may view the electronic version of this magazine at STFonline.org/sower View back issues at STFonline.org/sower All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. References taken from other translations or versions will be noted, e.g., King James Version=(KJV). In verses or quotations from other authors, the author has emphasized words by placing them in bold print. Words inside [brackets] have been added by the author. Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version™. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.
by Dan Gallagher Page 20
True and lasting hope is based upon us developing an eternal perspective. This is the type of thinking that reminds us that God loves us no matter what.
by Kelli Young Page 24
God is our “GPS”, our very own “Godly Positioning System.” Just like the GPS in a car tells us where to go, so too God will help and direct us.
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Isaiah 65:17 (NIV84) See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
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Our onderful Hope
By John Schoenheit
W
hen the staff of Spirit & Truth Fellowship decided to dedicate an issue of The Sower to living in light of the Hope, I was excited to write about it because I think of the Hope every single day—often many times a day—and by the Hope I mean living forever in a wonderful place and getting a brand new body.1 Especially as I get older and my body becomes less energetic and able, the memory I have of being young and having a stronger, quicker body with no aches or problems feeds my excitement for a future time when Jesus “will transform our lowly body so it will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21 REV). The total picture of living in light of the Hope is a complex blend of being motivated to do the right things on the basis of one’s love for God, the desire to please Him, genuine concern about the consequences of ungodly behavior, and the desire to be richly rewarded in the kingdom. There is
value in writing about all of those aspects that make up an obedient lifestyle, but in this article I want to focus on why I am excited about some wonderful aspects of the Hope, why every Christian should be excited about them, and why people who are not Christians should want to accept the free gift of salvation and get everlasting life.2 To Christians, the Hope means living in a wonderful place, the newly regenerated earth; having a wonderful body like Jesus’ body; and enjoying great fellowship with other believers without evil. It is living in a place that has no hunger, no war, and no injustice. Thinking about the future gives me joy and peace, and I love thinking about it and speculating about things we do not yet know.
The Joy of the Hope It is a regular part of my life (and yours too, I bet) to do things that I do not want to do. Almost every day the plans I have made are interrupted by unexpected troubles or problems. These can be as simple as the coffee maker staging a rebellion in the morning
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Our Wonderful Hope
“To Christians, the Hope means living in a wonderful place, the newly regenerated earth.”
and refusing to make coffee, or as challenging as a friend or family member getting sick or hurt and requiring immediate assistance. Furthermore, even if nothing unexpected goes wrong in my life, every day I am tempted with being angry or upset at what other people are doing and the general evil, ungodliness, and pain that exists on earth. At those times I feel like the prophet Habakkuk: Habakkuk 1:2-4 (NIV84) (2) How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? (3) Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. (4) Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. It seems hard to believe that those words were penned some 2,600 years ago, because they read like I feel after reading the morning newspaper. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, the world has been an evil place, and so it can be easy for us to lose our joy and become discouraged, and then be pulled into sin as we take on the unthankful and ungodly attitude of the world around us. In those times what we need is strength to persevere and to remain blessed and thankful and excited about life, and that is what thinking about the joyful aspects of the Hope can do. The joyful aspects of the Hope allow us to be more like Paul, who, while a prisoner in Rome and chained to a Roman soldier,
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wrote: Philippians 4:11-13 (REV) (11) …I have learned in whatever circumstances I am in, to be content. (12) I know how to be abased, and I also know how to abound. In any and every situation I have learned the secret to being content, whether filled or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. (13) I have strength for all situations in union with him who empowers me. Paul was able to stay so positive in his negative circumstances, uncertain about his earthly future, because he was very certain about his everlasting future. He was strengthened daily by being in union with Christ, but not because Christ made his daily life easy, but because being in union with Christ gave him confidence for life now and in the future. Paul knew that he had a bright future (2 Tim. 4:8), and that gave him joy and strength. Being confident in a bright future was what gave Jesus the strength to go through the rejection, torture, and terrible death he faced. Hebrews 12:2 (REV) says that Jesus, “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, thinking nothing of the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus had great joy about the future, and we should too.
A wonderful future There is a common saying in Christianity that, “The future is as bright as the promises of God.” That is really true, and we can be assured that we have a
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Our Wonderful Hope
bright future because God promises in His Word that both the earth and the heavens (which includes the atmosphere) will be renewed. Isaiah 65:17 (NIV84) See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. Jesus taught about the new heavens and earth too, referring to them as the “New Beginning,” and said that then he would reign as king and the Apostles would rule as well. We know from other Scriptures, such as 2 Timothy 2:12 that at the New Beginning faithful believers will reign with him too. Matthew 19:28 (REV) And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the New Beginning,3 when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
Our new body There are many reasons to be excited about our future life on a restored earth, and one of them is that we will have new, energetic bodies. Philippians 3:20 and 21 (REV) (20) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (21) who will transform our lowly body so it will be
like his glorious body, by the exertion of the power that he has, even to subject all things to himself. The accounts in the Bible about Jesus after his resurrection are very impressive; the new body he received after his resurrection is energetic and powerful, and it is truly a wonderful promise that we will have bodies like his. It is interesting that there was no way that God could accurately communicate what people’s new bodies would be like until after Jesus’ resurrection, so there is no promise in the Old Testament or Gospels that we would get bodies like Jesus’ glorious body. Now that we know something about it, it is wonderful to have God’s promise that our bodies will be like his (1 John 3:2).
Justice for all We can also be excited about the Hope because there will be justice on earth. One of the things that makes life difficult is the huge amount of dishonesty and hurtful behavior that goes on all around us. God promises that the future earth where Jesus reigns as king will really have “justice for all,” and it won’t be just a phrase in a pledge, it will really happen. Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his [The Messiah’s] government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
Jeremiah 31:13 (NIV84) I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
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Our Wonderful Hope
from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
No war Another wonderful thing about Christ’s future kingdom on earth is that there will be no war. Wars have been a terrible burden on mankind, and even the winning sides are losers. Both sides have families devastated by the loss of those who die, and money spent on armies and weapons could otherwise be used to help people. Micah 4:3 and 4 (NIV84) (3) He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (4) Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.4
We will be healthy In the future, resurrected believers and Christians will enjoy perfect health. There are many verses that speak of the blessings of health in the future kingdom: Isaiah 33:24 (NIV84) No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill.” Isaiah 35:5, 6 (NIV84) (5) Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. (6) Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the
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mute tongue shout for joy. Life can be so much fun when we are strong and healthy, and can be so horrible when we are weak and sick, that it is no wonder that God wants us to know that in the future we will not have to deal with sickness, and He tells us that over and over.5
A safe place to live Christ’s future kingdom will be a safe place to live. There are so many things that make mankind unsafe now that it would be hard to catalogue them all. Paul wrote about some of the dangers he encountered on his travels: danger from river crossings, robbers, ocean travel, dangers specific to cities, and dangers specific to the countryside (2 Cor. 11:26). There is also the fallen nature of the world and the dangerous and poisonous plants and animals that exist on earth. It is wonderful to know that the future world will be a safe place to live. Even the nature of animals will change.6 Isaiah 11:6-9 (NIV84) (6) The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. (7) The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. (8) The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. (9) They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Our Wonderful Hope
Food for everyone
Endnotes:
Another important promise about the Hope is that there will be no hunger. In fact, the promises indicate that there will be a super abundance of food. We understand this, because occasionally there is a “good year” and people’s gardens produce loads of vegetables. In the future kingdom, every year will be a good year. The rain will come when it needs to, the soil will be fertile, and there will be no plant disease or blights, so the land will produce lots and lots of food. Hunger, starvation, and the threat of starvation have been such a terrible thing for mankind to endure through the generations that we can understand why God comforts us with many promises about the land being healed and producing plenty of food.7
1. This article describes the Christian’s Hope, which is living in Christ’s kingdom on earth. To many people this is new information. However, the consistent message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is that saved people will enjoy everlasting life on earth. Even the New Jerusalem comes from heaven and lands on earth (Revelation 21 and 22). The Early Church expected Jesus to come back soon. When he delayed coming, Church Fathers such as Origin and Augustine began interpreting the Bible allegorically, not literally, and the verses about everlasting life on a restored earth were explained in a way that represented people spending eternity in heaven. But there is no concrete reason to interpret the clear and straightforward verses in the Bible in an allegorical manner. The verses about the future earth are clear and powerful. They tell us some great specifics about what our future life will be like. When those verses are taken allegorically to mean “life in “heaven,” our future becomes vague and full of questions such as “what will life there be like?” God wanted us to have a clear Hope, and gave us one in the Bible, as this article will show. People who are saved can look forward to a wonderful future life on a restored earth, a Paradise, like the Garden of Eden. One good resource for more information on the future earth is the book, The Christian’s Hope: The Anchor of the Soul, by John Schoenheit. Available from Spirit & Truth Fellowship. 2. The gift of life we have from God is temporary, and will end when we die. However, God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son as a sacrifice for our sin, so that if we choose to accept him, we can have everlasting life rather than everlasting death. (John 3:16). Getting saved is easy and free: Confess that Jesus is Lord and believe God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). If you are not yet saved, why not make Jesus your Lord right now? 3. The start of Christ’s Millennial Kingdom on earth is called the “restoration of all things” in Acts 3:21, and the “creation of a new heaven and earth” in Isaiah 65:17. 4. Other verses that say there will not be war include: Isaiah 2:4; 9:4–7; 60:18; Hosea. 2:18; and Zechariah 9:9, 10. 5. Other verses that refer to people being healthy include: Isaiah 29:18; 32:3,4; 33:24; 35:5,6; 57:19; Jeremiah 33:6; and Malachi 4:2. 6. Other verses about the future earth being safe include: Isaiah 32:18; 54:14–17; 60:11,17,18; 65:17–25; Jeremiah 23:4; 30:10; 33:6; Ezekiel 28:26; 34:25–31; Micah 5:4,5; Zephaniah 3:13–17. 7. Some of the verses that speak of the land being healed and producing lots of food include: Isaiah 25:6; 30:23–26; 32:15; 35:1-7; 41:18–20; 44:3; 51:3; Jeremiah 31:5,11–14; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Hosea 2:21,22; Joel 2:18-26; Amos 9:13.
Isaiah 25:6 (NIV84) On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.
We will know God Certainly one of the great promises of the future is that people will know God. Today there are so many questions, so many arguments, and many different ideas as to what God is like and how to please Him. What a wonderful time it will be when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14 (NIV84)). We will all know God and will be unified in our Faith.
A time of great joy With all the blessings God promises for the future, no wonder He describes it as a time when “sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 35:10), and it will be a time of great joy. Jeremiah 31:13 (NIV84) I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
Daily life in light of the Hope The Bible refers to the Hope as the “anchor of the soul” (Heb. 6:19), and as we have seen there is good reason for that. Keeping the more enjoyable aspects of the Hope in mind gives us joy, peace, patience and the perseverance we need in life. We may go through difficult times on earth, but we have the comfort of knowing that there is a wonderful future guaranteed to us. We can be like the Apostle Paul when he was a prisoner in Rome, and find comfort and joy in life by knowing that the future is bright—bright because of the promises of God.
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Making the Hope Real by Dan Gallagher
“Hope in the heart of a person is like a well-stoked fire in the boiler of a steam train. “
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Making the hope real
R
ecently my local newspaper reported an amazing story of survival about a Colorado woman who drove off a steep mountain road. After losing control on a curve, her car flew off a 120-foot cliff, crashed through the treetops, and finally came to rest down the hillside upside down in an area where no one could see her. Kristen Hopkins, with legs crushed and in horrific pain, endured in the mangled mass of metal for six days by clinging to the hope of seeing her family once again. Clearly she is one tough woman, but what really impacted me from her story was the power and strength that are generated by her hope, a hope that is real. Hope is what gave Kristin Hopkins the strength and endurance to hang on day after day, and hope is what everyone needs in order to approach life with zeal. As Christians we have the best hope there ever could be, life everlasting with our Lord and with our Father. A hope that is real, one that lives in our mind and heart, gives us the energy that is necessary to live successfully for Christ. Hope in the heart of a person is like a wellstoked fire in the boiler of a steam train.
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The heat of the fire in the belly of the train is what provides the energy to propel the train forward. In a similar way, hope in the heart of a person gives him or her the strength to overcome obstacles and endure the hardships of life. And much like a train that is dead on the tracks when the engine is cold, so too a person without hope is going nowhere. Certainly we Christians have the greatest ultimate outcome anyone could ever hope for, life everlasting with our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus, but oftentimes I seem to get derailed from this reality. It is great to think of our eventual life in an environment free from sin and suffering, but when I am standing on the side of the road next to my car with a flat tire in the pouring rain, thoughts of having a great life in the future aren’t really helping me NOW! The truth is that my “hope” should help give me the strength and proper attitude to make it through every circumstance. I must get so connected to the hope in my heart that it is as if I can smell it, taste it, even reach out and touch it because it is so alive for me. I do this by visualizing what it will be like and rehearsing in my mind the things God has in store for me. Then, when I am confronted by the difficulties and distractions of life, I can grab my mind and remind myself, this is really only a temporary situation and the reality is who I am in Christ.
Hope is vital for life
A number of years ago I read about the terrible mental and physical effects of life without hope in a Soviet gulag prison. Prisoners were sent to remote prisons in Siberia where they lost all contact with their loved ones, had no hope of escape, or of their life ever being anything more than brutally harsh conditions. It was a hopeless situation. On top of that, the incarcerated spent days digging deep holes in the frozen permafrost, which when completed, they had to turn around and fill in. In a very short period of time the prisoners became completely compliant to the guards, their spirits totally broken as they languished in utter hopelessness. Without hope they lost all meaning and purpose for life, many going insane and some even dying. The Russian prisoners lost all hope. In the greatest sense, freedom and seeing their loved ones again was a “hope deferred,” and that will always make a person physically and emotionally sick. Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Living with hope really means that we hold the great expectation that our lives mean something because there will be a wonderful outcome, an everlasting outcome that even death cannot derail. In a recent blog posting John Eldridge reminded his readers that when we abandon desire, we have lost hope. As he says,
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Making the hope real
“C.S. Lewis summed it up: ‘We can only hope for what we desire.’ No desire, no hope. Now, desire doesn’t always translate into hope. There are many things I desire that I have little hope for. I desire to have lots more money than I do, but I see little reason to think it will come. But there isn’t one thing I hope for that I don’t also desire. This is Lewis’s point.” One of the major problems we Christians face is that Satan has remodeled this world in such a way that it sucks hope out of the hearts of people. This oftentimes happens because our desires become misplaced or the picture of the future we are told to hope for is very unappealing and undesirable.
God knows man needs hope
God did not create man with the intention that mankind would have to live in a broken and corrupt world. Although to us this world still seems to be full of his majesty, beauty, and love, the reality is that Satan has used this place as his personal litter box. We have nothing else to compare it to, especially the Garden of Delights that God originally placed Adam and Eve in, so of course we don’t realize just how wretched our world is. God knew how important it was for mankind to have
a hope to cling to so one of the very first things He did for Adam and Eve was to promise that one day things would return to His plan for mankind. He promised them the coming of a future Redeemer (Gen. 3:15). Experiencing the great transformation of the earth that their disobedience caused, they must have taken great comfort in the hope God gave them. It can accurately be said that the Bible is a message of hope. Hope is the reason God gave Israel the Feasts, seven special times in the Spring and Fall of the year in which His people were reminded of His plan of redemption and the order in which things would occur. Similarly, the Tabernacle with all its furnishings, the materials and their detailed construction, and even their placement all communicated a message of the hope. Hope in a life worth living, a future life with God, is what fueled the faith of all the patriarchs and other great men and women of the Old Testament. Hebrews 11:14-16 (14) People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. (15) If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. (16) Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hope Hope is much more than optimism. It certainly is not wishful thinking. It’s a thing of grit and substance. Hope is what people cling to when they face the harsh realities of an unwelcome diagnosis. Hope is what gets that unemployed person out or bed to try again on his 20th job interview. Hope is something we all need. I think hope is made up of three key things. First, it has a clear vision of the better future. Second, it has a least one path to get there. And third, hope has guts. It has that internal courage and will to give that path a try. Wishful thinking or optimism doesn’t lead to change, but hope ignites the muscles of action. When those three things come together, that kind of hope can change the world—your personal world… ~ Scott Todd, author of Hope Rising
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Making the hope real
tangible is a very big deal, so we need make sure that we are doing the things that are building hope, not tearing it down.
Jesus provided the prescription for the antidote to hopelessness
People crave life
My travels throughout the world have given me opportunities to be with people in all kinds of situations, times of plenty as well as times of poverty, times of comfort and times of hardship. But no matter what the physical circumstances, everywhere I’ve been I have seen that people love life. It is as if they are hardwired for life, and even when they know their lives are difficult they choose it over the alternative—death. Everyone has an innate sense that life is right and death is wrong. This may be what God means when He says He has set eternity in the hearts of men (mankind). Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. One of the greatest ways to see mankind’s love for life is in little children. Their faces beam with joy as they search and explore the new world around them and all the mysteries it seems to hold. With minds still greatly unpolluted by the toxic waste of Satan’s litter, and lacking many real-life experiences or knowledge of bad people and evil, they abound with life. Compare children’s zest for life–, those who squeal with excitement and energy as they play and explore their world with the elderly man or woman–who has endured a life of hardship, has dashed dreams, and no hope. The greater the hopelessness, the more that fact becomes evident in a person’s eyes, posture, and general demeanor. The same also holds true for those who are full of hope; the more hopeful we are, the more others can see it in the way we behave. With hope comes life and with hopelessness, death. It is not those who are full of hope who commit suicide, but those who are utterly hopeless. Having a hope that is real and
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Jesus provided a succinct description of the disease of hopelessness and the prescription for the antidote in the parable of the Sower and the Seed (Luke 8:11-15). In essence he said that some people lack hope because they have never really connected to the things of God. Without God people have nothing true in which to place hope. These are people who are represented by the seed that has fallen on the path and the birds came and ate the seed before it had time to take root. They have never heard the message, or never heard enough of it to believe and so are like the train that never even really got on the tracks. Another group consists of those who hear the message of salvation but it never really takes root in them. Unless we connect with the plans and purposes of God, the hope of everlasting life with God, and it gets deeply embedded in our hearts, we will never have enough heat from the fire in us to endure through persecution. Stepping over the line by deciding to accept Jesus as Lord and standing with God sets us apart from the world and places a bull’s-eye on our back that the Adversary takes aim at. Without hope we are like a train dead on the tracks, not having enough steam to make any real movement forward. The third group Jesus spoke of is those who, although they have heard and believed, have either lost their hope or misdirected it from the things of God. People can be diverted from the true hope by both the pressures and the pleasures of life. We are all vulnerable to being worn down from the worries and cares of life and we are all tempted in some way by the alluring bait on Satan’s fishhook. Whenever we become disconnected from the plans and purposes of God we begin to substitute our desires for His desires. Drawing meaning and purpose from anything other than God is the essence of idolatry, and idols are notorious for causing hopelessness because they are impotent and powerless. People like this are similar to a train that was at
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one time moving but has been losing steam because the engineer has not been stoking the fire. Eventually it will come to a stop no matter how fast it was once moving. Jesus said the antidote for hopelessness was for people to take the Word of God into their hearts, letting it take root, mature, and become fruitful. What we must remember is that the purpose of God’s Word, the message that it is intended to convey, is His plans and purposes, which is a future life with Him for all who believe the message. The antidote to hopelessness is to fill our hearts with the truth about who we are in Christ, both now and in the future. Right now, we are completely loved and accepted by the Father, and in the future we will be able to live out the fulfillment of that relationship forever with Him. When we fill ourselves with these thoughts, then we are free from the discouragement and immune to the constant invalidation of the world. The Son has set us free indeed (John 8:32).
“Hopelessness is a state of mind – never our reality.”
Hopelessness is a state of mind—never our reality
Shortly after the Vietnam War, psychologists interviewed many who had been held as prisoners of war. They wanted to determine why some detainees thrived while others didn’t. One thing that was noted was that the prisoners who had a false hope, the hope of an early release or release by a fictional date, deteriorated and eventually gave up—they became hopeless; whereas the prisoners who held on to hope by focusing on their desire for release, by constantly looking for ways to escape or to improve their situation, if even just through mental games, all seemed to fare far better. We know hopelessness is really just a mental state, the perspective with which one is viewing life, because we often see two people who are in the exact same situation and one is hopeless and the other is hopeful. When we are full of hope we do not have to live in denial about any situation we find ourselves in, but instead can see it and accept it as reality. We don’t have to like it, but we also don’t let it dictate how we feel.
Hope, the anchor of our soul
Jesus gave us a powerful lesson in the Garden of Gethsemane when he asked the Father if there was any other way instead of his death on the cross. He never denied the reality of the situation, but because of joy from his heart full of hope in God’s plans and purposes, he was able to endure through the horrific torture and death that awaited him (Heb. 12:2). We can do the same in any situation we find ourselves in, but the key is having a hope that is real to us. Hope truly is the anchor of our soul. Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
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“True and lasting hope is based upon us developing an eternal perspective.�
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Keeping Hope Alive– Overcoming Hopelessness By Dan Gallagher
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here are some very practical things that we must incorporate into our lives in order to combat the Devil’s constant attempts to rob us of our joy and divert our attention from the fantastic hope that awaits us. Take time to develop the following habits in your life and you will find yourself being more hope-FULL, which means you will approach life with the enthusiasm, energy, and endurance necessary to persevere unto the finish line. Invigorating, relaxing, and inspiring activities that build hope 1. Find your personal sanctuary time Years ago I began to see how hugely important it was for me to take personal time with God and the Lord. Taking some quiet time in my office in prayer, reading God’s Word, or just pouring my heart out to them always seemed to set my day up for success, or at the least, set my heart in the right place to handle whatever the day threw at me. I call this my “sanctuary
time,” sanctuary being a special place that is set aside because of its holiness. Some people are inspired to do different things in their time with God. • Find your sanctuary—a quiet place and time of the day where you can focus on spiritual activities. • Pray and pour your heart out to God and the Lord—be real! • Journal—this works powerfully for some, but I personally have never been big on journaling. • Inspirational reading—certainly the Word of God, Devotionals or other inspiring materials. (I especially love biographical stories). • Inspirational music—this often brings great rest to the soul and joy from being in the presence of God with praise and worship. • Other restorative activities—spending time in nature, humor, the arts, physical exercise and giving to others.
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2. Change your thinking—change your life Many times we think and therefore act as if a situation is hopeless, when in reality it actually isn’t hopeless at all, it’s merely different than what we wanted or expected. Since hopelessness is really something in our head, we can change it by changing our thinking. Here are some keys to help change your thinking. • Learn to “fall up”—this is also what I call “Failing Forward.” When a situation doesn’t look as we think it should, or whenever something does not succeed, we need to step back and learn from it. Rather than seeing it as a “failure” we should take the perspective that we now know what doesn’t work, which is really a lot more than we knew before we even tried. • Change what you are looking at—a number of years ago, psychiatrists did a study in which they had college students play a game called Tetris for three days in a row, 8 hours a day. At the end of the three days the students found that wherever they went they continued to perform the game in real life situations. It is called the Tetris effect and what it showed is that what you look at actually causes a neurological rewiring of the brain. Hence, to increase hope we need to look at things that build hopefulness, not hopelessness. We become what we see and reinforce in our brains. • Stop thinking of the world as “fixed”— instead of being rigid in the way you see the world, work to develop your mind to consider alternate explanations and viewpoints. Work your mind to be more flexible so you can see different possibilities. • Counter effects—we must develop an optimistic or explanatory style. For some people this means that they must consciously work to catch themselves when they are thinking or saying anything that is pessimistic or wrong. For instance, if you say something that is rude, stop and say, “I’m sorry, please let me rephrase that,” and then say it again in an edifying and godly manner. You are rewiring your brain every time you do this.
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Keeping Hope Alive
3. Set tangible and realistic goals Seeing things you desire come to pass is, as God says, “a tree of life,” (Prov. 13:12); it builds a pattern of hopefulness in your heart, kind of like stacking stones of success on top of each other until you have an impenetrable wall of hope. These are not necessarily “life goals,” but simple things like going to the movies at the end of the week, a day off with the family, a task at work, or even a small purchase of something you’ve saved for. Seeing things that you have hoped for happen—anything you have hoped for—is life-giving. 4. Develop social support God designed us for relationship and
being with others, provided they are the “right others,” can be very life-giving. Whether introvert or extrovert, we all need others, so it is very important to find solid social connections. There is nothing more healing than having a safe person, someone who has earned the right to hear your heart, to whom you can turn when you’re troubled or down. I have a tendency to want to isolate and hide, and although we all need a space to regroup and gather our thoughts, we don’t want to cut others out of our lives. Doing that is a trick of the Devil. True and lasting hope is based upon us developing an eternal perspective. This is the type of thinking that reminds us that God loves us no matter what, that we can never do anything to earn more of his love, nor can we ever do anything to lose it. Our hope must always be in God, and in His plans and purposes. He is the one who increases the power of the weak, and “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).
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Learning to Use my “GPS” By Kelli Young
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uring a recent conversation about trusting God, I had a friend mention the phrase, “I’m not driving the bus,” referring to the assumption that God is in control. I have often heard people talk like this and it always leaves me with a scary thought: “If you’re not driving your bus, then who is?” Many people act as if God exerts so much control in their lives that they don’t need to be concerned with steering the bus. However, my experience has taught me that God isn’t the one driving my bus. He doesn’t pick me up and drop me off at whatever destinations He decides. I drive myself and make my own decisions about my daily happenings; the people I talk to, what I read, when and what I pray, etc, etc. Thankfully, though, God doesn’t just leave us to drive our bus all alone and navigate the world and all its wreckage by ourselves. He is our “GPS”, our very own “Godly Positioning System.” Just like the GPS in a car tells us where to go, so too God will help and direct us—but since we are the ones doing the driving, we choose whether to listen to the “GPS” or not. I have to admit, I have not always followed the GPS in my car. After a weekend visit to my family in Maine, I was driving back to Vermont and came across bumper to bumper traffic on the highway. After about 15 minutes I was so frustrated with not moving that I decided to get off the next exit and hopefully the GPS would redirect me, otherwise known as “recalculating”. I had no idea where I was and was completely trusting this machine to get me where I needed to go. For the first few miles it kept telling me to make a U-turn to get back on the highway, but I was determined there must
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be a better way! I kept driving and it kept recalculating, and it finally came up with a completely new route. It was a zigzag through small towns with lots of stop signs, traffic lights, and turns. As I kept following this route, my arrival time kept becoming later and later. I wondered what would have happened if I had stayed on the original route and just waited out the traffic. Would I have broken out of it and gotten home faster? Or would it have been hours of sitting and waiting? Just like the GPS in my car, God has planned a route for you, but that does not mean He forces you to take it. He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11: Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Of course God has plans for you! You are His child. He wants only the best for His children. He has taken the time to map out the best route for us, the way with the least traffic, the least construction delays, and the best weather conditions so we can arrive at our destination safely. Proverbs tells us to, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” God has mapped out the route for us, but, like the GPS in my car, it is our choice to follow the route as directed. And when we choose not to, then God also has to “recalculate.” When we go off the path, God will always try to get us back on track as quickly as possible, telling us to “Turn right or left,” or even “Make a U-turn!” Being the broken
“self-willed” people we are, we do not always listen, but instead we keep pursuing our own path. Fortunately, the loving Father that He is, He finds for us a new path. There are even times it may seem harder, like traveling on a steep roadway over snowy mountains, but He will do everything He can to get us to our destination. Not everyone in our lives looks the same. They may seem to some like they are driving a bus, car, minivan, or even a motorcycle. Whatever it may be, God has given us the freedom to drive our own vehicle and He has not left us without a guide. Proverbs 4:11-15; 18-19 (11) I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. (12) When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. (13) Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life. (14) Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. (15) Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way. (18) The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. (19) But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. There have been times when I have gotten so frustrated with the GPS in my car that I have put it on mute, or even worse, turned it completely off! I know that I have even done this with God, maybe not
intentionally, but there are times I have not listened to Him or heeded His word. I remember one time very specifically. After a double date with my in-laws, my father-in-law was driving us home one night. We were very close to home, about two miles away, on a road that we travel very often. I got a clear picture in my head of a deer jumping out in the road. I dismissed the image, thinking I was just being a “worry-wart.” I again got this picture and heard “deer” in my head, but again I dismissed it. Well, what do you know, about a mile down the road a deer jumped out in front of us forcing my father-in-law to slam on the brakes and causing us to come about a foot from hitting the deer. Thank God we were all alright even though I did not listen to what God had told me. God was looking out for our safety, but I thought that I knew better. When we think that we know the right answer or the right way, we tend to stop listening to God and what He thinks, and can get ourselves into trouble. We have to accept that we don’t always know the right way; we may think we know the route well enough but God warns us “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” (Proverbs 12:15). God always has our best interest in mind and wants us to seek His advice so He can help direct us through the wreckage our adversary has placed in front of us. Just like driving, when we think we have the navigation of life down, an obstacle will appear in our path, a bridge might be out or a torrential rain will come down or a deer might jump out in front of us. Even though we are the ones “driving the bus,” we need to seek the advice of our Father and His “Godly Positioning System!”
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Dear Sower Video Series: “Prophetic Forshadowings” Wonderful Series of Teachings that really help you understand the bigger picture of Gods greatness! Scott T.
On TruthOrTradition.com
On STFonline.org Thank you so much for all the research and teaching you do. I have been renewed in my spirit since finding your website. Stephanie.
Article: “The Exchanged Life” That is very powerful. Simple yet explaining in a very rich way the deep truth of one of the most important area of the Good News. I benefit a lot from your posts! Elijah K.
YouTube Video “A New Understanding of Phillippians 4:13” Great teaching. Thank you, I needed it! Carmen M. Editor’s Note: Check out our YouTube Channel, visit YouTube.com/TruthOrTradition
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I love the way you updated this site! It made it so easy to find articles. I love to translate these short articles into Korean and every time I do I keep an English copy in my personal file. This made my work much easier. Thank you! Yong S. Editor’s Note: For more information, visit our site TruthOrTradition.com
YouTube Series: Speaking in Tongues” Bless you for bringing clarity on this subject. Sabelo M. I enjoyed this and I was smiling the whole time. I had been speaking in tongues but I doubted myself. Thank you. Tsitsi A.
YouTube Video “The Integrity of Scripture” Great presentation brother, you have a great gift of teaching from the Lord, and a joy to listen to. Gary H.
On STFonline.org I have read many, many statements of faith and I do so with all antennas up and working for words that are red flags. I must say this is the best and most accurate I have read. Well done, I believe you were inspired by God to write this in such a simple and meaningful way. God be with you as you continue to serve our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Bill C. Editor’s Note: For further information, visit: STFonline.org
Video on “Love is Tough” Thank God for that. That really helped redefine all of the injustice I have been seeing and how I react to it. Thanks again! Quadian B.
Video on “The Feast of First Fruits” I love this. Jesus was the first fruit making all the rest acceptable. That’s cool. Rita M.
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