Category: A Certain Hope in Uncertain Times

Hope in the Word

Bible Reading: Psalm 119:47, 74, 81, 114,147; Romans 15:4

Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

One of my favorite conversion stories is that of Jacob DeShazer.  One of WW2’s “Doolittle Raiders,” Jacob was imprisoned in a Japanese prison camp after being captured in China.  Together with his fellow captives Jacob endured harsh and life-threatening mistreatment and abuse.  Jacob responded in kind to the abuse he suffered.  On one occasion, when commanded by a guard to “Hurry up,” he responded, “Go jump in a lake.”  His response earned him a strike on his head.  Jacob retaliated by kicking the guard in the stomach.  The guard then hit Jacob with a steel scabbard.  So Jacob took a pail of dirty mop water and threw it at the guard.  Jacob was fortunate not to be killed, other men were killed for less.

Some books were brought to the prison camp and amongst them was a Bible. Jacob was told by a guard that he could have the Bible for three weeks. The Hope-imparting Word of God was brought to that dark, foreboding, lifeless and loveless place. Jacob eagerly read its pages. He devoured chapter after chapter. He read from the prophets, and was fascinated by the prophecies which spoke of a coming Redeemer. He read in the New Testament of the birth of Jesus Christ, the One of whom the prophecies spoke. On June 8th, 1944 he was reading through Romans when he came across Romans 10:9. He read of God’s promise of salvation to those who confess and believe in the Lord Jesus. He trusted in Jesus and was saved. God’s Word worked to impart hope to a hopeless man in a hopeless place.

He later wrote of his experience, “How my heart rejoiced in the newness of spiritual life, even though my body was suffering so terribly from the physical beatings and lack of food.  But suddenly I discovered that God had given me new spiritual eyes, and that when I looked at the Japanese officers and guards who had starved and beaten me and my companions so cruelly, I found my bitter hatred for them changed to loving pity…I read in my Bible that while those who crucified Jesus on the cross had beaten him and spit upon him before he was nailed to the cross, he tenderly prayed in his moment of excruciating suffering, ‘Father, forgive them for they know now what they do.’  And now from the depths of my heart, I too prayed for God to forgive my torturers.”

Through the influence of His Word God worked to radically change Jacob.  Jacob learned to love his captors.  Even before his release, he sensed a call from God to return to Japan as a Christian missionary.  And that’s what ultimately happened.  The former captive attended Seattle Pacific College and while there met and married his wife.  Six years and eight months after he had set out to fly to Japan, he returned to Japan to share the good news with the Japanese people.  The DeShazers ministered Christ’s love there for thirty years.  One high spot in his ministry came when Captain Kato (the guard who had given the prisoners a Bible) became a Christian.

One day, in Jacob’s life, the hope imparting Word fell on the good soil of his receptive heart.  Life was thereby imparted to his sin-dead soul.  The good fruit of God’s love blossomed and bore fruit in unimaginable fashion.  The Word of God is powerful to save and transform (1 Thessalonians 2:13).  And powerful to bring hope to the hopeless!  Jacob was proof of that, as are the innumerable souls who have likewise responded to the truth.  Is your soul thirsting for encouragement?  There’s a plentiful supply bound up in God’s inspired Word.

Through the Encouragement of the Scriptures We Have Hope

Lord Jesus.  Praise You for the day when You opened our eyes to the truth of the gospel!  We were without You and without hope in this world, but then You spoke to us through Your Word and it worked to bring hope to our hope-needy souls!  It is as a beacon of light shining forth even into the darkest places.  Forgive us that we’re all too prone to forget the treasure that is ours in its soul-encouraging truth!  Forgive us that we too often times neglect it!  May the Spirit work to lead us to the one sure source whereby our thirst for hope can be fully satiated!  Even as we marvel at its ability to mightily work within us!  Amen!

“One Hope”

Bible Reading: Ephesians 4:1-16

The news out of Ukraine is both heart-breaking and inspiring.  It’s heartbreaking to hear of the death and destruction that’s been brought to those people all because of the evil intentions of a ruthless ruler.  Hundreds of people have died.  Families are being torn apart.  Bombs are bringing massive destruction and instilling fear in the hearts of the innocent.  Amidst such chaos, you’ve probably heard some inspiring stories too.  Of the president who refused safe egress from his country, but instead has chosen to fight alongside his people–no matter the cost.  Or, the man who gave his life in setting off an explosion of a bridge, that he might deter the Russian advance.  Or, the 80 year old man who stood in line to receive his weapon, that he might fight the aggressors for the sake of his grandchildren.  Or, the couple who married, both bearing arms, their “honeymoon?”–to join in the battle.

Those folks are humans like us.  Prior to the war they had their individual hopes and dreams, revolving around their families and careers and such.  Those hopes have now all been laid aside, the people all being galvanized around one cause and one hope.  Their cause?  Freedom.  Their hope?  Victory.  Pray for those dear people, their cause is just and their hope is virtuous!

Our text speaks to the one hope that is shared by every believer in Christ, “There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call–one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).  The context of this verse is the call to us to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).  As God’s people we need to exercise diligence in preserving the unity God has established in His church.  That’s not a simple or easy thing to do.  The church I pastored in Astoria had previously experienced much division.  A 50/50 church split had led to a decade of troublesome infighting.  During the course of those ten years four pastors had come and gone.  The church lost its reputation, laid waste to its testimony, and lost its ability to get anything done.  Tragically, the recent Covid pandemic has worked to cause a similar spirit of division in many churches, with church members disagreeing on how to respond to various government mandates.  There is an unprecedented divisiveness in our society, and the church has not escaped that.

One thing that can work a change in us is a renewed focus on the common hope we share.  We are pilgrims and strangers here, on a shared journey to our future home.  Our hope lies not in the here and now, but in the there and then.  As the song says, “this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.”  We are those looking for the blessed hope.  Our minds are not set on “earthly things’…”our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior” (Philippians 3:20).  Our Ukrainian friends have been compelled by war to refine their focus such that they now share in one hope and cause.  We need, by the Spirit, to refine ours. We all worship the same God, have faith in the same Jesus, and share in a common identity.  We are indwelt by the same Spirit, and He works to fill our hearts with anticipation of the glories that await.  By the Spirit we are to encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24-25), lest we get distracted by the lesser hopes and dreams that will all soon fade away.

Albert Barnes once commented on this, “Christians have the same hope, and they should therefore be one. They are looking forward to the same heaven; they hope for the same happiness beyond the grave. It is not as on earth among the people of the world, where there is a variety of hopes–where one hopes for pleasure, and another for honor, and another for gain; but there is the prospect of the same inexhaustible joy. This hope is fitted to promote union. There is no rivalry–for there is enough for all. Hope on earth does not always produce union and harmony. Two men hope to obtain the same office; two students hope to obtain the same honor in college; two rivals hope to obtain the same hand in marriage–and the consequence is jealousy, contention, and strife. The reason is that but one can obtain the object. Not so with the crown of life–with the rewards of heaven. All may obtain that crown; all may share those rewards. How can Christians contend in an angry manner with each other, when the hope of dwelling in the same heaven swells their bosoms and animates their hearts?”

You Are on a Journey with Fellow Travelers All Headed to the Same Glorious Destination

Lord Jesus.  How marvelous is Your work in uniting us all in Your body, as was Your prayer to the Father!  We are blessed in unity, and discouraged in its loss.  You’ve warned us to be diligent to preserve that which You have established.  Forgive us that we’ve failed to do that on too many occasions.  May the Spirit fill us all with a renewed focus on the shared hope we have in You.  As fellow travelers on a journey home may we be quick to encourage one another along the way!  Some have lost focus.  Some have grown weary.  Some have fallen out of step.  Grant us the compassion and wisdom to respond to others as You would have us to.  Amen.

“We Had Hoped”

Bible Reading: Luke 24:13-35

How sad and tragic is the expression “we had hoped” (Luke 24:21).  That’s how the disciples on the road to Emmaus spoke of Jesus after His death upon the Cross.  They had hoped for something, a noble thing and suffered bitter disappointment when it failed to come to pass.  “We had hoped” is a common human sentiment.  Sin and its associated ailments work to diminish and destroy all ill-founded human hopes.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus were talking with each other about the things which had recently transpired.  “Jesus himself drew near and went with them.  But their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16-17).  In their conversation with their unrecognized Friend the two disciples spoke of how Jesus, “a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,” was delivered up by the “chief priests and rulers…to be condemned to death and crucified” (Luke 24:19–20).  “But we had hoped,” they said, “that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). 

The disciples had hoped for a thing, but God was doing something far greater than what they had hoped for.  Their hope was invested in the redemption of Israel.  They believed Jesus to be the promised Messiah.  They hoped that He had come to deliver His oppressed people from the Romans and to reign as King.  They had invested their lives in their ministry with Him.  Yet His death had—in their minds–worked to vanquish their hope.  Their hope was misguided.  They could not envision the greater purpose of the Savior’s death.  Jesus will one day redeem Israel (as they had hoped), but He came the first time “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  Through His redemptive work “a living hope” has been given to all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike!

The disciples were lacking hope because they were unaware of Jesus’ presence.  “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16).  Sin is the ultimate cause for diminished hope.  The evils which beset us in this life can be traced back to the fateful day Adam and Eve fell in the garden.  Adam’s kin are all born to a hopeless existence (Ephesians 2:12).  The “shadow of death” works to vanquish even the most vibrant of earthbound hopes.  Yet, the two disciples had good reason to hope because they were walking with the One who had triumphed over both sin and death.  It is possible for any of to walk unaware of Jesus’ presence.  Yet He doesn’t just walk with the believer in Christ, He dwells within (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-4). 

The disciples were lacking hope because they were ignorant of important truths regarding Jesus.  As Jesus explained to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?  And beginning with Moses and the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).  Their ignorance of the Scriptures robbed them of the hope that could have already been theirs. The Scriptures, inasmuch as they collectively speak of Jesus, represent an overflowing reservoir of soul-encouraging truth for hope-thirsty souls (Romans 15:4).

The disciples were lacking hope until their eyes were opened to behold Jesus.  Jesus shared a meal with them, “And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him” (Luke 24:30-31).  Their eyes were opened to Him and the truth of His resurrection and in Him, well-founded hope was secured. In this world there is a lot of uncertainty, but be of good cheer, believer, you serve a Risen, Reigning, and Returning Savior.  The words, “we had hoped,” need not be uttered from your lips as you walk along life’s path.  Jesus is with you.  His promises are sure.  We do not lose heart because we “look to Him” and “not to the things which are seen” (Hebrews 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18).  He is our reason for hope!

In Jesus we possess a hope that “does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5)!

Heavenly Father. We have hoped and dreamt for so many things, only to suffer disappointment when they failed to come to pass. Forgive us for the countless times in we’ve doubted You. Praise You for Your faithfulness. No promise of Yours will ever fail. And in all Your doings, we can trust You to work in ways that always exceed our expectations. May our hope be fully vested in You and well informed by the truth of Your Holy Word! Amen!