Hope

For the last few years our world and nation have been spiraling out of control it seems. For many people there is a fear that clouds almost everything they do. It is an unseen enemy that we don’t fully understand that has us down and divided as people.

There is for us a desire to start it all over, to run the clock back, to move the sands of the hourglass upward and begin anew.

Underlying the desire to start over is a wonderful reality that is encased in one word.

Hope.

As we look back over the last few years particularly, or even further as it regards our personal lives prior to the current national crises, many questions may come into our hearts, especially to those that have experienced great turmoil and loss. The questions are eternal in nature, not merely temporal and fleeting.

What could have been?

What should have been?

Why so much pain and hurt?

Can we change things? Can we avoid the pains of the past? Can we have a better future?

And of course, the perennial question of the human crucible—will this pain ever end?

We may be dealing with the loss of someone dear to us. In the unmitigated heartbreak and protracted hurt of the death of someone precious to us, we often get lost in the wilderness of mourning, grief, discouragement and regret. Perhaps even depression.

Or we may be in the tragic circumstance of illness or chronic and devastating pain in our own body, mind or soul.

When Christ approached the tomb of Lazarus we witness one of the most intriguing moments relating to our Messiah.

“Jesus wept.”[i]

Christ was not weeping out of the hopeless loss of a friend because he knew he was about to raise Lazarus back to life. Then what motivated Christ’s tears? The Greek word used to describe the weeping in the previous verses (33–34) regarding Mary and the other Jews indicated "loud wailing and cries of lament " and is contrasted to the Greek word used to describe Christ’s weeping which literally translates as “to shed tears” which has the idea of “quiet grief.” It is likely that Christ was weeping over the “effects of sin, death, and the realm of Satan.” [ii]

This event in scripture is a microcosm of everything Christ came to deal with in this world out of his selfless love for his created people. It was Satan that kicked us in the teeth in the Garden and succeeded in luring Adam and Eve to the spiritual cliff as they heeded his temptation, launching them off the precipice into original sin.

It is this original sin, ratified in every person that has ever lived when they are born into sin and continue to sin against a perfectly holy God, that takes us to the grave. The great, big, giant result of this sin was and is the Fall of Man—the human race spiraling into both physical death and eternal death (separation from God—hell) because of the clutches of sin and failure to the constant battling of Satan and his emissaries—our true unseen enemy—as they inject themselves into every aspect of human life in their titanic war against God to destroy that which he has created and called good.

This epic story does not stop there, however, for it is the very Christ that raised Lazarus from his tomb that went to the cross and then entered his own tomb and would himself rise from the grave providing forgiveness and redemption to all who would receive the wonderful gift of eternal life. This moment also points to our own resurrection which will take place for every believer.

This is what we call Hope.

It is the hope of Christ in the life of his followers that propels them forward. Be it the forgotten ones in the gulags of the world—North Korea, China, Iran and their likes— or those of us in the free world who simply get entangled in the chains of sin and its accompanying failures.

There is hope in the coming days and we can look toward the joys it will provide.

But there is a greater hope for the followers of Christ—his disciples— who no longer worry about the days to come, but find their purpose in the will of the One who created time itself.

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[i] John 11:35. In most English versions this is the shortest verse in the Bible, but not in the original Greek.

[ii] See NET Bible note 69 on this verse as well as L. Morris NICNT, 558.

©2020 by Ben Bounds. All rights reserved.

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We can come to know Christ through confession of our sins and repentance (turning away from sin). Let me encourage you to do this by talking to God through prayer. Here is an idea of how you might do that:

"Dear God, I believe your son Jesus Christ died in my place on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day following his death. I confess my sins, all of them, to you now with a humble heart. I repent of those sins and ask you to empower me with your Holy Spirit in overcoming further sin. Amen”

If you prayed this or a similar prayer committing your life to Christ and becoming one of his followers, let me encourage you to find a good, Bible-believing church. If you live in the Weslaco/Rio Grand Valley area of Texas, let me invite you to the church I attend, Mid-Valley Assembly (www.midvalleyassembly.com).

Begin talking to God in prayer and reading the Bible daily. A good way to begin to read the Bible is to start with the Book of John in the New Testament.

Feel very free in connecting with me if you need any further help in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. You can do this via the above email or facebook page or this web page.

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Mercy Road Ministries was founded and now led by Ben Bounds. Ben has pastored churches across Texas for over thirty years and is an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). He holds a BA in Pastoral Ministry and Biblical Studies from Southwestern Assemblies of God College and did graduate theological studies at the BMA Theological Seminary.

Ben's first book, The Divine Chase: Responding to a Pursuing God, was released on 12.08.2017 through Westbow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. It is available in paperback and hardback through your preferred bookseller (Mardels, Barnes and Noble, etc.) and paperback, hardback as well as ebook through online book retailers (www.christianbook.com, www.cokesbury.com, www.amazon.com, www.booksamillion.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, etc.).

Ben is the host of Staying in Bounds, an on-air Bible devotional broadcast multiple times daily on KWJV 103.7 FM Weslaco, TX which can also be heard worldwide online at www.kwjvthestar.com.

Ben and his wife, Linda, together have four adult children and nine grandchildren. They live in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Ben can be contacted for preaching engagements at benbounds695@gmail.com or 903.441.3279. Ben can also be contacted via his website @ www.benbounds.com, which is also his blog and contains more information about his ministry.

Follow Ben @ https://www.facebook.com/mercyroadministries/ and this website www.benbounds.com.

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