Use our Liberty to Create Hope

Last updated on: May 25, 2016 at 7:47 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Use our Liberty to Create Hope 2016-05-25T19:47:34-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Discouragement is always clever, but hope is always wise.

Why?

We live in God’s cosmos and God is in His Heaven. This does not mean all is right with the world in the sense that everything is good. We could make a long list of things that are not good in the world without even touching American politics! Citizens of this God blessed Republic who think this year is the worst should consider the rest of the world: where are you sure it is better? When was it better? What do you mean better?

The reminder is that in the long run only a person who believes in an all powerful and good God knows that history will side with justice. An atheist can hope, but his hope is based only on desire and not facts. We have studied the facts of the world and know that best evidence and experience says: “God is real and sovereign.” We cannot always see his hand in our news or social media feeds, but over one hundred years, the reality that God is acting becomes apparent.

His justice comes slowly, but totally. Nobody escapes, evil never wins. All of history will be resolved in the favor of virtue, wisdom, and joy. Men may misuse free will and cause great pain. This is evil and never to be ignored, but God will rectify over the course of eternity to make a better thing of our bad thing. If the cosmos is a great choir where we as individuals hit sour notes, then God is the great composer and conductor who takes that sour note, bad sounding when we hit it, and turns it into a counter-point, a crush note, that will magnify the beauty of the whole.

Satan himself cannot win, because God will give him liberty to do his will, but then turn his deeds to the good of those the devil would harm. Our hope is rational and our faith is a form of knowledge, so our joy is real and not a smile pasted over pain. We acknowledge our pain, but we do not hurt as those without hope. Albrecht_von_Felsburg,_Glaube_Hoffnung,_Liebe_opt

So what can we do today? What should we do?

We must let our light shine in the darkness and build for the future. Don’t you wish someone had the wisdom to build the college of the future one hundred years ago? Every project I am doing now will benefit the church community immediately, but we are trying to do what we do in a manner what will last. We are planting oak trees, not just bamboo. We need quick growth, sustainable projects (bamboo plants), but also the things that take more than one lifetime to mature. To do this, we must not panic or be Pollyanna. The times are bad, but then times are always bad in some manner.

Speak the truth, love our neighbor, and ask God to forgive our (many) sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

We shall refuse to compromise with evil, but also build a community where a remnant can be saved and prepare for better days ahead. Meanwhile, there is much jollification and fellowship to be had in service to our neighbors. Saint Paul put it best:

3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

We have yet to face one tenth of what our brothers and sisters face in nations such as Syria, but we have this confidence: the God that sustained Paul in harder times and our brothers and sisters all over the globe will sustain us.

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