THERE IS ETERNAL HOPE
John 16:33
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Several years ago I was turkey hunting with one of my oldest and dearest friends. Late in the afternoon he got a message that his wife's brother had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The doctors said that they would be doing surgery within a day or two. In the morning Steve packed and headed home to be with his wife and her family. He wanted to be with them to comfort them in this time of hardship.
One of the greatest challenges we have is to somehow continue to believe God and to trust Him in the midst of horrendous devastation. When you see children being separated from their fathers and mothers by death. When you see families brought to their knees by sickness we start to wonder, "Where is God?"
What we need to realize is that God can be trusted, even when it seems as if He is not on our side. We have to point people to the fact that God has intervened in our planet by sending Jesus Christ. There we see the love of God most clearly. He gave His own son (John 3:16) to die a horrible, painful death, on a cross, for each one of us.
SIMON & GARFUNKEL'S song "Slip Sliding Away" has it somewhat right and somewhat wrong...
"God only knows, God makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man"
We don't know all of God's plans, but we do know much of it as it is laid out in His word. The rest we need to believe that even in the worst of times, He still loves us and cares.
I think this is the best illustration. All of Job's 10 children died in a disaster that was totally out of his control. There was a wind storm that blew down the house. Job was confronted with the fact that because of something completely unexplainable, there are 10 fresh graves on the hill. So now what is he going to do?
His "loving" wife says to curse God and die. But Job said, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Job shows us that even in the midst of losing his family, it is still possible to worship God even without explanations, even when we don't know all the reasons. Those who worship God under those conditions are especially blessed.
As we deal today with heartache and pain, with disaster and uncertainty, we can know that through it all, God is there for each of us. These things are easier with God in our life.
Lastly, remember that God created a perfect world that was brought down to this level by man's choice for sin. There will be a perfect place for us again, if we trust in Him.
That hunt took place many years ago now. My friend Steve and his brother-in-law, Jim, are both gone. But because of the gift we have in Jesus Christ we have an eternal hope. He paid the price and we know that if we believe in Him and what He did, we will overcome this world and overcome the Grave.
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