What can we
confidently hope for in this Advent /
Christmas season and in the coming New Year?
Optimism fails us when our wishful desires,
dreams and plans are not fulfilled.
Fortunately our hope in Christ offers us a
more solid foundation and confident
expectation that we will obtain the gifts
and graces we need to live well as pilgrims
and citizens of a heavenly kingdom that
awaits us at the end of our journey of
faith. In the meantime hope does not
disappoint us because God's love has been
poured into our hearts through the Spirit
which has been given to us (Romans 5:5).
God places in our
hearts a hope and a longing for something
far greater and far more glorious than
anything we could imagine or wish for in our
small and fast moving world that speeds by
and then fades away like a speck of dust
lost in the vast cosmos somewhere between
time and eternity.
Paul the Apostle tells us
that God the Father “chose
each one of us in Christ before creation
began” (Ephesians 1:4). We were
created for a life of glory
with God in his everlasting kingdom of
righteousness, peace, and joy. We hope and
long for the day when we and all creation will
share fully in the glory which God intended
from the very beginning.
Hope
is a supernatural gift and strength
that we must exercise
The hope which God gives is a supernatural
gift and strength which enables us to grow
in faith and love as we pursue God's will
and plan for our lives. Peter the Apostle
describes the nature of this supernatural
hope:
“Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ! By his great mercy we have been
born anew to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, and to an
inheritance which is imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven
for you, who by God’s power
are guarded through faith for a salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time.”
(1 Peter 1:3-5)
Hope is the trait of relying on God's help
for those things which he has promised and so
confidently expecting to obtain them, even in
the face of difficulty or in the face of their
being beyond our power. If our hope is rightly
placed in God, and not in ourselves, then we
will not be disappointed, even if everything
around us should fail. Hope is the anchor that
grounds us in God's heavenly kingdom.
There are numerous examples of godly men and
women who persevered through hope, courage, and
patience in the midst of severe trials,
persecution, and hardships. Their faith expanded
in the furnace of affliction, and their hope
became strong like steel when struck with the
hammer of testing, and their love overflowed
with the fragrance of Christ's mercy and
kindness under the weight of abuse and
persecution. May we be encouraged by their
example and not be afraid to suffer for the name
of Christ and the gospel he calls us to proclaim
through word and deed.
In this issue
This issue
focuses on how we can grow in hope both
individually and together as brothers
and sisters united with the Lord Jesus
in Christian Community.
Daniel
Keating and John
Yocum open the Scriptures for us
in explaining how hope orients us to
look with eyes of faith towards the
fulfillment of Christ's promise to come
again to raise us up with him to
everlasting life and joy in his heavenly
kingdom.
The testimony
of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, Edith
Stein, and Corrie
Ten Boom - who endured
unimaginable suffering and trials under
the persecution of the Nazi regime, give
witness to the power of Christian hope
in the face of difficulty and challenges
to our faith.
Eberhard
Arnold, founder of Bruderhof,
points to the renewal of Christian
communities today as a living sign of
the coming Kingdom. Bob
Tedesco, one of the founding
leaders of the Sword of the Spirit,
explains how the Holy Spirit is
equipping Christians to live and serve
together in community
as disciples on mission. Paul
Jordan, mission director for
Kairos outreach to young people, shares
the stories of several young people who
are actively engaged in mission
work locally and around the world.
These are some of the sign's of God's
action today to renew his people and to
give all of us fresh hope that we, too,
can make a real contribution to the
spread of God's kingdom in our homes,
neighborhoods, cities, and wherever the
Lord sends us as his ambassadors.
Let us
celebrate Advent and Christmas with the
Lord Jesus Christ knowing that he will
supply all of our needs and strengthen
us for the coming year of grace and
mission in his service.
