Jesus, The Hope of The World
Jerry N Watts
Matthew 1:18-25
Many years ago, a church I served leased some well-made TV commercials. We selected 6, each of which has differing messages. The message from one of these 30 seconds commercials sticks with me even today. It said, ''A man can live without food for 40 days, without water for 8 days, and without air for 4 minutes, but how long can a man live without hope?'' What a sobering question. It is hope that keeps us going. The hope of another day of love, happiness, and of life.
It is difficult to communicate 'hope' to us in America because, in large measure, this generation has never known hopelessness, OR it has been such a long time since we have known what it is to WANT that we take life for granted. Let's talk in familiar terms, not necessarily spiritual terms.
In 1972 Buryl Red and Grace Hawthorne published a ''Youth Musical'' (remember those), entitled, ''LightShine''. In that musical was a song entitled, ''Would You''.
Would you cherish loving arms if you never shed a tear? Would you welcome going home is you never been a way? Would you treasure guiding hands if you never been alone? Would you value having hope if you've never known despair? I don't think so, I really don't think so.
Consider, what happens if your bank were to fail and the money you have was gone. How about the job you cherish and make could money with, were to end tomorrow? Or how about the stock market collapses, the country over-ran by insurgents who close everything down? How about, your visit to a doctor, and he says, ''Put your house in order.'' On Wednesday of this week, I spoke to a 35-year friend that I've not seen lately only to discover that he has stage 4 cancer. What is it like to feel hopeless?
When I think of hope in this way, my mind is filled with this truth, ''if we have never felt hopeless, we HAVE NEVER turned to Christ for salvation.'' If we feel that we are simply 'missing something', we may turn to ...
Jerry N Watts
Matthew 1:18-25
Many years ago, a church I served leased some well-made TV commercials. We selected 6, each of which has differing messages. The message from one of these 30 seconds commercials sticks with me even today. It said, ''A man can live without food for 40 days, without water for 8 days, and without air for 4 minutes, but how long can a man live without hope?'' What a sobering question. It is hope that keeps us going. The hope of another day of love, happiness, and of life.
It is difficult to communicate 'hope' to us in America because, in large measure, this generation has never known hopelessness, OR it has been such a long time since we have known what it is to WANT that we take life for granted. Let's talk in familiar terms, not necessarily spiritual terms.
In 1972 Buryl Red and Grace Hawthorne published a ''Youth Musical'' (remember those), entitled, ''LightShine''. In that musical was a song entitled, ''Would You''.
Would you cherish loving arms if you never shed a tear? Would you welcome going home is you never been a way? Would you treasure guiding hands if you never been alone? Would you value having hope if you've never known despair? I don't think so, I really don't think so.
Consider, what happens if your bank were to fail and the money you have was gone. How about the job you cherish and make could money with, were to end tomorrow? Or how about the stock market collapses, the country over-ran by insurgents who close everything down? How about, your visit to a doctor, and he says, ''Put your house in order.'' On Wednesday of this week, I spoke to a 35-year friend that I've not seen lately only to discover that he has stage 4 cancer. What is it like to feel hopeless?
When I think of hope in this way, my mind is filled with this truth, ''if we have never felt hopeless, we HAVE NEVER turned to Christ for salvation.'' If we feel that we are simply 'missing something', we may turn to ...
There are 10685 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
