Believing In Spring

I was about halfway through my hamburger at a cookout when a friend of our son, Brad, asked me a provocative question. She's working with a group of junior highkids and she asked them what they thought the purpose of life is, they said, "To die". Well, she continued to probe and then to talk to them about hope, but she said,"Ron , they have no concept of hope, they are concrete people. Hope is too abstract. How can I explain it to them?" Well, by the last bite of that burger I was tellingher about the blizzard of 1996 - three feet of snow in our yard. I disappear in three feet of snow! . . . and by the time the snow plough had finished in our drivewaywe had these towering mountains of snow around us. Karen and I both said, "We'll never see our yard again." Well, for many weeks it was inconceivable that thatmuch snow would ever go away. Inconceivable, that is, if you based your judgment solely on what you could see at the time. We actually did know that we wouldsee the yard again, there would be blooming flowers there. We had hope. It wasn't always going to be like this.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from I Thessalonians 4:13. It talks about those who have already died and it says, "We do not want you tobe ignorant about those who fall asleep, or do grieve like the rest of men," listen to this, "who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose againand so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." Verse 17, it says, "We who are still alive and are left to becaught up together with those people in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." Notice it says, " . . .we do notgrieve as others who have no hope." Hope is hard to come by during the "winter" seasons of your life - like the loss of someone you love, like Matt and Kelly,our friends whose little daughter just died in a tragic accident. Like Tony whose mother died suddenly just a few days ago. It's very cold right now. The grief isalmost unbearable. Almost. They both are talking about the hope factor because their life is anchored to a personal relationship with Christ. They know death cannotultimately win. Death is reduced to being a painful interruption. Very painful, but only an interruption.

The winter will not last forever. The reunion in the spring is sure to come and last forever. Why? Because Jesus died to remove the great separator of sin, the sin thatseparates us from God and from each other. Because Jesus conquered death the moment He walked out of His grave He assures those who belong to Him that theywill share His victory over death. Jesus is a living Savior who gives Eternal Life to those that are His.

So what is hope? It's the confident expectation that there is something better than this. It's what got me through an otherwise depressing winter. There will bea spring. What you see isn't what you get! Maybe it's winter for you right now. The pain, the struggle, the wounds are very real. If what you can see now is all thereis, the outlook is bleak, but, this is not all there is if you belong to Jesus. The Bible describes it this way, "Christ in you, the hope of Glory." Do those threewords describe you in Jesus? Christ in you. Your relationship begins the day you do what the Bible says, "To all who received Him , to those who believed inHis name He gave the right to become the children of God." And as the Bible asks so beautifully, "If God be for us who could be against us?"

If you're short of hope, there is Jesus. The very hopelessness of this winter you are in could be the very thing that drives you to His waiting arms and to the hope onlythis living Savior can give. With Jesus you can live in real hope. The confident expectation that there will be something better than this - guaranteed by the Son ofGod Himself. He will bring the Spring.

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Today's Daily Wisdom is written by Ron Hutchcraft, based on his popular radio broadcast,"A Word With You"."A WORD WITH YOU" daily devotionals are now available via e-mail. To subscribe send a blank email to:awordwithyou-subscribe@hutchcraft.com,or to request the "Yours for Life" booklet, fill out the form on this site:http://www.gospelcom.net/rhm/yours/yflorder.html. Ron Hutchcraft Ministries has been on-line with Gospelcom since February, 1996, providingpractical answers to real life issues. (c) 2000 Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.PO Box 400, Harrison AR 72602