Feeling What Not Having Hope Feels Like

A prominent politician made an interesting comment a couple
of weeks ago. The politician said, “We are feeling what not
having hope feels like.”

Why is this person lacking in hope? Her hopelessness comes
as a result of her political party losing in the November
election. With the election of someone that they heartily
disagree with, they feel that the policies conducive to hope
will be cast aside.

On the other side of the political spectrum, there is great hope
that “America will be made great again”. The sad reality is
that hope springs forth every time there is an election. The
winning voters always seem to hope that good things lie
ahead. As the hopes of the winning side in the election are not
met, there will be great disappointment over the failure to
deliver on the promises made to the voters.

The reality is that no matter the politician, his followers are
bound to be disappointed. The hopelessness of trusting
politicians and their offer for humanity is brought out in
Psalms 118:9, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in princes.”

Whereas man is limited and uncertain, God is not. God is the
same “Yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). We can
always be assured that God is there and He will always act in
our best interest even if His response is not what we want.

Let’s consider a couple of scriptures that lay out for us the
panorama of hope which is what prophecy is all about.
Through these scriptures, we can see why for God’s people
there is always hope.

The panorama begins in Genesis with the sins of Adam and
Eve. As God spelled out in Genesis 2, in the day in which
Adam or Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
they would die. Death is an inevitable outcome of sin.

With death hanging over the lives of the first couple, it might
be said, “They were feeling what not having hope feels like.”

However, one of God’s first actions after sin entered the world
is found in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall
bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." God was
telling the first man and woman that a seed would come who
would work out the problem of sin.

The scripture in Genesis seems pretty obscure until God fills
in more details about the coming, Seed, Jesus Christ, who
would open the way to salvation for all mankind.

What is to be ultimately be worked out by the Seed, Jesus
Christ, is detailed in Acts 3:19-21, “Repent therefore and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of
refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that
He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,
whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all
things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy
prophets since the world began.”

God, through Peter, tells us that as promised from the time of
the first sin there is coming a time when all things will be
restored to the way God always intended them to be. We are
reassured that there is always hope for this sin sick world
through Jesus Christ the Messiah.

The Bible reassures us of the fulfillment of this promise from
Genesis all the way to the end of Bible in Revelation.

Human beings lose hope because things don’t work out the
way they want them to.

But God is our hope no matter what is going on in our lives or
in the world around us. As the Psalmist says, “For You are my
hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth (Psalms
71:5).

Have a most enjoyable Sabbath because we always have hope.

Gary Smith

Tomorrow Is Promised To No Man. Are You In Right Standing With God?

Death can come so suddenly and without warning. This reality offers us something to consider about God and life.

When we are young we tend to view death as something that is a long way off. It is something that afflicts the older generation, not the young and vibrant. Sometimes we can live our lives as if death isn’t even on the radar. The Apostle James brings out this point in James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."

James is addressing a prideful approach that we can take as we plan without God in the picture. It is as if we are the masters of life and God does not exist. To those being addressed money is much more important than serving God. They make plans for the future without seeking the will of God. They live like the man portrayed in the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21). They fail to realize that they cannot add even a minute to their life. They are completely dependent on God.

We don’t even know what will happen tomorrow, and our lives are like vapor that vanishes quickly. If we have no idea what the immediate future holds nor are we able to control it, what is the purpose of life? We must live by Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

Those James addresses have not asked about the meaning and duration of life. They talk about the future with absolute certainty. Yet they have no control over it. They live their life but fail to inquire into its purpose. They are blind and ignorant.

What should our approach be? “Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.”” God is to be sovereign in our lives. In all our planning, deeds, and accomplishments we must acknowledge our submission to God.

We don’t know for certain whether our lives will be long, short or somewhere in the middle. But we do know that God is sovereign and we are to acknowledge him in how we live each day. As we live in submission to God’s will then it doesn’t matter whether life is long or short. We are in right standing with God no matter the outcome.

Have a pleasant Sabbath,

Gary Smith

There Is A Way That Seems Right To A Man

As we look at the present world, we can see that it is filled with problems: hunger, ignorance, poverty, sickness, disease, hatred, violence, and war to name a few.

Everyday mankind struggles with these various problems, but men only seem to make limited, if any progress, with the myriad problems. Sadly, this is not a condition that is recent in origin. The problems we face trace all the way back to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve received clear instruction from God on how to live. God told them, “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

God gave man a choice. To walk humbly before God by eating of the tree of life, or to walk in a way contrary to God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Regrettably, Adam and Eve chose what the book of Proverbs describes as the foolish path. They chose the way that seems right to a man (Proverbs 16:25), and the end result of that path is death.

Death is the ultimate consequence of choosing to live a life apart from God. In the meantime, what impact did the choice of Adam and Eve have? “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). In other words, Adam set the pattern of sin and all of his descendants have followed that same path.

Sadly, mankind is going to continue to follow the way that seems right in their own eyes, and the problems we face on this earth will not be resolved.

However, as the Sabbath approaches, we might consider that God in His mercy has opened our minds to see that there is a better way. It is not the way that seems right to a man, but it is the way that seems right to God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

One cannot gain knowledge of spiritual things if he begins at the wrong point, refusing to fear the Lord (i.e., to recognize God's character and respond by revering, trusting, worshiping, obeying, and serving Him).

The outcome of the fear of the Lord is described throughout the book of Proverbs, but the introductory verses give us a foretaste of what we can learn with the fear of the Lord as our foundation. “To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion — A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel” (Proverbs 1:2-5).

What a difference it will make once man learns that it is only through the fear of the Lord, and the application of God’s truths, that all these problems that plague mankind will be eradicated one by one.

Each Sabbath is a reminder that a world in which the “fear of the Lord” is foundational is sure to come.

Enjoy the Sabbath day,

Gary Smith