As Holy Week Reminds Us, There is Always Hope, No Matter How Bad it Seems
We know that in the end, every knee will bow to Christ. In light of that, the frantic headlines all around us seem incredibly small.
Is all the good news gone? Most days, it sure seems like it. Tired of reading about the porn star scandal? Sick of nonstop coverage of the hyper-partisan gun debates and protests? Your best bet is to stay offline, turn off the TV and avoid the few newspaper stands that may still populate your neighborhood.
In short, the news lately is depressing. It can leave us feeling downright hopeless.
But as this very week reminds us, that all the good news isn’t gone. And in fact, things might not be so bad.
Lowest Point?
Recently on Twitter I was reminded of a sad headline from last November. According to a tweet from The Hill, “NEW POLL: Most Americans say this is lowest point in US history.”
The article itself bears a slightly different, but still bleak headline: “Poll: Most say this is lowest point they can remember for US.” It states that “59 percent of Americans surveyed think this is the lowest point in the nation’s history that they can remember.”
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Every time I read this news article, I immediately remember several other dark times in our past that over half the nation has seemingly forgotten. Slavery, mainly. The resulting Civil War. The world wars. The Great Depression. Segregation. Widespread violence. (Despite today’s hysterical gun debates, violent crime rates in the U.S. were actually higher a few decades ago than they are now!) The list could go on.
At this point in time, we certainly have our problems. Crises, even. I needn’t list them here. You know them well. But it isn’t as if everything was rosy back then, either. Sadly, many Americans lack that perspective.
Lack of Perspective Breeds Hopelessness
Lack of perspective is a problem for many reasons. But the worst is that it breeds hopelessness. When we ignore the past and focus solely on the problems before us, it is extremely easy to get overwhelmed. To think to ourselves, this is the worst things have ever been. Americans fall into this trap when they see salacious scandals and scary statistics in the news.
Christians are not immune, either. We often fall into this trap when we see the moral disarray around us.
But of all people, Christians should be the ones leading others out of this trap of hopelessness.
The Darkest Weekend in History
Why? Because this week reminds Christians that no matter how bad life looks, there is reason to hope. Let’s recall the events of Holy Week.
First, Jesus was betrayed by a disciple and then captured by soldiers. When his disciples expected him to escape, something he easily could have done, he submitted to his captors.
Later, he was questioned and convicted in an unfair trial. The man who had literally never sinned was sentenced to die as a ravenous crowd begged instead for the life of a murderer.
This was the Messiah. The one who was supposed to cast off the oppression of the Roman empire. He was supposed to set up a new kingdom. How could he just die?
Jesus, the King many had come to trust, love and devote their lives to, was brutalized before their eyes.
Ultimately, he was nailed to a cross, killed, and buried.
This was the Messiah. The one who was supposed to cast off the oppression of the Roman empire. He was supposed to set up a new kingdom. How could he just die?
The Best Day in History
Thousands of years later, it can be hard to imagine how lost Jesus’ friends and followers felt. Yes, he’d worked miracles before their eyes. He had told them what would happen. But imagine seeing it — his death. So tragic. So brutal. So unjust. So final. What could be darker than that?
At Easter, we celebrate the fact that this was not the end of the story. To his disciples’ utter joy, Jesus did rise from the dead, three long days later, just as he said he would. He defeated death itself and made a way for us to enter the kingdom of Heaven and have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe.
We know the future of the story as well. We know that in the end, every knee will bow to Christ. And we will reign with God for eternity. In light of that, the frantic headlines all around us seem incredibly small, don’t they?
Hope For Right Now
OK, so we’ll all be happy when Christ returns. But what about the here and now? Things still look pretty dark.
Holy Week can give us hope right now, as well. No matter how dark things seem, the living Christ has the power to transform individual lives and entire societies. The Holy Spirit helps us bring light to those around us. Just as evils were defeated in our nation’s past, they can be defeated today.
So during Holy Week, remember this and share it with someone who needs it: there is no reason to despair, and every reason to hope — for the future, and for right now.
Read about Jesus’ death and resurrection in Mark 15-16. https://stream.org/hope-holy-week-perspective/
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“Thousands of years later, it can be hard to imagine how lost Jesus’ friends and followers felt. Yes, he’d worked miracles before their eyes. He had told them what would happen. But imagine seeing it — his death. So tragic. So brutal. So unjust. So final. What could be darker than that?
At Easter, we celebrate the fact that this was not the end of the story. To his disciples’ utter joy, Jesus did rise from the dead, three long days later, just as he said he would. He defeated death itself and made a way for us to enter the kingdom of Heaven and have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe.
We know the future of the story as well. We know that in the end, every knee will bow to Christ. And we will reign with God for eternity. In light of that, the frantic headlines all around us seem incredibly small, don’t they?”
As of next week (6th), you cannot seed this type of article any more. Skirting the CoC [ph]
What’s the matter? A positive Easter message on Easter too much to handle? This seed is in the religion section where it belongs.
You cannot proselytize your religion here anymore. What is so hard for you to understand?
You think you are intelligent. Figure out a way to mention Christianity without saying " every knee will bow to Christ" or "He defeated death itself and made a way for us to enter the kingdom of Heaven and have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe."
I guess you will still be able to do it in a group where people will have signed up to be preached to. That is not the case on the forum.
Why don't you leave him alone?
why
How exactly are you silenced by someone exercising their free speech rights? Do you believe that your relgious belifs should be exempt from free speech rights of others who might disgree?
He was referring to the attempt by some on the secular progressive left to silence the religious free speech of members here on this particular site asif the religion section didn’t or doesn’t exist here. They want all religious speech and conversation limited to groups where others don’t have to see a headline and know others are talking about something they want to repress.
Nobody is silencing your religious speech, so stop the scare tactics.
Our free speech rights do not stop at your religious views so you do not have the right not to be criticized because of your religious beliefs. This site is private property so you do not have free speech or religious rights on this forum.
I hope that your religious screeds are always public because I enjoy attempting to inject logic and facts into your religious beliefs.
Logic like what the advocates of the age of reason did in the French Revolution or the government of Mexico did to the Christeros or various godless atheist regimes did to believers in the Warsaw Pact Nations , Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Vietnam, etc?
How can you possibly bow to a man who has no record of existing?
Your Christian apologetics treatises are fast becoming trite. You should embrace facts.
Why don't you fly away?
Because I'm not Tinkerbell.
Is there a reason why I cannot reply to any thread that I choose to?
I don't hate Christians, despite your apparent persecution complex. I abhor ignorance and sloppy thinking.
This link is an April Fools joke isn't it ?
The existence of Herod and John the Baptist do not prove that the biblical Jesus as a son of god and savior every lived. Jesus was likely an itinerant Jewish preacher who got himself killed by the Romans for stirring up trouble, and his story was embellished with the typical religious ideas of virgin birth, miracles, and a resurrection.
You've provided an opinion, nothing more.
Opinion does not equal fact. Something the right just can't seem to fathom.
Bingo! Well done and well said. You are always welcome to express your own opinion on my seeds.
We are here to express our beliefs and opinions. That’s the point of having a forum like this. Demanding proof or facts on a faith based issue is nothing more than harassment.
Since when are asking for facts harassment? Are logic and truth a threat to you?
Kind of one sided aren't you there HA. I have seen many on the right demand proof on such topics as well. If it is harassment, then it works both ways, not just one as you ascertain.
Yes....u are monotonous.
That is a fraud. It came from the " Archoko Volume " - a book self-published in the 19th century by the discredited Rev. W. D. Mahan.
Here is the volume itself . You can read the 'account' starting at page 155.
Indeed. We said.
But you only demand facts when conservatives and Christians share their opinions on the site. Yet you are silent when liberals or believers in nothing or anything else share their opinions here. No demanding of “facts” from them. Your anti Christian anti conservative bias is obvious for all to see.
Why do you say that?
Happy Easter everyone! May you all have a joyous day how ever you observe today or even if you don’t.
Happy Easter and enjoy the day
I hope your pagan fertility festival is joyous.
Comment removed for CoC violation [ph]
1.) Easter is a rebranded pagan fertility festival. That is where the rabbit, eggs, and chicks come from.
2.) I am cynical and sarcastic. I am not mean or nasty. I do not hate people just because they exist.
Can you point out which part was mean or nasty? Seemed really friendly to me.
Anyone who isn't a believer is mean and nasty. This is the spring equilivent of the war on Christmas.
I missed that.
The other seed was pretty much just that, a secular war on Easter.
Are facts a threat to Easter and Christmas?
There are billions of people on this planet who either don't believe in the divinity of Jesus or in any mythological God. That doesn't give us the right to deny your right to believe in anything that gets you through the day. It also doesn't give you ,as a believer, either the right to denigrate us or proselytize us through what we think are fairy tales.
I firmly believe that that you are wrong, but even if there is a God, there would be many ways to find him. The message you should be preaching is one that we are all on the same journey in life. It is how we get there that's different.
There is only one way for all who have heard about what was celebrated today. People in the past who lived their lives not knowing the first or second covenant who lived by the best light they were shown will be saved. Those aware of what was celebrated today and it’s meaning have seen the best light that’s going to be shown. So, for all of them, there is no way possible to be saved except through Him. Those living today not exposed to that knowledge can still be saved by living up to what they have been shown by God.
The vast majority of humans aren't Christian, although the Muslims and Jews worship the same god as do the Christians.. and even among Christians, there are 33,000 different sects, who have murdered each other for centuries merely for disagreeing on minor issues, while they pretend to be prophets.
If your god does exist, do you think it's stupid enough to not have many paths to it? If it rules all of humanity, why would it only love your ilk, and disdain everyone else? That's total arrogance on your part, and implies a disgusting god. One more way you claim that you are above everyone else and that your hatred and disdain for them are justified.
You don't talk or walk like Jesus ... yet you think you're holy. Jesus wouldn't know you - have you even read your bible? I have, and it clearly says that Jesus won't know people like you. He had no use for false prophets who thought they spoke for God.
I live up to what the good parts of the bible tell me - not the parts about selling my raped daughters to their rapists, or enslaving my enemies, or having my village murder my children if they're disobedient.
If you're truly moral, then tell us now that you think it's wrong to sell your daughter to her rapist; tell us it's wrong to demand that your village murder your child if it's disobedient. Show some morality. Come on, try it. If you can't do it .. then stop pretending you have any moral high ground.
Or to turn out your virgin daughters to be raped by the men of your village, to prevent the men of your village from raping the two men who are staying in your house, who the men of your village really want to rape instead, because the two men staying with you have told you that they are really angels and you believe them, but that the men of your village don't want to take you up on the offer of raping your virgin daughters and still insist on wanting to rape the two men who are in your house.
If you put the above sequence into any fiction novel, any publisher in the world would throw the book back in your face based on that passage alone.
You display a level of hypocrisy and arrogance in your responses that insult billions of people worldwide that don't believe in the same superstitions as you. You have the right to believe anything that you want, but your condemnation of others is a very ungodly thing to do.
What gives you the right to tell others who, what, or why to believe? That is an individual choice...... not yours. Your high horse looks more like a rotting pig. Maybe you should remember one particular bible verse......."Judge not lest you be judged".
I simply expressed my belief as to what will happen. I didn’t say others were not entitled to their beliefs or their expressions of them.
Lot was not an example of one who did the right thing in the Bible. Quite the contrary. None of his adult children left the city. His wife turned back and looked at it as she couldn’t bear to give it up. The angels refused to allow Lot’s go along to get along offer and went out and smote the homosexual mob with blindness instead. Afterward Lot led his daughters astray and got drunk. They never saw Abraham again and were never again mentioned in the Bible until hundreds of years later when their descendants were one of the groups the children of Israel had to defeat when they returned to Canaan from Egypt.
Well, I hope everyone had a great holy day. I got to see my nieces, brother in law and sister who visited from southern Jefferson.
I’d like to thank all who shared their Easter experiences past or present here and wished others a happy Easter here. Remember, like Christmas, Jesus is The reason for the season. Since Easter is over I’m locking the seed to concentrate on other seeds.
Some of those are less busy now so feel free to express yourselves within the coc.
I had a great personal Easter service on the Tuesday after Easter with my mom, which I made happen for her. I notice that you didn't bother chiming in on that article, because it doesn't support your opinion that all atheists are out to persecute Christians.
Jesus wept.
Tired of reading about the porn star scandal?
Maybe put your actions where your faith pretends to be, and hold those you support up to ethical standards ..
never mind. Ethical and moral arguments are wasted on those who put their political parties over their ethics and our country.