Hope: A Life Line

FROM THE PASTOR
“Hope: A Life Line”

When Elizabeth Kulber Ross addressed her audience of 400 in Brawley, California, where doctors, nurses, pastors, educators were present, she left an unforgettable thought on hope.
She mentioned that when someone is ill and dying, there is one thing you don’t want to take away from them — it is hope.
In dismal times, when life seems to slip away, when jobs are being lost thousands at a time, when a grown child still cannot grasp life, when families cannot hold on to their homes, when financial security is diminished by 30% to 40% or more, when one’s health is on a downward turn, or when life’s vital light is at the last flicker, there is one thing God offers to us. It is hope.
There are times in history when life has been disrupted in sad, violent and difficult ways. Today is not different from some of the worst times of our past. In Elaine Pagel’s book, Origin of Satan, she describes the Jewish wars beginning in 66 A.D. The Roman soldiers responded with power and cruelty. Jerusalem was under siege, the Roman blockade caused great havoc and mothers and children scrambled for food. Even the old were torturing their own to acquire food.
The Jewish armies couldn’t hold on any longer and Tacitus and his soldiers swarmed the Temple, entered the Holy of Holies and looted the treasury. And the Temple was set on fire. Pagel’s observes that it was during this time that the early writing of the During this early period, those who followed Jesus were being persecuted. Under Nero, these persecutions occurred from A.D. 64 to 75. The gospel of Mark was written to bring hope to people in their most difficult times.
Mark introduces good news. John the Baptist says that one who is coming is mightier and more powerful than he. Then Jesus is baptized in the river Jordan. What the people see in those dark Roman days, is a light of hope. Life can be better and it will be. Jesus heals the man with an unclean spirit. He cleanses a leper. He heals the paralytic. He heals the man with a withered hand. You, the reader, might just make list of the miracles deeds Jesus performed, and it will lighten your heart.
Hope has in it great power. I have been in my life, an optimist. I always believed that life will offer us something better. If we believe, if we work at it, the world around us will improve. I hold this thought to be true in our present time.
There is a man who grew up without the faith. His family didn’t go to church. His parents were disillusioned by the church. He was a non-believer and a non-church goer. After he lost his job, his life was totally disrupted. One day, how this happened he’s not sure. He picked up the Bible and started to read about the life of Jesus. Hmm! He read about the miracles of Jesus and how lives were being affected. He studied more.
Sometime later, he and his wife went to a Greek island on a vacation. He was curious why there were so many tour buses. People were gravitating to a cave. His curiosity was aroused. It finally came to him, this was the island of Patmos and the cave was where John wrote Revelation. His heart turned and his life changed.
He is today a believer, a church goer and his life is filled with hope.
—Dennis Ginoza