November 30, 2012 (Friday)
One of the Gaither songs begins with these words: “‘Twas a life filled with aimless desperation–without hope walked the shell of a man.” Perhaps the saddest words anyone ever uttered are “without hope.” The Apostle Paul described the spiritual state of people without Christ: “ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12 KJV).
On December 17, 1927, near Provincetown, Massachusetts, a U.S. Navy submarine was accidentally rammed by a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, sinking the sub. No one was rescued from the sub, but at one point while a few men were still alive inside it, they tapped a message in Morse Code on the hull, “I-s t-h-e-r-e a-n-y h-o-p-e?” Many are asking that question today.
People need hope. When all hope is lost, nothing remains. That’s the reason our belief in resurrection, heaven, and meeting Jesus Christ face to face is called, “The Christian Hope.” Even when death threatens and seems immediate, we have hope in Christ, because as the Gaither song quoted at the beginning of this blog goes on to declare, “The old rugged cross made the difference.” Once we surrender our hearts to Jesus we will never be without hope again.
