Still, We Hope

We can't help it: We hope.
When it seems there is no earthly reason, still, we hope.

When blood covers our streets and suspicion clouds our minds; still, we hope.
When knee-jerk reactions express the frustrations of life that is fearsome, uncertain, deadly; still, we hope.

When politicians hide behind political correctness and harden hearts to people in favor of party rhetoric; still, we hope.
When preachers march to seminars on leadership, preaching, and membership increases but never march for justice- social, racial, or financial;  when they call not for religious liberty and never call for repentance from the sin that kills both spiritually and socially; still, we hope.

When tyrannical despots rise; when hunger grows; when love grows cold; when anger scolds; still, we hope.

When small, fearful people begin to blame with blankets: Hebrews in ancient Egypt; Samaritans in Jesus' day; Jews in the1930's; communists in the 1950's; Blacks in the 1960's; Mexicans crossing the borders in the 2000's; Syrians in the current year; still, we hope.

When weapons are forged for death from land, sea, air, and space, still, we hope.
When viruses resist; when cancer persists; when bodies and minds wither through the decades, still, we hope.

BUT WHY and HOW ?

Our Christian hope is simply not in the world and its institutions, its politicians, its devices of progress or destruction; its many voices of violence, fear, hatred and death.

Our Christian hope is based on the certainty of God's promises and His character. It is evidenced by the fruits of joy, sacrificial love, boldness, and endurance. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people. Thats where our hope is in this country and in this life.  (Chuck Colson)

Why so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.   Psalm 42:11

The church of hope will raise its voice against tyranny, fear, hatred, and death. We will shine the light of the presence of God's joy in the darkness of this world. We will love those the world scorns; we will feed those the world neglects; we will see those the world has grown blind to; we will treat each person as though they were made in God's image, died for by God's son, and valued as God's treasure, because they are.  

We are the church and our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.

Still, we hope! With Christ Jesus as our Lord, we just can't help it.