Life and Hope

Life and Hope

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 
                                          Matthew 11:28-30.
I once gave a talk on mental illness to a group at a Church where I was quite well known. I live with Bi-polar disorder (Manic Depression).
Bipolar is an illness that causes your moods to swing from very high highs (the manic phase) to deep lows, (depression). For most that means people with the illness cycle between the highs and lows eight or ten times a year.
In my case I rapid cycle and can go between highs and lows several times a day. Still through a regiment of medications I live with it.
Never-the-less I do at time go through some very hard times. Time that are the equivalent of having a severe mental tooth ache that just wont go away. Depression that makes you think you can’t take it any more.
It’s during these times in particular that I turn to God for my strength to continue on.
During the question period at this particular group I happened to note that Bipolar was worse than cancer.
I noted that I am a cancer survivor and that as a Christian with cancer you either pass on to be in the arms of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are thus cancer free. Or you are cured by the doctors and can continue to serve the Lord in this life.
After the talk a person came up to me and said. You must be careful giving the analogy between cancer and Bipolar when you talk to secular groups. They will not understand.
For many in the secular world death is the end and cancer a death sentence.
The person was right. I’d never thought of it that way. Christians see eternity in a different light.
I remember the death of my sister in law. She was only in her mid fifties and her death was very sudden. She knew the Lord as her Saviour.
As I looked at people during the visitation and the funeral there were basically two groups. The non-believers who were grieving deeply. Those who couldn’t comprehend she was in the arms of her Lord.
Then there was the believers those who knew she was in the arms of Jesus whom she served much of her life. While these people were grieving they had hope. They knew for certain she was in a far better place.
Billy Graham said,
“The Bible says that as Christians we don't grieve the same way people do who have no hope of eternity and of Heaven - but we still grieve.”
                                                                  Billy Graham.
We all grieved for my sister in law on the day she died but those of us who are Christians had hope.
My sister in law in this world had, had at times a rough life. She’d lived in what can only be called abject poverty for part of her life. She overcome alcoholism and a lot of other health problem.
Still through it all she’d found Jesus and made him Lord of her live. While she never became a great evangelist or preacher, she did serve her Lord in her church congregation and on brief mission trips overseas.
Tony Campolo the American evangelist wrote,
“When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?”
                                                                                             Tony Campolo
I’m certain my sister-in-law is happy because she knew Jesus as her saviour.
I’m certain as she passed into eternity she proved the words of Jesus are true when he said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 
                                                   Matthew 11:28-30.
  Do you know Christ as your Lord and Saviour?
What will be your answer to Tony Campolo’s question
“The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?”
You can have hope.
The apostle Paul wrote,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.” 
                                                    Ephesians 2:8,9
Ultimately salvation is an act of faith, Hebrews stating,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
Hebrews 11:6
Faith defined as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” 
                                                                                                              Hebrews 11:1
Jesus said,
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 
John 14:6
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” 
John 3:16-18
Please think about it.