By Kurt Koppetsch, Publisher
Shepherd News Trust, Inc.
A world without hope is hell on Earth and the future is contentious and grim.
Hope is divine medicine against insidious stress, as human stress is an acute spiritual problem. Hope laughs at stress, and stress flees the scene. God is laughing with us, for hope is of God, and so is laughter.
Young people need hope to spiritually mature in faith for quality of life--predicated by spiritual wholeness, health, food, shelter and freedom from stress. Hope also is a necessary spiritual diet for inner peace. Hope and peace are means of grace for making life spiritually whole. The spiritual application of hope is prayer and listening to the Word of God, as God is telling us over and over again, saying, "I love you!" It is my hope that this message of hope will inspire every reader to see how God may be working in our lives in the modern Era of Faith.
I believe that we are spiritual in character but secular by makeup. God created us whole beings for the purpose of serving him and people. God supports us in every task that brings glory to his name as we help family, friend and neighbor improve their quality of life; our service to God and people are relationships. I further believe that respect, trust and hope define the commonality of human beings.
I experienced trustworthy hope when my family and I were refugees at the end of World War II in 1945 and running for our lives. God showered us with hope when we were facing death in the ravages of war. I further experienced his gift of hope as a cancer survivor--God stood by me during my prostate surgery and two subsequent skin cancer operations. I know for certain that he continues to bless me with hope in every hardship.
I am writing this blog about the story of eternal life to encourage young people to nurture hope and the spiritual connection as their blessings from God, as hope is a continuing process of change for improving quality of life. These changes are From/to transformations, from chaos to harmony and from stress to inner peace. God saved me and now I pray for like blessings of inner peace for all people, especially for our young people who must battle life's tough choices. I experienced the God of grace and hope as true love, may they experience the same.
And he continues to bless me with his presence in my trials, as he did when I was a young boy on September 1, 1939--my fourth birthday--the infamous day that started World War II. And I now encourage all young people who face fear, stress, terror and uncertainties because of the conflicts in today's consuming world to learn all about hope. My testimony to the Word of God about hope in disaster and tragedy for a new beginning in the ERA OF FAITH is Gospel truth.
Spiritual Hope
Spiritual hope is an ongoing process of happenings and the wonders are always new. I learned that trustworthy hope is the soul's reward in the spiritual connection with God; therefore, sharing our life with him is indeed an exciting experience. Once a hope is fulfilled, God keeps reminding us over and over again, saying, "I love you." Consequently, new avenues of hope open up and wait to be explored. We rely on his promise and together we look forward to the spiritual wonders of the good and beautiful. Simply put, trustworthy hope--spiritual hope--makes us children of God.
Hope, indeed, brings out the child in us in all manner of adverse conditions. God lets our imagination run wild and vision and dreams are abundant. God is telling us that we can be what we want to be. Visions and dreams are his ways to enliven future prospects with the eyes of our soul; and hope is always there to make sure that these dreams and visions come true.
Whereas hopelessness is a muddy path of ruin, trustworthy hope is God's way for spiritual wholeness and abundant life.
Furthermore, trustworthy hope facilitates spiritual solutions to the world's physical ills. God leads us to his rainbow bridge of grace, and he invites us to go across into the future for a glimpse of Heaven. God walks with us and together we watch worldly troubles vanish. We now have the opportunity to improve the quality of life for friend and neighbor.
Biblical stories inspire us with faith to be bold in the hope that God provides. In every instance, he is speaking and assuring us "I love you" and things happen. Stories in conventional literature do not have similar inspirational value.
Secular Hope
Equally important but less dramatic is secular hope; but there are problems. We find legions of experts--academic, ecclesiastical, political, independent thinkers, unbelievers, doubters and skeptics--who are promoting mountains of theories about hope. Unfortunately, the majority of these proposals on secular hope are unfounded; they are full of controversy, small talk and empty promises. Such environment is not conducive for relief to innocent victims of terminating circumstances who desperately long for help from the burden of oppressive stress, anxiety, pain and even death. In their desperation, despairing souls will call for legislated remedies to social ills; but legislators, politicians and greedy leaders in the community are not always there to lend a helping hand or, very often, they get mired in political bickering and partisan politics. This makes secular hope the crisis in modern life.
Compounding the issue further are selfish passions, the outcomes of which are keyed to aspirations in search of human greatness. Individuals aspire for themselves the benefits of respect, recognition, honor and success. But such egocentric wishes are boorish endeavors whose sole objective is success at any cost. Individuals possessed by greed and lust for power will ultimately resort to extremes in behavior to have their dreams come true; for example, Cain killed Abel. The negative side of secular hope continues to be widespread: Politicians, economic and financial opportunists will manipulate the world's resources and use falsehood, cheap rhetoric and wicked party politics to seize control without considerations to solving social problems for the common good.
My challenge to activists of secular hope is to restore what has been squandered and lost and start building a new hopeful environment for future generations using integrity, ethics and justice.
Future glory
Future glory is the eternal life of souls as life in union with God in Heaven. We have lived the spiritual hope on Earth, and now we are prepared to cross the rainbow bridge of grace where God will welcome home his faithful pilgrims after their pilgrimage on Earth of 70 years, more or less. We have labored in faith and our Father in Heaven welcomes us home with open arms according to divine promise. But the laborers of secular hope are destined to wait at God's judgment seat for their final destination. When all is said and done, eternal life is peace. Saints will live the joy of God's glory where timeless relationships are praises of thanksgiving to God for letting us share his life. God has won the victory for the saints who are in Heaven; but those still remaining in the world must continue the struggles and strive to make it a better place for future generations.
Copyright (C) 2010 by Kurt Koppetsch/Shepherd News Trust, Inc. All rights reserved.
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