Category: Advent Series

Thank you for returning here for another installment on our Advent study of HOPE.

Christmas is full of laughter and lights, shopping and songs, friends and family, but it is not a joyous time for everyone. So many have lost loved ones this year to COVID, including me.

Grief is a strange critter. It sneaks up on you at unexpected moments and then jumps out to knock the wind out of you. One moment I can be perfectly fine and then a minute later I can be in tears when a small object triggers a memory of my husband. I read an article and turn to share it with Gene and discover he is not there. I laugh when I read a joke and realize I am laughing alone. Grief could lead to depression unless we have hope.

A special blessing walks with hope: God’s comfort. Paul, in writing 1 Thess. 4:13, said those who have faith in Christ do not grieve as those without hope. Later he assured the Thessalonians in a second letter that God would console them as they faced trials: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father – who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope – comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.”

Mary and Joseph experienced stress as they made do with shelter in a stable and placed their newborn son in a manger, but they also sensed God’s comfort. I have experienced grief first hand in recent months, but I also have felt my Father’s gentle touch. That comfort makes his promises about heaven more real, my hope more firm.

Who in your world has suffered a sad loss this year? Does a neighbor need a word of comfort in their first Christmas season alone? Make a phone call. Pass along the hope and comfort that lie within you!

Thanks for coming back to learn more about HOPE through this Advent series of devotionals.

Did you ever make up a Christmas wish list when you were a child? Most of us grew up also making a wish before blowing out the candles on our birthday cake. As we go through this study on hope, have you wondered what the difference is between wishing and hoping?

When I asked Google about the difference, I got this reply: “The difference between hoping and wishing is that hope comes from real, objective reasons that the future is going to be different from the past. Anything other than that is simply a wish that comes from your desires.”

Yesterday, we saw that patience is an important element of hope, but there is another element that is fundamental, and it separates hope from a mere wish. What is that other element that walks with patience and hope? Faith! As Hebrews 11:1 says, “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” I like that definition. Confident assurance!

None of us have yet seen Heaven, yet we believe that it is objectively real and we will go there one day. When that day arrives, we will no longer need either faith or hope. Both will already be fulfilled in Heaven. That is why, in 1 Corinthians 13:13, we see that three things are essential – faith, hope and love – but the greatest of these is love. Why? Because love alone continues on through eternity.

Take time today to close your eyes. You can’t see the things in the room around you, but are they any less real? Let’s fix our hope on those things we cannot yet see but which are no less real!

We are not even halfway through Advent! Will Christmas ever arrive? I “HOPE” so!

When you were a child, did you ever make construction-paper chains to count down the days until Christmas? You knew the days would eventually pass and Christmas would come, but did it seem like the days could never go by fast enough?

That is how it is with hope. It requires patience. Moses promised his people that they would enter the promised land…after forty years in the wilderness. The prophet Jeremiah promised his people that one day they would return from captivity and once again live in their land…after seventy years in Babylon. Isaiah promised a Redeemer would come…and he did, hundreds of years after the prophet had died.

In Rom. 8:23-25, Paul wrote, “Even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don’t need to hope for it.”

Again, Paul wrote in Romans 15:4, “These things were written in the scriptures long ago to teach us. They give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises.”

If you find yourself wishing time would go by faster, that the COVID restrictions would end more quickly, that the vaccine would be offered sooner, that you could open those packages accumulating under the Christmas tree, then set aside time today to slow down. Take a walk outside: Look at our world through God’s eyes and listen to the sounds with God’s ears.

Here we are together again to learn something more about HOPE in this Advent series of devotionals.

A friend of mine had to spend Christmas in jail last year. At the time, I couldn’t imagine how difficult that was for him. To have been condemned in a public court of law, to be far from family, to suffer in isolation, to feel humiliated. And then came COVID, and with it our own isolation and separation from family members. I, at least, was able to “suffer” in the comfort of my own home.

Paul was on trial in Acts 26:6-8. He stood before the king and said, “I am on trial because I am looking to the fulfillment of God’s promise made to our ancestors . . . Yet, O king, [my accusers] say it is wrong for me to have this hope! Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?”

All of us will one day stand on trial in God’s courtroom of judgment. None of us looks forward to that fearsome Day of Judgment, certainly not as it is described in the book of Joel. As Joel 3:16 says, “The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth will shake. The Lord will be a hope for his people, a strong fortress for the people of Israel.” When we stand there with our knees shaking, our hope in Christ will become real: We will not be condemned or humiliated. And instead of being separated from family and being sentenced to isolation, we will walk into the most amazing family reunion of all, including all nations!

Each of us have family members who have preceded us to Heaven. Take a moment today and thank God for their lives. Then listen for about 3 minutes to the following link

And then give thanks for your own hope!

You came back! Thanks for joining us for Day 8 of these Advent devotionals on HOPE.

People know that my husband died of COVID this year. They seem to walk on tiptoe around me, expecting me to take the role of grieving widow when in reality, most days I am fine. Yes, I have down times when I am overcome with tears, but I can hardly mourn when I know Gene is safe in Heaven with the Lord he served. And I will see him again!

Sometimes we think that Jesus was always upbeat, that he never grieved or felt despondent. Yet we remember he wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. We know he mourned as he looked out over the city of Jerusalem and yearned for all to come to him for salvation. Still, even in the depths of pain on the cross, Jesus had hope.

In Ps. 16:9,10 (and quoted again in Acts 2), we see Jesus had hope in the resurrection before he ever came to earth. Psalm 16 was written hundreds of years before Jesus arrived as a baby in a stable at Bethlehem. The psalm says, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hell; neither will you suffer your Holy One to see decay.”

If Jesus relied on hope to see him through hard times, how much more must we need it! Jesus gave us permission to grieve, as I do this year after losing Gene, but scriptures also give us reason to hope. Why not read all of Psalm 16 today and make a list of the things therein that gave the psalmist reasons to hope? Can you celebrate those reasons this Christmas?

With so few Christmas parties and concerts this year due to COVID, my desire is that these brief thoughts each day during Advent continue to focus your thoughts on HOPE.

Over the past few days, we have seen the negative side of hope: the results of false hopes, false assumptions about hope and false sources of hope. Have you ever noticed that no one ever hopes for something negative like famines, floods or plagues?

Now it is time to turn our thoughts to the positive features of hope. Hopes are always set upon something positive, something we think will benefit us or those we love in some way. Children hope for new toys at Christmas, toys in packages that they will rip open on the 25th. For believers, however, the promise of eternal life with Christ is the greatest hope that we have. This hope is not based on wishful thinking but firmly grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Heb. 6:9 tells us, “We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and passes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the innermost sanctuary.” and in 1 Pet. 1:21, we learn that Jesus’ resurrection is the basis of our hope: “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.”

Why not find some small item that symbolizes your hope in the resurrection, wrap it in a box with Christmas paper, and put it under the tree? When you open it on Christmas Day, explain to those around you how it represents your hope of eternal life with Christ.

Welcome back for Day 6 in this series of Advent devotions on the theme of HOPE. Over the past two days we have looked at false hopes and false assumptions about hope, and today we’ll see one final false premise regarding hope: Some people look to the wrong source for hope.

In the Old Testament we often read about people who put their hopes in wooden idols covered with a veneer of gold. We may smirk as we read, thinking how foolish these people were to put their hopes in something they themselves had created, an idol they had to carry from place to place, an idol that could not speak or breathe. We don’t worship idols. Or do we?

In Job 31:24,25, the author asks, “Have I put my hope in money or felt secure because of my gold? Have I gloated about my wealth and all that I own?”

Are people any different from those Job spoke of when folks today rest their hopes on their stock portfolio or their bank account? They take pride in owning a home that offers security against inflation. Or they hope that the physical health they have today will guard them against COVID, heart attacks or whatever the future brings? Gold and money, houses and land, exercise and right eating…each can provide a brief measure of hope but unless we look to the only true source of hope, we will never experience lasting peace.

This season, are you relying on your financial acumen and business plan to protect you in the future, or is the source of your hope firmly grounded in the salvation God has provided in Jesus Christ? Many of us give a financial gift during the Christmas season that offers a brief but tangible measure of hope to someone less fortunate than ourselves. Why not also speak to someone today of the one hope that offers eternal joy?

Welcome back to Day 5 on our journey exploring the Advent theme of HOPE.

At the memorial service for my husband, my son-in-law Anthony shared his memories of being a student in Gene’s classroom. Anthony explained that sometimes as he listened to lectures from his professors, he would hear them say something that did not ring true, and Anthony assumed that the professor had simply made an error. But when Anthony raised his hand in Gene’s class to point out something he assumed had been said in error, he learned that Gene had not made a mistake. Instead, Anthony discovered that his own assumption was wrong, based on incomplete knowledge.

Some people make the same mistake when it comes to faith in Christ. They assume they know more than those who have walked in faith for entire lifetimes. They assume that our hope of eternal life is foolishness. In 1 Cor. 3:18-19, the Apostle Paul refuted that sentiment, saying, “Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, ‘He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.’”

False hopes (see yesterday’s post) are different from false assumptions about hope. My husband Gene was a brilliant man by this world’s standards. He diligently studied scripture. He realized he had only a partial knowledge of all that God was, but Gene knew enough to be confident and have a clear hope in the resurrection.

As Christmas approaches this year, are you wise enough to have hope in all God’s promises? Which of those promises give you confidence for the future? (One of my favorites is in Isaiah 46:3,4.) Why not write out the promise in scripture that means most to you and memorize it as your “thank you” to God this season?

Hello to all those joining us today for the first time. We are on Day 4 of our journey through Advent focusing on the theme of HOPE.

For months the news of COVID deaths – of which my husband Gene was one – has cast a dark shadow over our land. Churches and schools have closed. People have canceled Christmas plans to gather with family and friends. Recently, however, the possibility of a new COVID vaccine has given hope to our nation. The stock market rises. People get careless about wearing face masks. But those hopes are only temporary. Another virus will emerge. The stock market which rose one day will fall the next. Our hopes turn out to be temporary.

When Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi heads back to her homeland, alone and penniless, Ruth and her sister-in-law Orpah travel with her. Naomi encourages them to turn back and return to their families. Normally, if one of her sons had died, the other son would marry the widow of his brother and provide for her. But Naomi has no more sons. “Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes…even if I said I have hope, and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what? Would you wait for them to grow up?” (Ruth 1:11-13) Naomi does not encourage false hopes.

False hopes result in disappointment and depression. Do we place our hope in a man-made vaccine to deliver us from this year’s virus or in a Bethlehem baby who delivers us for all eternity?

Welcome back to day 3 of our Advent series on the theme of HOPE. Feel free to invite a friend to join us on this journey!

When I begin a Bible study of a topic like hope, the first tool I reach for is my concordance. When I looked up the word “hope” in this index of all the words in the Bible, I was surprised to find that the word doesn’t appear in the Scriptures until the book of Ruth, and from there it jumps to the book of Job. Nothing about hope in the first seven books of the Bible? The word first appears in the story of Ruth, after a time when Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi has suffered through a famine and then the loss of her husband and both sons. And in Job, we find a man who has lost his family, his crops, his herds and his health.

Having just lost my husband, I understand their grief but also their need for hope. What is it about hard times that causes us to hope? If everything is going fine, then we have no need to hope for more. But when we are at the nadir of our difficulties, we yearn for health, we hope for restoration. In the depths of despair, Job says, “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my hope.” (Job 6:8)

When the prophet Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah was also in the pit of despair. His entire culture had been destroyed by the Babylonians. These invaders had burned the Temple, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, and enslaved Jeremiah’s people. The prophet cried out, “The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time…yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness.” (3:19-22)

Has COVID worn you down? Will you be alone at the holidays? Reach into your Bible today and find the Author of Hope.