| SUNDAY | April 12 |
Hope Amid Our World
Life after September 11, 2001, has greatly changed. People will always remember the images of passenger airliners flying into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. We all realize that it can happen again. There is no way we can be fully protected from people who are prepared to die as they use an airplane, filled with men, women, and children, as a flying bomb or are willing to blow themselves up at a bus stop or in a supermarket. There is fear everywhere and, considering the world we live in, that fear is understandable.
What did Jesus single out as one of the characteristics of the time of the end? Luke 21:25, 26.
"Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. God's people should be preparing for what is to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise."—Ellen G. White, Child Guidance, p. 555. Imagine what she would say were she alive in our post-9/11 environment!
Ours is a world of war, corruption, greed, and terror. And we know that many unpleasant things yet will occur in the future—in the world, and even in the church. But whatever happens, we have hope through Jesus. There may be anguish among the nations. People may even faint from terror—"apprehensive of what is coming on the world" (Luke 21:26, NIV)—but this will not be the case for those who have been expecting their Lord. None of these horrible things should take us by surprise. After all, the Bible has warned us all through its pages that we should expect toil, suffering, and trouble until Jesus returns. The fact that we see these things only should help confirm for us the truth of God's Word.
Read Luke 21:28. What hope is Jesus offering us amid all the turmoil and fear of the world?
| Why is it so fruitless, and empty, to place our hope in this world or in what this world offers? Why do we tend to do that, even though it should be obvious by now that if we are to have any hope, it must be a hope that transcends whatever this world can give? |
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