{"id":5423,"date":"2014-06-04T00:05:24","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T07:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5423"},"modified":"2014-06-03T20:44:21","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T03:44:21","slug":"hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/06\/04\/hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

On average, I manage to consume at least two books, usually three or four, every week. I\u2019ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. It started when my mom began taking me to the library when I was very young. My reading fixation has never wavered since, even through college and graduate school. <\/p>\n

\tThough I spend an inordinate amount of time reading science fiction novels, there\u2019s another sort of book that I read through every year. Given that I\u2019m a theologian, college professor, and author of several religious books, it\u2019s no surprise that it\u2019s the Bible. But why do I read it cover to cover every year? Did I lose a bet? Do I do it out of a sense of religious duty?
\n\tI read it regularly for the same reason I read anything: entertainment and knowledge. At sixteen, I had never read through the entire Bible even once. All I knew of it were a few bits and pieces, mostly from what I\u2019d heard in Sunday School and church. I decided I needed to learn the book for myself.<\/p>\n

Reading through it the first time was eye opening: I discovered stories I\u2019d never heard before. And the ones I had heard before? Sometimes what was written in the Bible was not exactly the way I\u2019d learned it in Sunday School. <\/p>\n

\tWhen I first started reading the Bible I tended to treat it like the man in the old story who wanted to know what God\u2019s will for his life was each day. One morning he pointed at a spot on the page with his eyes closed. Opening his eyes, he read \u201cJudas hanged himself.\u201d Finding no comfort there, he tried again, only to have his finger land on the phrase, \u201cGo and do thou likewise.\u201d In a panic, he tried a third time, only to read \u201cWhatsoever thou doest, do quickly.\u201d Of course, the Bible is not designed to be used like a Ouija board or Magic Eight Ball. It is not a fortune cookie.<\/p>\n

I eventually learned the importance of context: understanding what was happening on the page, as well as taking into consideration the cultural and historical setting. The comfort I could gain from the Bible moved from seeking what mattered to me, to seeking what mattered to God. <\/p>\n

\tAs I saw how God worked with the characters in the Bible, learned about their struggles and concerns, I discovered that these ancient individuals faced the same doubts, confusions, and problems that I did. They were just as flawed as me, just as troubled. And God stayed with them regardless. I learned that they didn\u2019t always get the answers they wanted. I learned that they weren\u2019t always comforted. But through it all, they stayed with God anyway. <\/p>\n

The stories in the Bible have helped me in times when I couldn\u2019t make sense of my world, when everything was going wrong, and when there seemed to be no hope. I found no guarantees that I\u2019d always get out of my problems, but I did find out that even if I couldn\u2019t understand why, God\u2019s love remained\u2014and He hadn\u2019t left me just because I was hurting. <\/p>\n

\tOne day most of the followers of Jesus left him. Jesus turned to the twelve apostles and asked, \u201cAre you also going to leave?\u201d Peter responded, \u201cLord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.\u201d (John 6:66-68). During those times that I get so low that I wonder what\u2019s the point, why go on, why not just give up on God, I remember Peter\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

\tDuring the reign of king Jehoshaphat, the people of Judah faced an overwhelming invasion. There seemed to be no way out. They saw no hope. So king Jehoshaphat prayed to God: \u201cFor we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.\u201d (2 Chronicles 20:12). If nothing else, we can always keep our focus on Him.<\/p>\n

\tThe prophet Habakkuk asked God to do something about the misbehaving people of Israel. God answered that he\u2019d send the Babylonians to punish them. This puzzled the prophet, since he knew the Babylonians were far more deserving of God\u2019s judgment than the Israelites. How could God use a greater evil to judge a lesser evil? God gave him no satisfactory answer. But the prophet decided to trust God anyway:<\/p>\n

I heard and my heart pounded,
\nmy lips quivered at the sound;
\ndecay crept into my bones,
\nand my legs trembled.
\nYet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
\nto come on the nation invading us.
\nThough the fig tree does not bud
\nand there are no grapes on the vines,
\nthough the olive crop fails
\nand the fields produce no food,
\nthough there are no sheep in the pen
\nand no cattle in the stalls,
\nyet I will rejoice in the LORD,
\nI will be joyful in God my Savior.
\nThe Sovereign LORD is my strength;
\nhe makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
\nhe enables me to tread on the heights. (Habakkuk 3:16-19)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tSometimes life just doesn\u2019t make sense. But that\u2019s no reason to give up on God. If you give up on God, has your problem gone away? Does it make you feel better?<\/p>\n

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On average, I manage to consume at least two books, usually three or four, every week. I\u2019ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. It started when my mom began taking me to the library when I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5423"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5423"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5425,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5423\/revisions\/5425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}