{"id":1310,"date":"2020-03-17T12:58:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T18:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theclarion.org\/?p=1310"},"modified":"2020-03-24T14:37:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T20:37:22","slug":"thoughts-from-the-bible-03-18-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/?p=1310","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from The Bible: – 03\/18\/20"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cJesus is the answer to our troubled world!\u201d<\/strong>
\nby Terry Broome<\/em><\/p>\n

Hardly a day passes without the gloom and doom headlines and television reports of killing, and stealing, and crime everywhere \u2013 man\u2019s inhumanity to man \u2013 the \u201capparent\u201d hopelessness of our human race! Poverty and war threaten the dreams and hopes of countless millions. We are very much aware of the horrible conditions in many parts of the world which cause so many people to be pessimistic about their futures. More than pessimistic, it appears to be more a sense of hopelessness. One author wrote that \u201cToday, even the survival of humanity is a utopian hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remember the depressing words of a song of the 70s, \u201cIs That All There Is?\u201d The artist describes having faced various \u201clet downs,\u201d and \u201cbad trips,\u201d \u2013 visualize: her house burning, her father dying, all with the sad refrain: \u201cIs that all there is? If that\u2019s all there is, then let\u2019s keep dancing. Let\u2019s bring out the booze and have a ball, if that\u2019s all.\u201d She feared the ultimate emptiness of not being able to commit suicide, afraid she would have to say on her last breath, \u201cIs that all there is?\u201d This song was one of utter pessimism and hopelessness, and was a sad commentary on the emptiness and hopeless pessimism that pervaded many of that generation. We wonder if it\u2019s any different today.<\/p>\n

In every generation there have been those for whom it seemed this life is all that there is, and there is no hope beyond the grave. Robert Ingersol, the noted agnostic, is reported to have said facing his own death: \u201cOh God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul, from the pit of hell, if there be a hell.\u201d How helpless and hopeless!<\/p>\n

There are a few voices of optimism \u2013 dreamers \u2013 politicians \u2013 who tell us it will get better. It seems they may be a minority, however. Against this background of pessimism, Jesus Christ offers real hope. In fact, without Christ, there is no hope. There are many senses in which the birth of Jesus was in \u201cthe fulness of time\u201d (Gal. 4:4), but one of them certainly is that man had ample opportunity and experience by then to know that he could not save himself nor his world. The world needed a Savior!!!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s \u201cwise ones\u201d are still searching where they cannot find for the answer to man\u2019s inhumanity to man, to heartache, to dying \u2013 stress \u2013 disease. They\u2019ve tried human philosophies: New Age with its mind over matter and so-called \u201cout of body\u201d experiences, transcendental meditation, humanism, existentialism, astrology, evolution, the drug culture, and numerous cultic approaches to defining man\u2019s needs and the fulfillment of them.<\/p>\n

From the Fantasy world of Camelot with King Arthur\u2019s dream of a utopian order, to the real-world dream of the United Nations as a peace keeper over the earth, men are longing and searching for remedies to their hopeless despair. Such movements have come and gone, but only one has brought hope. Only one has any hope of enduring: \u201cJesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever\u201d (Heb. 13:8). The world has had far too many FALSE hopes, FALSE promises; however, Jesus is the real thing! CHRISTIANITY OFFERS A REAL HOPE TO THOSE WHO WILL ACCEPT JESUS WHO SAID: \u201cI am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly\u201d (John 10:10).<\/p>\n

The author can be reached for comments at 256-574-2489<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cJesus is the answer to our troubled world!\u201d by Terry Broome Hardly a day passes without the gloom and doom headlines and television reports of killing, and stealing, and crime everywhere \u2013 man\u2019s inhumanity to man \u2013 the \u201capparent\u201d hopelessness of our human race! Poverty and war threaten the dreams and hopes of countless millions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}