Hope Is the Prayer on Everyone’s Lips! :: by Don Twobears

After you die… hope no longer exists for you!

As I sit here and write this article, I am reeling from a few things. My wife and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on August 16. That my friends, is being married to my wife for 40 years! Now I know there are many others that have gone a lot further in years than we have, yet for me, your humble writer of articles, I am amazed we have gone so far!

Trust me when I say, it was Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, that has made this a distinction for us. We were just there… Just sort of wandering about, listless and unaware…and then POW!

So, now…we are going to examine why this is something special. Well, at least for us and others like us. I am a man and Monika, my wife, is a woman and we entered into marriage as it was always meant to be; one woman and one man. The Lord God’s blessings from the very beginning, because we did things as we knew the Lord wanted us to.

Let me stress, we were not in a relationship with our Lord and Savior at that time. BUT…the Lord knew we would be soon enough… That my friends is enough…especially for the Lord, as far as I know. I say that, because HE has blessed us continually. When we needed a swift swat in the pants, HE provided that for us as well and I can assure you, that it really hurt. The Lord God loves us, that much!

As you may know, my wife and I were educated and making a lot of money, had many, many THINGS. And the Lord set us straight, concerning THINGS…they did NOT matter one bit, if we didn’t have HIM! HE had blessed us; there was little that we didn’t have or at least had access to at any time.

The problem was this: HE wanted to be first in our lives and we had not made that so. Therefore, HE took all of that away from us and when I say all of it, I truly mean every last penny. So there we were trying to figure out how this came to be. When we figured it out, we almost jumped out of our skin. We hit our knees instantly and begged the Lord God to forgive us. NOT because we wanted all that back or to continue as we had, but to ask forgiveness for our lost direction, our neglect of HIM.

Oddly enough, we are better off now than we ever were before. We do not have to worry with a mortgage or those fancy new cars, with all the buttons and whistles. We found more importance in each other, sitting together and enjoying being together, watching our children and grandchildren.

There are many things in this world, that are worthy… happiness and safety, contentment and harmony in life are the greatest. You can’t buy these things. There is no sale taking place for these and if there was a price tag on each, YOU would never be able to afford any of it.

For a moment, please do me a favor. Look around, look at all the celebrities and the like and ask yourself, how much harmony and love do you see there? God Almighty created all of them in HIS image and what are they doing? They are spending untold amounts of money on plastic surgery, face-lifts and the like, even so-called gender changes. Yet there is little to no happiness in their little lives and they have only themselves to blame for this.

One day real soon, gravity will affect their bodies, age will change their faces, an endless parade of stupor and lawlessness will be etched in their lives. The thing is…they chose this for themselves. Do you really think the Lord God Almighty will allow them to be this way without any consequence? If you think that way, there is Scripture written just for you and a very special ending as well.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

I am perplexed and in great wonder, how anyone can live this life and never wonder what life would be like…if there was no hope? What a thing to ponder on, much less have to live that way. To stop and look at someone who has more money than sense and then to KNOW…they have no HOPE? Wow…what a concept to behold!

So now the question is this: How does someone live this life and NOT have any HOPE? We still have many, many, educated idiots running about. In other words, what would life be like for someone to not have any hope of anything worthwhile? What would life be like for someone with NO HOPE?

No hope…of ever having any real happiness or of love. To think that they work their butts off…for NO real reason, or lasting effect? That everything they are involved with has NO MERIT. There is nothing of any worth, only an end with greater sadness and then an eternity  that only proves to be worse than anyone would be able to imagine. How is this possible? Relationships that do not matter!

Everything is great and wonderful when they are young, never once thinking, time stands still for no man or woman. How long will the fame last? When will the money run out? When will age rob them of everything they believe is so important? The houses and the cars and the clothing will all fall apart, will need to be replaced with new and that sort of line is never ending.

Yet there is only so much one is able to do to keep aging at bay and one day will come, when they will appear in public and shock everyone. The…what? It’s all gone. And they will have nothing and no one that will care for them. For the rest of their days, they will only live in their memories… there is NO FUTURE left for them.

In all of that time, you saw an elderly woman that looked favorably, fresh and resilient? I remember my grandmothers and they were still beautiful and graceful. But I know they loved the Lord God with all their hearts. I know that because of HIM, these women flourished and were blessed continually.

My beautiful wife is one week from retiring. She is still gorgeous as she was the day, that I married her. Time has given her beauty and people simply flock to her, like a magnet. I know           of only one reason for this…Jesus Christ lives within her! HIS grace shines through her. I am blessed of men… to be a part of her life after all these years. My heart SINGS…because of Jesus Christ!

A question of the like above, just pops in my head. Living a life here on earth, where there is NO hope. Little to no happiness, worthless relationships, disposable marriages, everything breaks and falls apart. Now the question is, without Jesus Christ in their lives, what will their life be like here on earth? Will there be any fulfillment in their lives, will the medals, the statues, all the accolades be enough…when everything is later lost?

And then to note, when they die here on earth, what is awaiting them in Eternity? Life and living on this planet was already tough enough and so much of all the good stuff was lost… in the end. Only to know they will live eternity all alone and lost, persecuted and destroyed, over and over again… without end. And to think, this is what they chose for themselves!

One would think, that if one loves their comforts, being pampered and all, they would think about their future. You would think, they would be concerned about where they will spend eternity. They would want to go to heaven. Has anyone thought to tell them…no Jesus Christ…no heaven? They still have a chance until the day they die… after that… well, they get exactly what they have always wanted and asked for.

Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I would rather be blessed of the Lord… than to have everything in this world and to spend eternity in the lake of fire! If YOU feel the same way, you need to stand up and be counted…to tell the world, screaming HIS praise from the rooftops.