Tag Archives: Hope

Hope in the Midst of Darkness

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Last Sunday evening, mother-and-daughter singing duo Naomi and Wynonna Judd were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wynonna accepted the honor all by herself.  Her 76-year-old mom had taken her own life the day before.  The Judds were lavishly successful, scoring 14 number one hits on the country music charts between 1983 and 1991.  After a 20-year hiatus, they were… Read more »

Never Alone

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Throughout this season of Advent our focus is “The Story of Christmas in 20 Words.”  On each of the 20 weekday mornings ending on Christmas Eve, we’ll spotlight a single word from the Gospel accounts that helps us ponder more deeply the birth of Jesus. 18.  Hope It’s impossible to tell the story of Christmas without spotlighting hope. Ironically, the… Read more »

A Wave of Hope

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Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Is it wise and good to bring a child into this world? For most of human history, that question answered itself.  Of course it’s wise and good to help fill the world with little ones… Read more »

Hope is Not a Maybe

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Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. As the University of Chicago approached the winter semester of 1947, professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar proposed an advanced course in astrophysics. It didn’t attract much attention.  Just two students enrolled.  At the time, Dr. Chandrasekhar was… Read more »

Hope is a Choice

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Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Ten years earlier, Naomi had left her hometown of Bethlehem and crossed the border into Moab. She had been a wife and a mother of two sons.  The rest of her life lay ahead of… Read more »

Introduction to Ruth

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Throughout November we’re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. Tucked away amongst the voluminous historical narratives of the Old Testament, like a Mom and Pop grocery store on a street that is lined with skyscrapers, there is a surprisingly humble Bible story called the… Read more »

A Prayer in the Darkness

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When author and pastor Timothy Keller released a new book eight years ago, he could not have foreseen how dramatically he would personally be living out the title:  Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering In June 2020 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  Since then his life has revolved around physician consultations, therapeutic strategies, and a great deal of… Read more »

O Little Town of Bethlehem

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2020 has been a dumpster fire. This week an Indianapolis resident hauled a dumpster into his front yard and invited his neighbors to record their feelings about the current calendar year.  Some scrawled “good riddance.”  Others recorded jokes, jingles, and borderline poetry.  At least one resorted to expletives.  In a few days the dumpster’s trashy contents will be ceremonially torched… Read more »

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

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People from all walks of life and every kind of circumstance end up writing Christmas carols. Even burned-out preachers. In 1849, a Massachusetts pastor named Edmund Sears suffered an emotional breakdown.  He wasn’t just bone-weary from laboring for seven years to lead a pair of Unitarian congregations.  His heart was heavy because of the social upheaval that had turned Europe… Read more »

Hope

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What the world needs now is hope. That’s not as catchy a song title as Burt Bacharach’s What the World Needs Now is Love.  And the Beatles never wrote a rock anthem titled All You Need is Hope.  But we live in a dream-shattering, hope-crushing world.  “People in many nations appear to be searching with a new intensity for spiritual moorings.  One… Read more »