an impatient waiting.
David cried: “As the deer pants [longs for] for the water brooks, So my soul pants [longs for] You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2). Here David expresses more than a belief (faith) in God but expects to appear before the face of God, and waits eagerly for it.
This hope we have serves as an anchor, pitched within the veil (meaning into the very presence of God). We have anchored in God! Now the storms can be very rough here below; there can be many instances where we feel that our life is nothing more than just continual turmoil and conflict, yet if we have this hope anchored in God, we will find in every respect there will be a joy and a rejoicing and an anticipation of the better things that are to come.
But God sets before us the rejoicing of hope, a hope of many things that are to come. This hope causes our hearts to thrill as time goes on. Our hope is like an anchor, both sure and steadfast, anchored within the veil, into the presence of our God. It is a real and living hope.
Let’s look at the amazing sources, or the springs of hope, in our heart: … we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation works patience; and patience experience; and experience, hope” (Romans 5:3, 4 KJV). A man who has real hope in his life is a man who has come up against life often enough to know that the great catastrophes and problems that would swamp him do not occur as consistently and effectively as one sometimes thinks. A man who gives up without hope is a man who does not realize that many a time there can be a dozen reverses consecutively in his life and that suddenly there will spring forth a pattern of success and blessing. The Christian knows the same thing. We glory in the tribulation we go through, knowing that the tribulation will work endurance in us, the endurance will work an experience, and that experience gives birth to a real living hope in our life.
In Ephesians 1:10–20 we read that this hope comes from being called by God—“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling”. Down in the heart, God places a hope of His calling, something that seems to live and move within our hearts. We know that God has called us. We know that He intends to meet our lives and to bless us richly. So, that living hope is there within us—the hope of His calling.
This hope comes by the grace of God. II Thessalonians 2:16 says, “Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work”. There may be momentary periods of despair, but God is always faithful, who will again bring forth such a living, vital hope within the lives of his people. That’s God’s way of working in our lives.
There are things that happen to your life by hope. Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoicing in hope” and Romans 8:24 says we are saved by hope. So we can see that there is a rejoicing and there is a salvation that lingers in our life through the hope of God. Hebrews 3:6 reads, “We hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end”. Hope keeps us steadfast. Much of the stability that comes to a person’s life is not coming because the circumstances round about them are so encouraging, but because they’re hopeful, therefore they are steadfast in the Lord.
The New Covenant of Christ brought forth hope of a better salvation. Before Christ man was caught in futility with no real hope of a permanent salvation. “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed [guaranteed] with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:17-20).
“And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:11-12).
Religion and Clergy Malpractice
Churches or its ministers be sued for malpractice in the courts such as doctors and other professionals? Some say that subjecting churches to liability for malfeasance is a violation of the first amendment and produces a "chilling effect" on religion as a whole.
First of all, some see organized religion as a threat to society (one can draw a large polarity between religion and true spirituality). The current state of religion is about the dollar, membership numbers and visibility (via television for instance). Also popular is the compromise of spiritual principles in the name of making the religion more palatable to the masses. Religion is used to obtain political and/or moral goals and is a vast opiate for society in that society is lulled into a false sense of security, claiming possession of some tenet or another that they really don't have. Religion is one big advertisement for its particular brand of spiritually (or lack of it). Denominations number into the multi thousands (or more) each advocating their own particular interpretation of Christ or whatever god or gods they are worshipping. Polytheistic religions aside, if there is only one God how can he have such a confusing and varied set of doctrines?
Verdicts against some large religions are valid. Verdicts against non-mainline religions such as Scientology, polygamy, Mormonism and counseling by ministers without even basic training in how to direct people seems justified. The ministers, who admit the truth that they are unqualified to be a marriage counselor, and refer their congregants to professionals, are to be commended. They know that subject is minimally covered in seminary school and they are willing to stick with what they know which is (purportedly) religion and spiritually. Those who bull ahead, and act out of their field, deserve to be regulated by the rest of society. It is age old law that one be responsible for his/her actions that do harm to others. Those who come to the church for suicide counseling and are told just to believe God are being done a dangerous disservice.
Not that psychiatry has all the answers. But there are myriad support groups where the individual takes charge of his/her own destiny with the support of others similarly situated. Would the church, or would Alcoholics Anonymous, be better able and qualified to treat alcoholism?
What about drug dependence, molestation, mental disorders, violent temper, personality disorders or depression. Who would be more qualified: A group of peers who had been there or a trained mental health professional; or a minister who likely has no education, training or experience (personal or otherwise) in treating these illnesses? Would you want your preacher proscribing a cure for cancer? Yet some have done this, shunning medical care for a spiritual prescription, and have (or should have) had their hands slapped hard by our legal tort system i.e. a reasonable person would find this an abhorrent practice. Religion regulated by a government system is unwise and illegal in our society. There, however, can and should be legal regulation by a group of 12 ordinary persons in a jury box who don't decide policy per se but decide what is preventable negligence in each separate case that comes before them.
When a standard of reasonable conduct is used to measure religion, the result is good if the religion is sometimes brought up short. Do we not sue the Doctor who cut off the wrong arm, or left a sponge in a patient's stomach? Should we not likewise sue the church or religious practitioner for doing psychological damage by applying religion as a cure-all? The constitution gives us a right to practice religion but not apply it in an extreme that goes beyond religion and into conduct that any reasonable man can see as harmful. As an example we have the right of free speech but that right does not extend into areas like yelling fire in a theater.
Our function of a separated government including courts, as set forth in our constitution, seems to do quite well in most cases. We may not find, in all cases, the one right answer, but together we find a reasonable answer. I can think of no standard that could work as well. Since we have the institution of religion we as a society should