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©
The author
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I was recently on holiday in the beautiful Western Isles where life is slow and still follows traditions dating
back hundreds of years. Everything seemed so peaceful and quiet. Trouble and
violence seemed a million miles away. Even the everyday hassles of the
workplace were forgotten for a while. But
just after we arrived we heard that an Islamist gunman had opened fire on holidaymakers on a Tunisian beach. 38 people died including people from this area. Although I
was far away in Scotland, the world suddenly seemed a more frightening place.
Everything which that morning had seemed changeless and timeless now seemed
vulnerable and threatened.
We
have faced terrorism before, of course, but ISIS seems even more menacing than
previous groups because it doesn't just want land or political concessions but
to wipe out our way of life and will stop at nothing to achieve it. It is also
unsettling because these are not foreigners attacking from the outside but
people from our midst.
Perhaps
you find yourself wondering where things are heading and what life the next
generation will have. Things which we assumed were solid and unchangeable
suddenly appear uncertain and fragile. As governments and ideologies come and go,
and societies and places change, we can feel all at sea with nothing secure to
hold on to.
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© ‘oxyman’,
geograph.org.uk
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The
Bible says that Christians have a hope so secure and certain that it is like
'an anchor for the soul' (Hebrews 6:19) -
something that gives complete confidence when everything else is in chaos. It
will see us safe through the greatest crisis of all, death itself. It will not
change as other ideas go out of vogue. It will safeguard our hearts and minds through
times of the greatest threat and anxiety. It has been proved certain by
generations of people.
What
is this hope? It is a person – Jesus Christ, the one the Bible describes as ‘the
Rock’. Through him we have hope that there is life beyond the grave, a point
and a meaning to life and a way to rectify the wrong done in this life. There
is strength for daily living and true, lasting peace. God knows all that
happens in his world. He will call everyone to account for what they have done
in their lives and will not allow the
terrible things people do to one another to continue forever. God sent Jesus to
deal with the consequences of all that evil - from acts of terrorism down to
the everyday things that fill us with guilt and regret. He came to obtain
forgiveness for all that wrongdoing by dying in our place on a Roman cross. We
only have to trust him and ask him to give us that forgiveness.
The
Bible says that, without Jesus, we are ''without hope in the world'
(Ephesians 2:12) but his death and resurrection gives us “a hope and a future” .(Jeremiah 29:11)
If
you would like to know more about how you can find this hope, open a copy of the Bible and read about
it for yourself, or talk to someone you know who is a Christian.
