Having dealt with really depressing subjects lately, I feel it might be time to talk about our cause for hope. This will depart from my usual fare, but I have a feeling someone needs to hear this.
I believe in God’s providence. That means He has a way of making things work out for the best. Suppose someone loses his job because of alcoholism. That causes him finally to be serious about getting help. While at a meeting years later, he sees someone he used to work for, someone who is really down, close to suicide. He greets and welcomes the man, and begins to walk beside him, and show him there is another way.
Our hardest times can lead to a new understanding, and ultimately new life. We are weak, unable to accomplish what we want on our own, but we are not alone.
I am a Catholic, as you may have guessed, given the title of the book I have written about, God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design. I have experienced God’s providence firsthand. That does not mean things have always been easy. Far from it. But somehow God got me to a place where He could use me to edit that book. Someday I will tell the story of that journey, with all its twists and turns.
If you are on a dark lonely path, do not despair. God loves you. (I say this in all sincerity, having experienced it first hand.) You are a mote, a tiny fleck of molecules compared to the universe, but you have an immortal soul of more value than all the kingdoms of the earth and a purpose planned from all eternity. Reach out for hope, ask God for faith, and accept His profound love for you.
On the night before he died, Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” (John 14:4). What does it mean to abide? It means to be connected to, a part of the vine, sharing the life of the vine.
What connects us to Jesus? Repentance, baptism, and faith in Him.
Peter answered that question in the very first sermon after the Holy Spirit came down on him and the other apostles at Pentecost. Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)
Paul puts it this way: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
If this is news to you and you want to know more, or you want someone to walk with you, leave a comment or DM me. I will connect you with someone who can help. God bless. I do not intend to argue about this. If you do not like it, I am sorry. You can always unsubscribe.
Reason for Hope
Your encouraging remarks about there being cause for hope in today's chaotic world are most welcome, Ann.
In somewhat the same vein, the intellectual turmoil that today attacks so much that is good and holy has led many to lose faith in the traditional human values of God, faith, and family which are the backbone of any truly viable culture. The traditional role of college and university, where freedom of thought allowed a contest of ideas in which one could hope and expect that truth would triumph and liberate mankind, has been replaced by woke agendas that denigrate true values and replace them with such evident perversions of God's creation as aggressive transgenderism. Modern man has been thrust into a world where rampant skepticism attacks all traditional belief and values.
My own response to this depressing intellectual state has been to publish a number of online articles defending the rational foundations of traditional theistic beliefs. Recently, En Route Books was kind enough to take some 41 of my articles and publish them in a single volume which directly addresses the depressing state of modern skepticism and says so explicitly in its title, "Rational Responses to Skepticism."
I don't expect to get rich selling this book, but I do hope that readers can use it to reassure themselves that there is really reason to believe in such a thing as authentic revelation given by a loving and all-powerful God who wants us all to find eternal happiness in the real world to come after this challenging earthly life. This book shows why religious faith is not merely pious superstition, but the only sane and intellectually solid way of looking at human life and the world.
My hope is that my own work will serve simply to augment the kinds of reason for hope that Dr. Gauger expresses from a slightly different perspective in her excellect work, "God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design."