As we are now well into the twenty-first century, we can but look back and marvel at the technological changes that marked the twentieth century. The century saw the invention and development of many of the processes and products that have revolutionised man’s existence. I have been blessed to personally witness many of these changes.
We have gone from the horse and buggy to jet liners and space travel. Man has travelled to the moon more quickly than he previously travelled across a continent. The computer has replaced the slide rule. The internet and information highway have turned the whole world into a global village. Television has transformed civilisation, and not necessarily for the better.
With all these "improvements," it would seem that we should be able to say that man stands on the doorstep of a bigger, better and brighter future. Surely we have reason to be optimistic. Could we be entering a new millennium of hope and peace?
But if we look around us and make a reality check, we must ask ourselves, what does man have to look forward to in the future? Environmentalists, demographers, sociologists, economists, geo-politicians and military analysts, all speak of the possibility of a future filled with environmental disasters, population pressures, social and economic breakdown and regional wars and strife and terrorism on an unimaginable and unprecedented scale.
Who can deny that every indicator one might use to measure man’s real prospects of achieving true peace, happiness and success in the future seems to give a negative reading? All this might make one think of the statement of an English realist who said, "In the long run, we will all be dead." Or the statement of the French scientist, Pierre Berchelt, who said in 1860, "Within a hundred years man will know what the atom is. It is my belief that when science reaches this stage God will come down to earth with His big ring of keys and will say to humanity, "Gentlemen, it’s closing time:" Or the response of the lad who was asked what he hoped to be in twenty years. He simply replied, "Alive.!"
It’s Our
Happy Hope
That Makes All
The Difference
I am sure that in the midst of all this it is fair to say that hope springs eternal in the human heart. So let us speak of hope. A real and happy hope. A hope that makes the difference. Of course, man’s only hope lies in a future created and shaped by God. This hope will find its ultimate fulfilment in that city whose builder and maker is God. A prepared place for a prepared people. A place populated by those who have escaped the surly and sinful bonds of this earth and soared to a city where sin no longer abounds nor harms or hurts have their sway.
Where death and disaster no longer damage and destroy the dreams and delights of even the most hopeful. Where the tears of terrible trials and traumas will be turned to tears of tremendous joy and triumph. Where the darkness of wickedness and evil will be forever vanquished; because such can no longer exist in the city that is Lighted by the eternal Son. This hope of a brighter tomorrow brings light in the shadows and darkness of today’s world.
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