David:     I’m looking for a word. Here’s the definition at least according to my dictionary. A feeling that what is wanted will happen. My dictionary gives a second definition.

Karen:     Okay.

David:     We’re just looking for this word. Desire accompanied by expectation.

Karen:     How about hopeful?

David:     I’m going to give it to you because you’re right on the nose. The word is hope.

Karen:     Hope. Okay.

Intro:      Welcome to the Before We Go podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.

David:     This is going to date us, Karen, because I don’t think people talk about this anymore but when a woman, young woman, anticipated getting married she had a hope chest. So, she would put into this chest linens or silverware clothing whatever.

Karen:     Household items that she was collecting to set up a household with.

David:     So, she was anticipating. Well hope.

Karen:     Yeah.

David:     Hope is one of the big three that’s listed in that 1 Corinthians 13 chapter on love. It says these three abide: faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. But we’re going to talk about hope and the reason I want to talk about hope is because of what we’re going through in terms of our own life.

Karen:     So, this brings a lot of considerations. I’m wondering what sorts of things our listeners are feeling. Are they discouraged? Are they panicky?

David:     Have they lost hope?

Karen:     So how are you feeling listener because you’re the person we’re talking to. We’re wanting to remind you of some things that we all know but sometimes don’t activate in our Christian lives.

David:     I’m going to put into a sentence what it is we’re saying. Okay?

Even in difficult circumstances, it is important to hope in the Lord. Here’s a scripture that was meaningful to me. This is out of lamentations. Barley I’m going to this because I’ve been studying a lot in Jeremiah lately. How much do you know about Jeremiah?

Karen:     I know he had a rough life. He was a prophet. It was not easy. A prophet of the Lord in the time when Israel was far away from God.

David:     He had to say tough messages to Israel. This is after he wasn’t heated at all. The whole nation fell. Many of the leaders were deported to far away…

Karen:     … in forced exile.

David:     Jeremiah stayed because the enemies took a liking to him and understood that he had been telling the people surrender and God will protect you, but they didn’t obey that at all. But at the same time, he has watched his whole nation collapse. And these are his words, and you’ll recognize them.

“I remember my affliction, and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed for his compassion’s never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.”

Those are verses that a lot of people have claimed as their own.

Karen:     …and memorized.

David:     I think that’s wonderful.

Karen:     Right, exactly.

David:     So, they’re wonderful verses. I don’t know that people understand the context of the book. Jeremiah obviously wrote his prophecy and the book that follows in the Bible is the book of lamentations, the book of lamenting. If you put it that way and he’s lamenting because his nation has collapsed. It has gone into captivity, and he is remaining with the people who have been left there.

Karen:     With the remnant who are still in Israel.

David:     It’s the poor people.

Karen:     The poor. Yeah,

David:     …the poor who have no holdings. They just are told to work the land. I want to read those same verses, but I want to read them in the context of what he’s writing.

Karen:     So, this you’re reading a little bit ahead.

David:     I’m starting with the first part of the chapter which is chapter three of Lamentations and reading up to those verses.

Karen:     Oh, did you just quote it? Okay.

David:     So, it gives you the context and the feelings of the man. Okay?

“I am a man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.” That’s God’s wrath. “God has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light. Indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again all day long. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I do not escape. He has weighed me down with chains” and these are literal chains. I mean he has been a captive for years.

“Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. God has barred my way with blocks of stone. He has made my paths crooked like a bear lying in wait; like a lion in hiding, He has dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.

He,” that’s God again, “drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became the laughingstock of all my people. They mocked me and saw me all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall.”

This next verse is incredible. “He has broken my teeth with gravel. He has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace. I have forgotten what prosperity is. So, I say my splendor is gone and all that I had hoped for from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering.”

Now these are the verses that I read before. “The bitterness and the gall, I, well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed. For his compassion never fails. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him.”

Karen:     Powerful, powerful stuff, isn’t it?

David:     It puts it in a whole different context. They’re not just a verse to memorize, but the reality of his situation. You begin to understand it.

Karen:     You know, what’s intriguing to me about that passage, that whole context in history that you’ve given, is that there was a choice he made.

David:     Yes.

Karen:     Despite that catalog of awful things, they were awful. He’s a prophetic poet in the way he uses language. I can see why people got angry with him, because he’s so communicative. But he made a choice to hope. There was an intentionality there that I think when we read these passages, we sort of just think, well, it comes. We’ll put our hope in the Lord. No, you have to sit down and say, despite this, despite having our jobs closed down, despite not having any pay that’s coming, because our jobs have been closed down, I am going to choose and lead my family to choose to put their hope in the Lord. We’re going to say he’s compassionate. We’re going to say he loves us. He will not turn his face on us when we cry to him.

David:     We will see his hand from these God-hunt sightings.

Karen:     We will see his hand in the God-hunt sightings. Every day we will look for him. In our case, I’ve written down God-hunt sightings for 40 years. In my journals, I’m convinced that God works in our lives. So, that’s what we’re going to do. And then we’re going to extend ourselves out of this kind of intentional belief system, giving ourselves true hope, looking to the Lord. And then we’re going to write letters and little cards to our neighbors. They say, I’ve got extra toilet paper. I’ll put a thing of toilet paper in every mailbox. You know, whatever I can do to show you that we’re living within a belief system that is buoying us up, and we want to share that with you.

David:     I think it’s really well said. Here’s the sentence again that I’ve been working with. Even in difficult circumstances, it is important to hope in the Lord. So, I’m going to keep informed. I have said to myself, I will keep track of how much I watch television because it is addicting.

Karen:     Yeah, it is addicting.

David:     And thank goodness, because on television, they’re beginning to show some of the good stories of what people are doing, how they’re rising, how they’re showing hope.

Karen:     Yeah.

David:     I think that’s a wonderful thing. But I will also make sure that what is informing me as to how I’m going to live is my hope in the Lord, that he will do what he wants to do. In fact, Karen, I was reading the other day, and something just popped. I’ve done a lot of study in Revelation as I’ve used even those studies on our podcast. But I was in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and just reading Scripture in my normal times, and I hit a word and I thought, Golly, what does that word mean now? I need to check that out again.

This is from Luke chapter 21. “Jesus says, ‘There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.’” So, he says, “Great,” and it amplifies three words, earthquakes, famines and pestilences.

What in the world is a pestilence again? You know, it’s not a word I use normally when I talk with people. So, you look it up and I’ll give you what I got from the dictionary anyway.

A pestilence is any virulent or fatal category of infectious disease, especially one of epidemic proportions. I don’t have my study here. My books are elsewhere, so I can’t get to them. So, I can’t say, Okay, what is that in the Hebrew? But when I looked up what pestilence was in terms of my English dictionary, that’s the definition.

So, I’m saying to myself, this is something that God is aware of and maybe, just maybe, which is an exciting thing to me. Because all my life I’ve heard about Jesus is returning. And I’d say probably as a habitual routine without fail. I say, Lord, maybe this day is the day you will return. I don’t know, but that would be wonderful.

I remember my grandmother, Myers, years ago, I would have been probably in junior high, and she was sick. And she was saying, I was hoping that I would live until Jesus returned.

Well, now I’m the older person. I’m the patriarch in our family. And I have thought maybe Jesus would return during my lifetime. I’m not predicting that. I’m just saying…

Karen:     …that would be something wonderful. Yeah.

David:     But I read that, and I thought, wow, that’s another one of those signs that Jesus said, look for these times. He talks about the rising of the seas, you know, people’s hearts fearful because what’s happening in the world. Talking about drowning, drowning our big cities. What are we going to do about it? I don’t know. But I said, Lord, you know, I know the end days from my own understanding of Scripture, not going to be easy days for people. But to think maybe we are the stewards on duty in those days immediately prior to the return of our Lord.

Karen:     Him being called, whether he comes,

David:     You know, whether he comes in the earth,

Karen:     …delays, it’s being called to be faithful and to call people to hope during difficult times.

David:     People, yes, people of hope. That’s what we want to be. Of any people in the world, those who follow Jesus- ought to be people of hope. So basically, I’m going to give a benediction.

Karen:     He’s a minister at heart.

David:     If I were in a congregational setting, I would say, let’s stand and then I would lift my hand over my head like I’m doing now.

Karen:     So, you’re going to do it for a listening audience. So, listen up.

David:     This is Romans 15:13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And all God’s people said, Amen.

Karen:     Why don’t you read it one more time?

David:     Sure. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s a good way to end our time together. God be with you, my friend.

Outro:     You’ve been listening to the Before We Go podcast. And if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address, hosts@beforewego.show. That’s all-lower-case letters, hosts@beforewego.show.

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