Hopelessness, faithless, loss of community and suicides in China

Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.2 Peter 3:9

I woke from a dream this morning. A dream of what people are suffering from when they have no hope, no faith, and no sense of community, and who live in  tight restrictive regimes that believe that God is a crutch and an opiate for the masses.

When people have no sense of identity of who they are and where they came from they lose the very hope for their existence.when they find that money doesn't provide happiness, relationships do not and work does not.

For me, I cannot fathom  life without my life giving God breathed Savior Jesus Christ.  But for many in the land of these restrictive regimes where the mere mentioned of the word Jesus is forbidden less they had the good fortune of running into a Christian tent maker willing to share their love for Jesus with them their lives continue until they can find reason to continue the misery of their life. In those countries where there is no hope suicide becomes an option to escape their misery, their pain of lonliness and their lost identity.

Where there is hopelessness it becomes impossible to understand the context of tragedy or the death of a loved one such as a child.  In China where hopelessness is overwhelming  people have no idea how to handle the incredible painful emotions that result from a death.

When they receive news of such a death they collapse much like the rest of us. The difference is that for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ and hold  the traditions of worship and honoring the Savior on the Sabbath and having weekly fellowship we have the ability to put such losses into proper context as we 'wrestle' with God who brings us through the pain of our grief.

 For those of us with such a faith we have the means to survive tragedy. Many others without such hope do not. For them lost hope means getting high on drugs and drinking alcohol until they collapse. While those of us with a strong faith conquer our grief like sojourners on a mountain top, others become trapped in a lifestye of addiction because it is the only thing they know to cope with their grief. Opietes become their false religion, their forever 'friend' and their false sense of hope.

My hope for the people in these restrictive countries and for many in our country is that they will have an encounter with God either through another friend who is a believer, or through dreams and revelations that point them to our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus wants no one to perish and everyone to come to salvation.and He will use every means to reach the loss, the hopeless, and the grief stricten person.

My faith is real. My faith has stood the test  of time since the day I made my decision to follow Jesus Christ, even after tragedy struck. My prayer for others who are filled with hopelessness is that they will come to know the Savior much like I did years ago. After all, Jesus points us to the cross and says to the hopeless that when grief enters your being this will not be your defining moment, but it will be a way for God make his presence truly felt in your life.