"Looking For The Blessed Hope" [titus 2:13]

A certain euphoria seems often to surround the beginning of the New Year! People speak of having left behind the old year, with all its problems, as if the mere fact of passing a point in the calendar could really alter the basic cause of our difficulties. In wishing "a happy New Year" there's sometimes an artificial optimism, expressing a hope which has no real foundation.

Certainly at the beginning of 1982 there is little enough ground for optimism as we look at the world situation. Massive economic and political problems threaten and overshadow all nations. Unrest, strife, violence and war disturb the lives of millions, a state of affairs well described by the vivid figure of speech in Romans 8:22: "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now".

Yet from the Christian viewpoint the most oppressive situations are relieved by the certainty and grandeur of our hope in Christ. The grace of God has appeared, bringing us salvation, instructing us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age, "looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ". Here is hope surely guaranteed in our divine Saviour, a hope which will be gloriously fulfilled at His appearing. As faith daily looks upward to Christ and onward to His return, the believer's spirit is sustained through all the groaning and travailing of the present order of things. Of course,

we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For by hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it (Rom. 8:24-25).

For many believers, suffering oppression for the sake of the Name, this hope of deliverance through the coming of the Lord Jesus must be particularly precious. There are continuing reports of the persecution of believers in several East European countries. One striking example is that of a former KGB official arrested last March and sentenced to psychiatric treatment in a Soviet prison hospital. At one time he had been responsible to monitor Christian activities, but was himself converted to Christ and as a result dismissed from the KGB. Already he has spent five years in a forced labour camp, and five years in prison psychiatric wards; now he is again imprisoned.

Another Russian Christian leader, now 66 years old, has spent 26 years in prisons, camps, or exile. In March 1981 he was again arrested and sentenced to three years' hard labour. In spite of ill health and further confinement to prison, he still boldly bears witness to Christ. From Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania, also, there are continuing reports of harassment of Christian leaders by the authorities.

Of some who showed a similar spirit of faith we read "Others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bond and imprisonment ... (of whom the world was not worthy)". Nor is today's world worthy of those who suffer so deeply for their allegiance to Christ in 1982. In all their affliction He is afflicted (Isaiah 63: 9, Acts 9: 4). Their present affliction works for them more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). With Paul they may reckon that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward" (Rom. 8: 18). How eagerly they must await the rising of "the bright, the Morning Star"! (Rev. 22:16).

Perhaps to many of us that hope has burned less brightly because we experience so little suffering for His sake. As we take spiritual stock again this New Year shall we seek a greater sensitivity to the oppression of Christians in today's world? "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are evil entreated, as being yourselves also in the body" (Heb. 13:3).

Shall we ask also for grace to share more of the compassion of our Saviour towards the multitudes who do not yet know Him? It's still true of so many in our time, that "they have no hope" and are "without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). Inspired by the blessed hope and glorious appearing for which we wait, let us "go with the Name of Jesus to the dying, and speak that Name in all its living power".

Whatever the general situation in which you serve the Lord, or whatever your personal difficulties, our desire for all our readers in 1982 is that the God of hope may "fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:13).

unknown | Jan 1982
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