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Hope!
The
school system in a large city had a program to help
children keep up with their schoolwork during stays in
the city's hospitals.
One day a teacher who was assigned to the
program received a routine call asking her to visit a
particular child.
She took the child's name and room number and
talked briefly with the child's regular class teacher.
"We're studying nouns and adverbs in his
class now," the teacher said, "and I'd be
grateful if you could help him understand them so he
doesn't fall too far behind."
The
hospital program teacher went to see the boy that
afternoon. No
one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly
burned and was in great pain.
Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as
she told him, 'I've been sent by your school to
help you with nouns and adverbs."
When she left she felt she hadn't accomplished
much.
But
the next day, a nurse asked her, "What did you
DO to that boy?"
The
teacher felt she must have done something wrong and
began to apologize.
"No,
no," said the nurse.
"You don't know what I mean.
We've been worried about that little boy, but
ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed.
He's fighting back, responding to treatment.
It's as though he's decided to LIVE!"
Two
weeks later the boy explained that he had completely
given up hope until
the teacher arrived.
Everything changed when he came to a simple
realization.
He expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher
to work on nouns
and adverbs with a DYING boy, would they?"
What
made the difference in this little boy?
In a word, "HOPE!" Feeling
hopeless and helpless in his badly burned and painful
condition, he found HOPE in the presence of the
teacher.
What
a lesson for US. . .
Due
to our sin, WE are also hopeless and helpless!
There is nothing that you and I can do in our
own power to improve our condition.
"The wages of sin is death"
(Romans 6:23), and that leaves us with... NO
HOPE, for "ALL have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
But
then the Teacher, Jesus Christ, came into this world
to open a pathway back from sin's dark grip of DEATH.
He demonstrated the reality of LIFE beyond the
grave by His OWN resurrection from the dead and
revealed the WAY to that LIFE giving us HOPE!
He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me"
(John 14:6). We
have HOPE because. . . Jesus died on
the cross to pay for our sins making our forgiveness
available. We
access that HOPE by. . . believing
in Him (Acts 16:30-31), repenting
of our sins (Acts 17:30-31), confessing
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), being baptized
(immersed) for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38),
and then following Him faithfully (Revelation 2:10).
With
the HOPE that Jesus gives, WE have a new lease on
LIFE!
Do
YOU have that hope?
God bless you!
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
-- Bits & Pieces, July 1991.
http://www.christianglobe.com/illustrations
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