It is the time of the year again, where everyone is busy going through the shopping list for christmas and at the same time listing down all their new year's resolutions for 2017. We hope this month's musing will be a source of encouragement and inspiration to everyone as we mark a close to 2016. As like previous years, we at TFL have planned for you a Christmas special edition of monthly musing as we seek to explore the true meaning of this yuletide season.

Just by witnessing the recent onslaught of events happening around the world---ranging from natural disaster, political scandals, ethnic cleansing to never-ending civil war, it is inevitable for us to wonder what is there to actually look forward to during such day and age?  If we focus our gaze on what is seen happening on the surface around us today, then we will bound to feel helpless and hopeless in such a broken world we all live in. However, Christmas marks the birth of Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, the source of the inexplicable hope that believers have. God came to earth to provide a once-and-for-all substitute for the sins of all men on the first Christmas as baby Jesus. One scholar says that for those who don't know Jesus, hope is a verb. But for the Christian, hope is also a noun. Hope is not simply something we do, with teeth gritted and fingers crossed. Hope--joyful expectation--- is something we have. We possess hope because we know the God who is the source of and the reason for our hope. 

It is no doubt that for hope to exist, we must first experience or witness hopelessness as a perfect world would not have any desire for hope or be able to distinguish it. The hope that Christians hold on to is extremely versatile, such that we can respond fully to the different challenges life throws to us. It can be courageous (2 corinthians 3:12), patient (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3), expectant (Titus 2:13-14), stabilising (Hebrews 6:19) and purifying (1 John 3:3). Fortified with such a versatile hope, followers of Christ can then confidently engage this seemingly hopeless world that we all live in. It is as if we are able to catch a shimmer of light from the candle's flame in a dark and bleak room.  May we all be filled with this eternal hope that only Christ can provide and approach life here not with dread or despair, but with absolute confident expectation!

"5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." ---Titus 3:5-7 (ESV) 

TFL wishes all our supporters a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Adapted from:

The Thrill of Hope, Christmas Devotional (Crosswalk.com)

Hope, Choosing Faith Instead of Fear (Bill Crowder)