Easter a season of hope

To the Editor:

I was thinking the other day, which is dangerous I guess. I wondered what the biggest problem in the country is now. Is it the economy? Is it illegal aliens entering the country or is it terrorism, or maybe some unlisted problem. I agree, these are problems, but I don't think they are the biggest problem. I would maintain that the biggest problem is the losing of hope in the country. In 1988, a British rock group named Cerebral Fix released an album entitled, "Life sucks...and then you Die!" That has become an anthem for too many people today. It in six words expresses the whole idea that too many have lost hope. Every time something goes wrong from pay cut (hours cut) to illness to loss of a loved one and many other events, and the person sinks deeper into a dark place with no visible way out. If you truly are a life sucks person, then you basically are saying that life has no meaning and that not only is your existence meaningless, you might as well have not existed at all. Think about it, you see people in this realm every day, and others that are doing fine at the moment, but at the least bit of adversity, fall into the life sucks mode.

You might say, "O.K. if I believe you that the biggest problem is that people have and are losing hope, how can it be solved?" First, you must understand where hope arises. Hope comes from God and his son, Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the hope of the world." Now, the nay-sayers might wish to argue the existence of God. They can not argue the existence of Jesus, as He is a historical figure that was written about by non-Christian historians of the first century. So quickly, to put away the idea that there is no God, I ask you the following: Look out your nearest window and think. What do you see? Do you see at least ten plants and animals that live in more or less balance remembering, humans have screwed that up to some degree (research the deer herds around the Grand Canyon in the mid 1900's.) Ok, those 10 are just a few of the more than 5 million kinds of plants and animals that exist in the world. They live in balance, some are food for others, they have more offspring. Some are scavengers so that the countryside isn't loaded with dead bodies. As a matter in fact, of the 5 million types I mentioned, enough are edible, that you could eat an entirely different meal, different foods, every day of your life and not repeat any. Where did this huge variety originate? The secular people of the world would have you believe it's evolution and that the theory is proven science. In fact, that takes more faith than believing God created it all. To simplify, your DNA controls what all you body parts look like and how and when they function. DNA is a long double chain of chemicals having pairs of nitrogen containing bases connecting each side. It takes around 1 billion pairs to make human DNA. That means there are 1 with 40000 zeroes behind it different combinations that could be made. In order for any two of these combinations to make an organism that could reproduce with each other, they would have to have very close to the same number order in their combination and there would have to be enough of those similar ones per square mile that it would be a reasonable chance of a male and female finding each other.

The secular evolution believing groups would have you take on faith that this happened randomly? If even close to truth, there should be million and billions of kinds of almost humans that didn't quite make it in terms of their DNA composition. Where are they? It takes less faith to say God created them and put them together in a location he chose for them in his vast creation. That brings us to another problem. Where did the earth come from? Again the seculars have an explanation which requires a huge faith investment. They call it the "Big Bang" theory. Basically, that in the distant past, all the material in the universe was compressed into a very tiny space perhaps the size of a speck of dust and that suddenly one day (days didn't really exist since there was no sun and it would have been totally dark) this tiny speck exploded (big bang) and the material went rushing outward and made the stars and planets we now call the universe. When asked where the speck of material came from, since we see from experience that everything comes from somewhere, they simply say it always existed. If it always existed, why did it explode? There was nothing (vacuum) outside of it so there was nothing to change the conditions, so why on this day did it decide to explode? Can you see the irony of how much faith this theory takes when those proposing it scoff at believing God created the universe for us to have a place to live? Remember, these are the same types that tell you a fetus is not living so it's ok to abort them while at the same time saying that something non living can not become living. If a non living fetus could become a living baby, then so could a non living rock or you could just take all the chemicals in the human body and build your own. Therefore by observation alone with a little thought thrown in for spice, I can say that God exists, historians tell us Jesus existed. So those are but a few of the reasons I believe that God is the source of all hope through his son, Jesus. Romans 10:13 says, "whomsoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved." Why is that important? Because God's word tells us that once saved, we will finish our time on this earth and then enter heaven where we will live for eternity. No how is that for something to bring you hope during the bad times that eventually find you in life. Certainly gives life meaning and a reason for living doesn't it?

There is a song we sing in church from time to time that was written by Bill Gaither, that goes like this:

God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;

He came to love, heal and forgive;

He lived and died to buy my pardon,

An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,

Because He lives, all fear is gone,

Because I know He holds the future,

And life is worth the living,

Just because He lives!

And that my friends is why we celebrate Easter this coming Sunday and why it is important to you if you know it or not at the moment. If you would like more information come to visit my church family at North 10th Street Baptist (we are having our choir program this week) and ask what you want to know.

Gary Conley

Blytheville