Hope for the New Year

As we enter 2012, we face serious challenges as individuals, as churches, as a nation, and as a world. The American economy and the economies of Europe face ongoing problems. And these countries are rich compared to many countries where everyday life and survival are a struggle for a majority of citizens! Peace is threatened on many fronts. In the area of faith, many churches are threatened by coldness in religion and by a loss of enthusiasm for holy living, service, and outreach. (The word, “enthusiasm,” derives from the root “being filled with God [theos]”, and so our main problem may be empty lives which are not filled up with God’s Spirit!)

In the face of difficult tests and trials, we need hope to live. I believe true hope is always rooted in God.

The book of Psalms (songs) in the Bible has much to say about hope. Psalm 25:3 says this about God: “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame….”

Psalm 33:20 says, “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.”

Psalm 131:3 says: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.”

In 1940 when Adolf Hitler’s armies had successfully conquered Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and by then, most of France, Winston Churchill stood before the British Parliament. America was neutral, and the Soviet Union was an ally of Germany. Britain stood alone. Many people expected Churchill to sue for peace. Instead he gave a message of hope and not giving up!

“ We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

Churchill’s June 4, 1940 speech is remembered by many, but fewer remember the speech the British King, George VI, gave on Christmas Day 1939, shortly after the war had begun. Looking forward to 1940 he quoted from Minnie Haskins’ poem “The Gate of the Year” (1908):

“I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,

‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way.’ ”

I believe George VI’s speech was the underpinning for Churchill’s less than six months later.

The poem, “The Gate of the Year,” which the King quoted, reminded the British people that in the new year, they were going out into the unknown and even into the darkness, but that they could do so putting their hands into the Hand of God.

The poem affirms that for us to touch the hand of God as we enter the dark unknown is better than having a light and safer than knowing the way ahead!

John’s gospel says this about the coming of Jesus Christ into this world: “In the beginning was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”

Like the message of King George VI’s Christmas-Day speech in 1939, the message of John 1 is good news not only at Christmas, but also as we enter a new year!

This messge first appeared in the Pearland Reporter-News. Winfield Casey Jones is pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Pearland and can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

In Praise of Sincere Christians

I have a rule that I don't write about the church I serve in this newspaper column; I write about the Bible, about the Father, and about His Son, Jesus. But I want to break that rule today. I want to write about the church I serve, First Presbyterian Church of Pearland. For one thing, the Apostle Paul himself wrote a lot about the churches he served. To the Philippians he wrote: "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:3-11 .

So, just as Paul wrote about the churches he served, so I want to write, this once, about the church I serve. Some of the people there I have known for twenty-five years, some I have known only a few months. But it is such a privilege to be their pastor. I am constantly in awe at how the Holy Spirit works in them and uses them. Let me name just some of the ways: First of all, they are a people of prayer. I believe that the overwhelming majority of them, if you asked them to pray out loud with you for some need, could do so and would gladly do so! I am amazed at how our leaders, both elders and deacons, can pray at an elder or deacon meetings. They have learned to pour out their hearts to their heavenly Father—both for themselves and for the world. The members of First Presbyterian are also incredibly loving. I have seen sacrificial love and self-giving in numerous ways from many, many of them. I am particularly impressed by our retired members, who have not retired from being Christians! They serve in a myriad of ways. They are not leading self-centered, egotistical lives in retirement, but lives of service and worship of God for His glory and for the benefit of future generations. I suspect a large number of them could preach a sermon, and in fact a surprising number have. (They all did well.) But even more importantly, their lives are sermons. They also have a hunger for truth. I feel as if our people are genuinely hungry for God’s truth in scripture. I do not feel as a pastor that I always have to come up with a cute story, a funny joke, or a gripping illustration in each sermon to keep their attention. I try to do those things sometimes, but I am grateful for their hunger for God’s simple truth.  

Lest you begin to think the members of the church I serve are perfect, let me assure you that, like me their pastor, they are not! Many are quite honest about their sins, foibles, and shortcomings. The point is, they understand what the Apostle Paul wrote at II Corinthians 12:10 –“when I am weak, then I am strong.” In other words it is the members’ very awareness of their own sin and imperfection—of their not deserving God’s free grace poured out on the cross of Jesus—that makes them so depend on, and lean into, their Lord.

It is a privilege to be their pastor. I don’t deserve them.  

This article originally appeared in the Pearland Reporter News. Winfield Casey Jones is pastor of First Presbyterian church of Pearland. He may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .