Heb 6:19
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
"He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light; He can bring your summer out of winter, though you have no spring; though in the ways of fortune, or understanding, or conscience, you have been benighted until now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied till now, now God comes to you, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bid of the spring, but as the sun at noon. - John Donne
Beloved, I greet you today in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Anchor to our souls. Though our ministry has suffered the loss of many precious souls, we are encouraged by our God not to lose heart. The reason that we can go on undaunted by the painful events in this life is the fact that God's Christ is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The meaning of this particular verse is that Christ goes beyond being empathic to express sympathy with us in our trials. Whereas, empathy implies to have an understanding or an awareness of how someone is feeling. Sympathy on the other hand suggests having common emotion, feelings, or experiencing to the same degree the suffering of another person. Thus, what God is saying to us through His Word is that He shares with us in the intense emotional experience of this present moment and is therefore immanently qualified to provide the appropriate care for the healing of our hearts.
While we mourn the departure of our Deacon, Bruce White, let us ever remain confident in the Word of a God that cannot lie, to be the anchor for our souls that we not drift into despair and defeat. The point of the text above is to assure us that no matter how turbulent and uncertain the waters around the vessel of our lives may appear to be, yet, there is hope. Our hope in Christ attained through His Word will keep us steady when all around us is shifting and unstable.
What I believe is most important for us to understand about an anchor is that it is not the ship that holds the anchor, it is the anchor that holds the ship. God is telling us that we can have confidence in the ability of Christ to hold us and to help us to keep it together while the storms of life with its accompanying disappointments rage. Trust in God!
