Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection, Tim Keller, 2021

• Why is it that "my head believes," but "my heart is not moved"?

Faith is the work of the Holy Spirit and is a mixture of reason [truth] and experience, intellect and emotion, the rational and the existential, the theological and the practical, the head and the heart. Thus, faith is not solely a matter of intellectual assent to certain theological propositions, but also involves the experiential and practical aspects of life.

Only in the cross is divinity and humanity reconciled. With the church there will always be attrition and retention.

• What is the difference between relative hope in human agency and infallible hope in God? 210-211.
• Christian hope means that I stop betting my life and happiness on human agency and rest in God alone.
• If you know--and keep remembering--that resurrection happened and is coming, you won't ever be in utter darkness. 215-216. Epilogue (Ps 118:22-23).
• Darkness can happen to a believer (Ps 88:18), but it doesn't mean you're lost. It can happen at any time as long as this world lasts; only in the next will such things be done away with. It can happen with/without you knowing why. But there are answers, there is a purpose, and eventually you will know.
• On the cross, darkness was Jesus' only friend. On the cross, he paid for your sins so you know that in your darkness God is still there as your friend.

Christian hope is reasonable, full, realistic and effective. 206-211. Ch. 12 Hope for the Future.

1. Reasonable. Is there any alternative explanation for the eyewitness accounts (1 Cor 15:6)? N.T. Wright.
2. Full. Christian hope is the fullest hope possible. Every tear wiped (Rev 21:4), the wolf will lie down with the lamb (Isa 11:6), this world will be mended, made new, liberated from bondage to death and decay (Rom 8:18-23).
3. Realistic. Cf. Hegel's philosophy: Every age was better than the one before and history was moving upward. But this is not how God works, and not how human life works. Yes, history is moving toward a wonderful destiny, but not in a series of successively better and better eras, going from strength to strength. But it is often through hardship and difficulty that we grow (Ac 14:22), that we finally see truths about ourselves and become all that we should be. The secular idea of progress is naïve and unrealistic. Only Christianity gives us a non-cyclical but realistic [V-shaped] way to see history.
4. Effective. Christian hope works at the life level, the practical level. Human hope is always relative and uncertain, hoping, wishing anxiously that things will turn out well for you. But when the object of hope is not any human agent but God, the hope means confidence, courage, certainty and full assurance (Heb 11:1; Ps 125:1; Isa 40:31). Real courage comes from self-forgetfulness based on joy, and from a deep conviction that we are trapped temporarily in a little corner of darkness, but that God's universe is an enormous place of light and beauty, which is our certain final destiny. "...weeping may stay for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Ps 30:5). With this assurance abiding "in the eyes of our heart" (Eph 1:18), our immediate fate--how the current situation turns out--can no longer trouble us. Defiance comes from looking at ourselves, but hope comes from looking at God.

Optimists look at troubles as temporary anomalies. Pessimists see the world as a bleak place. 181. The Great Reversal prevents us from wrecking our ship either on naïve optimism or on hopeless pessimism. 133.

Ch. 11 Hope in the Face of Suffering. 

• 
  The kingdom of God is marked by weakness (Lk 6:20), deprivation (Lk 6:21a), loss (Lk 6:21b) and exclusion (Lk 6:22). In the life of God's people will be seen 1st of all a remarkable reversal of values. (Lk 6:20-26). They will prize what the world calls pitiable, and suspect what the world thinks desirable. 173-174.
• The way Jesus saved the world [the Great Reversal] and changed your life, and now becomes our way of seeing and living. So for Christians:
• The way up is down (Phil 2:5-8, 9-11),
• The way to true power is to give up power in order to serve [cf, to hold on to power to be in control] (Mk 10:45),
• The way to true riches is to be radically generous with all you have, and
• The way to lasting happiness is not to seek your own happiness so much as the happiness of others. 178.
• Weakness leads to strength (2 Cor 12:9).
• The last will be first and the first will be last (Mt 20:16).
• Serve rather than be served (Mk 10:45).
• The good things of this world become burdens and curses (1 Jn 2:15-17).
• The hard things of this world are turned into blessings (2 Cor 12:9-11).
• The lowly and poor are lifted up; the high and rich are brought low (Lk 1:52-53).
• God chooses the weak over the powerful (1 Cor 1:27-29).
• God chooses the humble over the proud (Jas 4:6; Prov 3:34).
• Theresa of Avila's well known quote: "From heaven even the most miserable life will look like one night in an inconvenient hotel." 177.

Ch. 10 Hope for Justice (2 Pet 3:13). 155.

Ch 9 Hope for Relationships (Lk 14:13-14). 133.

Secular conservatism fights for the liberation of the individual from state power, while progressivism fights for the liberation of oppressed groups through state power. 132. Ch. 8 Hope in Times of Fear. Sadly Christians are almost like everyone else by taking their cues from secular and political sources rather than from Scripture. The secular version of conservatism is far more individualistic than the Bible, and the secular version of progressivism reduces everything to power while being morally relativistic with Christians getting sucked into their political bubbles the result being Christians giving up their spiritual heritage by not thinking biblically but just taking sides politically. This is polarization intellectually which is very troubling.

• The Great Reversal, the deep pattern of God's salvation, is how God saves through the death of rejection, weakness and sacrifice, and yet through this death he raises us up, rescuing us from our sins and making us into something great. 131.
• The Great Reversal helps us see obedience to moral rules in a gospel light, not as a means to save ourselves [or to get what we want], but as a way to imitate, delight, and resemble the one who saved us through his death and resurrection.
• Every act of obedience to God is a "death" followed by a resurrection. Every time we obey God we give up the right to self-determination and die to control over our own life. Whenever 2 wills cross, we are given a chance to say no to self and yes to God. Thus. "somebody has to die." But "we die in order to live." [Elizabeth Elliot.]

“There are the good things of this world, the hard things of this world and the best things of this world--God’s love, glory, holiness, beauty. The Bible’s teaching is that the road to the best things is NOT through the good things but usually through the hard things as Jesus himself shows us in Philippians 2:5-11.” 62. Ch. 4 Subversive Hope.

The God of the Great Reversal is the God who brings 

• life out of death, 
• resurrection after crucifixion, [freedom after imprisonment], 
• hope out of hopelessness, 
• joy out of sorrow, 
• the God who makes the last to be first and the first to be last. 

If we "see" this with the eyes of our heart (Eph 1:18), we will be able to take heart and be of good courage. Suffering in life is inevitable. Unless we understand that ‘God is the God of the Great Reversal’ we cannot help but fall into despair, fear and cynicism. But if we remember this, we can face anything. 62.

The cross alone leads to asceticism (strict self-denial), hopeless pessimism, withdrawal.
Resurrection alone can lead to triumphalism or naïve optimism, a disconnect with the present world (too heavenly minded to be earthly good).

Between the already and the not yet. We live in heaven, while still on earth. We live in the future, while still in the present.

Holding to sound doctrine is absolutely essential, yet insufficient.

Question: Is the truth shaping the habitual affections of my heart and the practices of my will and character?

The resurrection does not promise that all the circumstances of life will go smoothly.

It does give hope that we can be turned into the people who can handle whatever comes our way in life.  (p117)

Resurrection and Change. We cannot be transformed without a constant practice of death AND resurrection. “Set your mind of things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:3).

As human beings we always set our hearts on earthly things. We rest in them, build our lives on them, and look to them rather than to God for our identity, meaning, salvation and love. They become things we think we have to have in order to be happy. Idols master us and result in hard to control emotions of fear, anger, drivenness and addiction. They falsely form our identity, self-worth and meaning.

It takes effort –and often Gods divine intervention-   to pull our hearts away from these things and eliminate their hold on us.

To counter this, Paul encourages the Colossian Christians to set their minds on things above.

We were created with a longing for our hearts to be filled with love and meaning.  Thomas Chalmers wrote a book “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.”

Mistakes about Growth and Change 126 Hope in Times of Fear

1st common mistake. It’s not just a matter of saying ‘no’ to wrong behavior or repenting and asking God’s forgiveness.

Whatever we set our hearts on as a substitute for Jesus will dictate how we feel and act.

We need to identify background attitudes of self-pity, bitterness, anger, anxiety, etc that set us up for particular sinful behaviors.

Yeah, but how?

2nd mistake is we often think that ‘setting the heart’ means to work hard to live as we should. This puts the emphasis on behavior rather than dealing with the heart.

We need to set our hearts affections on Jesus. “set your heart on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1b).

The goal is to replace the idols in the deepest recesses of our hearts with Jesus Christ, the one who is full of grace and truth.

Questions to ask ourselves

• Have I made something else ‘my life’?
• What are the things, people, events which cause me to be downcast, angry or fearful?
• What expectations of God and others (spouse, friends, children, boss) do I have that are unrealistic?
• Is there something in the center of my life that doesn’t belong there? That I feel like I cannot live without?

We need an antidote to counsel our heart with.

Ps 23 –promise of the best things (God’s presence, comfort, overflowing provision, joy, feasting, heavenly reward) in the face of hard things (the valley of death – fear, insecurity, uncertain future, evil)

3rd mistake. We do not need to feel guilty, or beat ourselves up about how bad we are or how we continuously fail. Shame does not lead to better behavior.

Christ absorbed all our condemnation for us and is now seated at the right hand of God as our intercessor and mediator.

This understanding helps us to focus on what God has done for us and weakens sins hold on us as thankfulness and the desire to please God grows in us because of what he has done for us.

What living out the Resurrection is not

• It is not summoning up the strength to live a virtuous life.
• It is not grinning and bearing it.
• It is not pretending the trial does not exist.
• It is not using distractions and diversions to escape our painful reality.

The message of the Bible is that often the road to the best things in life are through the hard things.

Because He lives – I can face tomorrow 

Because He lives – All fear is gone

Because I know who holds the future – life is worth the living, just because He lives.

John Calvin's prayer: Keep me in a joyful, lively remembrance of my future resurrection.

John Calvin's Prayers--4x/day:  "Keep me in a joyful, lively remembrance that whatever happens, I will someday know my final rising – the resurrection – because Jesus Christ lay down in death for me, and rose for my justification."

The Left and Right both divide the world into 3 groups:

1. We--the good.
2. The opposite group-the evil.
3. Those who won’t fully take sides and therefore are also on the side of evil.

St Augustine divides the world into 2 groups

1. Citizens of the City of God but living in the city of Man.
2. Citizens of the Earthly City only.

Christians should never identify the City of God with any particular Earthly—with any one political party or polity. Yet-citizens of the City of God should be, if anything, the very best neighbors within the Earthly City.

Secular Progressives market their view of sex and gender as an objective and universal truth that all people must adopt. They will not admit that it is instead an ideological construal, based on a highly western, individualistic account of human nature. Sex outside of marriage is de-humanizing (meaning not that people who do it are sub-human but that they are only hurting themselves). This fits in with what the Bible says about sex in general and human nature in particular and with what Jews and Christians have taught historically.

I have also heard many accounts from those that call themselves “Christian Nationalist” and the views differ wildly from each other. Some are far better than others. But, in general, most of them are wrong (not taking into account the basically sad history of state churches in Europe) and some of them are deadly wrong and are indeed forms of white supremacy—by any definition.