Paiva Netto writes: “Why are you afraid, men of little faith?”

Jesus said: “By your perseverance you will save your Souls.” (The Holy Gospel according to Luke 21:19)

Based on the vigorous message of renewal and perseverance in Goodness that was brought by Jesus, the President-Preacher of the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, José de Paiva Netto, launched his book A Esperança não morre nunca [Hope Never Dies] on April 10, 2020 (Good Friday).

The literary work is a rich compendium of spiritual strength and praise to the Christ of God, who sows Divine Hope in our hearts. Its pages are effective medicine for the Soul, an invigorating balm at a time when humanity is facing the new coronavirus pandemic, one of the greatest world challenges since World War II (1939-1945). Summoning us to legitimate our values and actions in the unshakable Faith that better days will come, this book nourishes our innermost self with the essential tonic of Ecumenical Spirituality.

Available for free as an ebook and audiobook (in Portuguese), it brings comfort to all those who are practicing social distancing in their homes for their individual and collective protection, praying for those on the frontline in the fight against this devastating COVID-19 pandemic, for the sick, and for those who have returned to the Spiritual World. These Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ are turning their own homes into shelters of Fraternal Love and persistence in good feelings while helping, through Complete Charity—Spiritual and Material—those who most need a generous helping hand.

To all those who wish to strengthen their hearts in order to face and overcome these difficult times, it is with great joy that this digital edition of the JESUS IS ARRIVING!   magazine reproduces the foreword of this epic book by writer Paiva Netto, so we can all say together: Hope never dies because our Hope is Jesus!

Enjoy your reading!

The editors

José de Paiva Netto is a Brazilian writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President-Preacher of the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit.

How many times, when all seems lost while facing the adversities in this world, human beings complain: 

“Nothing turns out right . . . Why should I fight? There is slandering, infamy, lie, greed, hatred, lack of compassion everywhere. Love has vanished from the Earth! There is no Hope any longer . . .”

Well, no one is free from drama, which if not our own turmoils, affects the ones we love. But God’s Light and Christ’s Splendor will come to help those who nourish Accomplishing Faith,*¹ and strength will always be regained so they will get through the cold shadows of winter and see the Sun of Divine Hope coming up on the horizon!

Even though such luminosity may not show itself in full glow and brightness, it invariably stands for a sign, as if saying:

“Why are you afraid, men of little faith? I can calm any storm. Have I not given you my vigorous incentive? Never forget it: ‘My Peace I leave with you; my Peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. I give you God’s Peace, which the world cannot give. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid! And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” (The Gospel of Christ according to John 14:27 and Matthew 28:20)

JESUS OVERCOMES WORLD’S TURMOILS

As severe as storms may be, Jesus will always lead and strengthen those who, by loving Him and persevering beyond the end, will find the solutions for the pain of the people, since He will rebuke the winds, soothe the seas, and bring lasting calm. Let us read the extraordinary passage in the Bible that encourages our reflections:

JESUS CALMS THE STORM

(The Gospel according to Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, and Luke 8:22-25)

“Then He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping on a cushion in the stern. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ And Jesus replied: ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then, He got up, rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him!’”

NEVER GIVE UP ON GOOD

Hope never dies! Such inspiration came to my mind in the early 1980s while watching a young man saying on TV that he had lost faith in the future. I do not consider myself a poet. But I took a pen and attempted some simple, unpretentious verses, to which Brazilian Legionnaire conductor Vanderlei Pereira later added melody:

HOPE NEVER DIES!

Hope

never dies!

Never!

It will not die!

Just like Life,

which is eternal,

a mother so fraternal,

can it die?!

No, it will not die,

never, ever!

Hope in our heart

will never die!

Hope is Jesus!

FIGHTING APATHY

Throughout our spiritual and human existence, how many times have we been faced by difficulties which—we all thought—we would not survive?

“Oh, Lord, what a tough situation! If I go in that direction, I will raise problems; if I go ahead, I create problems in the opposite direction; if I turn to either side, I will upset someone.”

Then, you take a hot or cold shower (whichever you prefer) and go to bed. The next day you find a solution, or other issues demand your attention. You are then surprised:

“Oh, I had forgotten: what seemed to be a huge problem is now gone! That other issue was successfully resolved! Now I know how to overcome such difficulties!” 

This does not happen as if by magic; neither is it an encouragement to turn one’s face away from the real challenges that are posed to us in life. However, when we are determined in facing our daily challenges, our Spiritual Friends—also known as Blessed Souls, Guiding Spirits, Tutelary Deities—also do their part and approach us with elevated suggestions, leading our intuition to see pathways until then unnoticed. All it takes is to believe in this invisible support and establish a sublime connection with our Guardian Angels to actually count on them.

However, some people—and we do respect their reasons—bitterly answer back:

 “I do not believe in such thing as Hope.”

But what is the counterpoint in their statement? Most often, they resort to an existential void. However, we cannot accept discouragement, defeatism, apathy, contempt—either self-contempt or contempt for others—as solutions for any crisis.  Hope must always prevail! And, above all, the strong will to overcome obstacles in life. The point is to want to do Good, to do it, but to do it the right way!

REACTING TO DISCOURAGEMENT GENERATES GOOD VITALITY

I usually say to my dear readers that reacting to discouragement generates good vitality! Otherwise, what is there for us? To lie down and die?! Never!

The Soul needs constant stimulus to the practice of Good Deeds. Why say to the youth that they should not nurture Hope? If noble idealism does not survive, what is left for them? An open field for discouragement. Everyone realizes that in this globalized world the evil that takes place out there (wherever it may be) may hit us right where we are. Let us just remember the big blow in world economy in 2008—few had suspected it, and its repercussions are still lingering. Unbelievable, isn’t it? Therefore, something beyond the current stage of earthly knowledge is made necessary now: to be connected to the Ideal Governance that starts in Heaven. Christ Himself assured us about that in His Infallible Verses*²:

“18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven. 

“19 Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on Earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven. 

“20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” 

(The Gospel of Jesus according to Matthew 18:18-20)

It is crucial that above all we put Ecumenical Spirituality*³ into practice in all circumstances. This is something that someday cautious Science will address without any bias. Intuition, as I have said, is God’s intelligence within us. 

Albert Einstein

It is timely to quote Albert Einstein (1879-1955):

“I believe in intuition and inspirations. . . . I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. I was not surprised when the eclipse of May 29, 1919, confirmed my intuitions. I would have been surprised if I had been wrong. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.”

Many times, what reason takes long to conclude intuition much more quickly reaches, including solutions to our greatest misfortunes!

ENDLESS HOPE

Some say that “Hope is the last to die.” But we, in the Religion of the Third Millennium, eloquently affirm that Hope is never extinguished, since Hope is Jesus, the Ecumenical Christ, the Sublime Statesman! 

As I wrote in the third volume of the Sagradas Diretrizes Espirituais da Religião de Deus, do Cristo e do Espírito Santo [Sacred Spiritual Guidelines of the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit] (1991): 

The existence of the Religion of Universal Love is the manifestation of the undefeatable belief in better days, filled with dignity for the Eternal Spirit of human beings. . . . Give up on Good due to adversities? Why? Let us leave our bitterness aside, let us throw our complexes in the trash. If those who lived before us, fighting against and overcoming the harshest difficulties that always pose as challenges on the pathway to progress, had capitulated, where would we be today?! In the Stone Age. Therefore, let us not get discouraged. Quite the opposite, our duty is not to throw in the towel. Then, facts really change, and the miracle, as one desires in the blink of an eye, materializes: that of work, nourished by Accomplishing Faith.

Thomas Jefferson

Additionally, in a correspondence dated April 18, 1816, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), main author of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, warned us against the danger of suffering by anticipation: 

“How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.”

Therefore, heads up, moving ahead without fear—this is the attitude of those who with Goodwill believe in “a better world and a happier humanity.” Every day is the day to renew our destiny.

“If the world creates winners, Jesus creates those who are invincible,”

Casimiro Cunha

concluded Brazilian poet Casimiro Cunha (Spirit), splendidly inspired, in his poem Grãos de Luz [Grains of Light].

Let us move ahead with the Christ of God, the Great Friend who never abandons a friend along the way. He invites us to reach beyond the Beyond:

“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (The Apocalypse 2:10)

Therefore, Jesus is the Compass of our most legitimate Hope. Without Him, that is, without Accomplishing Faith and Divine Charity, we will be lost in the stormy seas of human life. 

*¹  Accomplishing Faith — Following Jesus’ example, it is the Faith that encourages the practice of Good Deeds and is opposed to idle, egotistic faith. 

*² Infallible Verses of Jesus — In the spiritual message dated August 6, 2016, Brother Dr. Bezerra de Menezes (Spirit) presented important recommendation from the Friends of the Land of Truth under the title “Infallible Verses of Jesus” which indicates the study of the Gospel of Jesus according to Matthew 18:18-20 as an “infallible script.”

*³ Ecumenical Spirituality — The term was created and defined by Paiva Netto as “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Moral, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love. In short, the mathematical constant that harmonizes the equation of spiritual, moral, mental, and human existence. Now, without the knowledge that we do exist on two planes—therefore not only on the physical plane—it will be hard to have a Society that is really Ecumenical, Altruistic, and Solidary, since we would be still ignoring that the knowledge of Superior Spirituality elevates the character of creatures, and therefore leads to the construction of the Planetary Citizenship.”