Well it has been a little bit since my last post. This topic is one that has actually been on my mind a bit lately. This post is the result of a question that was asked by a teen in my churches youth group. Christians constantly talk about God being a God of love and goodness and grace and mercy. Not to mention we describe Him as all powerful and wanting the best for us, then we look around and see terrible things happening that seem to completely contradict the God is love thing. On September 11th, 2001, 2974 Americans were killed in the attacks that day. Of that 2974 at least a handful were children, the youngest of whom was 2 years old. August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed to shore in the gulf coast region of the United States nearly 2000 people lost their lives in this violent storm.
These events as well as others cause us to wonder "just where is God"? If He is so good and loving and powerful couldn't He make it so that these things don't happen? Or at the very least couldn't he protect the innocent ones like the babies and children? If we are honest we have asked these types of questions many times in our lives and quite truthfully we have come up with some less then ideal explanation as too why bad things happen to good or even innocent people. We are tempted to (and maybe do) think that God just doesn't care all that much after all or maybe He just isn't as powerful as people claim that He is. After all why would a good, all powerful God allow sin and violence and evilness to run unchecked in society. Why is it that children are often the victims of violent, senseless crimes? Why doesn't God do something? Where is God? Does He even care?
I have asked these questions many times in my life and many times I have gotten well intentioned but meaningless cliches that left more questions unanswered than answered. Things like "it rains on the just and the unjust", why does it have to rain on the just. I can totally understand raining on the unjust. In fact I think it should flat out flood the unjust out of existence but why does it have to rain on the just? Or things like "if all we ever got in life were the good things we would stop appreciating them like we should" I would LOVE to find out if that were true because personally I think that I could handle nothing but good things in my life and NEVER lose appreciation for them. So why do bad things happen to good people. Is God all powerful? According to the Bible He is. Does God care about what happens to us here? Again, according to the Bible He does. So why doesn't He stop the evil and right the wrongs and be the ultimate super hero?
The answer to these questions is honestly not one that we want to consider (warning you are now entering the Bible zone, hopefully Bill O'Reilly won't mind the spin off of his no spin zone). The truth of scripture is that originally God created everything perfect. God Himself pronounced creation "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Think about that for a minute, God, the perfect, all powerful creator called creation very good. I would have loved to see something that GOD called very good. Included in this perfect, very good creation were two people, Adam and Eve. They also were created perfect and flawless. We have never seen perfect people so we cannot imagine what this must have been like. Everything was perfect. There was no pain, sickness, injury, or death. Bad things never happened because bad things did not exist. Everything was perfect. So what happened? How did it go from perfect and God saying it was "very good" to what we see to today? In a word, sin happened. God had given Adam and Eve a very simple rule. To paraphrase it God said "everything that you see is here for you. Every plant every piece of fruit, everything. The only thing that you can't have is the fruit if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Everything else is yours" Sounds pretty simple, out of all the trees in the Garden of Eden just don't touch that one. Shouldn't have been to hard, but it turns out that Adam and Eve were no better at obeying God then we are. They broke the one rule God gave them and with that action sin entered into the world for the first time. See in todays society we are so used to and so comfortable with the idea of sin that we don't recognize it for the destructive force that it is. It is the one thing that God absolutely hates. Sin is like a cancer that will, if left unchecked destroy everything that it encounters. When Adam and Eve sinned the perfect creation was destroyed. Everything was changed. Now instead of nothing but pleasure and easy living there would be pain and labor. Instead of unlimited joy and happiness there would be sorrow and heartache. Instead of eternal good health there would be sickness and ultimately death. Now before we are tempted to think "boy did God ever overreact to them eating a piece of fruit", let me ask a question. Aren't we still doing the same thing that Adam and Eve did? Aren't we ignoring what God has told us to do or not do and substituting Gods word and Gods law for our own wisdom? Romans chapter one says that mankind is guilty of turning the truth of God into a lie and not acknowledging God as God. So in reality what Adam and Eve started way back in the beginning we are still continuing today. This is why we see bad things happening everyday. This is why we see events unfold that cause us to wonder where God is. Sin is running unchecked in society and we are seeing the results of it. It is destroying everything that it touches. The truth of the matter is that we live in a world that is vastly different than what God created and intended. We live in a world that is filled with violence and with hate because people are selfish have no regard for the Word of God. We want what we want and nobody not even God is going to tell us that we can't have it. See God is not unable to intervene in our lives nor is He unwilling the truth is that we have built a wall between ourselves and God, "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Isaiah 59:1-2. That is what we see happening in the world today.
The harsh reality is that we live in a fallen, degenerate society that has effectively kicked God out of our lives We have chosen to love our sin more than we have chosen to love God. We want to blame God when things go wrong like on 9-11 or with Hurricane Katrina. What we need to acknowledge is that it is not God who is at fault it is us. We have chosen exactly what we have gotten. Just like Adam and Eve we have decided that we will be the masters of our lives and that we will decide what we will obey instead of obeying God. The society that we have than is that legacy. The Good news is found in the implication of the passage given earlier in Isaiah. If we will turn to God and ask forgiveness for our sin (not mistakes or wrong choices but sin). God will hear us. He will forgive us and He will save us. Will this automatically restore everything to the way it was in the Garden of Eden, perfect with no pain or suffering? No it will not. Romans 8 tells us that the whole of creation groans because of the curse of sin and sin is a curse make no mistake about that. What we WILL gain by turning from our sins is personal forgiveness and cleansing. We will also gain the peace that only God can provide to deal with bad things that happen in our life. ultimately we will gain eternal life with God Himself and we will ultimately gain the priviledge of seeing God restore creation to its perfect status.
Why do bad things happen? Because we as a society and as individuals have chosen and exhalted our wisdom above Gods and our desires above Gods law. We have allowed sin to run freely and have enjoyed its company. Now is the time to turn from that and turn to God. One last verse, Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Are you heavy laden and laboring to make sense out of what is happening around us? Come to God and let Him give you the rest that Only He can give.
These events as well as others cause us to wonder "just where is God"? If He is so good and loving and powerful couldn't He make it so that these things don't happen? Or at the very least couldn't he protect the innocent ones like the babies and children? If we are honest we have asked these types of questions many times in our lives and quite truthfully we have come up with some less then ideal explanation as too why bad things happen to good or even innocent people. We are tempted to (and maybe do) think that God just doesn't care all that much after all or maybe He just isn't as powerful as people claim that He is. After all why would a good, all powerful God allow sin and violence and evilness to run unchecked in society. Why is it that children are often the victims of violent, senseless crimes? Why doesn't God do something? Where is God? Does He even care?
I have asked these questions many times in my life and many times I have gotten well intentioned but meaningless cliches that left more questions unanswered than answered. Things like "it rains on the just and the unjust", why does it have to rain on the just. I can totally understand raining on the unjust. In fact I think it should flat out flood the unjust out of existence but why does it have to rain on the just? Or things like "if all we ever got in life were the good things we would stop appreciating them like we should" I would LOVE to find out if that were true because personally I think that I could handle nothing but good things in my life and NEVER lose appreciation for them. So why do bad things happen to good people. Is God all powerful? According to the Bible He is. Does God care about what happens to us here? Again, according to the Bible He does. So why doesn't He stop the evil and right the wrongs and be the ultimate super hero?
The answer to these questions is honestly not one that we want to consider (warning you are now entering the Bible zone, hopefully Bill O'Reilly won't mind the spin off of his no spin zone). The truth of scripture is that originally God created everything perfect. God Himself pronounced creation "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Think about that for a minute, God, the perfect, all powerful creator called creation very good. I would have loved to see something that GOD called very good. Included in this perfect, very good creation were two people, Adam and Eve. They also were created perfect and flawless. We have never seen perfect people so we cannot imagine what this must have been like. Everything was perfect. There was no pain, sickness, injury, or death. Bad things never happened because bad things did not exist. Everything was perfect. So what happened? How did it go from perfect and God saying it was "very good" to what we see to today? In a word, sin happened. God had given Adam and Eve a very simple rule. To paraphrase it God said "everything that you see is here for you. Every plant every piece of fruit, everything. The only thing that you can't have is the fruit if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Everything else is yours" Sounds pretty simple, out of all the trees in the Garden of Eden just don't touch that one. Shouldn't have been to hard, but it turns out that Adam and Eve were no better at obeying God then we are. They broke the one rule God gave them and with that action sin entered into the world for the first time. See in todays society we are so used to and so comfortable with the idea of sin that we don't recognize it for the destructive force that it is. It is the one thing that God absolutely hates. Sin is like a cancer that will, if left unchecked destroy everything that it encounters. When Adam and Eve sinned the perfect creation was destroyed. Everything was changed. Now instead of nothing but pleasure and easy living there would be pain and labor. Instead of unlimited joy and happiness there would be sorrow and heartache. Instead of eternal good health there would be sickness and ultimately death. Now before we are tempted to think "boy did God ever overreact to them eating a piece of fruit", let me ask a question. Aren't we still doing the same thing that Adam and Eve did? Aren't we ignoring what God has told us to do or not do and substituting Gods word and Gods law for our own wisdom? Romans chapter one says that mankind is guilty of turning the truth of God into a lie and not acknowledging God as God. So in reality what Adam and Eve started way back in the beginning we are still continuing today. This is why we see bad things happening everyday. This is why we see events unfold that cause us to wonder where God is. Sin is running unchecked in society and we are seeing the results of it. It is destroying everything that it touches. The truth of the matter is that we live in a world that is vastly different than what God created and intended. We live in a world that is filled with violence and with hate because people are selfish have no regard for the Word of God. We want what we want and nobody not even God is going to tell us that we can't have it. See God is not unable to intervene in our lives nor is He unwilling the truth is that we have built a wall between ourselves and God, "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Isaiah 59:1-2. That is what we see happening in the world today.
The harsh reality is that we live in a fallen, degenerate society that has effectively kicked God out of our lives We have chosen to love our sin more than we have chosen to love God. We want to blame God when things go wrong like on 9-11 or with Hurricane Katrina. What we need to acknowledge is that it is not God who is at fault it is us. We have chosen exactly what we have gotten. Just like Adam and Eve we have decided that we will be the masters of our lives and that we will decide what we will obey instead of obeying God. The society that we have than is that legacy. The Good news is found in the implication of the passage given earlier in Isaiah. If we will turn to God and ask forgiveness for our sin (not mistakes or wrong choices but sin). God will hear us. He will forgive us and He will save us. Will this automatically restore everything to the way it was in the Garden of Eden, perfect with no pain or suffering? No it will not. Romans 8 tells us that the whole of creation groans because of the curse of sin and sin is a curse make no mistake about that. What we WILL gain by turning from our sins is personal forgiveness and cleansing. We will also gain the peace that only God can provide to deal with bad things that happen in our life. ultimately we will gain eternal life with God Himself and we will ultimately gain the priviledge of seeing God restore creation to its perfect status.
Why do bad things happen? Because we as a society and as individuals have chosen and exhalted our wisdom above Gods and our desires above Gods law. We have allowed sin to run freely and have enjoyed its company. Now is the time to turn from that and turn to God. One last verse, Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Are you heavy laden and laboring to make sense out of what is happening around us? Come to God and let Him give you the rest that Only He can give.
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