It would be impossible to list every source of the words and information that make up my blog. They are a culmination of books I've read, sermons I've heard, lessons learned from people I've met, life experiences and information gleaned from the internet,
The Big Question
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice , though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth , though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 1 Peter 1:6-7
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing.
He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense.
What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
"Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn." — C.S. Lewis
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing.
He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense.
What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
"Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn." — C.S. Lewis
Why do bad things happen to good people?
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 KJV
"Why do bad things happen to good people?" This happens to be one of the most widely asked questions typed into Internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo, We shake our fists and heaven and declare that God isn't fair, that he doesn't know or care when things go wrong. That He doesn't even hear us when we pray,
It is easy to question God sometimes. In 1905 J.B. Goode wrote in his poem
"Who ne'er has suffered.."
Who ne’er has suffered, he has lived but half.
Who never failed, he never strove or sought.
Who never wept is stranger to a laugh,
and he who never doubted never thought", J.B. Goode
The point is briefly..."He who never doubted never thought". We all have done it at some time or other in our lives. Isn't He suppose to be a God of love who saves, heals and protects us from evil? We are promised "pie in the sky" from behind the pulpit. Instant healing, prosperity and constant Divine protection. Just WHY do so many bad things happen to us when we're trying so hard to please God and to do the right thing. What happens when our "good luck" charm lets us down and disaster falls down on our heads? Is it because we lack faith, or carry some fatal flaw we don't know about?
Is it true that God takes care of some people and forgets others? I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I go over the events of my life in my mind. (Old people are apt to do this), and it certainly seems like God plays favorites sometimes, but that's really not the way it is.
The first thing we need to realize is that God truly is more like a wise father than he is Santa Claus and just as we earthly parents deal with our children according to their needs, personalities and circumstances so God deals with us. There are some children you can trust with the car on Saturday night and some you cannot. There are also children who need extra tutoring in math and some who must repeat a grade in school now and then.
We have to remember that God doesn't see things like we do, He is not as concerned with time as we are. God sees the present, past and future all as one. This gives him a grasp of the situation that we can only imagine. He sees death, our most fearsome of foes as not an end but a beginning. The Bible tells us that he places great importance on our passage to the next life and does not take it lightly at all. Psalm 116:15 tells us "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints."
I cannot believe that our sorrow, pain and tears are a result of chance, neither do I believe that our pain is wasted. If God took His hand of protection off us we'd all be dead by sundown. But in his infinite wisdom there are some bad things he allows. Philippians 2:13 tells us that " God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." There are lessons to be learned and burdens that need bearing, there are hard jobs that need to be done. Maybe it is not so much what is inflected upon us as what we're trusted with.
If we are to believe in a personal, loving God we must believe that everything happens for a purpose. If he sees the "sparrow fall" like it says He does in Matthew 10:29 you can be sure that nothing that happens to us is beyond his notice. There are things that might not necessarily be His will but He turns the circumstance around and makes use of it for some good purpose. He turns the bad things that happen to us to good and uses adversity to work out His plan in us. I learned this in my six month stay in the hospital, my life supported by tubes, at times like that you must trust there is no choice, you trust or you die.
Life is nothing but a big school, we are preparing for our true place in God's master plan. 1 Corinthians 13:12 tell us "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:now I know in part;but then shall I know even as also I am known." Which simply means that we don't understand everything now but in time things will become clearer. It is interesting to note here that God promises that we ourselves will be understood too. God knows our weaknesses and he looks more on our motives and intentions than even our supposed successes. The bottom line is trust...we must trust that all will be right in the end.
We are the sum total of our experiences and nothing is lost, be it good or bad. Again I will reiterate that God is not the cause of bad things that happen to us, but he allows us to face the consequences of our own bad choices. There are also the things that happen simply because we live in an untamed world. There will be always be things like war, famine, and disease that we sometimes must contend with.
It seems trite to quote the oft quoted Scripture Romans 8:28 but it does apply "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" In the midst of a battle this seems ridiculous but we have to believe that this is true..
There are times for reasons known only to him when he swoops’ in and carries us out of bad circumstances but more often he wants us to rely on faith and good sense to work through the situation. He does help us but it's often in ways we don't see or understand. God knows how much you can take and we are always surprised at how far he will allow us to go. But he is there like a proud father watching his son swim for the first time. "That's my child he says with a smile" I believe he is proud when we pass the test.--Jireh's Girl
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. C. S. Lewis
It is easy to question God sometimes. In 1905 J.B. Goode wrote in his poem
"Who ne'er has suffered.."
Who ne’er has suffered, he has lived but half.
Who never failed, he never strove or sought.
Who never wept is stranger to a laugh,
and he who never doubted never thought", J.B. Goode
The point is briefly..."He who never doubted never thought". We all have done it at some time or other in our lives. Isn't He suppose to be a God of love who saves, heals and protects us from evil? We are promised "pie in the sky" from behind the pulpit. Instant healing, prosperity and constant Divine protection. Just WHY do so many bad things happen to us when we're trying so hard to please God and to do the right thing. What happens when our "good luck" charm lets us down and disaster falls down on our heads? Is it because we lack faith, or carry some fatal flaw we don't know about?
Is it true that God takes care of some people and forgets others? I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I go over the events of my life in my mind. (Old people are apt to do this), and it certainly seems like God plays favorites sometimes, but that's really not the way it is.
The first thing we need to realize is that God truly is more like a wise father than he is Santa Claus and just as we earthly parents deal with our children according to their needs, personalities and circumstances so God deals with us. There are some children you can trust with the car on Saturday night and some you cannot. There are also children who need extra tutoring in math and some who must repeat a grade in school now and then.
We have to remember that God doesn't see things like we do, He is not as concerned with time as we are. God sees the present, past and future all as one. This gives him a grasp of the situation that we can only imagine. He sees death, our most fearsome of foes as not an end but a beginning. The Bible tells us that he places great importance on our passage to the next life and does not take it lightly at all. Psalm 116:15 tells us "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints."
I cannot believe that our sorrow, pain and tears are a result of chance, neither do I believe that our pain is wasted. If God took His hand of protection off us we'd all be dead by sundown. But in his infinite wisdom there are some bad things he allows. Philippians 2:13 tells us that " God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." There are lessons to be learned and burdens that need bearing, there are hard jobs that need to be done. Maybe it is not so much what is inflected upon us as what we're trusted with.
If we are to believe in a personal, loving God we must believe that everything happens for a purpose. If he sees the "sparrow fall" like it says He does in Matthew 10:29 you can be sure that nothing that happens to us is beyond his notice. There are things that might not necessarily be His will but He turns the circumstance around and makes use of it for some good purpose. He turns the bad things that happen to us to good and uses adversity to work out His plan in us. I learned this in my six month stay in the hospital, my life supported by tubes, at times like that you must trust there is no choice, you trust or you die.
Life is nothing but a big school, we are preparing for our true place in God's master plan. 1 Corinthians 13:12 tell us "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:now I know in part;but then shall I know even as also I am known." Which simply means that we don't understand everything now but in time things will become clearer. It is interesting to note here that God promises that we ourselves will be understood too. God knows our weaknesses and he looks more on our motives and intentions than even our supposed successes. The bottom line is trust...we must trust that all will be right in the end.
We are the sum total of our experiences and nothing is lost, be it good or bad. Again I will reiterate that God is not the cause of bad things that happen to us, but he allows us to face the consequences of our own bad choices. There are also the things that happen simply because we live in an untamed world. There will be always be things like war, famine, and disease that we sometimes must contend with.
It seems trite to quote the oft quoted Scripture Romans 8:28 but it does apply "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" In the midst of a battle this seems ridiculous but we have to believe that this is true..
There are times for reasons known only to him when he swoops’ in and carries us out of bad circumstances but more often he wants us to rely on faith and good sense to work through the situation. He does help us but it's often in ways we don't see or understand. God knows how much you can take and we are always surprised at how far he will allow us to go. But he is there like a proud father watching his son swim for the first time. "That's my child he says with a smile" I believe he is proud when we pass the test.--Jireh's Girl
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. C. S. Lewis
My Dear Friend-I hope that you enjoyed reading my blog....I would be grateful if
you would repost my link and share it with your friends. thank you so
much. Jireh's girl
you would repost my link and share it with your friends. thank you so
much. Jireh's girl