| Saturday, March 21, 2009 |
| God, the World, and Evil |
I was sitting in a coffee house just a few weeks ago, when a man beside me spoke up and began a conversation. He began talking about the state of affairs within the world, and how dismal it looked. He mentioned natural disasters, deaths, and other things that troubled his heart and he finished his statements by saying, “it is almost as if God is trying to tell us something”.
Immediately I asked myself this question, “Is this the way people see God?” This man seemed to have seen these natural disasters and mass deaths as the work of God, punishing us, hurting us, destroying homes, businesses, and lives. Is this the picture of God that we want the world to hold to? Rather than grace they see vengeance, rather than love they see destruction. After the conversation was over I left with a renewed focus on the importance of the church and its role in showing others the true character of God; His amazing grace, his abundant love, and his patient mercy.
I learned that day that there are many in this world that see God in this manner. Yet I was more shocked when talking to other Christians about this story to find that they agreed with this understanding of God as the source of all of this pain and suffering, as some sort of punishment or lesson. What do you believe?
Come and eaves drop with me on another conversation. One that happened many years ago between God and the people of Israel. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God told the nation of Israel that he had good plans for them, “plans to prosper them and not to harm them…plans to bring them a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) This conversation allows us to peek into God’s nature and his purposes for us. God is not the author of pain and suffering, we are.
God created the human race without pain, suffering, and destruction, yet we brought these things into this world by bringing the curse of sin into the world. In the garden of Eden, with a fatal bite, we told God we didn’t need him, and we got partially what we asked for. We sinned, and were disobedient, and because of that, we have these horrible consequences that we so wrongly try to attribute to God. God did not create this pain, we did. Yes, there are times when he allows for us to sleep in the bed that we made, and if he does act it is to save us from ourselves.
All of us struggle with understanding a good God in this pain filled world, but keep this in mind. God is not the author of pain and suffering, but he does deliver us from it. What picture of God are we showing the world? Are helping feed their misunderstandings of God as a mean, hurtful deity? Or are we helping them see that he is the cure to the disease; the answer to the equation; the shelter in the storm? |
posted by Unknown @ 12:29 AM   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Ben, I agree that it is so sad the way that people see God and I agree that I talk to as many people that are "in" the church that feel the same way about God. It's as if they miss how patient and long suffering God was with His people all through the Old Testament and they miss that He gave His only son (that blows my mind as a Father) for us. What great love we have that He wants to rescue us from ourselves!
I don't know if you have read
The Jesus Storybook Bible but it is a fantastic children's book written with just this topic in mind, that Jesus was our rescuer and that every part of the Bible points toward Him. Your kids would love it and you probably would use it with adults as much as with the kids!
Hope Indiana life is good!
~Ty
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Hey Ty,
I am missing that warm AZ weather already! You are right, many of us christians have messed up concept of God. That is why we should constantly be considering what we know of the character of God. When we consider what God's character is it drives how we see him in the world. If we have a wrong concept of what his character is, we have a distorted view of his actions within the world. Theology is important.
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Ben, I agree that it is so sad the way that people see God and I agree that I talk to as many people that are "in" the church that feel the same way about God. It's as if they miss how patient and long suffering God was with His people all through the Old Testament and they miss that He gave His only son (that blows my mind as a Father) for us. What great love we have that He wants to rescue us from ourselves!
I don't know if you have read
The Jesus Storybook Bible but it is a fantastic children's book written with just this topic in mind, that Jesus was our rescuer and that every part of the Bible points toward Him. Your kids would love it and you probably would use it with adults as much as with the kids!
Hope Indiana life is good!
~Ty