Just Because

"Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1)

Why would God allow evil? It's an age-old question, and one not easy for the human mind to claim an answer to.

The Atheist:

The atheist exclaims there is no God. He leans strongly on his own moral judgment. Yet, in regard to that moral judgment, there is no consistency from one standard / person to the next. Life, itself, is hopeless, pointless, directionless, and ultimately meaningless. His only possible god is Today.

The Deist:

The deist is more rational. He believes there is a greater power; one who has spun us into existence only to leave us hanging. He is not a personal god. He is not an interactive god. Either he cannot control the events of our daily lives or he simply doesn't care to.

The Believer:

Can it be possible, even feasible, that God is sovereign in choice and action, and His ultimate will spans generations, millennia! It reaches beyond our physical world and into the spiritual. The Scriptures (our only concrete basis for knowing and understanding the God of Adam, Abraham, and Father of nations) indicate...

"For  we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against  the rulers, against the authorities, against  the cosmic powers over  this present darkness, against  the spiritual forces of evil  in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12 ESV)

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In order to answer David's question for ourselves we need only to turn back to God's Word, and view it wholly, completely, not parsed and picked. Chapter 9 of Isaiah clearly demonstrates David's specific outlook on God.

His ways are not ours.

"Seek the  Lord  while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the  Lord , that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the  Lord." (Isaiah 55:6-8 ESV)

"Forgiveness" is not our nature. Our natural reaction is condemnation ....unless it involves one's self as the offendor, the aggressor against God. So why does God forgive evil? Well, you or I just might need that forgiveness ourselves.

Our ways are not His.

"For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD." (Psalm 10:3)

With either no god, or one who doesn't care ...one is puffed up and prideful; a god in his own mind, yet lacking the tools or the solution to actually play the part.

Seeking gain exclusively for oneself is antithetical to pursuing God.

"He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30 ESV)

So, is there a God .....or are we on our own?

"In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, "There is no God." (Psalm 10:4)

"The  fool says in his heart,  There is no God. They are  corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good." (Psalms 14:1 ESV)

If there is God ......does He care about our daily lives?

"His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them." (Psalm 10:6)

Jesus is God's "because"!

"but  God shows his love for us in that  while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore,  we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from  the wrath of God.  For if  while we were enemies  we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by  his life.  More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received  reconciliation." (Romans 5:8-11 ESV)

We need to get back to balancing the checkbook of our lives; to "balance" back to an agreeable product .....not the balance "I" desire, not the balance the "world" desires, but the balance which our Great Common Denominator enacts. We have to trust "His" life-ledger. Jesus brings things back in balance. He "is" God's because, the answer to what the world asks "why".

It is often said that the gospel can be summed up in John 3:16 .....this "because" of Jesus Christ.

"For God so loved the world"...... He redeemed us while we were still sinning,

"that He gave His only begotten Son" ........instead of us paying for our sin.

"that whosoever believes in Him"..... His liberty applies to the just and unjust. The choice is freely ours,

"should not perish" .......for what hope is there otherwise?

"but have eternal life" ......a conclusion, a profitable conclusion, where God is sovereign and just, merciful and mighty, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Friend of sinners .......the Because to all our why's.

A beautiful day, I stand in the warm
No concern of pending storm
Worry not what tomorrow will bring
God's provident will demands a Spring

Be Still, Be Quiet

Our mouths must first be closed before we can hear from God. Once heard, men can be given tongues of The Spirit. Be still. Be quiet. Know that He is God. Then be anointed of The Holy Spirit of God!

"Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, No; he shall be called John. And they said to her, None of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:57-79 ESV)

The Dawn and Doom of Disobedience

Disobedience Is Dishonorable:
The first thing that occurs when we begin to entertain thoughts of disobedience is the breaking of trust, the fall of our faith, in God. We decide that our decisions just might be better than His, the Almighty of Creation.

v6 "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."


Disobedience Is Deceitful:
Once faith falters and trust is tossed aside we must deceive in order to justify our decision. Right and wrong are embedded in the hearts of man and woman. Innocence is lost.

vv7-8 "7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden."


Disobedience Is Dreadful:
Once we become governors of our own way ....fear sets in.
vv 9-10 "9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."


Disobedience Is Divisive:
Once fear is established we begin to defend. We must self-preserve, whatever the cost.

vv 11-12 "11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."


Disobedience Is Decisive:
As dishonorable, deceitful, dreadful, and divisive disobedience is established ....The Righteous, Loving, Sovereign, Merciful God establishes consequences ....not to harm us, but to save us from ourselves.

vv 14-19 "14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
16 To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
17 And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Who Is In Control?

As we face the perilous edge of fiscal cliffs, and are tempted to worry, and wonder who is in control of our man-made messes., consider this.......

"Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you." (Psalms 2:1-7 ESV)

When I was Younger

"But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

There are things, in life, which only come with age. There are exceptions, but most of us just have to learn the things of life the hard way. O' how I wish I had learned the lessons Jesus was teaching here at the end of Matt. 6! More than just not worrying (the negative) but focusing our attention on something which matters more! (The positive)

Jesus teaches us to focus on Kingdom matters ....the cure for whatever earthly is the matter. This is not just blindly denying worldly matters, but properly focusing our attention, firstly, on Kingdom matters ...we will then face all matters within God's world-view.

A New Life In 2013

Leave the old in 2012. Start "new" in 2013. Commit to follow Christ, to be "in" Christ. There is NO other way to eternal life. He is the way, truth, and He IS the life! Admit that you are a sinner when compared to God's righteous standard (not man's), and then repent, turn away, from sin. Put it behind you. Follow Jesus.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)