YES HE DOES CARE!
“But what about the
following….?”
(READ
ON---------------
CASE IN POINT:
Over three dozen people
have been killed and many more injured, across five US states in
the some extremely devastating tornadoes over the past week (March 2012).
From Indiana and Ohio, to Alabama again and Tennessee,
homes are being wiped out and lives seemingly destroyed. The worst of the
damage, along the Appalachian way seems to be in Kentucky. To make things even
more unbearable, more snow is starting to fall in the Midwest and upper
southern states than in the winter month of February.
A seeming miracle of the fifteen-month-old Angel
Babcock of New Pekin, Indiana, found after her family's mobile home was
destroyed in Friday's storms ended tragically. Angel was thrown 100 yards into
a field after her entire family was picked up by the tornado there and flung
across Creation. Her father, mother and two siblings were killed.
The stories are coming fast and
furious over this and more as each week brings more heartache to another group
of our fellow citizens.
CASE IN POINT:
Twelve year old Megan goes to a friend’s house for the
night here in town. On the way to the Pancake House next morning, a drunk
driver comes flying down Dirksen Parkway, runs the red light and plows into the
minivan driven by the sleep-over friend’s mom. Megan, though wearing a seat belt,
is killed instantly.
CASE IN POINT:
Last April 2011, the
worst tornados ever, drove through central Alabama. It was a mile wide and sure
death in its wake. Over 5000 buildings in the town, which is home to the
University of Alabama Crimson Tide, were destroyed. Over 300 persons lost their
lives. Some of them lived in poverty in apartments. Rosedale Court,
a public housing complex, was destroyed, and thousands of apartments and homes
in Alberta and Holt and in Forest Lake, Cedar Crest and other neighborhoods
were heavily damaged and/or destroyed.
Of course, over in Joplin, Missouri, folks are yet to recover
any semblance of normalcy, after the town was destroyed ten months ago…by yet
another tornado. To make things worse, tornado season is right around the
corner!
IS THIS GOD?
What do all of this have in common with each other? – Extreme
Personal and Corporate Tragedy!
It is unimaginable to
lose a young child forever…to a drunk driver or fatal disease.
It is unthinkable to watch a mile wide fast moving shroud of
death, carrying the sound of 15 loud freight train engines at full roar…and
there is no way to escape, hide or run from it.
It is unnerving to watch a wall of water, from all sides,
heading for your home and livelihood, as you evacuate minutes before it
happens.
It is stomach churning to approach your church in Joplin, find
some of your congregants, whom you had seen hours before, dead in the tornado’s
wake, while you yourself are suddenly trapped by debris in follow up winds.
Is this God?
America and the world watches these videos and photos from all
these different tragic sites and are unable to process their thoughts
accurately…and according to scripture.
From the Tsunami we watched LIVE in Japan a few months ago to
this horrible and extended Tornado season, everyone from national network news
anchor to the surviving victim themselves ask – “where was God?....How could He
let this happen?....
I once heard ABC News Diane Sawyer, who is representative of
most, ask on ABC’s World News Tonight:
“How can a loving God allow this”
THE ANSWER:
The answer is: God is
still loving, kind, compassionate and merciful. He is Holy God by Whose full
Grace and mercy we are able to breathe in and out, for more than today.
However, we have to go beyond just saying those words, to understanding its
foundational truths…..and it all comes back to the Person of God. To do that,
we look at the Attributes of God.
The Dictionary describes an “Attribute” is a special quality or
characteristic of a person.
The Attributes of God are timely to attempt to comprehend, in
these perilous times, where one could never know who will be next. I have
always taught and promoted this – in order to claim, believe and fully
appreciate the God Who offers these things, we have to know how credible He is!
This is not blasphemy! This is actually using the Word of God,
guided by the Spirit of God to explain to a lost evolution-believing world, a
process they would rather ignore.
The great Illinois preacher A.W. Tozer’s most famous book was
“The Attributes of God”. He listed the following as God’s Attributes:
God is Infinite.
God is Infinite.
God is Good.
God is Just.
God is Merciful.
God is Grace.
God is Omnipresent (everywhere at all times).
God is Immanent.
God is Holy.
God is Perfect.
While Tozer’s accurate description are tremendous and powerful,
Judaism, from whence comes Christianity has such an elevated view of YahWeh or
Holy God that I must share it here! It is completely Biblically based and in
fact, since it is based on the Torah or the First Five books of the Bible, I
believe it comes directly from the Lord as He imparted it to Moses!
Here are the 13 Attributes of
Yahweh:
He is:
1.
God of mercy (before a man commits a sin);
2.
God of mercy (after a man commits a sin);
3.
Almighty Lord of the universe, Ruler of Nature, and Mankind;
4.
Full of affectionate sympathy for the suffering and miseries of
human frailty;
5.
Assisting, helping and consoling the afflicted and raising up
the oppressed;
6.
Long suffering and slow to anger;
7.
Abundant in goodness i.e. granting His gifts beyond the deserts
of man;
8.
True to Himself and speaking the Truth in love;
9.
Remembering the good deeds of the ancestors for a thousand
generations;
10. Bearing with indulgence
the failings of Man; and also
11. Man’s evil deeds
springing from malice and rebellion against God; and also
12. Man’s shortcomings due
to heedlessness and error;
13. He will not allow the
guilty to pass unpunished but visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him.
These are more in tune with what comes next – ORIGINAL SIN.
ORIGINAL SIN:
It is obvious Satan fell from grace and heaven BEFORE God
created the Heavens and earth in Genesis 1.
When sin entered the world, the serpent was already at work to destroy
perfection created by Holy God.
As a result of Original sin in Genesis 3 by Eve, all Creation
move from peace and perfect joy to being cursed. Because of the Attribute of God of the Old
Testament (and New) He has to judge sin.
Therefore Adam’s physical environment had to change to suit his new
fallen status where he would have to struggle to even make a meal or survive!
Since then, mankind has not only gotten more evil and rebellious
but has followed the gods of this world in all its demonic activity, leading
billions into the fiery pit of hell!
Creation has to continue to reflect this vile reality…and it
does. The Flood (Noah and the Ark);
earthquakes, tsunamis, more floods, extreme climate and yes, tornados!
Jesus Himself warned in Matthew
24: 6-8 of these things! He said “6 And you will hear of wars and
threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the
end won’t follow immediately. 7 Nation will go to war against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in
many parts of the world. 8 But all this is only the first of the
birth pains, with more to come”.
This is the biblical background and the underlying reason we
have, what we have as far as natural disasters! It had its roots in Original
Sin!
Now many can choose not to believe this reasoning, but it is in
the Word and I can defend it. However a better day is coming!
Just as we – those who have Jesus Christ as our own personal
Savior and Lord – look forward to His Glorious Appearing, so does ALL
CREATION!!! Yes, indeed!
The Apostle Paul was commissioned to bring Gentiles into the
Kingdom of Heaven. He was PERSONALLY sent by the Lord Jesus after the Road to
Damascus and three years in Arabia, learning directly from Christ.
Paul wrote the following prophesy in Romans 8:18-21” 18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay!!!!”
Paul wrote the following prophesy in Romans 8:18-21” 18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay!!!!”
There is coming a day with NO Tornados, Tsunamis, Floods
earthquake and death! And the same created universe itself, which the world
worships (instead of the CREATOR), literally can’t wait!!
THE FINAL ANALYSIS:
We mortals will never understand any or much of this until we
get to Heaven. Remember God says in Isaiah
55:8 “"My thoughts are nothing like
your thoughts," says the LORD.”And my ways are far beyond anything you
could imagine”.
We can never understand
all those “CASE IN POINTS” at the beginning of this essay, but we have to Trust HIM….unless you have another way!
When you are wondering
why God does not answer your prayers – Trust Him.
When you are asking “did
I do something wrong” - Trust
Him.
When you are thinking
that God hates you – Trust
Him.
When you are wondering
if you really have any Faith at all – Trust Him.
When you pray and pray and beg and petition and cry out and you
or a loved one is not healed or delivered ….
When you pour out everything you’ve got and there is total
silence from Heaven……
When your spouse runs out on you and has an affair or decides they
“don’t love you anymore”…….and THEY are the ones who seem to prosper……
When your ungodly conduct of a live-in boy- or girl- friend
leads this person to refuse to commit and want only a civil union……
When you try to quit smoking or drinking beer…and only end up
drinking and smoking more….
When your life appears to be going to a place you never planned
for, but circumstances or the economy or…..
When all this adversity happens…..When the entire world seems to
fall down on you…..Look in the mirror first.
Search your own heart to see what sin you have committed to keep
God from blessing you. Seek counsel for those things you may not be able to
understand from Scripture.
God will not hear the prayer of a sinner who wants Him to bless
unbiblical conduct, or at least say it is okay. The Bible says in John 9:31: We know that God doesn't listen to
sinners, but He is ready to hear those who worship Him and do His will.
Life is not a box of chocolates, as Forrest Gump says….the old
1970’s song said “I beg your pardon…I never promise you a rose garden”…and on
and on. Many Christians – real or professing – think that because they are
doing X or Y “for God”, everything will always turn out right. It will in
Heaven. But while we are here on earth, when bad things happen, we may get hit
by them too!
The Bible says that the rain falls equally on the Righteous (the
Saved) and the Unrighteous (the majority) of the world (Matthew 5:45).
None of us love to see people hurting or killed and their lives
and property completely destroyed, LIVE ON TV, by these tornados or massive
waves coming off the ocean. But we can seek comfort in knowing that our
Heavenly Father has prepared a place for us, if we are READY to meet Him.
Tomorrow is promised to nobody. The rest of today is NOT either.
If a person is not right with God, has not made peace with Him and therefore,
does not have her/his sins forgiven….and if an earthquake destroys us right
now, there is NO second chance or “oops…give me a mulligan, Jesus”.
Be ready to be called home at any time.
Be right with God.
Be reasonable when trying to figure out all this devastation in
the natural world. Mourn with those who
mourn and rejoice when miracles happen.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for
they shall be comforted” says the Lord Jesus in Matthew
5:4…let us, who know Truth, then do the same when the rest of us believe “God
does not care”.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House
Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
(Images courtesy Google Images from recent tornado damage in Indiana)
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