Sometimes my job as Teacher gives me more wiggle room than that of a Preacher.
Preachers have to toe the line to the congregations that employ them. They are expected to say the things that are usually said within that Chuch, and to avoid the unfamiliar homilies from other places. Visiting the sick in the hospital is usually one of the top tasks expected of all preachers, and how well they comfort the sick, the dying and the mourners defines not only how popular they are among their Congregation, but also how long they will keep their job.
My boss is Jesus Christ. As long as I'm telling it the way His Word expresses, I'm okay. I don't have to leave feel good messages, or words of comfort, or even be nice if the situation and my King does not demand it.
The good news is most of the time I am nice, especially to the sick, the dying and the mourners. Today, however, I am not going to be.
People of the World, People of the Kingdom, People of the Law, People of Servitude.........One thing is assured........everyone is going to suffer and everyone is going to die!
The LORD GOD has willed that death come to sin. Since all people have sin, and the power of sin does not lose it's hold over a person until death, you can be very certain that death will come to every person alive, regardless of how "nice" and "perfect" they are. Whether that death takes place in the natural way of the ceasing of life with a burial in the grave until resurrected on Judgment Day, or within the Baptismal Waters of Jesus Christ and resurrected immediately upon bodily death to the Kingdom of Heaven..........EVERYONE DIES!
Before death, you can also be assured that suffering will happen to each of us! Our worst sufferings may happen when we are young and developing, or middle age and struggling, or old age and remembering! It doesn't matter when.......cause it is gonna come! It doesn't matter whether you are destined for great things, whether you are faithful and righteous, whether you are "good people" of whether you are wicked.....it's gonna happen!
Sometimes the LORD GOD chooses the course of troubles that come to people, and sometimes He turns His back and allows troubles to come. Sometimes He leads people into hard times to harden them into Righteous responders, and sometimes he leads people into soft places so they can recover.
If you read His Holy Word of God, then you can understand His Ways. If you do not have a relationship with Him, you will never understand His Spirit, His Nature nor His Will.
If you have chosen to live a life of the world, berefit of the LORD GOD's Things, then do not come to me seeking compassion for your sickness and approaching death unless you want to learn of Him and the salvation of Jesus Christ through faith of His Resurrection and promised redemption of your sins.
I don't care whether you are angry at God for letting your perfect and good life be tainted with a little struggle and a little sadness. I know that many live their lives in a perfect and good way, come from "good stock" and firmly believe that their goodness will prevent them from having bad things come to them. Bullpucky!
And then when death comes and the "good" worldly person becomes the "saint" in legend, and people speak of the deceased being in Heaven and at peace, I usually hold my tongue, when I think of the times that dead person rejected Jesus Christ, mocked the Holy Spirit, and cursed God.
Truth is this.....the LORD GOD gives every living person a chance to come toward Him at some point in life. If those opportunities are rejected, then so be it. If you are of the world, and proud that you can be a "good" person without God, that is fine with me.......embrace your choice and go to your grave with pride that you lived the life and chose the death you wanted. Don't come to me at the end and be angry at God and asking why.
If you reject Him and His Things in your worldly and good life, then He will not be helping you to understand the things happening to you in your suffering and death!
Just in defining your life as "good" and your rewards "deserving" separates you from all of us past sinners who absolutely need the salvation of Jesus Christ and His promised redemption to squeeze into Heaven, and one day help establish the New Earth.
Imperfect and sinful people are offered a choice to live an eternal life guided by God, and overcome death through their faith in Jesus Christ. Wordly people choose their life of pefectness and goodness that one day leads to them rotting in their graves until they are resurrected at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
If you are old enough, and wise enough to make the choice of your way of life.....then make it... and quit whining to me about the lonliness and pain that will come to you on your deathbed if you choose to go your own way with the world.
Bucker
Preachers have to toe the line to the congregations that employ them. They are expected to say the things that are usually said within that Chuch, and to avoid the unfamiliar homilies from other places. Visiting the sick in the hospital is usually one of the top tasks expected of all preachers, and how well they comfort the sick, the dying and the mourners defines not only how popular they are among their Congregation, but also how long they will keep their job.
My boss is Jesus Christ. As long as I'm telling it the way His Word expresses, I'm okay. I don't have to leave feel good messages, or words of comfort, or even be nice if the situation and my King does not demand it.
The good news is most of the time I am nice, especially to the sick, the dying and the mourners. Today, however, I am not going to be.
People of the World, People of the Kingdom, People of the Law, People of Servitude.........One thing is assured........everyone is going to suffer and everyone is going to die!
The LORD GOD has willed that death come to sin. Since all people have sin, and the power of sin does not lose it's hold over a person until death, you can be very certain that death will come to every person alive, regardless of how "nice" and "perfect" they are. Whether that death takes place in the natural way of the ceasing of life with a burial in the grave until resurrected on Judgment Day, or within the Baptismal Waters of Jesus Christ and resurrected immediately upon bodily death to the Kingdom of Heaven..........EVERYONE DIES!
Before death, you can also be assured that suffering will happen to each of us! Our worst sufferings may happen when we are young and developing, or middle age and struggling, or old age and remembering! It doesn't matter when.......cause it is gonna come! It doesn't matter whether you are destined for great things, whether you are faithful and righteous, whether you are "good people" of whether you are wicked.....it's gonna happen!
Sometimes the LORD GOD chooses the course of troubles that come to people, and sometimes He turns His back and allows troubles to come. Sometimes He leads people into hard times to harden them into Righteous responders, and sometimes he leads people into soft places so they can recover.
If you read His Holy Word of God, then you can understand His Ways. If you do not have a relationship with Him, you will never understand His Spirit, His Nature nor His Will.
If you have chosen to live a life of the world, berefit of the LORD GOD's Things, then do not come to me seeking compassion for your sickness and approaching death unless you want to learn of Him and the salvation of Jesus Christ through faith of His Resurrection and promised redemption of your sins.
I don't care whether you are angry at God for letting your perfect and good life be tainted with a little struggle and a little sadness. I know that many live their lives in a perfect and good way, come from "good stock" and firmly believe that their goodness will prevent them from having bad things come to them. Bullpucky!
And then when death comes and the "good" worldly person becomes the "saint" in legend, and people speak of the deceased being in Heaven and at peace, I usually hold my tongue, when I think of the times that dead person rejected Jesus Christ, mocked the Holy Spirit, and cursed God.
Truth is this.....the LORD GOD gives every living person a chance to come toward Him at some point in life. If those opportunities are rejected, then so be it. If you are of the world, and proud that you can be a "good" person without God, that is fine with me.......embrace your choice and go to your grave with pride that you lived the life and chose the death you wanted. Don't come to me at the end and be angry at God and asking why.
If you reject Him and His Things in your worldly and good life, then He will not be helping you to understand the things happening to you in your suffering and death!
Just in defining your life as "good" and your rewards "deserving" separates you from all of us past sinners who absolutely need the salvation of Jesus Christ and His promised redemption to squeeze into Heaven, and one day help establish the New Earth.
Imperfect and sinful people are offered a choice to live an eternal life guided by God, and overcome death through their faith in Jesus Christ. Wordly people choose their life of pefectness and goodness that one day leads to them rotting in their graves until they are resurrected at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
If you are old enough, and wise enough to make the choice of your way of life.....then make it... and quit whining to me about the lonliness and pain that will come to you on your deathbed if you choose to go your own way with the world.
Bucker
4 comments:
I agree with your post, I might not have said it as strongly as you did but I agree. I have found that it has been the worst times in my life that eventually God has used to bring me closer to him. When I am close to Jesus my joy is abundent.
It's true. There are times in my own life when I'll bemoan some minor inconvenience and make it consume my entire world. I often forget the incredible blessings that God has given me. Things that most people take for granted like food and shelter and a job. Even the fact I live in a somewhat free country is something for which to be thankful. Even something as "minor" as the fact that my heart keeps beating and I'm still able to draw breath are things to be thankful for. God could stop those two things immediately if He wanted.
You belittle people's grief. "A little sadness" is such a cheap and hostile way you characterize the sufferings of human beings.
The contradiction is that we teach that God is faithful, and sovereign, and has a "master plan," when it is plain to anyone with plural brain cells that god does not intervene readily in our lives, that he does not have control over every aspect of our lives, and that the "master plan" is unintelligible to the human brain, and thus is indistinguishable from madness.
I had a daughter for 25 years. She was mentally ill the entire time. Then she took her life. There is no explaining the master plan -- so why honor it?
I'm sorry for your loss and your pain. Mental Illness is a hell for parents, friends and siblings as they watch the plummet from reality.
I can assure you that God did not make mental illness. Everything He has ever created, was created perfect and without any flaw or deviancy. It was the sin of mankind that was introduced by the devil, implanted at the gene level, that caused imperfection to be reproduced over and over by mankind.
By the time it has reached our generation, it is difficult to identify any perfection in God's Creation. One day, faithful Christians will be able to see that perfection. Until then, we all suffer as we hideous actions, and painful consequences of an evil that is ruling this world right now.
My post was written to make people think. I'm not trying to save the world, or witness a God they don't know. Instead, I'm trying to make the point that when worldly people reject God, and then have some misfortune, they curse God.
You can't have it both ways. If you have rejected God forever, then something bad happens, why do you think He is suddenly doing anything in your life? The reality is so much different. If you have rejected Him, He doesn't even pay attention to you. Only those that are His, does He mold and lead.
Natural disasters happen fairly, to both His people and the worldly. Private tragedies happen to both groups also. Mental illness is not just a case that exists in the secular; Christian parents also have mentally ill children.
It's time to quit cursing God, and blame the culprit that is responsible for all of this misery. The devil introduced sin way in the beginning to destroy God's perfect creation. Sadly, your daughter was one of his victims, as we all are; your suffering is because of Satan, not the LORD God.
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