Considering any of the horrible things that humanity has perpetrated on one another, how much more of this can God stand?<\/strong> We\u2019ve had plenty opportunities to end ourselves as a whole species of creature. I won\u2019t even begin to list them here, but if you can\u2019t think of some, off the top of your head, drop me a note. I think the question is extremely fair. I might even say that it is generous. I would say that God has been EXCEEDINGLY generous. And gracious. And merciful in that He does not insist that all perpetrators experience the same horror as their victims. <\/p>\n\n\n\nBut the question that I wanted him to ask and answer was, \u201cWHY would God continue to allow these horrible, heart wrenching things to continue? Why do we need to continue to see (and commit!?) the abuses, the neglect, the lack of compassion, the greed and selfishness? WHY would He wait any longer? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer to that question is the only way I can make sense of it, at all. The only reason I can see, that lines up with the character of God as revealed in the Word of God, is that God has a purpose that is bigger than all of the horrors that we have seen over all the years that we have been recording them. He must have a purpose that is more beautiful than all of the ugly! I believe that we can see a picture of that beauty in those things that still exist apart from sin\u2019s power. In God\u2019s divine design, in His 6-day creative speech, He created a habitat for His creature. He spoke all the things we needed into existence into an order so perfect that we still have not completely understood it. We still don\u2019t know all the things about all the things! And the wonder of all those things still pales in comparison to the reason that He spoke them into existence. THAT God, the only unlimited being, wanted to fellowship with us, eternally. He wanted to dazzle us with the colors of autumn, with the smells of flowers, the flavors of fruit, so that we could begin to know how unlimited He is. He wants us to know the love a father feels as he looks at his child, the joy that a mother has as she brings life into the world, and more! But then there came sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AND NOW, we must have an answer. An answer to the why. Why would a good God wait to end the pain? Why would God not change His plan? Why would God allow evil people to have power over the lives of others? Why do I not understand the grief that is rampant on the earth? I believe that the answer is that God tarries because we have not finished the job yet. Like the parent counting by fractional numbers before their child has reached \u201cthe limit,\u201d God has made provision for the end to happen at just the right time. This earth has even more to offer than we think we know and there are still things being learned by experts about how we work! Of course, I cannot give you a date, nor do I think that is the point. I believe that that time will be when we have found the last tribe, when we have reached the last ones that have not heard. When they get to hear that there IS hope (and that HE HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD AND HE IS LORD!) we will have our answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can talk about the passages that lead me to this conclusion, or if you think I\u2019ve missed something, or we can talk about how you\u2019d like to be involved with bringing about the end of all this world\u2019s nonsense. That\u2019s what my family and I are trying to be a part of. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My pastor dropped some heavy truth on Sunday. I thought maybe those of you that read my meanderings would appreciate some thoughts from the words spoken. We\u2019ve been in 1st John for a while now, going methodically through the verses.\u00a0 It has been VERY good, and as a Historical Literal Grammatical student of the Word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1037],"class_list":{"0":"post-264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-family","7":"category-ministry","8":"tag-thoughts","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joshua-mathew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}