God so Loved the World that He Gave His Son: The greatest Spiritual battle ever fought part four… interrupted!
Sorry for being a day late with this week’s blog post. What with all the severe storms yesterday, I didn’t get it written. I was just watching some of the reports this morning, covering the vast devastation, and it almost made me sick! We spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening in the basement watching the coverage on TV and praying for safety for our friends and family! We fared pretty well, just a few small branches down from already damaged trees from the derecho. We pray that you and yours weathered the storms okay as well.
I’m sure lots of people are thinking and saying, “how could a loving God allow such a terrible thing to happen?” The Bible addresses that question this way:
Matthew 5:45 (NIV)
45 … He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
John 16:33 (ESV)
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
(Some of the following excerpts have been taken from an internet article as I was reading regarding the question of God allowing such terrible things to happen.)
All we have to do is log onto the internet, turn on the TV, or open a newspaper, and the sad state of affairs in this world quickly becomes apparent. Tragedies, disasters, accidents, murder, rape, theft, abuse, and all sorts of other carnage have become common place. Fact is, we live in an evil world, and we really need to stop pretending otherwise. One question we always hear after a tragedy seems to be, “If God is in control, why does he allow bad things to happen?” There’s that question again. Still reading? Good. There has been evil in this earth since the very beginning. Ever since the devil tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God, there has been evil in the hearts of mankind and trouble in the world.
The fact is the Bible tells us that evil does not come from God. It comes from the devil.
1 John 5:19 (NIV)
19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV)
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
On the other side of the coin, there is no scripture (not a single verse) that promises us an easy life because we follow Christ. Look at the twelve disciples for example, most of them died tragic deaths because they followed Jesus. There is no promise that God will prevent evil from ever happening. However, there is a day coming when God will subdue the devil!
Revelation 20:10 (NKJV)
10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
As I was writing this blog post, I had the thought… “It’s ironic that last week’s post was about the prophet Elijah being taken up to heaven in a whirlwind / tornado. I’m still not certain what I’m supposed to glean from that. Do you remember this?
2 Kings 2:11 (NIV)
11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
Barring any unforeseen events, next week we’ll find out what Elisha’s double portion of the anointing of Elijah looks like.