Times are really tough these days. Some of your Parents are without jobs, you might be losing your home, you might be seeing your parent's marriage being tested. All kinds of really bad bad things are happening all around us. The logical question that may be popping into your heads is, "If God is so Good, why is he allowing all this stuff to happen?"
Hmmm, that is a really good question. One that I have heard so many times before. But I want to ask it a different way, and see if you come up with the answer yourself. If you wanted someone to rely on you and love you unconditionally, would you give them everything they could ever want? Or would you make it tough at times so that they would realize that all the "other" ways that they were trying to find happiness, did not work. That you are the only way for them to find happiness.
As a teenager, I rebelled against my parents and wanted to do things my own way. My parents allowed me to do so sometimes, keeping close watch on me, and allowed me to fail, even sometimes painfully watching, all the time knowing that I was going to fail. But that is how I learned.
The same is with God. He is always watching, sometimes painfully, as we stray away from him and fail, and realize that we need to be in His protection, in His ways. Then, and only then, will we truly love God.
I am attaching a letter that came from a really good friend of mine. He passed it on to me because he wanted to give some words of encouragement to me. After reading the letter, it sheds a new meaning to all the things that are happening around us. I want to share the letter with all of you in hopes that if you or someone you know are struggling with life, you can decide to look at these struggles differently, and know that there is a reason for everything, even if we don't know what it is, and that God is ultimately in control. If you take the time, as I did as well, to examine yourself, and find where you are straying away from God and repent, and RUN back to God, you will realize that is what God wants from us. That is what any Good parent would want.
Please enjoy this letter as I did.
All of Life Is A Test
(07Jul09 3:00 am KCSJr)
In the movie The Recruit Michael Douglas is training new recruits for the CIA. At one point, one of the trainees has fallen for a girl in the program who gets booted out. He is then confronted with a choice between his loyalties to the CIA and the girl, and he chooses the girl. Turns out that is the wrong choice, because it was a test, which he has just failed. When he complains to Michael Douglas, “But I didn’t know it was a test,” Douglas retorts, “All of life is a test.”
There is an eternal spiritual truth here. Pilate sneered at truth, and failed his test. Judas misunderstood the nature of the calling of the Messiah, and failed his test. Peter kept alternately passing and failing, even, we are told in stories of his death, right up to the end, when he was attempting to run away from Rome and Jesus confronted him and asked him where he was going. (He went back, of course)We all have our Peter moments of both kinds, and it’s always a test. Will we stand? Will we be loyal?
Just yesterday, I called a friend, and he told me he was having a hard time, going through a struggle with God, and so I offered some advice. “Listen, Bruce I said, ”…
There’s more at stake than what we think. We are being presented with the Original Question: ‘Is God REALLY good?’ That was our first test in the Garden, and Eve listened to the serpent question God’s goodness, and mankind fell. God stood by and let Lucifer lure a third of the angels away. He had to have been watching; he had to have known what was going on. Yet he allowed it. Why? Because he desires loyalty about all. He doesn’t want puppets. And he is about getting a great glory by having a creature lower than the angels—at least for now—believe without seeing and trust in the goodness of God when everything around screams that he is not, and cause the angels to be astonished. We are that creature, and maybe that’s part of why Lucifer was miffed at God—maybe he knew that we were destined to rule over him, and that smarted. Maybe God asked him to make some sacrifice like Jesus was later willing to, and he refused. Who knows? But somehow, it was a test, and he failed big time…We are facing the same test, but somehow, we have to see the Bigger Picture, and realize that there is more at stake than our comfort.
God is more concerned with our character than he is our comfort, and with our ultimate glory than with our short-term happiness.
Hmmm, that is a really good question. One that I have heard so many times before. But I want to ask it a different way, and see if you come up with the answer yourself. If you wanted someone to rely on you and love you unconditionally, would you give them everything they could ever want? Or would you make it tough at times so that they would realize that all the "other" ways that they were trying to find happiness, did not work. That you are the only way for them to find happiness.
As a teenager, I rebelled against my parents and wanted to do things my own way. My parents allowed me to do so sometimes, keeping close watch on me, and allowed me to fail, even sometimes painfully watching, all the time knowing that I was going to fail. But that is how I learned.
The same is with God. He is always watching, sometimes painfully, as we stray away from him and fail, and realize that we need to be in His protection, in His ways. Then, and only then, will we truly love God.
I am attaching a letter that came from a really good friend of mine. He passed it on to me because he wanted to give some words of encouragement to me. After reading the letter, it sheds a new meaning to all the things that are happening around us. I want to share the letter with all of you in hopes that if you or someone you know are struggling with life, you can decide to look at these struggles differently, and know that there is a reason for everything, even if we don't know what it is, and that God is ultimately in control. If you take the time, as I did as well, to examine yourself, and find where you are straying away from God and repent, and RUN back to God, you will realize that is what God wants from us. That is what any Good parent would want.
Please enjoy this letter as I did.
All of Life Is A Test
(07Jul09 3:00 am KCSJr)
In the movie The Recruit Michael Douglas is training new recruits for the CIA. At one point, one of the trainees has fallen for a girl in the program who gets booted out. He is then confronted with a choice between his loyalties to the CIA and the girl, and he chooses the girl. Turns out that is the wrong choice, because it was a test, which he has just failed. When he complains to Michael Douglas, “But I didn’t know it was a test,” Douglas retorts, “All of life is a test.”
There is an eternal spiritual truth here. Pilate sneered at truth, and failed his test. Judas misunderstood the nature of the calling of the Messiah, and failed his test. Peter kept alternately passing and failing, even, we are told in stories of his death, right up to the end, when he was attempting to run away from Rome and Jesus confronted him and asked him where he was going. (He went back, of course)We all have our Peter moments of both kinds, and it’s always a test. Will we stand? Will we be loyal?
Just yesterday, I called a friend, and he told me he was having a hard time, going through a struggle with God, and so I offered some advice. “Listen, Bruce I said, ”…
There’s more at stake than what we think. We are being presented with the Original Question: ‘Is God REALLY good?’ That was our first test in the Garden, and Eve listened to the serpent question God’s goodness, and mankind fell. God stood by and let Lucifer lure a third of the angels away. He had to have been watching; he had to have known what was going on. Yet he allowed it. Why? Because he desires loyalty about all. He doesn’t want puppets. And he is about getting a great glory by having a creature lower than the angels—at least for now—believe without seeing and trust in the goodness of God when everything around screams that he is not, and cause the angels to be astonished. We are that creature, and maybe that’s part of why Lucifer was miffed at God—maybe he knew that we were destined to rule over him, and that smarted. Maybe God asked him to make some sacrifice like Jesus was later willing to, and he refused. Who knows? But somehow, it was a test, and he failed big time…We are facing the same test, but somehow, we have to see the Bigger Picture, and realize that there is more at stake than our comfort.
God is more concerned with our character than he is our comfort, and with our ultimate glory than with our short-term happiness.
We really are facing the same Question over and over. “Is God REALLY good?” Not, “Is he theoretically good?” but “Is he REALLY good in this situation of mine that feels so much like he is not?” And with every choice we face that test. Will we tell all the universe, “Yes, I BELIEVE God is REALLY good!” and affirm his faith in us? Will he find a people “willing in the day of [his] power” (Ps.110:3)? Somehow he has to succeed at that…his reputation, his Word, his very glory is at stake before all the universe: He has said it—can he REALLY make it happen? And the Cross and Resurrection provided as the Answer a resounding “YES!” that echoes down through eternity and back, all the way back to that time before time, when “the Lamb…was slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev.13:8).
Will we pass The Test? Will we believe that God is really, really, REALLY GOOD? As I ended my conversation with my friend Bruce, I laughed and said, “The funny thing is, tomorrow morning, when I’m in the throes of discouragement, I’ll need you to remind me of this.” We all need help passing The Test!
Will we pass The Test? Will we believe that God is really, really, REALLY GOOD? As I ended my conversation with my friend Bruce, I laughed and said, “The funny thing is, tomorrow morning, when I’m in the throes of discouragement, I’ll need you to remind me of this.” We all need help passing The Test!
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