Curse or Blessing?

I was leading a Bible study for our college group last night and we went through the book of Malachi. The prophet Malachi has a lot to say to those who have given into idolatry, the arrogant, the adulterers, and the oppressors. In the end, God says through Malachi that the day is coming when all of those evil doers (sorcerers, adulterers, oppressors, those who treat foreigners bad, and those who don't fear God) will be destroyed, but those who feared God will be protected and will trample on the wicked.

This is good news for those who stayed alongside God. At one time, evil was on top and those who followed God were on bottom. Not fair right? How can it be that those who despise God have money, wealth, food, big homes and so on? On the other hand, why is it that those who follow God are poor, beaten, broken, put to shame, and starving? God says in the end, it will switch, and the good will be on top over the evil.

Then in Chapter 4 (beautiful chapter) God says that the "Sun of righteousness will rise with wings of healing..." This implies what? That those who are righteous and those who feared God were hurt. Those who followed and drew near to God have to have been broken, beaten, put to shame, poor, and so on for wings of healing to rise up for them.

I gave an illustration after this. I was sitting down on the couch and I said something like:

"This may seem twisted, but I think we need to consider our pains, and our sufferings as blessings. I do not believe that God says 'Your mom is going to die because I want you to learn something from it' rather I think that, God forsake, your mom be killed, God did not do that on purpose to show you something, but can and will show you something from that evil that took place."

While sitting down I said:

"People think that when they become Christian or because they are Christian that they are going to be blessed with stuff. Well that is not promised. In fact, you can expect pain when you are a Christian because the enemy Satan wants to tear you down. However, we need to consider that a blessing because if we are given wealth (I stand up a bit) and a big house (I completely stand) and a nice car (getting on the couch) and a great family and perfect kids (Completely on the couch looking down at everyone) we look down on those around us. And because of all the stuff in our life, we have no time to look up. However, if we are broken (I get off couch) and we have been pained (I sit down on couch) and we have gone through tribulation (I sit on floor) and we have felt abandoned (I lay down) we have nowhere to look but up. When we look up, we look to God and we have a hope that God will take care of us. If we are already up, we don't look to God for help, but become gods in our own mind and push God out of the picture.

Perhaps this is the reason Jesus said, 'Blessed are the poor and meek in spirit, but woe to those who are rich and laughing.'"

Why I Do Not! (part 1)

This is why I do not drink soda (or "pop" depending on which state you originate from).

EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA!!!

When We Don't Know What God Is Doing...

Have you ever been at a place in your life when you feel that God is absent? To put it in a different way, have you ever felt abandoned by God? You know the scripture verse that promises you that, "God will never leave nor forsake you" but sometimes your experiences show otherwise.

I recently spoke for Halogen and I gave a message on, "Why We don't Hear God's Voice." While I was preparing the message, I did some Old Testament research on when God ignores or does not hear people's supplications. There are quite a few passages on this issue, but I pulled two out, Isaiah 1:15 and Malachi 2:13-14. Isaiah talks about God not hearing the prayers of people who mistreat the poor or oppress others. Malachi talks about god not hearing the prayers of those who are unfaithful to their wives.

All of this to say, there are reasons in the Bible given to answer the question, "Why is God not answering me?" If you are not on track with God, how can you expect to hear God?

However...

There are times that I just do not know why God remains quiet. For instance, my senior pastor told the Church about his pastor friend Rick who recently died of cancer leaving a wife, and two daughters (10, 12). Did he die of cancer because he sinned? No! When his family was praying for him to be healed, did God not answer their prayers because they did not have enough faith or because they were bad people? No! God took pastor Rick home because...Well, we do not know, and probably will never know until we meet in heaven.

We will not always know God's will, and we will not always know why God does what he does. My take is pastor Rick was the victim of an unfortunate mishap in his health that caused him to have cancer and because the cancer was so strong he died. I do not think that God "struck" him with cancer, and then allowed him to be sick for people to pray just so that he could say, "no" and take pastor Rick home. Things happen, and we blame God. Bad stuff happens, and we ask "why?" Horrendous evils occur, and we point the finger and complain. Is it wrong to mourn? By no means! It is okay to be sad and to weep. I am unsure why certain things happen. I am uncertain why "good" people suffer. But I know one thing, I have faith that God is faithful and will work all things for good. I know that I will not understand it most of the time, but that is where my faith will come in. It is hard, and I pray that God does not take my mom from me or anything like that, but I want to have the faith that will allow me to know that in EVERYTHING, God is sovereign. This is long....Serve someone today.