The maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to serious defect. This defect has been termed “Subsequential Internal Nonmorality”, or more commonly known as SIN.
However, The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this SIN defect. The Repair Technician, Jesus, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. The number to call for repair in all areas is: 772-9263 (PRAY2ME).
After connecting with Jesus to fix your SIN, please see your operating manual, HOLY BIBLE, for further details on your fixes. As an added upgrade, The Repair Technician, has made available to all repaired units a DMA system. This DMA system, Direct Monitoring and Assistance, is also known by others as the Holy Spirit. Repaired units need to only make him welcome and he will take up permanent residence on the premises.
What God values above all is relationship. But for relationship to be meaningful, it must be freely chosen; for relationship to be freely chosen, there must be the possibility of it being rejected; and wherever there is the possibility of rejecting relationship, there is also the possibility of pain and suffering.
But some would argue, if a loving and powerful God exists, He would not allow evil to exist. Evil does exist; therefore, there must be no God. But this is circular reasoning.
For evil to pose this problem for belief in God, evil itself must be real. If you need a good God to account for evil, then you can’t disprove that good God with evil.
In Genesis 3, deceived by the serpent, Eve disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam followed her example. As a result, God placed a curse on them, Satan, and creation. All of God’s creation will find itself coping with less than perfect conditions because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
Right now, we see a world that is suffering and stressed over COVID-19. No one asked for this to happen. This is not a localized issue, but the impact of this is felt around the world. No one choose this to happen, but the choices of others helped to this spread. There are times we will suffer because of the choices of others. This does not mean God is absent in all of this suffering.
As we see in the life of Joseph, he was sold into slavery by his brothers, then he was falsely accused of a crime and imprisoned for 13 years. After this Joseph was able to become the second most powerful person in Egypt, behind only Pharaoh. When Joseph finally was able to see his brothers again, they were scared, but in Genesis 50:20 he said to them “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people.” God can use suffering for good.
Suffering can bring us closer to God. That is the story of Job. The book of Job is how Winston Churchill describes the Soviet Union; a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The book of Job is a journey into the inscrutable ways of God. Addressed in this puzzling book are confounding issues like: Why do the righteous suffer? Where is God when tragedy strikes? If God is all-loving, how can he allow human suffering? Does He not care? Is God worthy of worship in tough times?
These are tough questions. However, throughout his entire trial, Job never did understand why he was suffering. There were no explanations from God. No behind-the-scene reports came to bolster his faith. Instead, through his pain he was forced to preserve with no answers. Job’s faith was stretched to the very limits. Wracked with pain of every kind imaginable, he was forces to simply trust God. In the barren emptiness of his soul, not knowing why such trouble had come, Job was brought to the place where he could only cling to God. Job was put in the difficult position of having to rest in divine mystery.
We too have been brought to a place that we did not choose for ourselves. We have found ourselves being separated from this world, and given the opportunity to strengthen our relationship with God. This world is fallen due to SIN. We need to dial up 772-9263 (PRAY2ME). We need to pay attention to our DMA system (the Holy Spirit). We also need to refamiliarize ourselves with our operating manual, the HOLY BIBLE.
We should not be looking at what has been taken away, but be thankful for what we have been given! We have been given time to spend with our heavenly Father. Can there be a greater gift than this?