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Why Do Bad Things Happen to God’s People? Part 10 “Well, after I exposed Al’s driving record last week, he decided he needed a break from me and put a little space between us so he wouldn’t “lay hands on me” if you know what I’m talking about. So anyway, Al decides to go over here to Nellis AFB and hitch a ride on one of the planes there and do some skydiving. You know, get away from it all. It’s a guy thing. Well anyway, Al gets up to several thousand feet on the plane and jumps out and he’s enjoying the quiet peaceful free-fall for quite some time, but then he notices he’s reached the altitude where he’s got to open his parachute. So he pulls the ripcord, but…nothing happens! “No problem,” Al says to himself, “I still have my emergency chute.” So Al pulls the ripcord on his emergency parachute, but then, again, nothing happens! So now Al begins to panic and says, “Man! I should have listened to Candy. What am I going to do? I’m a goner! I’m sorry Pastor Billy! Please forgive me!” (I forgive you Al) Well just then, as fate would have it, apparently Al got right with God, he sees another guy flying up from the earth toward him. Now, he can’t figure out where this man is coming from or what he’s doing, but he says to himself, “Who cares man! I hope he can help me and if he can’t, I’m in real trouble!” So when the man gets close enough to Al, he recognizes that it’s Kenny! So Al cups his hands and shouts, “Hey Kenny, I’m so glad to see you! Do you know anything about parachutes?” You know, some people are just born to be friends, you know what I’m saying? But besides that, how many of you would say Al and Kenny are not going to have a very happy ending to their stories there? Uh huh! But
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that right folks, believe it or not, did you know Al and Kenny are not the Christians who are also going to have an unhappy ending to their story on earth? Uh huh! So are many other Christians when they can’t give an answer to this popular skeptical question, “If God is so loving, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?” And again, I say that because again, you’ve heard the cry of the critic, right? That’s exactly what they say. “How can there be an All Loving God with all the evil and suffering that’s going on in the world,” right? And as we’ve been seeing, to make matters worse, some people would actually say and teach that the moment you get saved and become a Christian, you’ll never have to experience hardships of any kind. And it’s this misconception about evil and suffering that number one fuels the fire of skepticism towards God for the non-Christian, and two, it crushes the heart of the Christian who does belong to God, because they can’t see any rhyme or reason why in the world God would ever allow difficulties to come their way! Therefore, in order to stop creating “skepticism” for the non-Christian and “uneccessary pain” in the lives of the Christian, we’re going to continue in our study entitled, “Why Do Bad Things Happen to God’s People?” And we’ve already seen the first four things we need to understand if we’re ever going to understand Why in the world Bad Things DO Happen to God’s
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People, and that is Where Does Suffering Come From? Does a Christian Have to Suffer? Why Does Sufering Occur and the last six times What Good Can Come from Suffering? And what we saw there was that God is not just in full control of all things, but He’s promised for His children to work all things out together for good, including our pain! It’s great news! And last time we saw three more wise reasons why God allows difficulties and that was To Get You to Return to Him, To Get You to Witness for Him and To Teach You the Power of Praise. But that’s still not all. We’ve got one more round to go. The eighteenth wise good reason why God allows difficulties to occur is To Purify Your Service. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s listen to God’s. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one, just as He determines.”
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Now folks, according to out text, I think it’s pretty obvious. When God saves us, He doesn’t just save us to sit around on our blessed assurance until we get to heaven, does He? No way! What did our text say? He gives each born again Christian, at the moment of salvation, different gifts to serve Him with. One Christian gets one gift, another Christian gets another, and so on and they’re all meant for the strengthening of the Church. But that’s not all. The Bible also says that as Christians, we not only have the privilege to serve God period, but we can even earn several crowns to lay at His feet one day in heaven, out of love for Him. There’s the… 1st – Incorruptible Crown (the victor’s crown) 2nd – Crown of Life (the martyr’s crown) 3rd – Crown of Glory (the shepherd’s or elder’s crown) 4th – Crown of Righteousness (the longing for Jesus crown) 5th – Crown of Rejoicing (the soul winner’s crown) We have the potentiality to actually earn several crowns for Jesus! But this does not mean one Christian is better than another or that when we get to heaven we walk around bragging, “My crown’s bigger than your crown! Hey! My crown’s bigger than yours!” No! Revelation 4 tells us that we cast these crowns at His feet, out of humility and thankfulness for what He’s done for us! But herein lies our problem. We all say that serving God is something that every single Christian should do! And we’ll even acknowledge that we
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can earn crowns to lay at His feet. But when it comes to serving in the Church, what do we do? We think it’s optional! Or worse yet, even when we do get around to serving in the Church, we do so with the wrong motive. The first time we don’t get the kudos we wanted, or some form of acknowledgement, or tons of thanksgiving, or somebody looks at us crosseyed or even criticizes us, what do we do? We quit! And so we miss out on the blessing and the privilege of laying treasure at Jesus! So out of mercy, out of love, out of incredible goodness and wisdom, do you know what God does? Hey, that’s right! He orchestrates a few difficulties and a few difficult people and voila! We learn real fast that we can either keep on whining and complaining and quit when people don’t give us kudos we think we deserve or they complain about us, or we can simply have our motive cleansed by their bad behavior. I’m not condoning it, but listen to God’s purpose in this. We finally get to the point where we’re not going to let anybody dictate our walk or service to Jesus Christ, I don’t care what you do, and let them trick us into missing out on the tremendous blessing of laying treasure at the feet of Jesus. And to encourage us to not let other people’s bad behavior dictate our good behavior, let’s take a test. Let’s see if our motive for serving Jesus still needs to be purified. Is your service to Him a job, or a ministry? Let’s take the test.
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• If you do it because no one else will, it’s a job. If you are doing it to serve the Lord, it’s a ministry. • If you do it just enough to get by, it’s a job. If you do it to the best of your ability, it’s a ministry. • If you quit because someone criticized you, it was a job. If you keep serving, it’s a ministry. • If you quit because no one praised you, it was a job. If you do it because you think it needs to be done, it’s a ministry. • If your concern is just success, it’s a job. If your concern is faithfulness to God, it’s a ministry. • It’s hard to get excited about a job. It’s almost impossible not to get excited about a ministry. • Average Churches are made up of many people doing many jobs. Great Churches are made up with many people who are involved in ministry. • People may say, ‘Well done,’ when you do your job. But the Lord will say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’ when you complete your ministry.” And isn’t that what we all say we want to hear from Jesus? “Well done, thou good and faithful servant?” So what’s that got to do with other people’s criticism or thankless attitudes? People again, hear me out. I am not condoning other people’s bad behavior, but ultimately what’s that got to do with serving Jesus? Yes, we may be serving them but it’s supposed to be unto Him, regardless of them, right? That’s where our hearts are supposed to be! That’s where we become faithful and we refuse to let a stinker in the
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Church trick us into missing out on the blessing of a lifetime! To lay treasure at the feet of our Loving Lord, the Greatest Servant of all, as a way of saying, “Thank you Jesus for saving me from hell!” And so if God has to allow a few difficulties, to cleanse our motive and protect us from missing out on this blessing of hearing those words one day, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” then so be it, right? And isn’t that what we all pray for? Of course it is! And it’s all because God allowed a hardship for a wise, good, and loving purpose. Oh, but that’s not all. The nineteenth wise good reason why God allows difficulties to occur is To Discipline You. Hebrews 12:4-10 “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.’ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness.” Now folks, according to our text, God not only wants us to keep on resisting sin even to the point where we’re shedding our own blood, or in
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other words fighting against it to the very last drop of our lives, but He also wants us to do that for what? So we can be a Holy Church or in other word, walk in holiness, right? In fact, so much so does He want this, that He said if we don’t do this, i.e. we keep on sinning, what’s He going to do? He’s going to give us a spanky wanky, right? He’s going to discipline us! Why? Because He loves us! And this is precisely our problem. Our society has so convinced us, even in the Church, that all discipline is bad! And so we’ve turned God into this giant Grandfather in sky who wouldn’t dare spank His kiddy widdies! No! Why, He just rides on a fluffy cloud and hands out candies and yum yum all day long! Wanna go to Disneyland? Excuse me? First of all, God is our FATHER not our grandfather and just as any good father on earth will do He will discipline his kids when they get out of line because He cares enough about them. For instance, if my son kept playing out in the street where he could get run over, and after I told him not to, I still caught him doing it anyway, and I then proceeded to ground him to his room for a week, am I a bad parent? No! I love my son, and I see the danger of his behavior and so I care enough to intervene. Discipline is good people not bad! And so it is with God! He too cares for His kids and so if we get out of line and become a
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danger to ourselves or other people, He disciplines us. In fact, it’s been this way from the get go! Old or New Testament. Let’s take look at some examples. Israel Whined and Complained about God’s Provision Numbers 11:4-6,18-20“Again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” Tell the people: ‘The LORD heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it – because you have rejected the LORD, Who is among you, and have wailed before Him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” Miriam & Aaron Complained about Their Leadership Numbers 12:1-2,10 “Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? they asked. Hasn’t he also spoken through us? And the LORD heard this. When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous – it became as white as snow.” Korah & Others Wanted to Usurp Their Leadership Number 16:1-2,31-32 “Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites – Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth – became insolent and rose up against Moses. The ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions.” Achan Compromised with Sin Joshua 7:1,20-21,25-26 “But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of
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the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel. Achan replied, ‘It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.’ Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.” King Saul Gave God Half Obedience 1 Samuel 15:7,9,16,22-23 “Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs – everything that was good. ‘Stop!’ Samuel said to Saul. ‘Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.’ ‘Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.” David Committed Murder 2 Samuel 12:1,7,9,15,18 “The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. On the seventh day the child died.” Ananias & Sapphira Lied to God Acts 5:1-5 “Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, how is it that satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you
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think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.’ When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.” Christians Took Communion in an Unworthy Manner 1 Corinthians 11:17-18,20-22,30 “In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.” For being divisive, selfish, and self-centered while taking communion. Now folks, I don’t know about you, but I’m so glad we don’t do that! We don’t complain about God’s leadership or the leaderships’ direction, or rebel, or compromise with sin, or we whine and complain about God’s provision, or give God half obedience to God, or commit adultery visually with the eyes, or murder people with our mouth, or lie, or are divisive and flippant about the things of God like communion….yeah, right! And so guess what? Out of mercy, out of love, out of incredible goodness and wisdom, do you know what God does? Hey, that’s right! He disciplines us too! He orchestrates a few difficulties to come our way and voila! We learn real fast we can either keep on sinning and become a danger to ourselves and other people and get spanky wankies, or we can just simply
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walk in holiness like He said to, and avoid those all spanky wankies for our own good! But even here folks, I’ve learned, we still don’t get it. I also see us making a secondary mistake that invites even more discipline. You see, we can even get to the point as Christians that we acknowledge that yes God will discipline us, out of love when we get out of line…but boy! The moment somebody else does something wrong to us, what do we do? We don’t do it God’s way and go through the proper channels of Church discipline. No! WE POUNCE ON THEM with REVENGE! We think it’s our job to discipline them right then and there on the spot! Why of course! They deserve it! But people, that’s not what the Bible says. Romans 12:19-21 “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” People, the Bible clearly says when it comes to dealing somebody else’s bad behavior that, yes, you need to communicate your grievances with one another in love, and if you still can’t work it out then take another brother or sister in the Lord with you to act as a mediator, and if that still doesn’t work, then, and only then, take it to the leadership. You know Matthew 18 principle. But apparently, even then, worse case scenario, if
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you still didn’t like how things ended up, you just back off! Why? Because “Vengeance is Mine saith the Lord,” not the laywer and not you! Let God dish out the spanking how and when He decides, He sees it all and trust Him, and you just get busy doing what’s right in the midst of the all the wrong, you heap burning coals on their head, right? Why? Because when you take vengeance into your own hands instead of leaving room for God, you’re going to get a spanking yourself. Why? Because God love you! And He disciplines those whom He loves, i.e. His children! And if His children refuse to walk in holiness and instead become a danger to themselves or to other people, He will allow hardships to come their way so they’ll learn to become a benefit to the Body of Christ, not a burden. And isn’t that what we all pray for? Of course it is! And it’s all because God allowed a hardship for a wise, good, and loving purpose. Oh, but that’s not all. The twentieth and final wise good reason why God allows difficulties to occur is To Take You to Heaven. Romans 2:4-5 “Don’t you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see how kind He has been in giving you time to turn from your sin? But no, you won’t listen. So you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself because of your stubbornness in refusing to turn from your sin.” Now according to our text here, God obviously wants all of us to be saved and He demonstrates this by showering us with His kindness,
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tolerance, and patience, right? But folks, if we’re honest with ourselves, we usually don’t respond to God’s call heaven by His acts of kindness, do we? No! Are you kidding! Why, when things are going great, we don’t need God! But folks, the reality is that if we refuse to turn from our sin and get saved, we’re not on the highway to heaven. No! We’re on the highway to hell. And I’d say that’s kind of a big problem, how about you? So out of mercy, out of love, out of incredible goodness and wisdom, do you know what God does? Hey, that’s right! He orchestrates a few difficulties and voila! We learn that we rebel against God because of our difficulties and stubbornly go to hell, or we can repent and receive His grace and go to heaven. Which one would you rather have? And so people, hello, if it takes a few difficulties to open our eyes to our spiritual need, then so be it! It’s precisely because God loves us that He’ll do whatever it takes to take us to heaven. And believe it or not, this loving gesture of God of allowing difficulties to get us saved is a much more common scenario then you might think. For instance, this is what it took for my Dad. Over the years my Dad stubbornly refused to see His need of Christ. So it took the death of my Dad’s sister before his eyes were opened. And in his moment of grief and despair, the Pastor who was visiting, prayed that God would touch my dad
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with His love. And my Dad said that right when the Pastor finished praying that it was like a lightning bolt went from the top of his head all the way through his body and he felt a wonderful sense of God’s peace and he knew from that point on that God was real. So was God trying to torture my Dad by allowing the death of his sister? No! When all was said and done, my Dad got saved. And now he’s not on the highway to hell, he’s on the high way to heaven. Oh, but this not only worked for my Dad, it worked for my Uncle. He didn’t see a need for God. He was perfectly fine without Him. So over several years it took the death of his 4-year old daughter, his 21-year old son, and his wife before his eyes were opened. So was God trying to torture my uncle by allowing the death of his loved ones? No! When all was said and done, my Uncle got saved. And now he’s not on the highway to hell, he’s on the high way to heaven. Oh, but this not only worked for my Uncle, it worked for me. I didn’t need God. I was my own god. Besides, Christians were a bunch of idiots who needed a book to tell them what to do. Not me! So over the years it took getting strung out on demonic drugs, getting involved in demonic teachings, and nearly going out of my mind by demonic attacks before my eyes were opened. So was God trying to torture me by allowing me to go on
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the verge of insanity? No! When all was said and done, I got saved. And now I’m not on the highway to hell, I’m on the high way to heaven. You see people, the Bible is clear. 2 Peter 3:9 “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” He doesn’t want you to leave this earth like these guys who refused to repent. THOMAS PAYNE: “I would give worlds, if I had them, if the Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone!” VOLTAIRE: “I am abandoned by God and man! I shall go to hell! O’ Jesus Christ!” DAVID HUME: The atheist died in utter despair with an awful scene crying out, “I am in the flames!” KARL MARX: Was on his deathbed surrounded by candles burning to lucifer and screamed at his nurse who asked him if he had any last words, “Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough.” NIETZSCHE: Died insane, completely out of his mind. SIR THOMAS SCOTT: “Until now I thought there was no God or hell. Now I know there is both, and I am doomed.” SIR FRANCIS NEWPORT: “Do not tell me there is no God for I know there is one, and that I am in his angry presence! You need not tell me there is no hell, for I already feel my soul slipping into its fires! I know that I am lost forever.” Now folks, hopefully this is not a difficult question, but how many of you would say, that’s probably not a very fun way to leave this earth? Uh
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huh! Well here’s the good news. God’s not willing that you should perish like that! Just call upon the Name of Jesus Christ and ask Him to forgive you of all your sins, and you can leave the earth like this! The famous Christian, Dwight Moody awoke from sleep shortly before he died said: “Earth recedes. Heaven opens before me. If this is death, it is sweet! There is no valley here. God is calling me, and I must go.” And Moody’s son said, “No, no, Father. You’re dreaming.” And Moody replied, “I am not dreaming. I have been within the gates. This is my triumph; this is my coronation day! It is glorious!” Augustus Toplady, preacher and author of the hymn, “Rock of Ages”: “The consolations of God to such an unworthy wretch are so abundant that He leaves me nothing to pray for but a continuance of them. I enjoy heaven already in my soul.” Lady Glenorchy: “If this is dying, it is the pleasantest thing imaginable.” John Pawson, minister: “I know I am dying, but my deathbed is a bed of roses. I have no thorns planted upon my dying pillow. In Christ, heaven is already begun!” Adoniram Judson, American missionary to Burma: “I go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school. I feel so strong in Christ.” John A. Lyth: “Can this be death? Why, it is better than living! Tell them I die happy in Jesus!” Martha McCrackin: “How bright the room! How full of angels!” Mary Frances: “Oh, that I could tell you what joy I possess! The Lord does shine with such power upon my soul!” Sir David Brewster, scientist and inventor of the kaleidoscope: “I will see Jesus; I shall see Him as He is! I have had the light for many years. Oh how bright it is! I feel so safe and satisfied!”
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A Moslem woman, whose child had died at 16 years of age asked a Christian missionary, “What did you do to our daughter?” The missionary replied, “We did nothing,” But the mother persisted, “Oh, yes, you did! She died smiling. Our people do not die like that.” As it turned out, the girl had found Christ and believed on Him only a few months before. Fear of death had gone and hope and joy had taken its place. And finally a Chinese communist, through whom many Christians had been executed, said to a Pastor: “I have seen many of you die. The Christians die in a different way. What is your secret?” People, I’ll tell you what the secret is. It’s simply that we Christian’s have taken God at His Word and we’ve entrusted our lives to Jesus Christ, and because of this, even our death has now become just a pleasant goodbye. And folks, I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have that departure from the earth then that other one, how about you? And guess, so does God! He loves you! And that’s why whether we like it or not or whether we want to admit it or not, our difficult circumstances are serving as an opportunity to open our eyes and soften our hearts so God can take us to heaven! And isn’t that what we all pray for? Of course it is! And it’s all because God allowed a hardship for a wise, good, and loving purpose. You see, God’s not being some sort of cosmic terrorist when He allows troubles to come our way, and He certainly isn’t trying to torture us. No! God loves each and everyone of His children. Therefore He has a wise and loving purpose for everything we go through in life, including our pain. And once we realize this, we are finally in a position to soar above any and
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all problems that would ever come our way. That’s why God Allows Bad Things to Happen to His People? Amen? _____________________________________________________________ To find the way to God, to understand the truth of God’s Word, and to received the gift of eternal life, begin by repentance and faith through a prayer like this: “Dear God, I understand that I have broken Your Law and sinned against You. Please forgive my sins. Thank You that Jesus suffered on the cross in my place. I now place my trust in Him as My Savior and Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.” ___________________________________________________________