Nothing is more disappointing to parent than a child going astray by his own choices. As parents we take a similar risk that God chose to take.
We take responsibility as much as we can and until we can no longer. A point of no return can be reached.
God created, and granted the freedom of beings to also be creators; possibly creators of evil and thus creators of sorrow. All sin brings about sorrow.
Lucifer rebelled against God before anyone on earth did so.
In scripture we read how God watched Adam to see what he would name the creatures. He watches us much more closely than we realize. He misses nothing.
Bertrand Russell was famous in America, known as the father of American atheism. He believed he had an iron-clad argument against the existence of a good God. He argued that a good God could not have created an existence where so much suffering would occur as has occurred on earth.
Illegitimate living brings sorrow and death. Legitimate living is like a good marriage where sex is enjoyed in intimacy, with utter loyalty and privacy. To know Christ – Messiah, Jesus – is a very special experience and is similar to knowing our spouse.
The truth is that God, like His Son, determined beforehand to endure evil for a season in order to give the opportunity for beings like you and I.
Jesus “Endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him,” (Hebrews 12:2). He desires to “bring many sons (people) to glory” (Hebrews 2:10).
Glory is that abode Jesus talked about when he said, “I go to prepare a place, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:3)
Heaven is where we are all invited; but we must be prepared by God the Savior: He must take away our sin. He only can do this. We cannot do this on our own. He will make us fit for heaven if we will turn to Him in the same sincerity as is found in a loyal marriage.
He is longsuffering because He is Love. But, love can be spurned. So it is with a good marriage spoiled by infidelity. Even then, God is greater in loving than we at our best.
His forgiveness involves His refusal to remember. “He casts away our sin as far as East is from West.” (Psalm 103:12)
We can be washed clean by God: “Wash me, and I will be white as snow,” cried Kind David. David sinned against God. So have we. (Psalm 51)
Jesus earned for us that which we could never have earned by our own effort. We did not self-create and we cannot make ourselves righteous, holy, pure, and spotless.
The life of Jesus is the final revelation from God to man- the triumph of His outreach to the willing. Jesus is God and Savior, and He is LORD. He says, “If you have seen me, you have seen the father” (John 14:7).
For the joy that was set before Him: His joy and mine – the Son of God –endured the cross, and He has tolerated and used all the evil on earth, but He will not continue forever to endure evil. He will come. Then, He will separate the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25: 31-46)
“Take my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it to Thy throngs above.”
Buddy