In Personal Responsibility classes this week, we have been discussing the relationship between a "Good God" and natural/moral evil. To be perfectly honest, these issues are not new to me and I admit my mind wanders in class--I find myself considering not the topic, but how my own perception of God has been altered by the moral evil I have experienced and understood...
Every discussion seems to return to the conclusion that God's allowance/sovereign decrees of evil and condemnation are not fully comprehensible. I don't take this lightly! Some of my close family members are unsaved, and it unbearably pains me to know they are slowly dying an eternal death. I have had difficult losses even in my personal life. In the end, I have to rest on God's own assertions that His purposes are perfect and good, that all is working together for His glory...which is the ultimate and supreme end. I have to live believing that evil, no matter how great, is for the purpose of glorifying my God...
To live like that, I have to believe that God's character is worthy of glorification that is attained through the allowance/decree of evil and condemnation. The more I ponder Who He is as revealed in the Bible--and more tangibly, in my life--the more I see His worth. If nothing else God has made Himself more worthy and wonderful to me through my experiences and my awareness of the reality of eternal seperation. I have witnessed and felt His character more deeply, and the bitterness of life has only provided a contrast that has made Him sweeter...
I need to remind myself of this sometimes...my little hardships and others' greater hardships, all are to glorify a God who is utterly worth glorification at any cost. What helps me live this belief? SEEING and SAVOURING Who God is, all the marvelous attributes of His character. How could I serve a God whose glory was not worthy of every small or magnificent sacrifice? I would rather be terrifed by God's incomprehensible decrees than follow a god whose character was less worthy!
C.S.Lewis said, "Cramped or terrified, we must be...I prefer terror...Have you never, when walking in a wood, turned back deliberately for fear you should come out at the other side and thus make it ever after in your imagination a mere beggarly strip of trees?"
Thank God that He is so great we must never fear finding out the limits of Himself.
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http://aguyblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/woods-and-promises.html?showComment=1234648860000#c5367937904238969547
ReplyDeleteThanks!!! It's good to know someone (whoever you are) is reading my blog!
ReplyDelete"Whoever I [am]" says your welcome again. : )
ReplyDeleteSorry about being anonymous: for the time being it's necessary to deal with some issues of a group with which I was associated, but now am not. There is this problem that when a sheep cries out, or anyone takes a stand for God's word there, that there's a spin on that information, and so the possibility of warning the sheep is preemptively hindered by hardening hearts before someone can even appeal to the word. I have gone from there temporarily, to learn and grow in the word, and handling it, but must return to deal with what my conscience and the love of Christian brotherhood demands.
After that I'm very much considering being much more public when online. : )
oops.
ReplyDelete"public" (read, "open", i.e., not anonymous)