Sunday, April 28

(Posted on behalf of Joe Bellavia)

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Judges 8:18-9:21

Luke 23:44-24:12

Psalm 99:1-9

Proverbs 14:9-10

 

Psalm 99  The beginning verse states The LORD reigneth.

One of the often asked questions of many people today, even among Christians is...

If God is in total control over all His creation, why is there so much evil in the world? 

Does God allow evil to exist in the world?  Does God create evil?  If we want to know the answers to some of these common questions, it's imperative for us, especially as believers, to look into His word, the Bible, for the truth.

Too often, many of us are satisfied to receive all our truth filtered through the mind of some teacher, minister, or commentator.  Seldom or never going to the book of books for independent study.  We inevitably become mere echoes of the opinions of others.  We are not grounded in the truth, hence we are liable to be carried about with every wind of doctrine.  I honestly believe if we search and study God's word, as a miner digs for gold or a diver plunges into the depths of the sea for pearls, the Holy Spirit can enable us to have the true Bible answers to some of these common and often asked questions.

My question is...where do we  start?  We must have knowledge of the account that took place at the beginning.  God recorded all things for us, in the book of Genesis 1:31  And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. 

15 And the Lord took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayst

     freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Their direct rebellion against God's command allowed them to fall, by losing the privilege to live in God's presence, and they were banished out of the garden of Eden.  God's curse upon Adam and Eve and his creation, was a direct result of their rebellion against God, so pain, sorrow, and suffering came into the world!  And God saw that the wickedness of man after the fall was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continuously.   And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.  And the Lord said "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, and beast and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 

Today I honestly believe that God's heart still grieves.  We live in a world that has been contaminated by sin and Psalm 53:2 -3 give a good example:  2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.3 Every one of them is gone back :  they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.  The good news for us is that in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation God still reigns!  Today is still the day of salvation.  Every day that the Lord gives us, he allows the sun to shine upon the just and unjust.  He allows the rain to fall from heaven and produce fruit for our nourishment, that we may receive everything with thanksgiving.  The Lord is still on the throne and he shall reign forever and ever.

Job 12:19  He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.

Proverb 21:1  The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water:  he turneth it whithersoever he will.

2 Chronicles 20:6  And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen?  and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

Revelation 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

 

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