RENEGADE CREATION PART 2: WHY GOD ALLOWS WHAT HE ALLOWS

Praise the Lord everybody!! Let everything that has breath praise His Holy name!! Even though the new year has started off with a test for my wife and me, I am still looking forward to what He has in store for us and our marriage and in our ministry. We love the Lord and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Jesus tells us John 16:33  33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Jesus doesn't say we may have, but that we will have trials and tribulations in this world. In my last post "Renegade Creation: part 1" we talked about the fall of man and how this led to sin and evil entering the world and how that affected the World when it came to something called "moral evil", the evil that comes about because of man's inherent sin. We must remember, God is not the Creator of suffering and evil.
We will be discussing something called "Natural Evil" and it's effect on the tragedies that the world likes to blame God for, These are things like wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes that cause suffering for people. These things are also an offshoot of man unleashing sin on the world. When Man turned "renegade" and went his own way, God for all intents and purposes let us go, and to a certain extent removed His hand from over us. All of Nature was thrown out of kilter, set free from its original constraints.  The earth was cursed. Genetic breakdown and disease began. Pain and death became part of the human experience.

The bible tells us in Romans 8:18-23 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
  19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

In other words, nature, and all creation longs for redemption to come and set things back to its natural order, until that happens there will continue to be chaos and disorder in this world. Think about it, all earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and climate changes are groanings of God's creation, longing to be freed. Let’s make this crystal clear once more: God did not create evil and suffering. Now, it’s true that he did create the potential for evil to enter the world because that was the only way to create the potential for genuine goodness and love. But it was human beings, in our free will, who brought that potential evil into reality.

Why doesn't God intervene against evil? you might ask.
Because God loves us and wants to have a true and real relationship with us, one that includes freedom of choice, He had to allow evil to exist.

We may say that God could still give us free will while at the same time preventing the consequences of evil. This becomes a question of degrees. We may want God to intervene in the case of murder or rape. But do we want God to intervene in the case of our own idolatry? Sin is not graded on a sliding scale. All sin is an offense to God, and it all separates us from Him equally. An unsaved person whose worst sin is that of gossip is just as unsaved as a nonbeliever who is a serial killer. If God were to intervene and prevent evil, He would have to remove us from the picture. Plus, if God were to prevent all the negative consequences of our actions, would we really have free will?

Because God desires a relationship with us, and we are sinful people, our sinful natures lead us to do sinful things. But praise be to God He has redeemed us! We need not live in slavery to our sinful inclinations (Romans 6:16-18), though we still battle against our sinful desires (Romans 7:14-25). Yes, we live in a sinful world over which Satan has been given dominion (1 John 5:19). We as Believers are not immune to the consequences of evil. But Jesus has overcome (John 16:33)! God is faithful to redeem the evil that happens in our lives just like He did for Joseph after he was sold into slavery after by his brothers, read Genesis chapters 37-50.

Romans 8:28 states 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

God allows evil, but He also restrains it. He does not allow too much evil, only that which can be redeemed and can lead to good. Sometimes we think it's more than we can bear, but God is faithful and will not give us more than we can bear. God is a God of justice and love, and evil will not go unpunished, nor will saints who suffer evil at the hands of others go without His help. In fact, the bible is constantly telling us to avoid all evil that comes our way, and avoid sin and to live in righteousness. We are called to help the needy and the victims of evil.

Micah 6:8 8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

One day God is going to eradicate all evil, but until then, we must learn to accept what God allows, because number one it was us/man who started the evil ball rolling, and number two God allows evil because he loves us and wants to commune with us, but Praise be to God, for our redemption draweth nigh, and order will be restored to God's kingdom.

God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall

RENEGADE CREATION: WHY GOD ALLOWS WHAT HE ALLOWS. part 1

Praise the Lord everybody!! Let everything that has breath praise His holy name!! Happy New Year!! to everyone out there, I am believing God for a wonderful and blessed new year in Christ, and looking forward to what He gives me to share with you all.

Today I want to share with you something God revealed to me while I was talking to a friend of mine about witnessing to nonbelievers and how to answer some of the Questions they always seem to ask when the concept of whether there is a God or not comes up. A lot of times I've heard it said "there is no God, how can any God allow so many bad things to happen to innocent children and people? What kind of God is that?" they ask me and when I try and take them to the Bible, they begin to point to how the God of the bible had people and even whole cities wiped out, women and children, everything, put to the sword or drowned by floods or burned up by fire. "what kind of God would do that?" they asked.
As my friend and I began to discuss how to answer these questions, God began to tell me that they needed to begin to see those situations and this world the way that He saw it, and He brought me back to the beginning, to Genesis and the creation. God's word tells us in Genesis 1:26-31 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth days.

As we see here God created everything, including man. The man was special in God's eyes because He created man in His own image, and gave him dominion over all His other creations. God was pleased with the man and saw that he was "very good."
When God saw man He saw a reflection of Himself, the man walked naked before God at that time because there was nothing between man and God, he was pure, clean, and holy unto his creator. When the man disobeyed God and sinned against his creator, that was no longer the case. That sin became a barrier between the two, now when God looked upon is creation He no longer saw a reflection of himself but a lawbreaker, not worthy of his current position, a covenant breaker who God could no longer see as His finest creation. So God covered man in the skins of dead animals, one reason I believe God did that was that at that point I believe He saw the man on the same level as the animals, as He angerly drove him out of the Garden and into the world controlled by the prince of the air, Satan.

As time went on and man began to multiply throughout the Earth, they reflected God less and less and their sinful nature became more dominant until God tells us in Genesis 6:5-8 5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 And it repented the Lord that he had made the man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

When people ask me about the existence of "God," or the God of the Old Testament and how could He allow certain things to befall so-called "innocent" men, woman, and children, I tell them they must learn to see things the way God sees them. When God looked at man all He could see was a renegade creation that was mutating into something He could not recognize.

The dictionary describes a Renegade as 1. One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.
2. An outlaw; a rebel.

In God's eyes, we were deserters, outlaws, and rebels, who had bitten the hand that fed them in order to go their own way, do their own thing. When God disowned man He cursed His creation. in Genesis 3:14-19  14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou has taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

God gave man free will, but here he lets him know there is a price to be paid for the sin of disobedience. He turned us over to our own devices and choices, thus the evil that befalls the so-called "innocent" is, for the most part, the direct result of man's choices.

First let me say that there are two types of evil, Moral evil, and natural evil. first, let us begin with "moral evil.  Moral evil is the immorality and pain and suffering and tragedy that come because we choose to be selfish, arrogant, uncaring, hateful and abusive. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

 So much of the world’s suffering results from the sinful action or inaction of ourselves and others. For example, people look at a famine and wonder where God is, but the world produces enough food for each person to have 3,000 calories a day. It’s our own irresponsibility and self-centeredness that prevents people from getting fed.

In other words: look at your hand. You can choose to use that hand to hold a gun and shoot someone, or you can use it to feed hungry people. It’s your choice. But it’s unfair to shoot someone and then blame God for the existence of evil and suffering. Like that old cartoon said: “We have seen the enemy, and he is us.”

God tells us in His word that "my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" see Hosea4:6. God is not only talking about believers but also about His creation.
I'm going to end here, but next time we will pick up with "natural evil" and a few other things connected with God and His "Renegade Creation."

God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall