Well, I'm back at it. :) I want to go back and talk about the biggest issues I have had with faith and with God in my life. These aren't in particular order, but sum up the 'issues' I had. Had is the key word here...there is a happy ending to this series of blogs, I promise :) Problems with Belief I HAD: 1. If there is a God, where is there bad things happening in the world? 2. Why did God let me, a little kid, have such fears of death and non-existence, when I did nothing wrong? 3. Why do we have to die? Why couldn't we just have happiness? 4. Adam and Eve messed it up, why is God punishing all of us? 5. God wouldn't create a world just to damn it. 6. Why does God want me to worship him, when even if I believe, am I just doing it for selfish reasons? 7. What lessons are we supposed to learn from babies/the innocent dying, and why do we need to learn lessons like that? I have gotten my answers to all of these questions, and I think the best way I can sum up my answers is this way: God loves us. He gave us free will, and we chose the world rather than His love. There is such a thing/being as Satan, and he is present in this world. Our earthly life allows glimpses of the beauty God created, but there's also proof of the terrible things our earthly, human nature can produce. If heaven is perfectly perfect, and hell is pure removal from the beauty of God, well, our earthly life is somewhere in the middle. Free will was a continual source of concern for me - I always thought 'how could someone be so stupid to not choose eternal life?' But now that I am a Christian, I realize more people make that choice that we can imagine. I mean, it might be money, fame, possessions, drugs, things of this world. And we justify this by breaking the first commandment - we make God in OUR image - or, more correctly - the image that justifies how we live. So, I realized, me being a questioning person, fearing DEATH most of my life, questioning all these things I mentioned, not understanding all of this - that's what got me to finding Jesus. I will be honest, I was actually afraid I was coming to Christ in a selfish mode - hey, he's the way I won't die! He's how I get to live forever! But when I received Christ in my heart, I felt DIFFERENT about that - I felt His presence and it became a relationship. It's like those people that say 'you don't understand love songs 'til you're in love.'...well, I understand those hymns and gospel singers now - Jesus is my friend, and it's a great feeling. So, to wrap it up, I'm gonna answer my questions: 1. If there is a God, where is there bad things happening in the world? There are bad things in this world because MANKIND chose to turn from God's love. We all affect each other, and the presence of Satan in this world allows these things to happen. God doesn't do anything bad to us - but our free will, a gift from God - means that God isn't gonna just jump in and FIX it all - doing that would take away free will, even if it's free will from a sinner. 2:17 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. We chose death. Pretty silly, but it happens all the time. 3:17 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 toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 2. Why did God let me, a little kid, have such fears of death and non-existence, when I did nothing wrong? 30 years, or so, of fear, which led me to Christ, is a small price to pay for the benefits accepting Jesus as my Savior will bring me and those I reach by telling them about Jesus. 3. Why do we have to die? Why couldn't we just have happiness? See answer 1. It's our choice to accept the sacrifice Christ made on Calvary for us. God wants us to be happy - and if you want to be happy for 72 years, or eternity, it's up to you. 4. Adam and Eve messed it up, why is God punishing all of us? It didn't take long for Adam and Eve to exercise their free will, and to disobey and turn from God. And their offspring, first Cain and Abel, and all the way through you and me - we all turn in our own ways. I guess, the way I look at it, is humankind, if it hadn't been Adam and Eve, would have eventually given into this sinful nature. 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; The rest of the questions just flow from this idea. We've all sinned...generation after generation - the world is the result of 'the sins of our fathers' - back to Adam and Eve. The breaking of that cycle is to accept Christ - and to HELP OTHERS find Him. God loves us and wants us to be happy.
15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another. My next entry will discuss how I realized these things - the relationships - the PEOPLE that God provided for me to help me find Christ. |
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