December 24, 2008 6:46 AM
Sam wrote:
This seemed to be a very tumultuous time in Israel's history. King after king ruled...king after king 'did evil in the eyes of the Lord'.
Fast forward to the 21st century. How far have we progressed? Libya. Iraq. Iran. Afghanistan. Colombia. Russia. Zimbabwe. UNITED STATES. The list goes on and on of countries with leaders who kill others. No, I guess we have not progressed very far. How sad God must be looking down at this beautiful planet filled with such ugliness.
Is Satan to blame for all of this? Is man? Is GOD?
Oh how I wish peace could REALLY come to the earth. How I wish death was caused only by events made by God Himself for the purpose of 'crowd control'. Sure, I might be one of those taken by God in the 'thinning' process, but while I'm here, it would be such a great thing to see peace.
Jesus even said He did not come to earth to bring peace, but to pit brother against brother. What kind of love is that really? Cmon God, we need some answers. We need some LOVE. We need peace in our lives.
I am saddened every day I attend the morning briefing where I work. Numbers of soldiers killed or wounded in war, or in the place wars are being fought, are shown on the big screen. How sad is that? Even more sad as those numbers have names, and we don't see those. At least some of the people listed in 1st Kings had names...not all, mind you, as these named kings killed hundreds, if not thousands, of unnamed individuals. It truly is a sad place in which we live.
My prayer to God this morning is for peace. If it is the 'end of the world' type peace, so be it. If it is a global peace, so be it also. I just want peace for all of mankind. Please God. Reply to this
December 24, 2008 9:32 AM
Johnbob wrote:
This is perplexing and probably a subject we will never figure out until heaven. I read your and Rick's and Tony's blogs yesterday - it is such an overwhelming subject. You could add many, many other countries and conflicts to that list. Think about the civil war and World War One. Hundreds of thousands were killed in the Civil War while 8+ million were killed in WW1 - very sad. Seems like war is part of our human makeup.
So where is God in all this? There are no hard biblical facts that I am aware of. However, in Genesis 6, it says that part of His reasoning for destroying the earth with the flood was due to the amount of violence there was. In fact, it says that 'his heart was filled with pain'. So we can at least conclude that God is not passive - God is filled with pain over Darfur, Rwanda, and the many other conflicts. Ecclesiastes and other books also mention injustice as part of the writer's frustration with life.
So, why doesn't God do something about it? Well, first of all, maybe He does a lot more intervention than we are aware of - we just can't see it. Romans 13 says that 'the authorities that exist have been established by God'. This makes me struggle somehwat because what about all the evil authorities like Hussein, Mugabe, Hitler, Lenin, etc.? But there were a lot of 'good' ones that rose up like Roosevelt, Churchill, and many others.
On the flip side, I believe that God has given man total freedom and does not tend to intervene directly. In fact, he almost always uses 'man' to intervene. At first it was God intervening directly with Adam and Eve, and then with Moses and Pharoah. And then after the old covenant was established, it was only occasional direct intervention. As time went on, if he wanted to deal with someone like some of the wicked leaders of Israel and Judah (and wicked followers), then he would 'rise up a king' from a distant land and destroy them. He sent the ultimate 'man', Jesus, to deal with us directly, and then that is the last direct intervention recorded (aside from Paul and the apostle John - who interacted with Jesus). So I guess what I am saying is that it is going to take a man (or woman) to stand up and make things right in this world - it still won't stop all wars, but this is why it is critical to pray for our leaders (as the bible says to do).
Sorry for the rambling, but your questions are very deep. So we might not ever know the answer, but we know that God is just, loving, compassionate, wanting all men to be saved, etc., so the answer in the end (when it is answered in heaven) will have to align with that thinking. Reply to this
December 24, 2008 10:32 AM
Tony wrote:
The story line in this chapter is who does more evil. Every new king did more evil than the last king in the eyes of the Lord. More evil than anyone before them. Sometimes I think we are in the same syndrome. Which of our leaders have done any good for the people? It seems like everyone is out for themselves and all they want to do is just that, what THEY want! What would happen if we had a leader that was truly for the people? One that took my view on the bible and said "what could it hurt"? Mankind is very self centered, selfish and stupid. War after war, corrupt leader after corrupt leader. Hell is going to be packed. I don't understand why so many people want for themselves and they will do anything to get it, no matter who they hurt. It's a crazy world, God IS in control, we just have to keep the faith. Love you all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Reply to this
December 24, 2008 11:02 AM
Sam wrote:
To Tony and Rick...I heard the boat sold off my 'lot'. I didn't see the parking/processing fee left at my door! Reply to this
This seemed to be a very tumultuous time in Israel's history. King after king ruled...king after king 'did evil in the eyes of the Lord'.
Fast forward to the 21st century. How far have we progressed? Libya. Iraq. Iran. Afghanistan. Colombia. Russia. Zimbabwe. UNITED STATES. The list goes on and on of countries with leaders who kill others. No, I guess we have not progressed very far. How sad God must be looking down at this beautiful planet filled with such ugliness.
Is Satan to blame for all of this? Is man? Is GOD?
Oh how I wish peace could REALLY come to the earth. How I wish death was caused only by events made by God Himself for the purpose of 'crowd control'. Sure, I might be one of those taken by God in the 'thinning' process, but while I'm here, it would be such a great thing to see peace.
Jesus even said He did not come to earth to bring peace, but to pit brother against brother. What kind of love is that really? Cmon God, we need some answers. We need some LOVE. We need peace in our lives.
I am saddened every day I attend the morning briefing where I work. Numbers of soldiers killed or wounded in war, or in the place wars are being fought, are shown on the big screen. How sad is that? Even more sad as those numbers have names, and we don't see those. At least some of the people listed in 1st Kings had names...not all, mind you, as these named kings killed hundreds, if not thousands, of unnamed individuals. It truly is a sad place in which we live.
My prayer to God this morning is for peace. If it is the 'end of the world' type peace, so be it. If it is a global peace, so be it also. I just want peace for all of mankind. Please God.
Reply to this
This is perplexing and probably a subject we will never figure out until heaven. I read your and Rick's and Tony's blogs yesterday - it is such an overwhelming subject. You could add many, many other countries and conflicts to that list. Think about the civil war and World War One. Hundreds of thousands were killed in the Civil War while 8+ million were killed in WW1 - very sad. Seems like war is part of our human makeup.
So where is God in all this? There are no hard biblical facts that I am aware of. However, in Genesis 6, it says that part of His reasoning for destroying the earth with the flood was due to the amount of violence there was. In fact, it says that 'his heart was filled with pain'. So we can at least conclude that God is not passive - God is filled with pain over Darfur, Rwanda, and the many other conflicts. Ecclesiastes and other books also mention injustice as part of the writer's frustration with life.
So, why doesn't God do something about it? Well, first of all, maybe He does a lot more intervention than we are aware of - we just can't see it. Romans 13 says that 'the authorities that exist have been established by God'. This makes me struggle somehwat because what about all the evil authorities like Hussein, Mugabe, Hitler, Lenin, etc.? But there were a lot of 'good' ones that rose up like Roosevelt, Churchill, and many others.
On the flip side, I believe that God has given man total freedom and does not tend to intervene directly. In fact, he almost always uses 'man' to intervene. At first it was God intervening directly with Adam and Eve, and then with Moses and Pharoah. And then after the old covenant was established, it was only occasional direct intervention. As time went on, if he wanted to deal with someone like some of the wicked leaders of Israel and Judah (and wicked followers), then he would 'rise up a king' from a distant land and destroy them. He sent the ultimate 'man', Jesus, to deal with us directly, and then that is the last direct intervention recorded (aside from Paul and the apostle John - who interacted with Jesus). So I guess what I am saying is that it is going to take a man (or woman) to stand up and make things right in this world - it still won't stop all wars, but this is why it is critical to pray for our leaders (as the bible says to do).
Sorry for the rambling, but your questions are very deep. So we might not ever know the answer, but we know that God is just, loving, compassionate, wanting all men to be saved, etc., so the answer in the end (when it is answered in heaven) will have to align with that thinking.
Reply to this
The story line in this chapter is who does more evil. Every new king did more evil than the last king in the eyes of the Lord. More evil than anyone before them. Sometimes I think we are in the same syndrome. Which of our leaders have done any good for the people? It seems like everyone is out for themselves and all they want to do is just that, what THEY want! What would happen if we had a leader that was truly for the people? One that took my view on the bible and said "what could it hurt"? Mankind is very self centered, selfish and stupid. War after war, corrupt leader after corrupt leader. Hell is going to be packed. I don't understand why so many people want for themselves and they will do anything to get it, no matter who they hurt. It's a crazy world, God IS in control, we just have to keep the faith.
Love you all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Reply to this
Merry Christmas to you too, Tony. Hope your cold is better.
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To Tony and Rick...I heard the boat sold off my 'lot'. I didn't see the parking/processing fee left at my door!
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the cookies were in the basket!
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