evil – I AM for You!

Who doesn’t Jesus love?

Jesus loves the mentally ill.
Jesus loves the mentally healthy.
Jesus loves those in a one-man, one-woman married relationship.
Jesus loves those who are not.
Jesus loves the scrupulously honest.
Jesus loves those who tell black, white and various-shades-of-grey lies.
Jesus loves the doctor who ends the life of an unborn person.
Jesus loves that unborn person.
Jesus loves that unborn person’s mother.
Jesus loves the person who believes they were predestined to be saved.
Jesus loves the person who believes they were not.
Jesus loves Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants and all religious people.
Jesus loves the person that believes there is no God.
Jesus loves the person who rejects Him.
Jesus loves the person who commits the unforgivable sin.

Jesus loves ALL people just the way they are.
And ALL need Him.
Even me. Even you.
And ALL can choose to receive Him as Savior, Lord and Friend.
If they are willing to turn away from their evil attitudes and actions WITH JESUS’ HELP.
And trust Jesus to forgive their evil attitudes and actions.
And trust Jesus to give them His Resurrection Life.

Why does God allow Suffering in the Christian’s life?

I just got done watching InTouch with Dr. Charles F. Stanley. I was convicted that I may have been sending the message that once you are rightly related to God, through faith in His Son Jesus’ death on the cross paying for your sins, that everything after is peace, joy and love. Dr. Stanley said that some things we can only learn as we experience pain and suffering; suffering from obeying God, and suffering from not obeying God.

Suffering from not obeying God makes sense. God has the best planned for us. If we don’t do what He says we can suffer the natural consequences of not positioning ourselves for His best.

But what about when we obey God and there is pain and suffering? Does that mean God has abandoned us? Does that mean it is pointless to serve God? God says through Jesus in the Bible that when we suffer for doing good there is blessing.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” – Jesus, Matthew 5:11-12, NKJV

I have personal experience of this being true. When I first became a Christian I told a person close to me about Jesus and what He had done for me. They hurled their vehement anger towards God, at me. Later, they told me a very sad cynical sexually-themed joke and when I didn’t laugh they accused me of thinking the joke was funny but being a hypocrite and not laughing. They continued to insult me personally and Christians in general as evil, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, hypocrites. The experience was painful, God insulated me from the worst of it by taking it upon Himself, and I didn’t say anything negative back to this person. (I wasn’t strong enough at that time to return good for evil, the best I could do was not retaliate).

What was my reward? Many years later I was thinking about what happened and I realized, that by obeying Jesus, and doing what did not come naturally, I had loved this person. I had done what was in their best interest. I had told them about the love of God and demonstrated it by not returning evil for evil. And that was worth more to me than gold or homes or cars. That truly was a “great reward”.

It can be very painful following God, but God always works everything out for our good. And He also works out everything so that the world can know who He truly is. As Dr. Charles F. Stanley says, “Obey God, and leave all the consequences to Him.”

What do you want?

What a man wants is unfailing love, better to be poor than a liar. (Proverbs 19:22 NIV84)

God created us to want unconditional love, to want Him. It is better to be poor in spirit (know you need God) than to lie (and say in your heart you don’t need God). Satan appeals to our desire to meet our own needs, be our own “god”, to be our own source. Satan hates God, hates that He is love, and hates those who accept Him and His love… and return His love. He hates God because God’s goodness exposes satan’s evil selfish corruption. People worship (value) God because God demonstrates His humility and self-sacrificing care for them every day. God puts our needs ahead of His own. He is not only the Great King He is the Lowest (Head) Servant.

But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45, NKJV).

Satan tells people to blame God for all the evil in the world. Satan tells people that God is uninterested in them, in their struggles, hurts, cares or dreams. Satan tells people that God is a nitpicking tyrant just waiting to pounce on them for doing the littlest thing wrong.

These are actually the qualities of satan and the opposite of the qualities of God.

God demonstrated who He really is when He walked on earth with us, in the person of Jesus Christ. Read the truth about God in the Bible. Read the Gospels, literally the “Good News”: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John at the beginning of the New Testament of the Bible. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and proclaimed the coming of His kingdom where His kind of loving service would rule; instead of this world’s current selfishness.

Do you want a God who is a loving leader; who values you and even your smallest dreams; who has served your greatest need already by paying the cost of your sin so you could spend forever with Him, so He could love you, and you could freely love Him back? If so, ask Jesus to come into your heart, to be your Servant and your Leader. Spend time talking to Him and listening to Him through prayer and reading the Bible. Ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit. Find a church that believes and preaches the Bible. And tell others what a great thing God has done for you.

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