This was originally posted in my Yahoo! 360 blog, Oct 7, 2006:
Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any horrible world events to report on right now, just the normal carnage in Iraq (the daily unending Muslim Islamo-fascist terrorists murdering innocent Muslim men, women and children – and any American they can find), political scandals in the West (like Rep Foley chasing young teenage boys), and the normal raping and murdering that goes on all over the world. Everybody wants to exercise power over everyone else. Everybody wants to be in charge, but no one really knows what to do or how to act once they get in charge. If the terrorists win in Iraq, what kind of a government do you think they will establish? Do you think they've even thought about it yet? Or is killing the only thing they really know how to do?
Have you ever thought about why its so hard to lead? Most of the time the wrong people want to lead, and the right people don't want anything to do with leadership. Why is that? I've seen this in my several jobs as well as at several of the churches I've been in. I don't have to mention politics do I? America, Iran, North Korea, and this list can go on and on ...
Without fail, any power we think we have, we quickly find out that we have very little ability (if any at all) to control our own lives, let alone any one else's. Have you ever thought about why that is? As a Christian its very easy to answer; its because we know that we're not in control. (by the way, that doesn't make it any easier for us than it is for the non-Christian)
It's summed up in the understanding of the 'sovereignty of God'. Most people, Christians included, do not like to concede the fact that we are simply not in control of our lives. Let's take the killings of the innocent Amish children last week by a man that wasn't Amish and didn't have any issues with the Amish at all. He said he was mad at God. So he was going to rape and murder a bunch of innocent children who never did anything to anybody. (It fits nicely into my previous blog, the "Evil Within", don't you think?) Did those kids do anything to deserve that treatment? How about their parents? It shows you just how little control over our own lives we truly have. But if I'm not in control, then who is? The only real answers to this question are either: 1) no one is in control and there is nothing outside of mankind – we're alone, or 2) some one or something outside of mankind controls the world and its events, and that some one or something is God.
Now if you believe that God somehow started everything and now has nothing to do with the world and all of us, then that's really not a God of any value or importance. To me, it starts looking a lot like the no one or the nothing of option 1).
If there is a God, then He is a 'some one' and a 'something' that not only made this world and the universe it resides in, but made us as well. And He made us with the ability to choose between doing good and doing evil. So if He is the maker, the creator, then He is the controller of everything as well, and if He is the controller, that means that He is sovereign over His creation. Now what in the heck does that mean? That's a very good question. Let's define it.
By saying that God is sovereign over His creation, I'm saying that God is the source of all creation and that all things come from Him and depend upon Him (Col 1:15-17). God has the absolute right to do whatever He wishes with His creation at anytime He pleases. This would also imply that no one controls God. If no one controls Him, then no one made Him either. But more on that some other day.
So, why do I say that? Let's look at a couple of verses from the Bible. Psalms 24:1 says,
Now I know what you're thinking, "So why doesn't God do something about all of the evil in the world?" Didn't you read my last blog entry? Are you going to "damn" God for giving you the ability to choose right from wrong, thus bringing evil into the world in the first place? Or for making you a robot, made only to walk out a preprogrammed life?
We can't have our cake and eat it too. We either want God to intervene in our life, which means He judges us and our wrong actions each and every time we purposely do evil – and we all do evil. Or we want Him to do nothing, which means our evil adversely affects others, who in turn ask the very same question we just asked, "God, why did you let this happen?" Oh, that's right, we want Him to judge everyone else but us, don't we? Like I said, we can't have our cake and eat it too.
So, now we have 'sovereignty' added to the mix. But we still have our nagging questions don't we. 'Why does God continue to let people in this world do such horrible acts of evil?'
So He can show mankind, whom He wants to have a relationship with, mercy.
Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any horrible world events to report on right now, just the normal carnage in Iraq (the daily unending Muslim Islamo-fascist terrorists murdering innocent Muslim men, women and children – and any American they can find), political scandals in the West (like Rep Foley chasing young teenage boys), and the normal raping and murdering that goes on all over the world. Everybody wants to exercise power over everyone else. Everybody wants to be in charge, but no one really knows what to do or how to act once they get in charge. If the terrorists win in Iraq, what kind of a government do you think they will establish? Do you think they've even thought about it yet? Or is killing the only thing they really know how to do?
Have you ever thought about why its so hard to lead? Most of the time the wrong people want to lead, and the right people don't want anything to do with leadership. Why is that? I've seen this in my several jobs as well as at several of the churches I've been in. I don't have to mention politics do I? America, Iran, North Korea, and this list can go on and on ...
Without fail, any power we think we have, we quickly find out that we have very little ability (if any at all) to control our own lives, let alone any one else's. Have you ever thought about why that is? As a Christian its very easy to answer; its because we know that we're not in control. (by the way, that doesn't make it any easier for us than it is for the non-Christian)
It's summed up in the understanding of the 'sovereignty of God'. Most people, Christians included, do not like to concede the fact that we are simply not in control of our lives. Let's take the killings of the innocent Amish children last week by a man that wasn't Amish and didn't have any issues with the Amish at all. He said he was mad at God. So he was going to rape and murder a bunch of innocent children who never did anything to anybody. (It fits nicely into my previous blog, the "Evil Within", don't you think?) Did those kids do anything to deserve that treatment? How about their parents? It shows you just how little control over our own lives we truly have. But if I'm not in control, then who is? The only real answers to this question are either: 1) no one is in control and there is nothing outside of mankind – we're alone, or 2) some one or something outside of mankind controls the world and its events, and that some one or something is God.
Now if you believe that God somehow started everything and now has nothing to do with the world and all of us, then that's really not a God of any value or importance. To me, it starts looking a lot like the no one or the nothing of option 1).
If there is a God, then He is a 'some one' and a 'something' that not only made this world and the universe it resides in, but made us as well. And He made us with the ability to choose between doing good and doing evil. So if He is the maker, the creator, then He is the controller of everything as well, and if He is the controller, that means that He is sovereign over His creation. Now what in the heck does that mean? That's a very good question. Let's define it.
By saying that God is sovereign over His creation, I'm saying that God is the source of all creation and that all things come from Him and depend upon Him (Col 1:15-17). God has the absolute right to do whatever He wishes with His creation at anytime He pleases. This would also imply that no one controls God. If no one controls Him, then no one made Him either. But more on that some other day.
So, why do I say that? Let's look at a couple of verses from the Bible. Psalms 24:1 says,
The earth is the LORD’s, and verything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.In Psalms 50:12 God says,
If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.Isaiah 40 is a very good chapter referring to the sovereignty of God. Starting with Isa 40:12-15,
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed Him as His counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way? Who was it that taught Him knowledge or showed Him the path of understanding? Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.And again in Isa 40:17-18,
Before Him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing. To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare Him to?And again in Isa 40:21-23,
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.If your God is smaller than this, why do you believe in a god at all? A god with no power? A god that is very much like a man. You would do much better to have no god at all than to have a god that knows nothing and can do nothing.
Now I know what you're thinking, "So why doesn't God do something about all of the evil in the world?" Didn't you read my last blog entry? Are you going to "damn" God for giving you the ability to choose right from wrong, thus bringing evil into the world in the first place? Or for making you a robot, made only to walk out a preprogrammed life?
We can't have our cake and eat it too. We either want God to intervene in our life, which means He judges us and our wrong actions each and every time we purposely do evil – and we all do evil. Or we want Him to do nothing, which means our evil adversely affects others, who in turn ask the very same question we just asked, "God, why did you let this happen?" Oh, that's right, we want Him to judge everyone else but us, don't we? Like I said, we can't have our cake and eat it too.
So, now we have 'sovereignty' added to the mix. But we still have our nagging questions don't we. 'Why does God continue to let people in this world do such horrible acts of evil?'
So He can show mankind, whom He wants to have a relationship with, mercy.
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