About 10 years ago I met a man whose family immigrated from Central America and we had a conversation while taking a break from our network marketing meeting. Filled with a certain sense of personal development optimism, I listened with interest to the cynicism of this adult gentleman about why he didn’t think the business model would work. Somehow, our conversation became spiritual as many of the personal development trainers will tangentially adopt a biblical truth to reinforce their business or personal development message.
One of Jim Rohn’s famous sayings was “If you move closer to God, God will move closer to you.” That’s an important piece of spiritual information but it doesn’t give a person in network marketing or any other business the whole picture from God’s point of view.
At night, we were getting from fresh air outside the home we were meeting. I was talking with this man alone whose roots were from a violent country and he further expressed his cynicism about his belief in God. “I don’t believe that if you draw closer to God that God will draw closer to you.” I asked him why he thought that, and I he told me a story I will never forget.
He told me about a village where all the people were Christian who were all massacred by a death squad or other violent faction. A whole village of innocent people murdered.
This is why he could not believe in God.
At the time either I didn’t have an answer for him or felt it would be disrespectful to try offering him other ways of looking at the tragedy. We stop speaking about that soon afterwards, but I never forgot.
The network marketing aspirations have long since fallen away but the quest to understand suffering, God, and His will for our lives continues.
Where do I start?
It’s pretty clear to anyone who has lived long enough that real evil exists and real good exists. Persecution exists in various forms and against various groups. Without a spiritual presence that desires to honor and protect humanity and human life, society and the world would sink under the crush of evil even faster.
I don’t need to cite other examples to be sensational about the acts of evil, but I can highlight one act of those who strive to be good – the people who show forgiveness for those guilty parties who caused them undeniable and often incredibly severe harm. This is not to say that those guilty of an offense should not receive the due punishment of their crime, but most honest people will hear about the parents who forgive the murderer of their child and say to themselves or to others, “There’s no way I can be as good as those people.”
On the other hand, it’s possible a victim’s family member(s) becomes vengeance personified. They give their whole lives over to the pursuit of justice with a certain scathing hatred and grief that can only be filled with revenge. It is a tough road. As right as they may be, it’s as though they become another victim of the crime.
With personal resources and freedom to configure a world based on our preferences offers a powerful allure and temptation. We can become separated from the poverty millions of people suffer in who don’t have enough clean water to drink, food to eat and a safe place to live, not to mention, communities being attacked for their faith in God.
While faith in God certainly is not limited to people of poor estate, living in poverty, the fact that all throughout history and as recorded in the Bible, the people of God, particularly the prophets of God who came from all kinds of backgrounds, suffered at the hands of the people who they were ministering to, who were sometimes, especially in Jesus’ case, religious people who got it wrong.
Jesus Christ Himself suffered persecution in His earthly life and warned His own disciples that they would suffer. Many people, even crowds of people rejected Christ, so a believer in Christ should have no surprise when people reject and turn away from the message of the gospel or to suffer evil in this world.
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.- John 15:18-21
“These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 And these things they will do ]to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. – John 16:1-3
Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. – John 16:20
Jesus’s classic line that makes more sense as one develops his faith, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33b
Although we live by the grace of God, comfort, not in the sense of what most people in the world would define comfort, comes through the Holy Spirit. This inner transformation gives believers security through the spiritual strength provided by God and the faithful promises of God about eternal life. Death, for those whose faith is in God and Christ, is merely a doorway to a life that far exceeds anything we can imagine, a life without pain, weakness and sin, just perfect joy, in the magnificent, comforting and healing presence of God.
God will judge all, including the evil doers who think they are getting away with these atrocities.
From Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is also a sobering realization how pain and suffering are part of God’s own plan. Before his was arrested, He warned His disciples, 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. – John 15:20.
As it would be, an innocent and sinless man, even the Son of God, was unlawfully judged and sentenced to an agonizing death by a corrupted system run by evil leaders.
It’s sobering, the servant is not greater than the master, and in this world, in this life, it is possible to be subject to all forms of pain, suffering, abuse, injustices, and persecution, even, sadly, the torment and murder of innocent people.
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The Bible offers God’s divine relevation on how God helped us defeat the uncertainty of death. Will you try to understand it by reading the Gospels for yourself?
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This article is not intended to put this issue to rest, if anything it raises the probability and even the necessity that suffering must happen. When one is doing God’s work, there will be opposition.
The Messiah understands suffering and through Him can the eternal life and joy be secured. Despite anything that happens in this life, a born-again believer in Christ has an eternity of love, joy and purpose in God’s kingdom.
For a detailed explanation of who Jesus Christ is from the Bible’s perspective go to the video in this website , “Who is Jesus Christ?”
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
CKY
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