You Don’t Have To Be Masochist, Proverbs 27:12

Buddy’s food dish.

Poor Buddy! He entertains me at his expense. I buy this particular canned dog food that he seems to enjoy—except that he hates peas. This food has lots of peas in it, and I get joy from noting how many peas the poor little guy manages to spit out while chowing down. Somehow he manages to spit them out every time.

God isn’t entertained by unnecessary suffering. He doesn’t amuse Himself by giving us stuff we don’t like. But somehow we Christians believe that if we enjoy a particular task or career, that it’s probably not God’s will to engage in it, as He’d rather we suffer for our own good.

Pastor Blaine Smith of NehemiahMinistries.org notes that our particular talents are what God designed into us to lead us to His particular will for our lives. He doesn’t give us gifts to ignore or deny them, but to equip us for our most effective work and influence in this world.

One movie that impacted me was “Patch Adams” which featured the late Robin Williams. In this film (spoiler alert) the doctor warns his beautiful, blonde assistant not to associate with a particular man who he says is very disturbed and potentially dangerous. But the woman, filled with compassion for this suffering soul, ignores Patch’s warning and meets the man alone, and is murdered.

Jesus commands us “to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44),” but the Bible is a book of balance, which is why it’s so important to base decisions, and beliefs, on more than one passage. Jesus also warned, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces (Matthew 7:6).”

Jesus doesn’t require that we be masochists. He clearly warned not to deliberately seek out trouble, that we should exercise discernment as to whom we engage with, not placing ourselves into unnecessary danger.

One of the best spiritual practices you can engage in is to read one proverb for each day of the month. I don’t believe it’s just a coincidence that there are 31 proverbs, one for each day.

Proverbs 37:12 warns: “A prudent man sees evil and hides himself, the naive proceed and pay the penalty.”

And there’s the more familiar saying: “Fools enter where angels fear to tread.”

There may be times when the Holy Spirit leads you into danger so that those hostile to Christ come to faith. But I think that’s the exception, not the rule.

In summary, don’t think it’s more spiritual to suffer. Avoid the hair shirt and Cat O’ Nine Tails self-flagellation mentality. Life’s hard enough. Don’t make it harder by being an unnecessary masochist.

Trouble will find you on its own. You don’t have to seek it.

Love, from Dawn and Buddy

***

Maybe you have unnecessary problems because of sin in your life. Few overcome their problems overnight, but accepting God into your life can get you off that broad path that leads to destruction and onto the narrow path that leads to life everlasting and the right direction (Matthew 7:13). If you’re ready to step in a new direction by accepting God as your Lord, the one Who guides you into what is the right or wrong way to go, please pray the below:

Dear Heavenly Father, I call on Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. Forgive me of my sins. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I give my life to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you prayed with sincerity, congratulations on becoming born again and a child of the Living God. Please find a Bible-believing church to attend or Bible study to grow in the knowledge of God and Christian belief. If that’s not possible right now, please be sure to read the Bible daily. I recommend these three ministries, and all three have apps, also, to listen to: http://www.LTW.org, http://www.InTouch.org or http://www.BasicGospel.net. There are other godly ministries out there, but these will get you started in growing in your faith.

God bless. See you in heaven!

What Do You Think About This Interpretation? Revelation 14:13

Buddy

Buddy often stares at me and I have no clue whether I am interpreting his thoughts or needs correctly or not. We’ve been together almost eleven years and my furry pal is still a mystery to me.

The Apostle John in Revelation 14:13 states: “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Write, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!” ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.’”

I was lamenting to my fellow cartoon illustrator friend, Valerie, that I have spent most of my life developing my artistic talent, but would that talent continue in Heaven? Would the particular style I developed be lost forever when I die?

But it turns out that we have both been considering this passage from Revelation, independently.

We believe that our talents follow us to Heaven, just as our good deeds do. That the skills we strive to perfect during our earthly lifetimes will continue, as we have already started walking the path of our eternal lives when we became born again.

I’ve sometimes pictured Michelangelo up in Heaven, painting frescoes in the mansions that Christ said were waiting for us. And others may be sculpting or weaving marvelous rugs and tapestries or carving lovely balconies. Or embroidering garments with gold thread and jewels in glittering patterns.

Perhaps Jesus is explaining how things work to Isaac Newton?

It’s obvious, from observing nature, that God loves beauty. I’m frequently awestruck by the striped sunset of red, purple and gold framing the mountain behind my home.

So, what do you think? Are Valerie and I engaging in wishful thinking?

Or do our talents follow us to Heaven?

God bless you. Love, from Dawn and Buddy

***

You may be a Creative, also. Do you want assurance that your life will continue after death? Our sin separates us from a holy and perfect God. But, because He loves us, Jesus came down—God in the flesh (Matthew 1:23)—to take the punishment for our sin that we deserve. If we accept this sacrificial gift and desire to make God our Lord, in other words, acknowledge that He’s God and the boss, not us, we can fellowship with Him for eternity.

If you’d like to become born again, accepting Jesus as Lord, please pray the following: Dear Holy Father, I call on Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. Forgive me of my sins. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I give my life to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you prayed with sincerely, congratulations, you’re a child of God. Please find a Bible-believing church to join. And begin reading the Bible, one of the ways God communicates with us, besides during prayer.

If that’s not possible for you right now, please check out these three ministries, which also have apps: http://www.InTouch.org, http://www.LTW.org and/or http://www.BasicGospel.net. There are other great ministries out there, but these are my three favorites.

See you in Heaven!

Oops!

Sorry, folks! For some reason my prior posts defaulted back into the drafts folder. I had to republish them to get them back out there. Have a lovely night.

The Problem of Evil—My Perspective, Psalm 100:3

Buddy

When I adopted Buddy nearly eleven years ago, I promised to love and take care of him, to give him a forever home.

As humans, we cannot understand why an omnipotent God, Who is supposed to be perfect and loving, allows great suffering. Not only do animals chase down, tear apart and eat those weaker than themselves, but humanity suffers from sickness, warfare and all sorts of evil.

People often refuse to come to Christ because they cannot understand why God allows children to suffer cancer and die. Why didn’t God prevent the Holocaust? Or even today, prevent the Communist Party in China from bulldozing hundreds of Christian churches? Or prevent children from being maimed during their Cultural Revolution? Why do famines occur because of drought, causing the poorest to suffer even more greatly? Or Ebola to ravage Africans?

Dr Michael Youssef, in his excellent book, “Counting Stars In An Empty Sky”, has an interesting perspective on the suffering of Job.

God declared Job to be the best of all people at that ancient time: “For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil (Job 2:3).” In fact, God listed Job as one of his all time top three people, along with Noah and Daniel (Ezekiel 14:20). Yet, He permitted Satan to kill Job’s children, thieves to steal his livestock and murder most of his servants, and afflict him with a disfiguring and painful disease. On top of that, his angry wife wished Job dead and well-meaning friends accused and discouraged him with false accusations. Basically, Satan was permitted to destroy Job’s family, relationships, wealth and health.

Totally unfair treatment for an honorable and god-fearing man.

Dr Youssef postulates that Job, by refusing to turn away from God despite suffering hellish treatment, was an object lesson to Satan and his demonic followers. “If a mere flesh-and-blood man like Job could remain obedient in the face of so much suffering and the silence of God, then the rebellious angels who had seen God face-to-face were without excuse (Page 123).”

The pastor makes a great point.

But poor Job was totally left into the dark as this supernatural lesson was in play.

Many persons over the centuries have postulated and mused over the problem of evil. I’m not claiming to be more intelligent, or as brilliant, as those who have gone before me. But after many years of consideration concerning the problem of evil, I’ve come to a conclusion that works for me.

I could be correct—or totally off base. But this is my perspective.

Satan and the demons had the very best God had to offer—not only life in heaven, but the ability to communicate face-to-face with the Lord. Life with no disease, no war, no tears, no suffering at all. Every need was perfectly met. Satan also had a top leadership position, being one of the three archangels with Gabriel and Michael, just below the Trinity in authority.

Satan was also beautiful and favored: “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…You were the anointed cherub… (Ezekiel 28:12, 14).”

Satan had it all.

Yet it wasn’t enough. He wanted to be his own god, not obey and trust the Lord. And for some odd reason, he was able to convince a third of the angels to follow him into rebellion.

Because of evil, we don’t have it all. We are suffering on this planet because people rebel, and have rebelled, against God. Human greed and selfishness cause horrendous suffering, such as the Holocaust, warfare and poverty. Jealousy, self-righteousness, sexual immorality, envy, covetous and other sins cause unnecessary suffering.

Because the first couple rebelled against God’s authority, the Holy Spirit left the human race. All of Creation was subjected to the result of our Fall and rejection of God’s indwelling presence. Sickness, pain and murder entered the world.

Because we’re living in Hell now, we can appreciate heaven. Those who choose to accept Jesus as their Lord, will enter His presence one day with great rejoicing: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying or pain…There will no longer be any curse (Revelation 21:4, 22:3).”

Because we’re suffering now, we will realize how blessed we are to be in heaven under the Lord’s rule in His presence. We won’t reject God’s best because we will have suffered a lifetime of what life is like in a world in rebellion against Him.

Those who receive Him as the Lord now have an eternity of joy and bliss to look forward to.

The Apostle Paul wrote the following two passages, a man who suffered greatly to tell people about salvation through faith in Christ Jesus in Roman times:

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).”

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).”

That’s the best that I can do, to explain the problem of evil.

Is it fair that some suffer so terribly? No. Life is not fair. God never promises a problem-free life.

Ultimately, we’re commanded to trust in God’s ultimate plan, His goodness and to submit to His authority.

“Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He Who made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100:3).”

Hope you find my solution helpful—or a jumping off point for your own contemplation on the problem of evil.

God bless you. Love, from Dawn and Buddy

***

Heaven is God’s house. To live in His house, which is Heaven, you have to submit to His authority. No one who rebels against Him will be permitted to remain in His presence after the Great Judgment.

Please consider making Him your Lord so that you can join with millions, perhaps billions, who will enjoy a future of His very best.

If you’re ready, please pray: Dear Heavenly Father, I call on Jesus to be my Lord and savior. Forgive me all of my sins. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I give my life to You. In Christ’s name, Amen.

If you prayed sincerely, congratulations. You’re born again. Please find a Bible-based church or Bible Study group to grow in a knowledge of God and His word. If that’s not possible right now, the following are three great ministries, which also have podcasts: http://www.LTW.org (Leading The Way with Dr Youssef’s teaching), http://www.InTouch.org and http://www.BasicGospel.net.

See you in heaven!