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Is God Good? |
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Why do Christians say, "God is good"? Because He is.
Why do people believe God is a bad God? Due to famines, wars,
shootings and violence that take place every day in this world,
many assume that God must
be bad. They think He is allowing these events as punishment.
They believe we anger Him so He sends down tornadoes, hurricanes
and every bad thing to
strike us.
People have gotten this impression from the Old Testament. There
we see God sending a flood to wipe out the evil people of Noah's
time. Though He did
save those who He deemed righteous (Genesis 7).
Let's see why this took place:
In the Garden of Eden, God made a man, Adam, and woman, Eve
(Genesis 1-2). He told Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil. The serpent (Satan in disguise) beguiled Eve into
eating of the fruit, then she gave it to Adam, who could have
refused the fruit but didn't. That day
they sinned. Through that act of disobedience, sin entered into
this world (Genesis 3).
God is a God of justice. Just as a judge has to prosecute a
criminal act, God has to prosecute sin.. However, He, also being
Love, hated to see His creations
suffer, so He sent His only Begotten Son, Jesus, to Earth to be
born of a virgin. Mary gave birth to Jesus (Genesis 2:1). While
on Earth, He grew up and went
to the Cross for us(Matthew 27).
Only a sinless person could die for the sins of every human
being--past, present and future.
After being beaten and bruised, the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus
to a cross. God judged Jesus, who had never sinned, for our
transgressions. He put every
curse of the law and all the effects of the curse, including
poverty, every kind of sickness and disease, infidelity, strife
and so much more on Jesus. Jesus paid
the price we should have paid. He died for us (Matthew 27).
God didn't leave Him dead (Matthew 28. No, God raised Jesus from
the dead, so that we might enjoy our lives to the full, until
they overflow. That is how
much God loves us. He did this for you, me and everyone else in
this world, yet people still call Him a bad God.
Why is that? People feel that God causes people to starve in
Africa, that He causes car crashes that take children's parents,
that He causes tsunamis.
However sin entered this world through the act of disobedience
on one man's part. When Adam sinned, he essentially handed the
earth over to Satan and
said, "It's yours now. Do with it as you please."
At that point, Satan became the ruler of the earth and the air.
It wasn't until Jesus died that Jesus took back that authority
and gave it to us (Luke 10:19).
Most of us do not know that we have that authority. We allow
Satan to reek havoc on this earth even though he has no legal
right to do so.
It's like a person being left an inheritance of one million
dollars and then living poor, struggling in life, because he
didn’t know what he had inherited.
Most Christians are like that. We know Jesus died for us, but we
think that's all in which we are entitled. When we accept
Christ, we are entitled to so much
more than merely being saved from going to hell.
We have authority over this world because of Jesus' death and
resurrection. We have authority to do greater works than Jesus
(John 14:12), but we don't.
We do the same works as Jesus. Most of the time, we do less.
Jesus raised the dead (John 11:43-44). He healed the sick (Luke
4:40). He opened blind eyes (Matthew 9:27-30) and deaf ears
(Mark 9:25-27). Why don't
we? We don't know that we can speak to the weather patterns,
like Jesus did, and command them to stop.
We don't speak to those mountains in our lives (Mark 11:23), and
the lives of others, because we believe those problems will
laugh at us.
However we have the authority over them. We need to start acting
like who we are--children of the Most High God--endued with the
power to cast out
demons, speak with new tongues, lay hands on the sick and see
them recover and raise the dead (Mark 16:17-18).
We blame God for what we have authority to control. The only
thing God is guilty of is giving us the authority on this Earth.
When we read the Bible, we learn what it is that we have
authority over and how to take that authority.
The Bible and the Holy Spirit are the only weapons we need
against this world and the devil. Even though things look bad,
our circumstances are subject to
change to the Truth, the Word of God.
Adam and Eve sinned, and God still blessed them with children
(Genesis 4:1-2, 25). Abraham slept with a woman besides his wife
to make a baby (Genesis
16:11). Still God gave Abraham and his wife, Sarah, their
promised son, Isaac (Genesis 17:19). The children of Israel
turned away from God so many times by
worshipping false gods, yet God delivered them every time.
God is faithful even when we are not. He is good to us when we
don’t deserve it. He is preparing a place for us in Heaven (John
14:2-3) when we die, if we
accept Jesus.
He is a good God. It’s the humans who He gave authority of this
world to that messed it up. We blame God for being a bad God
when we are the ones in
charge of this earth.
The devil is defeated, so instead of fighting for the victory,
we need to fight from the victory ground. We are not trying to
get healed. We are healed by Jesus’
stripes (I Peter 2:24). We are not trying to get rich. We are
rich in Christ (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Stand up and take your authority today.
About The Author
Annagail Lynes, ordained minister, is spreading the Gospel
through writing for various online and offline publications. You
can read her inspirational blog for
your daily dose of wisdom at http://www.annagaillynes.net
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