August 21, 2024

I often hear people say, “If God exists, why doesn’t He do anything about all the war, death and destruction?” The most terrible things are blamed on Him. Although it touches me to the depths of my soul, I somehow understand it. I, too, lived a life without God for a long time and really understood nothing about God and the Bible.  Isn’t He Omniscient and Omnipotent? Why, then, does He not do anything about all the misery in the world? Well, without the help of God and His Holy Spirit, it is hardly possible to understand how spiritual things work. But see the world as a very big ship. We are all on this ship; there is illness, misery, poverty, quarrels and wars on the ship, but we have nowhere to go! Worst of all, it’s also going to sink! So one big box of misery. But God sends a rescue boat! Hallelujah! Lots of people get on the lifeboat, but most people, for whatever reason, don’t trust that boat. They chose to stay on that big ship. That sinking ship is the world, full of its misery. You’re in it, and without God, you can’t get rid of it. Jesus is our lifeboat! The only question is, will you get in? The lifeboat that can take you safely to the other side. It seems scary and unreliable on that big open sea, but do you dare to take the step? /*! elementor – v3.23.0 – 25-07-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Our free will Look, we can’t put the blame on God, as He already offered us a way out; Jesus our “Lifeboat”.  He gave His Son, and He let Him be born with the mission to die the most gruesome death there is, the cross, for us. He was mocked, spit on, tortured and nailed to a wooden cross all to save us, to give us a way out of that miserable sinking ship and to become our lifeboat. We also have our own responsibility and our own choice whether we get on His boat or not. Calling out uncritically that everything is God’s fault and thus ignoring His sacrifice on the cross is not very fair, and the way out is right in front of you. We are responsible for our own choices and actions. God did His part; we must do our own part. God created us with free will so that we could enter into a relationship with Him out of that free will. That is love. Without free will, it is not love, but slavery. You cannot force your partner to love you and stay with you until death. That’s not love, and I don’t think that’s a relationship you want. If I had to force someone to be with me, I would think in advance; never mind. Well, that’s how it is for God, too. That’s the reason He gave us our free will in the first place, to have a relationship with Him, based on love. God IS love; therefore, He does not interfere with your free will, and does not force Himself on you. He will try to get your attention all your life, as, for example, the fact that you are reading this now is no coincidence, but at the end of the day, it remains your choice to go for Him or not. To get on His lifeboat……..or not. We can also use that free will for bad things. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people who allow themselves to be seduced by money, power, lust or whatever, causing them to abuse this free will and do the most terrible things. This causes wars and all other troubles. Not because God wants it, but because it is people’s choice to make bad decisions.  “Then He can do something about it,” you might think again. He has already done that, several times. When you read the Old Testament, you see that God tried for hundreds and hundreds of years to help and convince people to return to Him. He was constantly trying to show people that they were not doing well, but the man was, as usual, stubborn.  Ultimately, God had no choice but to send Jesus. That was, and still is, the only lasting solution to all misery. He changes us from the inside out. He works with your heart so that you want to do His will more and more and look more and more like Jesus. You will increasingly hate the things He hates and love the things He loves. Jesus is the light of the world and light drives out darkness (John 1:5, John 8:12).  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”- John 1:5 Cycling on the sidewalk God has given us His Word, the Bible, with enough boundaries, wisdom and guidance to live a good and happy life together with Him. These are not rules, as people sometimes say: “Oh, if you are a Christian, you are not allowed to do this; you are not allowed to do that.”  But it’s not like that; think of it as a little child who wants to ride a bike outside. It wants to take the big road, but that is obviously not very smart. What are you doing? I assume you are saying, “No, you can cycle on the sidewalk, but you are absolutely not allowed to go on the road”. That child sees no danger and can think, “Mom’s stupid rules.” But you and I know as adults that these are boundaries based on love. So it is with God. He loves us; otherwise, He would not have given us His Son. From that love, He gives us boundaries to build a safe and happy life with Him. A child who learns boundaries from his parents, knows who he is, where he stands in life, and where he stands with his parents. He will also be