October 25 2017 – Click here to listen
Yesterday I had to get an epidural due to a bulging disc in my lower back area. I’d reached a point that I hurt all the time and could not sleep much and could barely walk. After the procedure yesterday, I suffered with it literally all night and in fact still have not been able to sleep. What a difference in my back this morning though. I actually put my socks on without grimacing and squealing in pain for the first time in months. It feels great.
It is an answer to a prayer. I had five discs fused together in my neck just a couple of years back and was flat on my back for three months and could barely walk even with a walker. As my back began hurting more and more lately I had visions of going back under the knife and getting my L4 and L5 fused together and losing more time, but miraculously I feel so-o-o-o much better this morning.
I prayed hard for this and God has granted me more time. Last week I asked you to pray for four people. The results are in: My friend T.K. Wetherell ’s operation was successful and the doctors do not think that he will lose his kidneys. Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy’s trip to L.A. was hugely successful and his movie deal moves closer. There was no miracle for Michael (Moles) and he died without ever regaining consciousness after his head injury from a falling tree limb; his funeral is today. Maureen Bravo’s mother and best friend likewise went to be with the Lord after suffering a devastating stroke.
Two yes’s and two no’s.
Yesterday I wrote about the age-old dilemma of why good things happen to bad people and its opposite, why bad things happen to good people. There is no answer and I quit trying to figure it out. I’m not on that pay scale. I’m like Paul, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” If my back needed surgery I would have readily accepted it, but would have been grouchy and yet content with my fate. My dear friend Maureen notified me that her mother had passed by simply stating: “It is finished – Alleluia.” Such a beautiful way to look at a Christian’s death.
You may wonder how some people can react to bad news in such a manner. My good friend TK can accept fighting cancer for fifteen years without complaint, and more importantly fear. He is a tough old buzzard, but he has tremendous faith in God. His attitude is a direct derivative of faith and trusting God.
I had dinner with some folks the other night and related my experiences sword fishing far offshore late at night. On two separate occasions I was caught in vicious storm’s and very nearly lost my life. And then there were the many car wrecks, motorcycle wrecks, fights with guns, knives, brass knuckles, and clubs, overdosing on drugs (twice), multiple bouts with skin cancer including melanoma, being diagnosed with a brain tumor, Hepatitis C, being trampled by three horses.
I joked to my dinner party friends that I was like bad grass. It begins growing in a crack in your driveway, and you spray it with Roundup and it seemingly dies, only to reappear a mere few inches away. You just can’t seem to kill bad grass and I compare myself to it.
That is a joke, and I do know the answer to the question as to why God has not allowed my life to be taken. It’s simple really, my purpose has not been fulfilled yet. Psalm 139:16
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
I know I’m indestructible, right up until the day the Lord calls me home, so why would I worry about death? I have faced it time and again and don’t fear it at all.
I received a letter yesterday in response to my post that reads:
“Interesting article on “WHY”. I accept the ” . . . In this world you’ll have trials and tribulations.” My bigger question, for which I’m aware that nobody but the Lord has the answer to, is WHY, of all the billions, or trillions of places that God could have put the devil, and us, did we wind up on the same planet. And WHY give the devil “all the authority and splendor”. WHY tempt Adam and Eve to begin with if they loved God? Would they have defied God’s warning about not touching that darn tree if the devil was not on Earth?
The SOB betrayed God and wanted to displace Him, yet he is rewarded with a planet with humans to lie, tempt and torment until the end of time.
But, as you’ve stated, since we don’t know the mind of God, I’ll keep on “grinning and wagging”.
As he alluded there is no definitive answer and we can only guess the answer to why-why-why, but I know God doesn’t want robots who mindlessly obey. We do know from our Bible that He created us to have fellowship with Him. He loves us and wants us to love Him. If there was not evil and free will then He would have robots.
True hell is extreme, but the nature of God is holy, a term we cannot easily envision. Many think they are “good” people and have done no wrong. Holy God looks at our “good” lives as filthy rags. Only the sacrifice of Jesus could redeem those of us who elected to follow Him and not the world.
As for Satan, I don’t agree he is rewarded. Psalm 37:10
Just a little while longer, and the wicked will be no more; You will look at where they were,
And they will not be there . . .
Compared to eternity, Satan’s time is limited, and spending eternity in the lowest blackest pit in hell is no reward. My guess is he will be completely alone in darkness. He will suffer and be tormented forever for what he has done, as will those who rejected the blood sacrifice of His Son Jesus. Many don’t want to hear this hellfire and brimstone stuff, but the One who talks the most about it in the Bible is Jesus Christ. I’m just emulating Him and consider myself to be in the best of good company.
God did not create Satan as evil but allowed the potential for sin for him as He has done with us. While God cannot commit sin, He doesn’t take it away from those who do. When Lucifer chose to rebel, he instantly became the author of sin. Evil is the net result of a free-will choice by Lucifer.
Satan and sin don’t thwart God’s divine purposes. In time God will prove that He is victorious over evil and evil beings who follow Satan’s ways. Satan hates and fears salvation, heaven, and a new earth devoid of him that will be exclusively created for God’s chosen people who are made holy and perfectly moral, through Christ. And it is they (us), who will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.
The bottom line is that our personal peace of mind about Satan, his followers, and evil comes from being God-centered and God-focused. Don’t waste time thinking about that slimy reptile. As always God states it best:
Isaiah 48:18
“O if only you would actually pay attention to my commandments! Then your peace would become just like a river.”