Thank you, Mark. As for this one evangelical Reformed church pastor, I have -- as have all pastors -- been deeply bonded by pastoral care and very personal concern into the suffering of not a few most committed followers of Christ. The travails of analytical reasoning and existential experience into the depth of human suffering (sometimes beyond all imagination) yields only hopelessness or even despair, however much we cover it with positive religion and practical wisdom. That is, until we lift our eyes away from ourselves to the innocent, incarnate (!) Son of God nailed to a cross on Calvary hill -- for us! There we may catch something absolutely decisive -- from the revelation of Holy Scriptures, the Word of God -- not only of the unthinkable cost paid for "what's wrong with this world" but for what is horribly and utterly corrupt and vicious in my heart, too (evident in every cause of suffering, whether the cause is from each of us or from some other source of our Fallen world). There, the Person of the Son of God as well as the Person of God the Father and the Person of the Holy Spirit of God -- inseparable in the very union and oneness of the being of God -- tell us of God's utterly amazing yet so personal love, at that chosen time and place. For God so loved the world of people and of all His cosmic creation that in that freely giving of His eternally begotten Son He has given a new quality of life, of joy and of freedom even through deep valleys of suffering. Been there. Seen that.
Again....really good stuff! I have something to consider. I think I believe that participating in judging what is right and what is wrong is killing us, on many levels, intellectual, emotional, and physical. Nothing is either right or wrong....it just is what it is! With that in mind, if you agree that what is, is, then the Scripture "All things work together for good" means that, one way or another, all things are for good! The mental pain we feel is not from what is happening, but from the difference between OUR judgement of things and God's judgement of things. BOTH judgements are taking place within us, since both we and God inhabit these temples. IF we can get our "selfs" to defer to God's opinion about everything, we will fall into harmony with His thoughts, which are, after all, fashioned from a brilliance way beyond our pay grade. When God says that "ALL things are working together for our good," probably He means exactly what He is saying. Almost no Christians, or anyone else, believes this! No wonder we have such little joy:). God lives in total joy and we just won't join Him, because we think we know better than He does about such matters......so we will continue to divid everything and everyone into either good or evil. How has that been working for you? I am tired of it. I AM trying to defer to God's opinions now, though it is a challenge:). Wish me well!
Thanks for coming back early, Mark. No matter how often, I find your insights helpful, challenging, troubling... something I need. Your musings this time brought to mind something I'll misquote here:"Jesus didn't go to the cross as a substitute, He went as an example to show us how to."
Thank you, Mark. As for this one evangelical Reformed church pastor, I have -- as have all pastors -- been deeply bonded by pastoral care and very personal concern into the suffering of not a few most committed followers of Christ. The travails of analytical reasoning and existential experience into the depth of human suffering (sometimes beyond all imagination) yields only hopelessness or even despair, however much we cover it with positive religion and practical wisdom. That is, until we lift our eyes away from ourselves to the innocent, incarnate (!) Son of God nailed to a cross on Calvary hill -- for us! There we may catch something absolutely decisive -- from the revelation of Holy Scriptures, the Word of God -- not only of the unthinkable cost paid for "what's wrong with this world" but for what is horribly and utterly corrupt and vicious in my heart, too (evident in every cause of suffering, whether the cause is from each of us or from some other source of our Fallen world). There, the Person of the Son of God as well as the Person of God the Father and the Person of the Holy Spirit of God -- inseparable in the very union and oneness of the being of God -- tell us of God's utterly amazing yet so personal love, at that chosen time and place. For God so loved the world of people and of all His cosmic creation that in that freely giving of His eternally begotten Son He has given a new quality of life, of joy and of freedom even through deep valleys of suffering. Been there. Seen that.
Again....really good stuff! I have something to consider. I think I believe that participating in judging what is right and what is wrong is killing us, on many levels, intellectual, emotional, and physical. Nothing is either right or wrong....it just is what it is! With that in mind, if you agree that what is, is, then the Scripture "All things work together for good" means that, one way or another, all things are for good! The mental pain we feel is not from what is happening, but from the difference between OUR judgement of things and God's judgement of things. BOTH judgements are taking place within us, since both we and God inhabit these temples. IF we can get our "selfs" to defer to God's opinion about everything, we will fall into harmony with His thoughts, which are, after all, fashioned from a brilliance way beyond our pay grade. When God says that "ALL things are working together for our good," probably He means exactly what He is saying. Almost no Christians, or anyone else, believes this! No wonder we have such little joy:). God lives in total joy and we just won't join Him, because we think we know better than He does about such matters......so we will continue to divid everything and everyone into either good or evil. How has that been working for you? I am tired of it. I AM trying to defer to God's opinions now, though it is a challenge:). Wish me well!
Thanks for coming back early, Mark. No matter how often, I find your insights helpful, challenging, troubling... something I need. Your musings this time brought to mind something I'll misquote here:"Jesus didn't go to the cross as a substitute, He went as an example to show us how to."
John 16:33.