A Picture is Worth a Thosand Words

Do we ever see in scripture Jesus giving sickness to anyone to teach them a lesson? NO !!   Do we ever see Jesus in scripture killing someone off to teach their family or friends something? NO !!   Did He ever make or encourage someone to sin? NO !!   These ideas are ridiculous and aren't even near scriptural, yet so many Christians talk as if these are true.  They say God will sometimes do these things to mankind, even to His own blood-bought children, to help bring about some redemptive purpose in the earth.  You know, that is at best inconsistent thinking and at worst sick theology.

God isn't the one controlling everything, bringing or allowing sin and sickness on people.  Somehow religion has made the word Sovereign come to mean that God controls everything.  It doesn't.  It means the highest in rank or authority.  That is all.  You want to know why we have sickness and destruction all around us in this life.  The answer isn't so profound.  The fall of Adam brought on all of the destruction of sin and sickness that we see in the world today and it was his free will to do so.

Jesus told His closest friends that, "as you have seen me you have also seen the Father.  The writer of Hebrews, in the very opening of His letter, says that Jesus was the express representation of the Father.  We should know the answers to all these ludicrous questions and they are all a resounding NO.  We never see in scripture Jesus doing these horrible things, yet today like Job's friends we have been sitting around, pontificating on why they have happened. 

God doesn't make people sick or die prematurely no more than He makes someone sin and give their life to gluttony, drug abuse, or adultery.  There is no redemptive purpose for mankind in those things.  Theories of us being used for redemptive purposes like these are misguided and self-centered at best.  There was one man who was sent for this and He accomplished it perfectly and completely.  His redemptive purpose did not fail.  His redemption was enough.  He is Jesus, our Sovereign Lord.

Priorities

Paul encouraged us to abide these three...faith, hope, and love. But he didn't stop there, he finished off by saying, "but the greatest of these is love." Unfortunately we have many times forgotten this simple truth, that THE GREATEST IS LOVE. Something important to remember is this, any truth exalted beyond its priority is no longer truth.

Take the issue of Faith. We have Christians everywhere trying to get more Faith. They believe they don't have enough. They believe they lost it somewhere. They believe they haven't as much as they used to. They believe they need more. Scripture clearly shows that we have enough. If all we need is a mustard seed amount then don't we have enough? If we had enough faith as a rank sinner to believe upon Jesus for the saving of our souls, then now as children of the Most High God, don't we have at least just a little bit more. Most Christians have spent more time praying, reading their Bible, and confessing scriptures to get more faith than they ever have to see and feel that they are Loved of God. It is clear that something is wrong with this picture.

Going back to that awesome scripture in I Corinthians 13, "abide these three, faith, hope and love...but the greatest of these is Love." Think on this...Faith alone cannot produce hope or love. Hope alone cannot produce faith or love. But Love, it always produces both faith and hope. Paul explained it this way in his writing to the Galatians saying this, "faith works by love."

Because of misplaced priorities we haven't majored on understanding all the facets of the love of God. I guarantee we won't exhaust the subject in one lifetime. Like a beautiful, multifaceted diamond, when you turn it to examine it more closely you see a new, never before seen, ray of beauty. If you want more faith operating in your life, meditate exclusively on the love of God and Him as your one true and faithful Father. Faith will naturally come. Running short on hope for your situation, give determined focus to nothing other than His love and faithfulness towards you. Hope will arrive in sufficient abundance.

Love truly is all we need.