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Thursday, December 18, 2008

God

... I have begun a new study on the sovereignty of God and it is a very thought provoking study. The book is Trusting God, Even When Life Hurt by Jerry Bridges. One of the early items of intense study is the Absolute Sovereignty of our LORD. This is a matter that I have seen very experienced Christians trip over and that is a shame. In the first place it is absolutely necessary to understand and to believe that nothing has ever or will ever sneak up on God and surprise him.
... There are several life examples I can draw from here that will illustrate what I am talking about but I'll just use the one that offends no-one. I have had MS since the early seventies and they have been able to diagnose it for almost twenty years now. That I, a combat veteran and definitely a man have the disease is enough to cause doubt and yet it hasn't. The fact that I have contracted the disease because of the need to defoliate the jungle for our men's protection is another reason to question God's authority and still I do not. Before I was growing inside my mother's womb, God knew that I would volunteer to go serve in Vietnam because I would believe that the South Vietnamese people deserved freedom. None of this has taken God by surprise.
... God knew from the very beginning of the creation that Bill Taylor would get sick with this disease, so the question might be asked, "Did He know and still allow it?" For the answer to that look at the Book of Job. Satan told God that Job was only worshiping Him because He had a hedge of God's protection about him. God took that hedge away and Satan took all of Job's children, all of his possessions and then afflicted him with boils and sores so badly that all Job could do for relief was to scrape them with shells and stones. Job was sorely tested and still his faith remained in God.
... Going, many centuries, in time forward we find Jesus, God's only Son hanging on the cross paying the debt that Bill Taylor owed to God. He was laid down on that cross and nails of about a quarter inch square were driven into the hole in the bone in the center of the wrist, one for each hand. And then His feet were placed atop of each other and a nail of, judging by my feet, at least 8 or 9 inches in length, square and most likely about the same thickness was driven through the bones in His feet. After all of that torture He was lifted upright and dropped into the hole meant to keep Him erect until He would die. And if I had been to only sinner that would ever have accepted His sacrifice, He would have done so, just the same.
... Yes, God knew before I was born that my fate, His plan, included this disease and yes, He could have prevented it but the fact is that He did not because He had a plan to glorify Himself and in doing so to raise up sinners mark on the scales of life a few inches. I absolutely believe that God, through His Wisdom, has allowed me to have MS, to lose my very best friend in life to a mortar in his chest, to receive over three hundred entry holes in my aircraft in a single mission and many other trials for my own good and for His Glory.(Rom. 8:28)
... The question that must be asked by each and everyone of us is, "Are we ready to serve God? No matter what?"

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