Thread: THE INNER ROOM - "Learn and Grow - to Maturity". Please read the OP.

PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY

MESSAGE #157

WHY DOESN'T GOD?... or WHY DOES GOD?...

I got an email from a 17 yr old friend who said he was debating this guy on a forum about a recent miracle where a little girl was healed. He told me: "The guy has come to the conclusion that God is evil due to that fact that he won't cure every little girl that is sick. Why just her? Why not all of them that supposedly deserve it more? "Here is what I sent in reply to him, in case it may help someone here (because people surely DO ask these questions!!)

"Hey there!

"This sort of question seems to come up a lot from people who are not true Christians. And it's quite understandable they should pose such a question. Another common one is a quite basic and all-encompassing question, e.g., why does God allow bad things to happen (like Katrina - and death, disease, suffering and violence?)

"Thing is, we would all be living in a beautiful world with NONE of these things if we weren't sinners! Adam and Eve started it off - but WE HAVE ALL FOLLOWED! Anyone who disagrees could be asked these simple questions: Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever cussed using God or Jesus' name? Have you ever stolen something? If a person has only ever done ONE sin then that makes them A SINFUL HUMAN BEING just like all the rest of us! (If they say they've never done any of the above, then they are so self-dishonest as to make it a futility talking further to them.)

"Once it's established that we all sin, then we have an EXPLANATION for the world's woes. We were created PERFECT, and created IN GOD'S IMAGE - like Him. But we've messed that all up, big time! Thus the perfect world He initially created for us has been messed up also, i.e., effectively WE messed it up by rebelling against God, refusing to acknowledge Him as creator and as God, refusing to obey His laws, and determining to go our own way. (Remember how God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden when they disobeyed Him, telling them life would be hard and tough for them because of their wilful disobedience).

"We are all disobedient REBELS - and we are SELFISH beings, who spend our lives looking after US: self-centered, self-absorbed, self-concerned, living for ourselves. Even when we try to do GOOD, we do this with ourselves in mind, i.e., what WE will get out of it. Example: the rich man who gives to the poor may certainly care about the poor, but cares about himself MORE!!! FACT: He CANNOT get away from this self-centeredness no matter how hard he may try.

"ONLY someone who loves God and has given his whole life over to God can START to deal with this self-centeredness - and this is a life-long task that I've so far spent 50 years on (and actually can see were I've made progress, praise be to Him!!)

"So the Bible says (speaking about 'the changed earth' they would live in): Genesis Ch 3:17 The LORD said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate fruit from that tree. And so, the ground will be under a curse because of what you did. As long as you live, you will have to struggle to grow enough food. 18 Your food will be plants, but the ground will produce thorns and thistles. 19 You will have to sweat to earn a living; you were made out of soil, and you will once again turn into soil."

Concluded in the next post...

... Continued from post above

"So the earth DRAMATICALLY changed via the entry of sin into it. Genesis doesn't mention earthquakes, volcanos, hurricanes or tsunamis that we have - it doesn't need to. The words above give a clear enough picture to anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear. In the Garden there were NO weeds, NO dangers, and NONE of the above list of bad things - and NO death, or disease, and so on either. I'm sure you get the picture.

"When mankind SEES these bad things he may get quite annoyed at God for "allowing" them, when in fact, it's DIRECTLY OUR FAULT that they are here!! Instead of grizzling we should be being extremely GRATEFUL for all the great things we DO have! What I'm saying is that we can look for the things to think good about, OR we can focus on the things to think bad about. And which of these two things we CHOOSE to do is in direct relationship to our attitude to the One Who is God and Lord of all!!

"Thus it's EASY to find things to grizzle about and get upset about; it's not so easy to look for what is good and to praise God for! - the greatest of which, of course, is that God's LOVINGLY given us a 2nd chance with our sinfulness. He should have thrown us straight into hell for our appalling rebellion and sin. Didn't. Instead He send His Son to die a violent death to GIVE us this 2nd chance. But there ain't a 3rd chance!!! If we FAIL to accept Jesus first as our Saviour from all of our sin, and secondly as Lord over all of our life - then hell awaits us!!

"Finally, we must ask why does God apparently 'play favourites' by helping (healing) some people and not others. Firstly, satan is a very, very powerful being and God has given him and his demons charge over our sinful earth, i.e., he is the god of the earth (small 'g' cos he's not really a god), and men all belong to him, and (almost always without knowing) worship him as their god. Hence the high amount of wars, discrimination, hate, tortures, nastiness, greed, dreadful poverty in 3rd world countries, and so on and on and on that our world is riddled with.

"As part of satan's 'godship' of the earth, he will - if it suits his ends - do miracles!! In the case you wrote about, it may well have been satan! Let's face it he managed to stir up a great hornet's nest of trouble AGAINST GOD via it, hasn't he! Satan LOVES doing that obviously, cos he is God's ENEMY!! - along with all those who do not specifically belong to God by their deliberate choice.

"Secondly, God IS still God over the earth (capital "G" as he is the sole God of all His creation) - He HASN'T given up his Godship!! We see this when He works in the lives of those who have chosen to be His. Also when He works in the lives of those who have come in contact with true Christians or Christian literature, etc., to call them to Him, and if they choose to come, to ENABLE them to get born again, changed from death to life, start to live as Christians, and to ultimately live with Him in eternity forever... instead of hell's punishment. (Note: we cannot come to the Lord unless He draws us by His Spirit and enables us to say "YES" to Him.)

"So those are God's primary day to day role(s). In general terms we can see that He DOESN'T interfere in earth's affairs - BECAUSE He made us with FREEWILL just like He has, rather than make us as puppets on a string, FORCED to do His bidding. There are two situations where He is active: He does what is needed in order to move the world along to the end that He's planned for it. And He will act to answer the prayers of Christians praying for something specific that fits in with His will! --That's probably enough for you to digest!! Feel free to query anything here, ask further, or whatever.

"Lots of love!"

- BM, with his Ladylove

MAY HE GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH
AND GROW YOU TO MATURITY!

Originally Posted by Faithwoman

Awesome post Bondman,

As for the above, it is so true, he will answer if it fits in with his will. Just these past few days, the Lord has revealed much to me.

I got to attend a wedding over the week-end. The most awesome wedding I have ever been to. The bride's father is a Pastor. He gave the most awesome message to his daughter and her new husband to be. Right from the bible.
The pastor officiating gave a great salvation message before he married the couple. He explained the differerence between hell and heaven. I am telling you, I have never been to such a wedding.

As he announced for the bride and groom to kiss, they gave a longing kiss to each other. When finished, the pastor spoke and laughed and said he lost the bet, he said I bet it would be a peck.. he then announced this was the couple's first kiss! they had been dating for over 2 years and this was their first kiss! The groom was 33 and the bride was 26. At rehearsal dinner the evening before, folks were clinking their glasses as some traditions due for the bride and groom to kiss, the brid aske them to stop doing it as she would give her first kiss to her husband at the altar at the wedding the next day. Sure enough on Saturday, she gave her husband his first kiss. I am telling you the whole service gave me chills.

The pastor announced that if anyone accpeted the Lord during the ceremony to please share that with the couple as they dismissed you from your pew. As it got to be my turn to be let out, I took both of their hands and thanked them. I said I had accepted the Lord before as my saviour, but was struggling a bit with some things, but their whole day showed me truly what a Godly husband and wife are to be about.. it was much more than just the kiss, the scriptures that were given , the message and so much more.
I have so much more to share but times are pressing at work and I do not want to rush my message of the lessons learned lately..

Our God is an awesome God. He wants us first and foremost all of us, no selfishness whatsoever.. Bondman, thanks for keeping the messages going and not giving up..
Keep praying.. as my girlfriend would say,, Robin.. just rip off the bandaid and let God be in your life! Yes it hurts ripping off that bandaid.. but man the healing God can do!

My head is much clearer now.. God has been speaking to me folks, and I have been ignoring some of the signs, but as Bondman has told me, I will die spiritually.. my life will die.. but praises to our Lord for doing CPR on me and not giving up and being patient with me!

We can all have peace.. but that peace will only come when our hearts turn fully to God and what his will is for us in our lives.

Ok got to scoot back to work.. I am just so darn excited to write!

Hugs
Faithwoman

One of the things about Faithwoman is that what you get from her is straight from the heart, no matter whether it be spiritual excitement on one hand, or telling us of some sin problems on the other - and about everything in between too!! You do good, hon!

This was good: "God has been speaking to me folks, and I have been ignoring some of the signs, but as Bondman has told me, I will die spiritually.. my life will die.. but praises to our Lord for doing CPR on me and not giving up and being patient with me!" Haha, God doing CPR - that's really, really excellent!!

It's true that His patience with us is absolutely astonishing; but also that we WILL suffer spiritually if we ignore His words to us. I find it quite awful when you see someone 'losing the plot', moving away from the Lord, and ending up away from him, sometimes for years and even decades. I've talked with others about this and we've agreed that we simply can't do that!! I guess I have to simply say that's His undeserved grace at work by the power of His Spirit at work in our hearts!

Whoo-hoo, I can handle it!!

Wow that wedding sounds just so fantastic! I don't think I can remember hearing of a wedding where the Gospel was preached, nor one where the wedding guests saw the first kiss! Such a blessing for you, hey - then one for us too cos you shared it with us!! *happy dance* Love ya,

- BM

PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY

MESSAGE #158

INCREDIBLE NEWS ABOUT HOW GOOD YOU ARE!

I can already hear some saying (or thinking): "Who, me? Who are you KIDDING! I'm not good!" Hmm, that could be seen as a rather excellent response, because the further we go into our Christian life the more aware we are of our failings and our sin - so it sure would be a bit of a worry if we DID go round thinking that we are 'good'.

But let me share this INCREDIBLE NEWS. It came from something SweetSurrender sent to me, a quote where the writer said: "... people quote scripture about their “imputed” righteousness through faith in Jesus but they refuse to obey Jesus," and that started me towards this Message. I wonder how many of you have heard about 'imputed righteousness'? Oh man, it's the most ASTONISHINGLY GREAT NEWS!!! Because as a true Believer YOU HAVE THIS RIGHT NOW!!

IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS

Let me explain imputed righteousness. Firstly "Righteousness" of course simply means "living right, and well and good", i.e., "Right living" that we all should be striving towards, in the Lord, and by His Spirit. Secondly "imputed", which means something that's kind of considered as being owned by you. So "imputed righteousness" is right living that is - well, YOURS!!! Truly? Oh yes! - imputed righteousness is righteousness (goodness) that's considered by God as actually and truly YOURS!! Hrmph, didn't think I had ANY righteousness at all, someone says. WELL YOU DO, and here's how it works.

HOW GOD SEES YOU!

When God looks at you, considering you as His son or daughter, who truly belongs to Him as part of His eternal family, instead of seeing your SIN and FAULTS and FAILINGS, He sees only GOOD!!! - which is because of your imputed righteousness! What happened to us is that the very second we were born again from death to life, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS and PERFECTNESS and TOTAL GOODNESS of the Lord Jesus was IMPUTED - transferred, given, shifted across to you, as yours - from Him to YOU!!!! Thus God looking at you sees only PERFECT GOODNESS, NOT your sin!! Because AT ALL TIMES you are living in a state of IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS!! Is that good news? Nope, I think it's wonderful and absolutely fantabulous news!!

PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS

So... if I have this wonderful imputed righteousness, does that mean I don't HAVE to try to become more and more like Jesus? Of course not, because THE IMPORTANT SECOND PART of this is - from the moment of your conversion to Christ - you should be moving towards growing into some PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS, as I usually call it.

Personal right living is learnt, as we live and grow in Jesus. We slowly start to build up some sinlessness in one area, then another, as the Holy Spirit helps us - because what we want is to PLEASE THE LORD and to LIVE LIKE HE WANTS! So we work at being OBEDIENT to his COMMANDS, i.e., to the things we know He wants us to do. And so we actually start getting some PERSONAL GOODNESS, some PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS (which is pretty much the same as 'godliness' and 'holiness').

BEING HOLY

How about the Scripture that says we're to be holy because God is holy! I just love this literal (word by word) translation from the Greek: "Holy be ye, because I holy am." I think that is speaking about PERSONAL HOLINESS (RIGHTEOUSNESS) that we're to be growing in. BUT, at all times as we grow, and struggle to grow, WE ALWAYS HAVE ALL OF OUR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS, so that God sees us as absolutely PERFECT!! If you can handle that incredible news about your goodness, then so can I!!

Very best wishes!

- BM, with his Beloved

• REVEL IN YOUR IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS -
EVEN AS YOU GROW IN PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Amen and Amen!!!

May 2009 be the best year of your life!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE INNER ROOM!!

Yesterday was the 1st Birthday of the IR here on CFS! (started 1-1-2008) Of the 4 times I've had The Inner Room as a thread on different forums, I'd say that here has been the most 'successful'.

I have to thank ALL of you who've helped me by posting on the thread, as without this help it would never have achieved anything LIKE what it has. I must particularly mention Fluffy, Faithwoman and SweetSurrender in this regard. Thanks a bunch guys, ya dun real good!! A big Thankyou too to Jeff for his wonderful help and support!

And thanks also to all of you who've visited, some very faithfully indeed! Obviously without you coming to read posts, there would be no point in the Inner Room even existing!

STATISTICS

They reckon you can prove anything with Statistics and politicians show that's true every day of the year!

However I'll give it a try! *grabs a calculator!* Okay, taking out the 2 months when the IR was closed, here are the 2008 figures:

Total posts = 1,678
Average posts per day = 5.5

Total visits to the IR = 25,747
Average visits per day = 84.7
Highest number of visits in one day - over 260

Total Number of Messages I've written = 158 (an average of just over 1 Message every two days). *phew!!*
Total number of topics covered in Messages = a lot! *hahah*
Number of people helped by Messages = only GOD knows that!!

Finally the greatest possible thanks to the two great loves of my life: to my Beloved wife for all her support of me and my ministry here, and to the Lord Jesus, my Lord, friend and Master!!

Thankyou for allowing me the privilege of serving so many here on this wonderful forum. I've loved this SO much! As we head into 2009 I have absolutely no idea what the year will bring. Every day is a new one - and what I love about that is the fact that HE IS ALREADY THERE!! God bless you all!

Will all of my love!

- BM