August 21, 2002
Ann (not her real name) was eighteen when she met and married Brad. He was charming and handsome. The problem was that Ann believed in Jesus and Brad did not.
Further, Brad drank too much and flirted with other women. Ann’s parents and Christian friends saw the danger signs and warned her. Deep in her heart, Ann knew they were right, but she married him anyway.
The marriage fell apart two and a half years later. Brad’s roving eye led him away from Ann. His drinking increased and, when he drank, he was verbally abusive. After he slapped her a few times, she decided to leave him.
Ann still asks God, “Why did this happen? You could have made our marriage happy. Why didn’t you change Brad?”
Her questions seem naive to those outside her situation, even those outside the Christian faith. Perhaps believers struggle with this issue more than those who are not. We know that Jesus paid our penalty for sin. God’s wrath was poured out on Him and we are forgiven, no longer condemned. However, sin has a consequence that seems like punishment? This makes our salvation seem not quite what we believed it to be.
The problem comes when we forget that sin’s punishment is about eternity. People who do not repent and turn to God will face eternity separated from Him. The Bible calls it the “second death” and its location is “hell.”
On the other hand, suffering as a consequence of a sin is different. If a Christian sins and gets into trouble like Ann did, the consequence only happens in this life. In eternity, Ann will be with Christ forever, He will “wipe away all tears,” and she will enter eternal joy.
So why should Christians suffer the consequences of sin, even though their sin is forgiven? Ecclesiastes offers a clue by saying, “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.”
Any person finds it harder to stop doing wrong if no pain is involved. God chastens His people through consequences so we will learn to hate sin and to stop sinning. His goal is that we are transformed people who are like Him. We cannot continue in sin and reach that goal.
Even when we sin, God is gracious. Consider Old Testament King David. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and had a son. That illegitimately conceived child died, but the next son born to him and Bathsheba (by then his wife) was Solomon. From that line, the Messiah was born, an honor to David and a blessing to the world.
David also lived as a warrior. When he wanted to build a temple for God, God would not allow it because of the “blood” in his life. This was a sad and serious consequence; however, God allowed David to write the Psalms — which have endured far longer than any temple ever could.
Remember that suffering does not always imply punishment or lead to a hidden and greater good. Sometimes, it is simply the consequence of sin. Also remember that God takes responsibility for everything that happens. Job said, “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?”
The Bible says God “disciplines those He loves” and explains that consequences are for those who are “accepted” as His children. If someone is not disciplined by God, then they are not a child of God. Far better to bear that label and suffer the consequences of sin for a little while, then to reject God as Father, Lord and Savior, and then bear sin’s consequences forever!
Showing posts with label looking beyond this life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label looking beyond this life. Show all posts
Monday, July 2, 2018
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Know a Perfect Editor? ................ Parables 592
April 14, 1998
A graphic artist worked hard to reach his goal of landing a cover on Fortune magazine. Finally it happened and he joyfully celebrated. However, within a week while standing on a street corner, he saw a garbage truck drive by on its way to the dump. It was filled with outdated issues of Fortune magazine, his artwork on its cover.
Creative people dream large goals but artists, writers and others who create things must understand one reality: what we produce will not necessarily outlive us.
A wise man once said, “Of the making of books, there is no end.” That holds true for all sorts of commodities. Even though precious few paintings are preserved as masterpieces and few books are collected as classics, no matter what we design or manufacture, most of our creative efforts appear for a time then they are “out of print” and fade into oblivion.
Creative people also struggle with “revising and editing.” A first sketch or a first draft is rarely the best an artist or a writer can do. Well-known artists often wipe off the canvas and start over. Famous authors revise their manuscripts six, eight, ten or even more times. Long after their work is produced, displayed or published, there is often a sense that “I could have done better.”
When anyone dreams big or tries to make their work the best they can possibly do, they exemplify a worthy goal for their personal lives. Yet how often we look back with regret at the life we have lived and say, “I could have done better.”
Ben Franklin may have felt something like that when he wrote the following epitaph for his own tomb, but notice the ending: “The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, Like the Cover of an Old Book, Its Contents Torn Out, Stripped of Its Lettering and Gilding, Lies Here, Food for Worms. Yet the Work Itself shall not be Lost; for it will, as He Believed, Appear once More in a New and More Beautiful Edition, Corrected and Amended by The Author.”
Franklin is right; life is a lot like the writing of a book. In the first draft, we construct a lifestyle that feels right, quickly laying down the foundation. Then we begin to revise, realizing that success demands more than a just quick pass.
As the work progresses, we discover there is far more to “good copy” than what can be seen on the surface. We begin editing and revising at a deeper level, perhaps refining our souls. Like a writer, the honest person also realizes that the work of improving is a never-ending task; just when we are satisfied, we see more flaws that need correcting.
Benjamin Franklin obviously thought about life more deeply than the average ambitious person. He knew that no matter how hard he worked, his body would eventually succumb to decay. After his life was over, then what?
Franklin, like many others, looked beyond success in this life to the promises of God. He found that through faith in Christ, he could live forever, in a new body, with God, where death has no power. He also realized that God would do a major revision, deleting all his errors.
Franklin may have read the Bible verses that say, “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day . . . . We know that if the earthly tent we live in (our bodies) is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands . . . .”
He likely found another place that says when we go to heaven “we will be like Jesus,” all typos corrected, all subjects and objects in agreement, every comma in the right place. As Franklin said, we will be a new edition, corrected and amended by the One who created us and who will totally restore us — a far superior fate than being carted off to a garbage dump.
A graphic artist worked hard to reach his goal of landing a cover on Fortune magazine. Finally it happened and he joyfully celebrated. However, within a week while standing on a street corner, he saw a garbage truck drive by on its way to the dump. It was filled with outdated issues of Fortune magazine, his artwork on its cover.
Creative people dream large goals but artists, writers and others who create things must understand one reality: what we produce will not necessarily outlive us.
A wise man once said, “Of the making of books, there is no end.” That holds true for all sorts of commodities. Even though precious few paintings are preserved as masterpieces and few books are collected as classics, no matter what we design or manufacture, most of our creative efforts appear for a time then they are “out of print” and fade into oblivion.
Creative people also struggle with “revising and editing.” A first sketch or a first draft is rarely the best an artist or a writer can do. Well-known artists often wipe off the canvas and start over. Famous authors revise their manuscripts six, eight, ten or even more times. Long after their work is produced, displayed or published, there is often a sense that “I could have done better.”
When anyone dreams big or tries to make their work the best they can possibly do, they exemplify a worthy goal for their personal lives. Yet how often we look back with regret at the life we have lived and say, “I could have done better.”
Ben Franklin may have felt something like that when he wrote the following epitaph for his own tomb, but notice the ending: “The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, Like the Cover of an Old Book, Its Contents Torn Out, Stripped of Its Lettering and Gilding, Lies Here, Food for Worms. Yet the Work Itself shall not be Lost; for it will, as He Believed, Appear once More in a New and More Beautiful Edition, Corrected and Amended by The Author.”
Franklin is right; life is a lot like the writing of a book. In the first draft, we construct a lifestyle that feels right, quickly laying down the foundation. Then we begin to revise, realizing that success demands more than a just quick pass.
As the work progresses, we discover there is far more to “good copy” than what can be seen on the surface. We begin editing and revising at a deeper level, perhaps refining our souls. Like a writer, the honest person also realizes that the work of improving is a never-ending task; just when we are satisfied, we see more flaws that need correcting.
Benjamin Franklin obviously thought about life more deeply than the average ambitious person. He knew that no matter how hard he worked, his body would eventually succumb to decay. After his life was over, then what?
Franklin, like many others, looked beyond success in this life to the promises of God. He found that through faith in Christ, he could live forever, in a new body, with God, where death has no power. He also realized that God would do a major revision, deleting all his errors.
Franklin may have read the Bible verses that say, “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day . . . . We know that if the earthly tent we live in (our bodies) is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands . . . .”
He likely found another place that says when we go to heaven “we will be like Jesus,” all typos corrected, all subjects and objects in agreement, every comma in the right place. As Franklin said, we will be a new edition, corrected and amended by the One who created us and who will totally restore us — a far superior fate than being carted off to a garbage dump.
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