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Why do Bad things Happen?
Before I get into this, I want to make sure to tell you to read the Story of the Butterfly at the end…
This is a question that many people ask, not only unbelievers, but those who believe ask it too. The
questions are usually phrased something like this...
If there is a loving God:
- Why does He let bad things happen to good people?
- Why did He allow people to fly planes into buildings?
- Why does He let people kill?
- Why does He cause hurricanes and tornados and floods that take lives and destroy property?
Most of the time we, as Christians, answer these kind of questions by saying, God has some plan He's
working and if He's working it, then it happened for the best.
Read Isaiah 55: 8, 9
- "8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are
your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "For {as} the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways
higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts."
Well... that's certainly true.
He does have a plan and He is working that plan in each of our lives. And we can't know the full of
it from where we sit.
Whatever happens, whether God caused it to happen or allows it to happen, He does work it toward the best for
those who believe in Him, and sometimes even for those who deny Him.
Genesis 50: 20 says,
- "As for you, you meant evil against me, {but} God meant it for good
in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive."
But the better answer as to why some bad things happen to good people is that it's a wonder that anything
Good happens at all... to anyone.
Why do I say that?
Because while God will help us through our lives as believers, He is not in control of the World and what happens
in it...
"WHAT... God is NOT in Control?"
If God did control the world, there wouldn't be any sickness, any pain, any crime, any sorrow, life
would be perfect, beautiful. We would never be depressed, we'd always be happy. That would be wonderful, but that's not the
world we live in now, that's more like Heaven then earth. Because God is not in control...
That's right, this world is really owned by the devil and has been owned by him since the Garden of Eden. And
even though God is all powerful, He allows the devil to do his thing because of what happened in the Garden.
Let me explain...
Go back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. God created the world and everything above it, on it
and in it. And in Genesis 1:26,
- "Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
So, while God created the earth and all things, He gave dominion of it to man.
But...
In Genesis chapter 2, we read about the serpent and his tempting Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit.
- 1 "Now the serpent was more crafty than any
beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any
tree of the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, " From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may
eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not
eat from it or touch it, or you will die.' " 4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! 5
"For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the
tree was desirable to make {one} wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he
ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of
the garden."
And thus was sin, or evil, first brought into the world... And who was that serpent?
Read Revelation 20: 2,
- "And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the
devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;"
By doing what the serpent, the devil, wanted and disobeying God's law, not to eat or even touch the fruit
of that tree, Adam and Eve effectively transferred the deed of the earth over to the devil. By submitting to the devil, Adam
and Eve became his servants and turn over the ownership of the planet to the evil one.
Read Romans 6:16,
- Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves [as] servants unto
obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Still not so sure about that, then read Luke Chapter 4:5-8, when Christ was in the wilderness and being
tempted by the devil...
- "5 And he led Him up and showed Him
all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory;
for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 "Therefore if You worship before me,
it shall all be Yours." 8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, `YOU SHALL
WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.' "
Notice what Jesus did not say, He didn't say, "you cannot give what is not yours to give."
In John, Jesus talks of, "The prince of this world" and it's not God or Himself He's talking about.
- John 12: 31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this
world be cast out.
- John 16:8-11, 8 And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect
of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more;
11 of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged.
Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4 says,
- "in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving,
that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn [upon them]."
Many of the things insurance companies might call, "an act of God" are really acts of the devil. But God gets the blame.
We blame God for disease, famine, hurricanes, floods, title waves, rapes and murder, when we should be blaming the devil.
The devil knows what is going to happen in the end, just as God does. The devil knows scripture and
can quote it all day long, of course he changes it just enough to work it toward his purpose. Which is to bring you down,
to keep you from God. The devil knows where he's going to be spending eternity, and he wants all the company he can get. The
devil is also jealous of God, and wants to deny Him as many people as he can temp away.
But here's something to keep in mind, the war between good and evil, God and the devil, is NOT
an even match. The devil is nowhere near as strong as our God, and he will lose the fight in the end.
God has allowed the devil to do the things he does for His purposes, to test us and
bring us closer to Him. As I said above, His ways are not our ways. We may never know
His overall plan, at least not in this life, but there is a reason for everything that happens.
But is it going to stay this way forever?
No, read Revelation 5:
- "1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat
on the throne a book written within and on the back, close sealed with seven seals."
What is this book or scroll?
To understand what this book or scroll with the seals is, read Jeremiah 32:10,11
- "9 And I bought the field that was in Anathoth
of Hanamel mine uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. 10 And I subscribed
the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances."
This was a title deed to a piece of property that Jeremiah purchased.
The book or scroll, sealed with seven seals in Revelation 5: is the title deed to this earth.
Back in the Old Testament times, when you were forced to sell a piece of property, you would write on the outside
of the title deed, a set of conditions, which if met within the time frame, would allow you to reclaim that property. And
then you would seal it with seven seals.
If, in that time, you or a family member or a friend of your family came forward to redeem that property, pay the price,
the book or scroll would be opened and the conditions read aloud and the owner would then have no choice but to turn the property
back to the original owner.
The book or scroll sitting on the throne and written both inside and out and sealed with seven seals in the book
Revelation, is a deed. And what deed could it possibly be, but the deed to this world.
Back to Revelation 5:2,
- 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with
a great voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? 3 And no one in the heaven,
or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon. 4 And I wept much, because
no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look thereon: 5 and one of the elders saith unto me, Weep
not; behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome to open the book and the seven seals
thereof. 6 And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the
elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God,
sent forth into all the earth. 7 And he came, and he taketh [it] out of the right hand of him that sat on
the throne. 8 And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell
down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9
And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain, and
didst purchase unto God with thy blood [men] of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, 10 and madest
them [to be] unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon earth.
And so, Jesus, "the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David" is worthy to redeem the world, for
He has paid the price.
And why would Jesus have done this?
Let's look at a parable that Jesus told in Matthew 13:44,
- "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found, and
hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."
What is the field? In the parable of the tares, a few verses earlier, Jesus says, "The field
is the world..." And being constant, the field in this parable can be considered the world too.
Who is the man, Jesus... and we are the treasure, He finds us, He considers us a GREAT Treasure and gives ALL
He has for us. He gives His Life for us.
And because God doesn't rule this earth right now, bad things happen. Because Adam and Eve turned over the title deed
to this earth to the evil one, bad things happen.
Does that mean the every bad thing that happens is because of the devil, like the old line, "The devil made
me do it."
No, not always.
Sometimes we do bad things to ourselves.
- After 30 years of smoking, we get cancer... That's our fault. The devil may have cause cancer to be,
but we didn't listen to the warnings and stop smoking.
- We drive to fast on a slippery road and have an accident. That's our fault because we weren't careful
enough.
- Our car breaks down because we didn't keep it up. That's our fault.
Sometimes it is God.
If we sin greatly and we aren't following God, God will cause things to happen in our lives.
God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there was so much sin going on in them. He took them right
down to the ground so there was nothing left but ashes.
Read 2 Peter 2:6,
- "and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction
by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;"
God did that as an example to those who might choose to follow the same path.
And God will sometimes cause something bad to happen to us as a way of disciplining us.
Read Hebrews 12:4-7,
- "4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as
sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6
FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." 7 It is for discipline
that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?"
If God Loves you, and He does, when you mess up, He will discipline you in some way, to bring you back to the
straight and narrow. What father wouldn't. If you love your children and they do wrong, you are going to punish them
in some way so they will learn what's expected of them. Learn right from wrong.
So, we know that sometimes God does cause bad things to happen. And we know that sometimes bad things
happen because of something we do to ourselves, and we know that many times the devil, the prince of this world, causes bad
things to happen.
But whether we caused it or God or the evil one, when bad things happen, God will use that bad thing, and work
it to our good. He may use it to teach us something or to bring us closer to Him.
You see God Loves us, each one of us, even those who deny Him. And He wants us to Love Him, to be close to Him,
to know Him. Have you ever heard the old saying, "There are no atheists in a fox hole?"
When we think death is possible, we pray to God for help. All of us, whether we believed in Him before or not, we pray. When
faced with the possibility of dying, all of a sudden, God is very important to us. And we ask for His help.
Many, many times when something bad happens in our lives, whether through God's actions, the devil's or our own,
God will use that as a way to bring us closer to Him.
And for those who have rejected Him, who are doing evil or bad things, many times God will give them a chance
to change before it's to late.
I'm reminded of a story I heard of a bad guy in Los Angeles, the "7-11 Bandit." The police were on to
him and were about to get him, though he didn't know it. Just before he tried to pull, what would be his last job, with the
police waiting to stop him, a local missionary saw him and came up to him with a pamphlet about Jesus. He asked the man, "Do
you know Jesus?" The man said he wasn't interested. But the missionary pressed that pamphlet into his hand.
The Bandit pushed him away. Moments later, after the bullets had stopped flying, the 7-11 Bandit was dead, with the pamphlet
still in his hand.
God was trying to give him one last chance. Sadly, he rejected God's offer.
I know that losing my Wife, while one of the worse things that has ever happened to me, has brought me closer to God.
And that brings up another point about bad things happening.
When we go through something, face it and survive, then God can use us to comfort someone else who is going through
the same thing. You know when something bad happens and a friend will say, "I can't say I know exactly
what you're going through, but I'm here for you," how much more comfort it would be if that friend were able
to say, "I've been through it too, let me show you what helped me."
Can we stop some of the bad things from happening?
Yes, some of them. By living with the Lord in our hearts. Following His word, spoken through His Son
Jesus. But even if we all lived with God in our hearts and followed His word, the devil will still be trying to trip us up,
to make us leave God and come to him.
There will always be wrong or evil thoughts that enter our minds. Lusts, Greed, Depressions, Anger and
Hate, things that the devil puts there to temp us away from God. But if we are truly living and walking with Jesus, He
has given us Power over the devil, and his evils. By giving our life over to Christ and asking Him to help us overcome the
devils temptations, we can be saved from many of the bad things of life.
Read Luke 10:19-20
- 19 "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents
and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. 20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject
to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."
I left in the warning not to rejoice in that power, lest we become to full of ourselves in this world. It's better to
rejoice that we have been saved through Christ.
So, what have you learned?
Whether it's caused by God, you or the devil, God uses bad things happening to us, to teach, instruct
and strength us in our love of Him. That through hardship, we might learn to help others. To Love Him more and come closer
to Him.
For God says in the song He had Moses write in Deuteronomy 32:39,
- See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with
me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand.
God uses the bad things that happen to us, many times, to strengthen us and bring us closer to Him.
Read Romans 5: 1-5
-
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the
glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing
that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven
character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out
within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Bad things do happen, and it doesn't matter whether you're a Christian or not, they happen. What we do after
they happen, is what matters. Do we stay in the world and say, "I'll handle it," OR do we come to God and say, "Lord, I Need
Your Help."
Do we let God help us through Christ, or do we try and deal with it all by ourselves?
God is there, waiting to be asked. He loves us, and wants us to come to Him for help. For with God, all things
are possible. No matter what the problem is, no matter what is going on in your life, God has an answer for you. God Will
Help.
Here's something else to think about, Read Romans 8:28,
And, Romans 8:31-32
- 31 What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
If you don't know God and His Son Jesus, then now is a good time to get to know Him. I know He can help you get through
any bad things that happen. That's one of the reasons He's there. To help you.
He Loves You, and He wants You to Love Him.
John 16:33
- "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might
have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
What we need to keep in mind is this, this life is short and goes by quickly. But eternity is forever
and everything we do in this life is preparing us for that eternity. The pains and troubles of this life, that God allows
to happen or causes to happen, strengthen us and make us ready for Life Eternal. If we allow God to help us through,
believing and trusting in Him, we will be with Him, if not........
Oh... by the way, if you don't believe there is a devil, then the devil you don't believe in, may already have your
soul. But there is Hope, and His name is Jesus.
If you don't beleive in God, in Jesus... that doesn't mean He doesn't believe in You.
And now, the Story of the Butterfly…
A man is walking through the woods and spots the cocoon of a butterfly. And he can see that it’s
moving, the new butterfly is struggling to break out. He can do one of two things, he can take out a knife
and help the butterfly by carefully cutting the cocoon or he can do nothing.
If he cuts the cocoon to help the butterfly out, he will end up killing it. Not because he didn’t
cut carefully enough, but because the butterfly needs to go through the struggle to pump blood into it’s new wings and
make them strong, which will allow it to fly and find food and live. If the man helps, the wings won’t get the blood
they need, the butterfly will not be strong, will not be able to fly and find food, and it will die.
If he does nothing, the butterfly will struggle, but it will overcome, it will find food, it will fly, and it will
live.
Let this be an example to you, God lets us go through struggles to strengthen us, so we can find what we need,
fly and live.
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I received this in an E-mail and just had to copy it here. I think it's a wonderful illustration:
Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanation!
A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her
and her best friend is moving away.
Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely
Mom, I love your cake."
"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers.
"Yuck" says her daughter.
"How about a couple raw eggs?"
"Gross, Mom!"
"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"
"Mom, those are all yucky!"
To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the
right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!"
God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times.
But He knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually,
they will all make something wonderful!. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and
He chose your heart.
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