Why God?

In light of the recent hurricanes and earthquakes, and all of the violence going on, I would like to do a short post to answer a question submitted by one of our readers:

"Brother Jesse, if God is so Loving and does not want any to perish, like you said in your online sermon, why does He let so many horrible things to happen?"

This probably one of the most frequent questions I get as a minister, and it is one that has been asked throughout history. The Psalms in our Old Testament are full of "Why do the heathen rage and prosper, and the righteous perish and die" questions (Note-the preceding quote is mine and is not from any specific verse). The entire book of Job, minus the first two and last 4 chapters, sees Job's friends trying to figure this one out.

Here is my best, Holy Spirit led, answer: God is Love, and God is a loving God. He loves us so much that he allowed His son to die (as a matter of fact, Isaiah says God is the one that killed Him), and He does not want any of us to perish.

But you must remember, that God is also a Holy God. He is so Holy, that he cannot stand the presence of Sin, and He only asks us one thing, to serve Him. I think God is very sad when tragedy happens, but fore the last 100 years we have totally thrown Him out of our lives. We have banished Him from public, school, and even our churches. So God is doing exactly what we asked Him too: He is leaving us alone.

Remember, God's love endures forever; His patience does not. I am not saying that God is trying to kill people, or that righteous people do not have tragedy. God is God, and He is Holy. We cannot ever understand Him, but we can serve Him. He has made provision for us: His son, Jesus Christ, whose Blood allows us to stand before Him when we do go on to the other side.