Orlando Florida….?
What is God’s answer to suffering…?
Jhn 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God’s answer to our world’s suffering is that He came right down into it! Sometimes Christians try and ‘dance around’ the issue of suffering when talking to others. Trying to get God off the hook you might say. But God placed Himself square in the middle of it when He hung on that cruel cross at Calvary.
C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.” The recent events in Orlando Florida of a mass shooting has the world’s attention that the way the world is living is not right!
God’s answer to pain was to enter it. The Bible records in the Book of Genesis that God created the heavens and the earth. Then some seven times it is recorded that what God created was good, in fact very good. But sin and the results of sin entered this world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and death, sorrow and pain entered our world. Why and how?
Man chose to go it alone and disobey God’s commandments to keep safe. Our world since that day has continued to spiral downward as more and more we seek to live apart from God. To do our own thing!
Even though our world’s situation was as a result of man’s choice, his having a freewill, God thankfully did not just cast us adrift. Instead He sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world to destroy and to remove the power of that which fuels the tragedy at Orlando, Florida.
So what is the church to do in regard to this recent event?
Our task now is to share to a fearful, frightened world that there is a powerful living, loving God who, beginning with His suffering and dying on the cross, is working to bring an end to this violent world.
He is going to make a new Heaven and a new earth and His love is available to all those who feel trapped in this current world.
His promise is deliverance, peace and rest to all those who desire to receive His gift of grace and forgiveness.
But like our world, we too have all inherited the poison of sin in each of our lives. We each have fallen short of the glory of God and none, not one of us not guilty of sin.
But the loving God of the Bible entered our dangerous world as a child born in Bethlehem. He came for one purpose – to free us from this fallen world by His sacrifice for us. He entered into darkness to bring us light.
In the last book of the Bible God has given us a promise for the future – Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” 5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new
Orlando is a megaphone to the world that our world is fallen but God offers us the opportunity to be free of its chains and instead offers us His grace and peace. To have a new life.
Is God shouting out to you……?