One can’t help but think as you look at a person like Kathy Umholtz, Why would she have cancer? Kathy has always been a God-fearing woman; she’s gone to church all her life; she reads her bible through “The Daily Bread” everyday; she gives to the church and others, and has always taken care of her family. It would seem that God would have favor on her and spare her from any harm that this world would bring. It would seem this way if God was a control freak and did everything His way. The truth is harder to handle than that. God is not a control freak. The Bible tells us that God created the World to be inhabited (Is. 45:18). That means that the whole purpose for the Earth is for Mankind to live on it. When God created mankind, He gave Man dominion over all the Earth. Man had the ability to do with it whatever he wanted.
Adam had a choice to walk with God and in the righteousness of God, or to follow the ways and whiles of the Devil and turn from God. Making the choice would not only determine the fate of Adam and the human race, but also the kingdom which he controlled. When the King is cursed so is the creation. You can’t have a corrupt King in a perfect kingdom because the king will corrupt it. It’s no secrete that Adam chose to walk away from God, and as God promised, he died, and the world died with him. The corruptness of Adam corrupted all the creation for Adam. Think about it: What if death came into the world but there were no flies to take care of the carcasses. There would be rotting flesh everywhere. My point is that the king (Adam) cursed his kingdom with death.
If we look at this issue from God’s perspective, we see that God created the world and Man for his pleasure. And we know that God created man in his image. So we can look at ourselves to understand God is some respects. I get much pleasure out of being around people that want to be around me. My friendships do not consist of people that are forced to be around me. As a matter of fact, when I find out that people don’t want to be around me, I will give them the opportunity to go and do whatever they want to do, because I take no pleasure in forcing people to be with me. From what I gather of the character of God, He also takes pleasure in those that take pleasure in Him. He desires friendship, partnership, and fellowship with those that desire such things with him. What kind of God would he be to force us to love him or be with him. He would be a insecure kidnapper that had to control his creation. This is not God. God says “Whosoever will may come.” We all have a choice to be with the one who created us for himself; or we can continue to turn from God and do our own thing.
There has never been a time in scripture that God promises to take away all sickness, pain, and/or death in this time of the Earth. There is coming a day when He finishes his redemptive work on the Earth that he will redeem it and restore it with those that decided to be with him. As for now you will have trouble in this world. There has never been a time that the children of Adam have escaped the death that we chose. There has never been a time that the children of God have been exempt from that trouble. Our hope as Christians does not rest in this world but in the world to come. Paul describes a longing for the hope of the restoration in 2 Corinthians 5:1-14. But in this hope Paul state that it is better for him to stay in this world and share the hope with others (Philippians 1:20-24).
If you begin to ask the question why you must go back to the very beginning. Why was Abel killed by Cain? Why was Esau beguiled by Jacob? Why was Joseph sold into slavery? Why was Job chosen to suffer? Why did Jesus take stripes and the cross? Why did the Prophets of God die? Why did John the Baptist get his head cut off? Why did Peter get crucified upside down? (What’s the matter with you again, I forget?) Why are people being murdered for their faith all over the World, today?!
the blessing and conclusion is this: our hope rests in the world to come and God will be faithful to translate us from this place of darkness into his marvelous light. Don’t be suppressed with dark things happen in a dark place. That is just par for the course. But rest assured light is coming. the light that God has shined in your heart will one day consume this world in the brightness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then our faith will have become sight and we will live in the glory of the one who has saved us from this death. Take joy, take comfort, in the fact that God has not left you or forsaken you. He will finish what he started! And the time of our redemption is close at hand. I love having the light in a dark place. I would hate to be in the dark in this dark world. God is good all the time.
P.S. While I was writing this, the chair I was sitting in gave out and I hit the floor: not because God is mean, but because man produced a chair that was faulty. It’s just the way of the world.
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