Sunday, September 12, 2010

Father's Love and the Problem of Evil

"The heavens, are telling the glory of GOD, And, the work of his hands, the expanse is declaring;" (Ps 19:1 [EBR])

"I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I am Jehovah, that doeth all these things." (Isa 45:7 [ASV])


Father created for us a daily demonstration of the function of evil (which may be defined as the absence of God)...

The glory of the stars is unknown to the daytime. It is night, or the absence of the sun's light, that allows the revelation their glory. As shown in the banner above, without that backdrop, we would not know the wonders of the heavens. It is darkness, the absence of sunlight, that allows us to perceive the glorious light of the stars. Each evening, as the light of the sun fails, the glory of the heavens is once again displayed.

This daily cycle testifies to the purpose of evil. The very definition of love is the divine response to evil (1 Cor 13). It is evil that provides the backdrop against which Father's unending and overwhelming love is revealed. Without evil, Father's love would have no meaning to us.

What is light without darkness? What is mercy without guilt? What is long-suffering without evil?

Unconditional Love (Father's essence and nature, Light - Good) can be fully comprehended, appreciated and accepted, only as it is demonstrated against the backdrop of rebellion, sin and rejection (darkness, evil). Careful observation will reveal that the creation is performing exactly as Father designed and intended in this regard. When the ages have run their course, every created being will have experienced Father's Love set against the backdrop of their own darkness.

Then, when evil has served its purpose, it will cease to exist. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 15:24-28 that Jesus will yield up the kingdom to the Father who will then be All in all (everything to everyone). Father will no longer be absent from any part of His creation. Father will fully inhabit His creation and evil will thus be banished. Evil, which Father created, will have performed its function, providing the background necessary to reveal Father's very nature.

May we also observe that long after the ages have seen their end, they will seem to us to have been but a few moments, whose sufferings will fade in the overwhelming flood of joy that will be the result.

"​​​​​​​For his anger lasts only a brief moment, and his good favor restores one’s life. One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning." (Ps 30:5 [NET])

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Father Loves You

Father Loves you. He always has.
Before Elohim knelt in the clay of Eden to form the first Adam, Father loved you. He knew your name, the lines of your face, your voice, your laughter, your tears. He knew the street your parents lived on the day you were born. He knew your first word. Father knew your kindergarten teacher and your high school counselor. He knew your dentist and your best friend. Father knew every one of your thoughts before you did. And still, He loved you.
Father will always love you. His love for His children will never end. It is the one constant in the universe. There is nothing you have done or can do that will diminish or increase Father's love for you. Father loves you completely and always will.
Father knows exactly what you will be. He has a place for you in His plans and will see to it that you are in your place. You will be the perfect expression of your Father - just as He designed you to be. He is making you into a unique and perfect vessel of His presence.
Father loves His children so much that He sent His Son to take on Himself our sentence of death. What the first Adam brought on our race, the second Adam has removed. Jesus has saved us from our sins. His work is finished. All that remains is the opening of each one's eyes and heart at his appointed time. When Father chooses, He opens the child's heart to receive His Love. The response is universal and positive.
Father's Love, through Jesus, will win all.
All that you will have experienced was designed by Father to make of you that perfect expression He intends. And when we finally experience the result, we will have it no other way. We will come to treasure what now seems to us so odious and unbearable, for we will see that those things were the very instruments of our making.

And the vessel that he made in clay was ruined in the hand of the potter. So repeating he made it, another vessel, as it seemed good in the potter's eyes to make it.
[Jer 18:4]

For I am reckoning that the sufferings of the current era do not deserve the glory about to be revealed for us. For the premonition of the creation is awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God. For to vanity was the creation subjected, not voluntarily, but because of Him Who subjects it, in expectation that the creation itself, also, shall be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
[Rom 8:18-21]

For all things are for your sake, so that the superabounding grace might be made to abound through the thanksgiving of the greater number, to the glory of God. For this cause we do not faint; but though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For the lightness of our present affliction works out for us a far more excellent eonian weight of glory, we not considering the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are not lasting, but the things which are not seen are eonian.
(2Co 4:15-18)

Now the God of all grace, Who calls you into His eonian glory in Christ, while briefly suffering, He will be adjusting, establishing, firming, founding you.
[1Pet 5:10]