Saturday 10 June 2017

We are all in the same boat

For I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them. All things come alike to all:
One event happens to the righteous and the wicked;
To the good, the clean, and the unclean;
To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.
As is the good, so is the sinner;
He who takes an oath as he who fears an oath. – Ecclesiastes 9.1-2

I hear folks, on a somewhat regular basis, trying to figure God out after a disaster strikes. The big one I hear, after an earthquake or hurricane or tornado or a flood or something like that, is that God is judging this or that group of people. That storm hit because that (insert chosen group of sinners here) was there.

Things happen to both the righteous and the wicked.
The rain falls on both the evil and the good.

Stuff just happens. Good stuff happens to the just and the unjust and bad stuff happens to the wicked and the righteous. We can’t presume on God’s behalf why things happen. We can’t expect that just because we are saved we are going to avoid disaster and storms and fires and sickness and death and financial woes and anything else.

We all live in the same world. We all enjoy the good parts of our world and we are deal with the bad parts. The difference is that we have to presence of almighty God to carry us through the good times and the bad. Life is life – but we have the strength to carry us through.

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