Learning from being healthy?

When I was growing up, never really had a cold until I moved away from my parents house. I was very athletic, swam for 30 plus years and road cycling 25 to 100 miles every weekend. When I was healthy physically, I had learned nothing except my deafness which is not an illness but rather a disability. Looking back. I was very healthy until I was diagnosed with MS a few years ago. Hardly missed any work. I was able to my daily activities. So, I was unable to learn anything from my healthy body. Its just that I was able to do many things that an unhealthy person could not do. (which I learned later). I am healthy today and hardly get sick however my MS can affect my daily activities. Many healthy people ask me how do I cope. I reminded them that I was once healthy myself and that I have learned to cope with God's grace. Proverbs 15:30 A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. People who are healthy are to be thankful to God that He didn't allow them to suffer as others did. I ask them to read Psalm 73 and think about it. And to remember this verse: 3 John 1:2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. Often unsaved person is too healthy (prideful) to see they need a savior. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." This will be interesting to see how "healthy" people can learn from their health in this thread. Mark Pickup said it perfectly when he was healthy at one point, “I have been more service to God disabled than during my able-bodied years. This didn’t happen despite my disability but because of my disability.”

More about Job

Definition of "Indirectly" basically means: not direct: as deviating from a direct line or course, not directly aimed at or achieved. Satan was direct while God observe with permission. This is what God said of His servant, Job. Then the LORD asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth--a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil." Job suffered first set of trials Job 2:3 Then the LORD asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth--a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you persuaded me to harm him without cause." Job suffered another set of trials From the Book of Job, we see that God is in complete control. Satan had neither the power nor the authority to do anything without the permission of God. It was consistent with God's nature and will for him to have allowed those things to happen to Job. I have studied Job for many years. Many people have a wrong concept of the Story of Job and didn't understand the theology behind the story. Job's friends acted like God's prophets sent to straighten out Job's life. They claimed to know more than Job did. Not all of their doctrines are false but they used their doctrines wrongly. Job didn't sinned and he was not opposing God but at the same time, Job was trying to understand why his trials were happening. Timing of Job's sufferings In the beginning of Job, God didn't mentioned about punishing Job but rather praising Job for his faith. The very first verse explains that Job was blameless and a man of complete integrity. Job's faith was very strong and feared (loved) God. In Chapter 3, most people believed Job sinned because he feared God which is untrue. Chapter 3 through chapter 10 chronicle Job's sorrow and he's really hurting. He's in pain, "O that my grief were thoroughly weighed and my calamity laid in the balances," chapter 6 verse 2. Chapter 10, he says, "My soul is weary of life." And he says in verse 2 of chapter 10, "God, do not condemn me, show me why You're contending with me." We ALL feel the same way, and don't tell me that none of you did not ever felt that way.

More thoughts about Gambling

I never said I was against gambling. I did say the love of gambling (or you could say "work") can be a problem because of the ethic of gambling. There are various forms of gambling. The biggest issue of gambling is "luck". Often God controls a person's luck. If you are a Reformed Theologian, you would understand that. God governs the world (Isa. 40:22-24), the nations (Isa. 40:15-17), and us (Proverbs 16:9). Matthew 10:29 [I]Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.[/I] God leads us to our destiny according to His will and glory. No matter what we do, God is always guiding us through our circumstances (good and bad). Nothing is impossible for Him. God is Good and at the same time, God is Holy and Sovereign. Making a success of something has nothing to do with luck. Care, thought, and study go into making something succeed; luck is something you get playing the lottery or roulette. I have played lottery and been part of the football and basketball pool. I do this for fun rather than greed. My motive have to be determined why I am playing (gambling). I like to have fun so I do put in a few bucks in football or basketball pools and lottery once in awhile. Regarding "Context" ....in my explanation for I Cor. 8:9, 13. As long as our conscience is clear and our heart is pure before God, don't be concerned with issues. That is GRACE. In Romans 14:5 "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind." 1 Corinthians 10:28-29 "both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake, the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience?" To avoid causing others to stumble is itself strong incentive to walk by the Spirit. "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom 8:9). To avoid causing others to stumble when judging is itself strong incentive to walk by the Spirit. Biblically, Christians are no longer "in the flesh": "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom 8:9). For me as a believer to reach out to those who are lost is a privilege and a responsibility. I have to be careful to do it for God's glory and not mine. Discern between right and wrong Hebrews 5:14 (New Living Translation) "Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right." Nothing is black and white. People have issues with gambling, drinking and other issues. [B]This all boils down to a Christian's relationship with the Lord and people around that person. [/B]

God is Control regardless......

Don't you think what you have said contradicts the Word of God? This is directly from the Word of God. God governs (controls) the world (Isa. 40:22-24), the nations (Isa. 40:15-17), and us (Proverbs 16:9). God would NOT be God if He does not control what He has created. There so much reasoning without scriptural support. This is what many liberal churches are doing today. Quote by the late A.W. Tozer who wrote in the 1950's, "Conscious awareness of the presence of God! I defy any theologian or teacher to take that away from the believing church of Jesus Christ! But be assured they will try. And I refer not just to the liberal teachers. God has given us the Bible for a reason - so it can lead us to meet God in Jesus Christ, in a clear, sharp encounter that will burn on in our hearts forever and ever. If God was in your local church meeting today to discuss lowering God's Character to human reasoning? How would you react? What would you say to God when you are using this reasoning? Many Christian liberal thinkers have differed regarding this from their own perspective rather than God's perspective simply because of man's doctrines rather than truth. Proverbs 20:24 A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way? Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases. Jeremiah 10:23 [ Jeremiah's Prayer ] I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. The book of Esther show how God controls history through HIS providence. Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. God is always directing and sometimes things will happen along the way. Isaiah 48:17 This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. Ecclesiastes 8:17 I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it. No matter what we do, God is always guiding us through our circumstances (good and bad). Nothing is impossible for Him. God is Good and at the same time, God is Holy and Sovereign. The Apostles, Joseph, Joshua, Daniel, Job, David and other great biblical characters lived in the same world, but how differently they interpreted their relationship with God. Learning from them, I can see that circumstances did not control them; it is their reaction to circumstances that determined what kind of people they were and most importantly, how faithful they were. Acts 17:24-29 (NIV) explains PERFECTLY........ "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. God is in control and He will allow us to have freewill only if its according to His will. We have to understand that God controls everything including our freewill. The "freewill" is always subject to God's sovereignty and His divine freewill. The key is that God is ALWAYS in control even in our own freewill. Jesus gave an example about God's will when He revealed His holiness when He cried in His agony, "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). Here two wills, the lower will of the human who was God and the higher will of the God who was Man, and the higher will always prevail. So, by following Christ's example, we are to follow God's will and decisions. Every Christian must decide whether they will us their liberty to decide on their moral decisions. We are free, but our freedom must prove a source of real temptation of this world. We are free from the chains of sin because by grace we are saved by Christ that we are forgiven. It is God's gift that we have the complete spiritual freedom and loving dependence upon one another. The mystery of our free will is too easy because when God said to Adam and Eve: "Thou shalt not eat from this tree." Here was a divine requirement calling for obedience on the part of those who had the power of choice and will. They had only ONE commandment. This is from my journal as a reminder that I must keep God's Character HIGHLY without lowering to human's standard. The potter (God) is working with this soft, yielding clay (us). If this clay does not submit, the potter may not be able to do what I should do according to His will. The potter still could make anything except for useful and beautiful (spiritual fruitful) out of an unyielding blob of clay. If God is going to make those kinds of vessels out of clay (us), however, we are going to have to yield to the spiritual law of surrender. Give ourselves to God as a living sacrifice and let Him have us--all of us. Of course at the same time, I understand that God, just because He is almighty, needs no support from me and He is still able to do what He wills to do. Often I noticed that the providential of God leads me to what I call "coincidences" in my life which perhaps God will make sure that His wills will be done at His right time and place. There are two worlds, set over against each other, dominated by two wills, the will of man (me) and the will of God, respectively.