"Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Writing Well"
I don’t know why I love this video so much … maybe because I remember doing something like this when I was a kid. And the fact that it’s 1965. Not a bad video for the stone ages! 😀
Have a great Sunday, everyone!
Stay tuned for the Monday Morning Sneak Peek questions!
AND, the Gift for Mom giveaway will start soon, too.
Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.
If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.
Let’s get started:
Although Satan is “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), he does not have carte blanche to afflict God’s people. The more precisely we as believers obey God, the more difficult it is for the Devil to succeed in ruining our lives. Sections of Scripture like Psalm 91 make it plain that the effectiveness of God’s protection of us is in large part proportional to our “dwelling in the secret place of the Most High” and “abiding in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Satan tries to trick us into sinning (disobeying God) and by doing so leaving the umbrella of God’s “protective custody.” For example, when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, he twisted God’s Word. By misapplying Psalm 91:12, he tried to get Jesus to do something dangerous and foolhardy that would have cost him his life. He wanted Jesus to mistakenly believe that God’s protection of him was absolute, when it was actually relative to his faith in and obedience to God’s Word. Nowhere does God guarantee blanket protection to Temple-jumpers.
If Jesus needed to remain in the will of God to assure himself of protection, surely we do too. Sin in the life of a Christian is a primary cause of his vulnerability to spiritual defeat. If Satan can get a believer to act contrary to the will of God, it appears that this gives him an opportunity to step in and afflict him.
Satan carefully chooses his moments to strike, in accord with his goal to confuse people as to the difference between good and evil. He does not take advantage of all sin to correspondingly afflict each person who sins, because then he would eventually discourage sin, and his success depends upon encouraging it. He does take special pleasure in hurting God’s people in order to make it seem that commitment to God does not result in blessings.
God does not kill people who love Him, or cause them to suffer. It is the Devil who causes death and suffering. God is righteous and just. If a parent, judge, schoolteacher, etc. were to act as God is portrayed by many as acting — punishing one person while letting another go free for the same sin — imagine the din of angry voices shouting “Unfair! Unfair!” And it would be unfair.
It is interesting that most Christians who write about suffering admit that it is unfair, or at least that it seems unfair. But their erroneous belief that God is the cause of the suffering necessitates a distorted rationale. Not wanting to point an accusing finger at God, a finger they would unhesitatingly and rightly point at people, i.e., Stalin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Snidely Whiplash and other perpetrators of heinous crimes, they are forced to say that “unfair” is really “fair” after all.
Philip Yancey’s comment is representative of the confusion that exists concerning God’s fairness:
If, for the sake of a “test” of love, a husband subjected his wife to the trauma that Job had to endure, we would call him pathological and lock him away. If a mother hid herself from her children…we would judge her an unfit mother. How, then, can we understand such behavior…by God Himself? I offer no neat formula…[1]
The Word of God makes it plain that applying such a double standard to Him is unwarranted, since He is the epitome of a loving Father.
By doing things like afflicting some people who sin, and disregarding others, the Devil has confused multitudes.
Don’t Blame God video series – Part Three
Read the rest of the article here.
If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.
Truth or Tradition now has a YouTube Channel!
Thanks for reading.
Write From Karen 