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[ez2u]

not knowing ( and please correct me if am wrong) where to put this conversation i have been thinking about something on suffering and our troubles of this world.  we have them continually and we try not too. By our nature we want to live at the white picket fence house so we pray and beg and cheat and work our selves to exhaustion to get there. A home with no problems and a family with no problems.  But is that where the Lord Jesus calls us to be? am old now 60, that isn't young i have lived a full life time. am tired. am trying to see the point to all this.  I love and feel honored that the Lord Jesus Christ led me to this website. Thank God. there is so many amazing truths here and Ray suffer terribly and gave them to us. His last months he found so much joy, (I notice in his writings) in the common little things.  His wives spaghetti. I can still hear him say " um it's good". and he pour out his life for us in  his sufferings.  Now is this our job?  is this our destination?  What lot has God given to each one of us? Truthfully?  I read the elders post here and i can't help to wonder what price did each of you pay to be where you are? suffering is mixed in this equation called life and God a lots what we get. When i see someone that has purer faith and understanding i think they have walk in some fire of God. ouch!  hugs peggy

[Dennis Vogel]

not knowing ( and please correct me if am wrong) where to put this conversation i have been thinking about something on suffering and our troubles of this world.  we have them continually and we try not too. By our nature we want to live at the white picket fence house so we pray and beg and cheat and work our selves to exhaustion to get there. A home with no problems and a family with no problems.  But is that where the Lord Jesus calls us to be? am old now 60, that isn't young i have lived a full life time. am tired. am trying to see the point to all this.  I love and feel honored that the Lord Jesus Christ led me to this website. Thank God. there is so many amazing truths here and Ray suffer terribly and gave them to us. His last months he found so much joy, (I notice in his writings) in the common little things.  His wives spaghetti. I can still hear him say " um it's good". and he pour out his life for us in  his sufferings.  Now is this our job?  is this our destination?  What lot has God given to each one of us? Truthfully?  I read the elders post here and i can't help to wonder what price did each of you pay to be where you are? suffering is mixed in this equation called life and God a lots what we get. When i see someone that has purer faith and understanding i think they have walk in some fire of God. ouch!  hugs peggy

All I can cling to is this is to prepare us for the next life which will have joy we cannot even comprehend in this life.

We are here to learn about good and evil. Sometimes it feels like there are too many lessons on evil.

[Ian 155]

I have similar questions posed to me by my wife Peggy, yeah its a difficult one and it certainly does not help when I say things like "its the will of a loving God that we loose everything, and we should be exceedingly happy, when inside there is a bitter taste... she and I are a few years younger than you so I can kinda relate.

can I say rather no money, than have your child taken so early - and then be stricken with cancer? this helps me sometimes - although it would be great if neither happens..keep on trusting, he who made you ,will see you thru. These are just words though, to someone who is tired, The Lord does say he will renew you - try asking for relief, you never know - I will also pray for you.

isaiah 40vs 30,31

Ian

[ez2u]

yesDennis the hope thank you Ian.

[Kat]

Hi Peggy,

I think that is an age old question most have come to... what is the meaning of this life? Even Solomon, likely the wisest man to ever live struggled with this in Ecclesiastes and we know his statement that Ray used.

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

I think about that and it is true that every person that lives must suffer and that can vary a great deal from person to person. Some seem to suffer quite a lot, so much more than others and then not all seem to be humbled by it, but will they eventually?

Something that I realize is that we are all being brought into existence as brand new creations, with no knowledge or anything, we really are a blank slate at birth. The key point is we need this experience of life itself... to live and breath and have being. This physical life is given to us for the accumulation of knowledge through experiencing all these different things in this world God has created for us. By living this life and doing all we do everyday we are all building some kind of character and that is producing a base for God to work with, even if it is mostly or even all wicked, that's what God needs to start with, something to mold. And I do think that it is primary for all of us to gain a knowledge of evil, for it to be so well ingrained in our knowledge that we never forget it and what it does.

It truly is difficult to watch all the pain and suffering in this world and hearing your own story Peggy is hard, but I trust God is doing this for the good of us all. Now some certainly do suffer more than other and I believe it's because each has there own unique life experience, there are so many variables and that allows that no 2 people have the same experience. And for those few that God will have to serve/rule with Christ, I think He is preparing each to have differing types of experiences, so He will have all the different abilities He wants in His elect.

When you think about how hard this life is maybe it's comparable to a woman giving birth... it is a very difficult and painful process of bringing a baby into the world. But I think you would say it is well worth all the struggle required to do so. That's kind of how I look at what's happening in this world now, it is a time of travail, but this won't last forever and the results will be so well worth it.

We just have to hang on and trust God, I know easier said than done. I pray for you to find some peace of mind in the storms that are raging around you, remember Peter... keep your eyes on Christ.

Mat 14:29  So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
v. 30  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"
v. 31  And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[rick]

Hello Peggy,

I certainly think along these lines also, I wonder who doesn’t but I noticed a difference with true knowledge of God.

If everything went well for all of us without problems, pain etc. I guess we would be in the garden of Eden still.

This life I/we live is far from the garden of Eden and for good reasons according to God, so I/we need to trust not only the good things but also in the bad things too.

Like Kat said, easier said than done but even trusting is impossible without God giving us the faith to trust.

Rom 8:18  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.



God bless. 

[Nett]

Another encouraging word for you Peggy,

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

v4 To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
v5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,
v6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

v7 That the trail of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perish, though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

v8 Whom having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
v9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
(1st Peter 1:3-9)

Stay hidden in Christ Jesus,
Nett

[david mc fauld]

Hi Peggy,
I'm 60 this Year and understand what your saying,even to the point of thinking things would be easier dead, then I'm reminded God has not finished teaching me yet, so I just pray for more understanding, he may have a plan for you that has yet to be revealed,he will never give you more than you can endure.
2Ti 4:5    But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
May God lift you up in your struggle.

David.

[ez2u]

so many things have come up since i wrote this post thank you all for your kind words. Kat you are always such a dear to my heart hugs.
we need to trust not only the good things but also in the bad things too. (Rick) yes provocative stunning statement! new thought.  With so much stress on my daily life there is a rest in that statement.(Dennis)All I can cling to is this is to prepare us for the next life which will have joy we cannot even comprehend in this life.  that is a hopeful statement!       when all else fails and it all does seem to fail.  I believe that the only thing that is left is Jesus Christ.+  maybe we come to that place where we have nothing complete emptiness as we are being pour out  as an libation offering,  slowly...   taking on Him

[rick]

Hello Peggy,

God, through Ray, gives us so much understanding as to who is behind all things .


To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

                       Ray’s writing below from the myth of free will part D       

EVERYTHING HAS A PRECISE APPOINTED TIME

God Almighty is responsible for everything and He brings about everything only at its precise "APPOINTED SEASON AND TIME." Let's read it:

"To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven" (Ecc. 3:1).

The implications of this verse are staggering. The very foundation of human psychology and theology crumbles under the weight of this declaration of God’s Word. This is undoubtedly one of the ten most profound Scriptures in the entire Bible.

If we are to be honest and believe this verse, then we must concede that absolutely NOTHING is left out God’s profound declaration except man’s anti-scriptural theory of "free will."

The word "season" in the KJV is translated from the Hebrew word, z[e]man, and is defined in Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary as: "APPOINTED season, occasion, time." And "purpose" is defined as: "pleasure, desire, matter." Sometimes rendered as "purpose" or "event."

Here’s a second witness to this grand declaration:

"Because to every purpose [matter or event] there is time and judgment..." (Ecc. 8:6).

And a third witness:

"…for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work" (Ecc. 3:17).

Here are a couple translations that make this verse a little clearer:

"...for He has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work..." (The New Revised Standard Version).

"For He has set a season for every event and for every deed..." (The Concordant Literal Old Testament).

There is no wasted motion in God's creation, purpose and plan. Everything has an appointed time, and everything includes: "every purpose, every work, every matter, every event, and every deed." Where pray tell does "free will" fit into all this? It doesn’t. It clearly DOESN’T. Man has no free will. There is no such thing as free will. It is but the phantom of an "obscured heart" as we learned in Part C from Ecc. 3:11.

Again we ask, since "EVERY work, purpose, matter, deed and event" under heaven must happen at an "APPOINTED TIME," how can there be such a thing as human, uncaused, "free-will?"

Is any man free to do anything other than what God HAS "appointed time" for? No.

Is any man free to do anything that God HAS NOT assigned an "appointed time" for? No.

Is any man free to do or not to do anything that God HAS or HAS NOT assigned an "appointed time" for? No.

Then how can man have a free will?

Man’s will is predicated on previous circumstances and causes, all of which originate in God’s preordained plan and purpose.

Christendom and her fabled doctrine of "free moral agency" is trapped and completely book-ended between:

[1] "To every thing there is a season [appointed time],and a time to every purpose [matter or event] under the heaven" (Ecc. 3:1).

AND:

[2] "I know that, whatsoever God does...NOTHING can be put to it, nor ANYTHING taken from it: and GOD does it" (Ecc. 3:14).

Someone might see a contradiction in God’s teaching. If the two above Scriptures are true, then why does God warn against "adding to or taking away from His word?" Well, like everything else that is beyond the realm of carnal comprehension, all of these things too, have been foreordained and pre-determined to happen only at their "APPOINTED TIME." God has appointed a time for false prophets to add and God has appointed a time for false prophets to take away from His word.

This is truly awesome stuff, it literally helps me understand everything is arranged through circumstances by God for our learning and understanding of all this evil we are put through for the purpose of becoming the children of God being made in His image.

In God’s love.