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change of heart

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gmik:
This thread has been a blessing.  I needed to be reminded of this.  Thanks to all.

deftarchangel:
I understand where you're coming from, Darren, as I'm sure most people with a heart do.  Why, just the other day, I was reading about a trial going on in Winnipeg about two so-called "parents" who would regularly beat their five year old daughter with their fists, feet, or a metal bar; shoot her with a pellet gun; force her to eat her own vomit; and had her sleep on a cold basement floor every night.  She eventually died from all the abuse that she endured.  And it's times like that, when I yell out to God, in a rage, "WHY?"  Why let such a young child endure all that?  Why let her live such a short life filled with nothing but misery and pain?  He didn't tell me why.....yet.

I think, for myself, that is the hardest part of maintaining faith.  To have faith and trust that there is a reason for these things.  Sometimes, well....a lot of times actually, if I'm honest  ;), I'm just hanging on by a thread in that area.  When not just children, but people in general, suffer in ways that it seems like it's just all one big, cruel joke.  When someone loses a child to violence......but loses them on their birthday.  When someone is raped......but is raped on the anniversary of her mother's passing.  When a person loses their spouse......but loses them on their wedding day.  It's incident's like those, the ol' "salt in the wound" or "kickin' them when their down" times, that really test my faith.  Because I just feel like asking "wasn't it enough that they had to endure such a loss?  Why endure it on so-and-so date?"  All I can do is hope, trust, and have faith that there is a reason, even for ordaining such suffering on those specific times.  It's not easy though.  The Word helps.  Examples from it's pages of people having suffered much.....and a greater day having come along that more than compensated for all that suffering that they endured, provides me with a bit of hope.

I personally think it's a good tendency to have though.....to be upset, to not be accepting of it, to be confused and always asking "why?" when faced with the suffering of others.  Not necessarily questioning the way God does things, because you can't, and should not, do that.  But I myself always worry about getting to a point of being aloof about things, and taking the "oh well....it's all in God's hands" attitude.  When we get upset, when we aren't accepting of the suffering of others, and seek an answer as to why it happened, I think that it shows that we do care.  We do care about our fellow brothers and sisters (even if they haven't been called by the Lord Christ yet).  That's love.  And that's God.

Anyways, sorry for the length.  I think I needed to vent a little bit too!   ;D  Hope this brought, at least, a sympathetic ear.

Kind regards,

deftarch^i^         

aqrinc:

Darren,

When the whole thoughts of mankind are only evil continuously the result is what happens to victims.
We can be totally human and be our carnal avenging selves when Children are abused or as the Word
Say's (Be Angry And Sin Not). Any Human with a reasonable sound mind (even carnal) cannot help but
be angry and questioning when we see evil and recognize it as such. Remember the story of Jonah or
the parable of the pardoned servant or Job or countless other events. How about learning that your
own loved ones are being abused or your nephew being gunned down at 16 years or niece dying in
childbirth and much much more (Be Angry And Sin Not).

Brother if i did not now know that Jesus Christ is Lord To The Glory Of GOD The Father; i can say with
some certainty that this world would be a whole lot worse and i would be right in there with them.

All of us would be somewhere in there but (For The Grace Of God Through Faith In Jesus Christ.
This is a heavy subject and brings out much emotion, please forgive my rant.

george. >:( :-X

excerpt from Ray's Free Will Teaching.

http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,5154.msg40740.html#msg40740

Transcript of Jan.’07 Bible study - audio 1

    ‘FREE WILL’ IS AN OXYMORON
[Free-will is a self-contradicting term]


You know I have heard ministers tell the audience on international TV, the sins of their youth.  I have never heard one yet say that he likes to suck another man’s body parts, never.  Never have I heard of someone saying that he use to lust after little children.  Never have I heard that, never. 
Here is what I have heard maybe a dozen times, from the top leading evangelist in the world, here are their sins.  ‘Well when I was young, you know 18 or 21, I was a little aggressive.  You know I had a lot of vanity, about wanting to accomplish things.’  So that’s it?  That was your sin?  ‘Yea that was really vanity on my part.’  Wow, that’s not really too much to repent of, is it.  I mean that’s something you could tell the whole world about and not even be embarrassed (chuckle).  You see what I saying?

I’m not saying that every man has homosexual tendencies or every man slapped his mother at some time or every man lusted after a child.  I’m not saying that! 
I just thank God there are certain sins that I just never was tempted to have or partake of.  I’m so thankful for that.  But if you think that I’m so stupid, that I can’t see that under the same circumstances, of whoever you want to take, say Manson, that I can’t see and know and understand in my very heart and being, that if I was born in his family under those conditions and circumstances, I would have been Charles Manson.  This is the thing that people will not come to grips with.  That’s why these people say, ‘Oh yes I was a little aggressive.’ 
That’s what Herbert Armstrong said, that was his sin.  He said his sin was being too enthusiastic to succeed in life.  Oh what a horrible sin that is.  But he didn’t tell us the problem that he had with his daughter, did he.  No, that had to come out later, you see.  And don’t condemn Mr. Armstrong, for that even, other than it is a horrible sin. 
You and I under the same circumstances, would have done the same thing.  Why can’t we see that?

This is what should humble everyone of us.  We are no better that anyone else!  Except by the grace of God, that is the only reason! 
Why don’t we all have leukemia?  The grace of God. 
Why aren’t we all blind?  The grace of God. 
Are there blind people? Yes.  Why isn’t it us?  Grace of God, no other reason. 
God determined who we were, when we would be born, where, and under what circumstances.  What sins we would commit, what sins we wouldn’t commit, it’s all predetermined of God.  Why?  Because God is sovereign, that’s why.  He is in control of everything! 

But people despise the Word of God.  I show people a scripture and they despise it.  “I create evil…”  ‘No He doesn’t, it means calamity.’  There are words that mean calamity, there are words translated in the Hebrew that mean calamity,  ‘RA’ is not one of them.  In Isaiah 45:7 it’s ‘RA’ the same word translated over 600 times ‘evil’ that’s what He created. 
Billy Graham at the National Cathedral on international television, a billion people watching - “God does not create evil.”  Did he never read the Bible?  Of course he did.  Does he believe it?  He despises the Word of God.

winner08:
To George &deftarchangel: Go ahead and vent all you need to get it off your chest. Myself I vent quit a bit. George you brought up some anger in me when mentioning about a loved one being abused. My wife and I have been going through a very hard time concerning Her son and his daughter. I wont get into details. Lets just say what he did ended up splitting the family apart. We my wife and I used to take my grandchild for weeks at a time (2weeks) to give her mama a rest. well I was told by my grandchild what her daddy did to her. Anyway I was livid. To make a very long story short He the dad ended up in prison for 75yrs. Now my poor wife who lost one son to death and now another one to prison for life and on top of all that this has brought up distrust and resentment toward family members. Now we hardly see our grandchildren and anyway It's tough and I ask why quit often. I'll never know the ansewers, but when I see Him (/God) I hope to know all things. I always tell my wife that we will never know while we are alive. But we can ask God why when we meet Him. ;) ;) ;)

This is the first time since the incident happen that I told anyone outside my family.

Jackie Lee:
This is hard for me to understand also, I still don't understand completely. ???
It is very sad.

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