Evil around us cannot be denied. The capacity for unchecked evil in people to bring pain and destruction is beyond what we can humanly bear. Think about: 9/11, Stalin, Hitler, pedophilia, domestic violence, murder, wars, gang activities including drug proliferation, even over the top road rage, and the list can seem endless.
The human spirit was never intended to deal with these evil things . . . but God . . .
It is human nature to want to blame, but we all are part of the problem to varying degrees. All we have to do is go back to the garden of Eden, where it all began. Some readers may be tempted to tune out now. That is your prerogative, but I hope you will read farther.
I believe we are a world and people of intelligent design. Henri Bloucher does the best job I have ever seen of explaining creation. I also believe God, who intelligently designed us, gave us freedom of choice, also called free will. And I believe in science, DNA, Quantum physics and the supernatural, which are all part of God’s design. Why do I say these things?
I believe that from the beginning the first people had a choice to cooperate with God or to choose their own way. We need to be careful what we ask for. They chose to, “be like God,” knowing good from evil, rather than trust God. The God I know actually sees and knows everything. This God is The Creator. This One knows how to lovingly lead. . . if we accept to be led. When they made that first choice to know good and evil, that choice entered into all human DNA. Now we all have the choice and the responsibility to choose good or evil.
I know this is overarching and sometimes out of sight in our daily experience, however, with out a framework, life is senseless. . . but God does not want us lost, and Evil does.
How does that ancient choice the first people made play out these millennia down the line? My earlier list of evil barely scratches the surface as we take in the news each day. . . but God. . . .
We may feel alone, and Evil will tell us we are, but that is not proof that God is not with us in the middle of hard and terrible times. Evil does all it can to hide the truth of “God with us.” When that tactic fails, Evil twists the truth we know by telling us lies like, “God doesn’t care.”
From the beginning in Genesis 3:15 God promised the Messiah to ‘fix’ the initial choice to be like God. John 1, The promised Messiah came in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. After 3 years of public ministry full of wisdom with tangible and observable miracles, the innocent God-Man died to pay for and to ‘fix’ the separation made by peoples choices in the garden. Luke 23:44-47. This same Jesus rose from the dead, proving He has power over evil and death.
To those who have yet to experience Jesus as the Living God it may appear as foolishness. Only a simple look around is enough to make us question the power God over of Evil. There are days, take 9/11 or any mass shooting or stabbing for example, that Evil seems to be winning.
This hope of victory over Evil is something some of us experience daily because we have encountered the Living God in our personal lives. We know the reality of. . . but God. . . and this Jesus who said, “ And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.” (TPT)
Everyone is invited to know the Living God. [2 Peter 3:9]
Those who already know our Creator have accepted the invitations to be in His presence and to allow this One God to touch where we hurt and place us on the path of healing. Jesus followers are not better than others. Because of those first choices everyone on the planet has wounds, visible or not. No one has “arrived.” People who know God through Jesus are only formerly desperate people who have met the God who has victory over Evil. We want to show other desperate people the only One who is everyone’s real hope.
I will leave you with a favorite Psalm of mine. For today, the first three verses and the last four are best if you are in a rush. I pray you find time to sit with all of it.
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
5 For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.
11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
