Why God lets bad things happen to good people.

People are always saying, why did God kill this person or why did God allow all these bad things to happen? Well I am going to try to shed a little light on the subject with what I know and what I have read in the Bible.

First let me start at the beginning with the creation of mankind. Genesis 1:26-28 (New King James Version) 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” We see here that God created man and woman we know this. With this established I want to address the point that some people use to say God does bad things. I have heard people say well God created everything so God is the author if you will of all thing good and bad. Well that’s not quite it. Our creator God created us you, me and everyone else for his glory and in his image as we will see later. God already had, at the point of creation of mankind angles in heaven that there created purpose is to worship and praise our Lord. They (Father, Son, and Holly Spirit) (more on that later) wanted something different not mandated to worship but something that would love them out of FREE WILL (key words). What is free will? The ability to decide. You have it and so do I, what you choose to do with it is your decision. That’s where the next verses come in. Genesis 2:8-17 (New King James Version) 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Did you see that? It’s like whoa there’s the answer right there! Ok if you missed it I will help if not just bear with me. God said “YOU ARE FREE to eat from any tree in the garden: 17 BUT you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Let’s b-bop on ahead when we read, Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Did you read that? If you need to read it again sometime I have to read something over and over to allow it to sink in. What happened there in chapter 3 verse 6 was the woman ate the fruit and gave some to her husband and he ate the fruit. God had given them free will (the choice) and the warning but they chose not to heed the warning and continue on the path they chose. Now I know some of you guys are saying that it’s the woman’s fault she gave him the fruit. Let me ask you this, if your wife came home and gave you tickets to a beauty shop to get a full body wax would you take them? HECK NO! If she came home and gave you tickets to the Super Bowl would you take them? SHOOT YEA! See, free will you have the choice just like she did. So you are going to have to take responsibility for your own actions.
Now that your headed down the right path let’s look at some other things. Let’s take 9/11/01 for example we all remember this tragic event in US history. Lots and lots of comments were made about how could God do this or how could God allow this. God gave us that free will we talked about earlier, it started from the beginning back when he created us. If he would stop all the bad things that happen in our lives we wouldn’t have free will. He gave those that did what they did the choice they decided to choose the wrong thing. It’s kind of like leaving a puppy at home alone when you go to work. Now you have trained this puppy not to chew on your shoes however you have setup a web cam to watch what this puppy does when your not there. You get to work and you turn it on and see that puppy going for the shoe so what do you do? You as fast a possible pick up the phone and call the house, the answering machine picks up and you talk to the dog and say don’t you touch those shoes. The dog looks around and doesn’t see you so he continues. You again call and tell him again don’t do that. He looks around again and doesn’t see you. Now he is on it, chewing the shoe and loving it. Now after work you get home and find that shoe all messed up. You in turn punish the dog for being bad.
How many times do we do this same thing with God? How many times has he called you and said, don’t do that but we don’t listen. He calls again and again, that’s why we can’t hear him today we number 1 don’t listen but it’s kind of like living in a house right beside the train tracks live there long enough and you don’t hear the train anymore. Same thing with God you ignore him enough and you won’t hear him anymore. As for evil I believe we have put to rest the idea of God causing it to happen and he won’t stop it, Why? Because he gave that job to you! Remember FREE WILL? Just ask yourself this question, do I use my free will for good or evil? Or do I use it for what feels good at the moment? Just remember God doesn’t cause bad things to happen. They happen because of our free will. Your first choice in free will is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, will you accept him? There are four things you must believe; Jesus is the son of God born of a virgin mother, He lived a perfect life here on earth and died a sinners death without sin, he is risen from the dead, and it’s all for YOU! If you were the only person in this world that needed him no matter how bad you are or have been he would still gone through it for just YOU!

Trey Lewis

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?

Have you forgotten 9/11/01? I haven't, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the news came over the air! I was working at my family's RV business here in Wilmington, NC. I was in a travel trailer behind our shop doing what we call in the industry a PDI or pre-delevery inspection. I was listening to WWQQ 101.3 fm and it came over the air, I don't remember exactly what they said but it wasn't good news! I remember going in the office and my mom and dad hadn't heard about it yet. We got a TV and hooked up the rabbit ears and set it up in the office and turned on the TV, we at that point realised and saw it was true! It had happened, we were under attack! Now I am not going to get on the who and how I'll leave that for another post later. All I want to talk about now is Have You Forgotten. Well have you? Does it make you mad anymore? Are you still hurt or has the pain subsided? Because of the attack on us we are at war with the evil in this world, well at least some of it. You need to get down on your knees and thank God we did not have Al Gore as a president. Instead of trying to defend our country from evil he would be developing a study on the effects cow farts have on the ozone. Or what we can only think in terror what Obama would have done or what he will do. What I want you to think about is the people who gave there lives in this and every other conflict this country has ever been in. Our men and women of the UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES they have given all they have, there lives to protect you and me. And we stand out on our street corners and protest this war, why? Why are people so against this war? Is it because a republican president reacted on an attack of US soil? Or are they just ignorant to the fact that in this world since the fall of man (Adam & Eve) we have been at war, good vs evil. I hate to be the one to tell you this little fact, but it won't change until the Lord returns for his church and that don't mean bench warmers or Sunday morning Christians (you have to believe in Christ). Nope it is not going to change. What that means is that we have to do what we have to do to protect our people. For those of you who are standing on our street corners with those signs let me ask you this, lets say a gang (Alkida) comes into your home (house, trailer, apartment, ect...) and lets just say they almost kill your loved ones (mom, brother, dad, sister, wife, husband, child) what are you going to do? Are you going to call the police (Armed Forces)? OK now the police are here what do you want them to do? Well you say you want them to get the people responsible for this right? Well this guy is in hiding we can't find him. What do we do now do you want the police to search for the person that almost killed your loved one? Of course you do! OK we are almost done getting all the gang (alkida) but you want us to stop because you want to end the police search (WAR)! OK so we listen to you we end the search (war). Why you would want the police to stop arresting the people who came into your house and almost killed your family is beyond me but if You say so you must be right! So we stop the search (war) and everything is back to normal right? Wrong! Those gang members (alkida) they want revenge for you taking revenge on them. Now they come after you and the rest of your family! Do you get the point? You can't stop until the job is done. Once you commit you must keep with it until it is complete! I understand that all you want is peace, that's great! But the ONLY real peace comes from Jesus until the whole world come to know Christ then we will have to fight there will be no peace. So in conclusion if you want to end the War then you must fight the war. You must put down those signs and get out there and witness to the lost when they are believers in Christ we will all have the Peace you want but it must start with you do you have true peace?

IF YOU THINK MAINTAINENCE IS EXPENSIVE TRY NEGLECT!

This is one thing that I tell my customers all the time, “If you think Maintenance is Expensive TRY Neglect!” What I mean by that statement is very simple, if you Neglect to change the oil in the car then you will need a new engine. Get the point? I thought so.

Same thing with our relationships whether it be personal or business we can’t neglect the maintenance or we will be in serious disrepair. Take for example this afternoon my wife heard me talking on the phone to one of my customers and I used my catch phrase. A little while later we were watching TV and I put down the computer and sat down beside her for a bit. She told me at that point the way only women can do that I have been neglecting her lately. She told me as I sat down that “If you think maintenance is expensive try neglect, which I have been doing for some time. That got me thinking about relationships. If I do this with her who else do I do this with? Do I do this to God too? Today with the internet and modern lights in our, well, everywhere we have the fast paced lifestyle that we are so use to all things being fast or instant we forget to just slow down and do a little maintenance. When you stop to do the maintenance that is required you may find you need to do some repairs. I can promise there not as big of repairs today as they will be tomorrow. Take for instance your walk with God is there maintenance that needs doing? Yes everyday just like your lawnmower did you know your suppose to grease that mower about every 6-8 hours of use that is almost every time you use it, have you done that lately? Did you get up this morning and have your quite time, I know I didn’t and my repairs are stacking up and fast. Did you read your bible today? Have you even said good morning Lord? I have been working on that small step of when I wake up the first thing I say is good morning Lord, thank you! Start with the small maintenance and the bigger stuff will get easier as you go but you have to start somewhere. If you don’t start taking care of that maintenance in those relationships you will have repairs you can’t even begin to fix. You wouldn’t do it with your car why do it with your life?