Welcome to my randomized study & miscellaneous thoughts about the Awesome God of the universe, who He is and what He wants us to be.

---

---

---

---

Verse of the Day

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19/NIV
Verseoftheday.com

---

Today's Quote “The modern church rejects the outcasts of society where as these very outcasts were the very ones who were drawn to Jesus.” —Philip Yancey Quotemeal | Subscribe by Email | Heartlight®

---

 
Cotton Candy For Dinner

Do you ever have things happen in your life that make you ask God, "Why? Why do You allow such things to happen?" Maybe a young child or baby dies unexpectantly or the horrors of war or the destruction of hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes or other natural disasters.

"Why God, why?"

Ever sat alone with a hurting heart wondering why people sometimes act the way they do - and why does God allow them to continue?

I've asked these questions - or questions much like these before...and may ask them again. But God doesn't ever promise us that He will give us all the answers on this side of heaven. Shoot, if we could even understand all the answers...what kind of God would that make Him if we could understand and comprehend everything that He has done?

In the Bible, God does tell us some things like,

* Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Our frail human bodies, unlike our spirit, are only temporal. They are wearing out...wearing out daily...and soon will return to the substance that God used to create them.

All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return. (Genesis 3:19, NLT)

* We seek to gain happiness, to grasp hold of it on this earth is like trying to grasp the wisp of smoke. We try in vain, running to and fro', expending our time, money and energy to taste joy and peace, meaning in our lives and satisfaction. But we are told that this is an impossibility here.

2 "Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, "utterly meaningless!" 3 What do people get for all their hard work? 4 Generations come and go, but nothing really changes. 5 The sun rises and sets and hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south and north, here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere. 7 The rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows again to the sea. 8 Everything is so weary and tiresome! No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. 9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 What can you point to that is new? How do you know it didn't already exist long ago? 11 We don't remember what happened in those former times. And in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now. (Ecclesiastes 1:2-11, NIV)

* We try to "dig in" and stake our claim on this planet when it isn't our home. It's a precursor to what is to come and we are "aliens" here.

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:11-12, NIV)

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. (Hebrews 11:13-14, NIV)

* We seek to "understand" the things around us and inside us. We devote schools of thought to the pursuit of this knowledge. If only we can master physics and chemistry, philosophy and reason - then we could become like God Himself! But we've seen it tried before, and the failure that resulted. Can we not accept that there are things that we just cannot understand yet?

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' " 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 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. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3:2-7, NIV)

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there. 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-9, NIV)

11 It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[a] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. (1 Corinthians 13:11-12, NLT)

* God wants what is best for us. He provides for us, even when we do not see or realize it.

9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:9-12, NIV)

25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:25-27, NIV)

* God has plans for us that we don't know even realize. His plans will be accomplished...no matter what, even if we resist Him and He works through others, His plans will be fulfilled.

11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)

9 "Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'; 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it. (Isaiah 40:9-11, NASB)

It's kinda like this: do you ever remember a time as a young child when you went to the state fair or the movies or to your favorite aunt's home without your parents? Something along those lines. And you were able to have the big bucket of popcorn and a drink and red vines? Or maybe you got to eat all the ice cream you could handle plus a root beer float? Or was it when you had cotton candy for dinner and then rode all the rides one after another?

Maybe this sounds familiar to you, maybe your experience was something altogether different. Point is, our parents told us not to eat too much popcorn and candy, or have only ice cream or cotton candy for it would "spoil" our dinner. "Why," we exclaimed, "it's so yummy!" They may have tried to explain it to us, but as children we didn't understand. It's the same reason my 8-year old son still eats the yummy food first and saves his veggies for last...in hopes that he'll get full and we won't make him eat them. He is to young to understand what we continue to tell him - you must eat the veggies for your body's own welfare, to be healthy!

But we're selfish and vain and prideful. We want what we want when we want it! And that's usually right now dammit! So we stuffed ourselves and giggled with glee as we did it...until it started hurting that is. Until it was fun anymore and we cried out in pain for our mommy or daddy to make it all better. "Why?!! Why does it hurt so much," we cried. And then they held us and gently patted us on the back. They knew what we did not - this too shall pass.

Many things about God are not beyond our comprehension. This universe and yes, even ourselves, God knows and understands but we cannot understand them yet. No more than my hamster can understand a game of chess...oh, he knows what the pieces are called, but he just can't grasp the intricacies of the game! :-)

And so, we cry and mourn when a baby is lost to us or others. We think of all that might have been...understandably so. And we also question God: why, oh God did you take away my sweet cotton candy before I had enjoyed it all? And we don't understand when He replies, "It was for the best."

~ He loves you ~
scribbled with crayon by dr. larry at 9:21 PM