Where was God when the Floods of 2008 came? People rose up like the flood waters.

Associated Content ^ | June 20th, 2008 | Bobby Tall Horse

[stillafreemind]

A young man got caught in the river's rage while trying to recover more of his folks belongings. He died in those merciless waters. At the rate the river was moving, it boggles the mind that his body could be recovered. Yet instead of being swept away, he was found relatively close by. God was hanging onto him for his family's sake.

Perfect strangers were driving up to people's houses and would just start loading belongings. No questions asked, just pitching in. Getting people and parts of their life to safety. God was the matchmaker, giving people that could help to people who needed it.

A middle aged man and an 80 year old neighbor braved rapidly moving flood waters to try and save calves. The cows and their calves were stranded and the cows, although they could swim, would not leave their calves behind. These two brave souls put their faith in God and rounded up the calves. They were put in the boat and the cows swam to safety following their young.

[MarDav]

No. That God might manifest Himself in the life of the blind kid. That particular person’s blindness was healed by Christ on more than one level. His physical blindness was healed, as was his spiritual blindness. As you read the story (in John 9) you see that the one born blind came to “see” Christ for who He was/is. Later on, when confronted by the Pharisees, he is kicked out of the synagogue for professing/promoting Christ. He meets up with the Lord and has the following exchange:

Joh 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
Joh 9:36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
Joh 9:37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
Joh 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.

What a wonderful bonus for that one “born blind” to be able to look full into the One who healed him. The story directs our attention to our deeper, more pressing need of spiritual wellness and not physical wellness alone.

This is not to say that the Lord (or the christian) is not concerned with physical needs (He did, after all, heal the physical blindness and christians are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves.) But, in light of the scriptures, the greater needs are the spiritual ones

(Mar 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? )

[WVKayaker]

Why don’t you use the entire sentence?

My quotation included your entire post. I gave it the emphasis as I read it.

As for God's knowing Job's outcome, He gave Satan an opportunity to administer the tests. God knows your heart, and knows that each one of us yearns to connect with Him. It's just too much fun doing other stuff, though!

Hear you, o Israel, and all the world. Our God is a jealous God and will do everything He can do to bring us back to Him. Natural floods are not God's modus operandi, since Noah's time. Blame the stupidity on man building where the waters ALWAYS rise, or the storms always blow!

Why do you think they build cellar shelters in OK? Some people figure it out. As for the others, in these modern times, they are all VICTIMS of their own choices!

[stuartcr]

Why not just have the kid born with sight, like everyone else? Doesn’t God manifest Himself in all of us? What about all the other people that have ‘seen’ Christ for who He is, that weren’t born blind?

You have no idea if that child can even see into God, much less if he considers it a bonus.

[stuartcr]

No, you took phrases out of context and then wrote things to benefit your agenda.

That was no answer to God knowing what Job was going to do, and you know it.

[WVKayaker]

No, you took phrases out of context and then wrote things to benefit your agenda.

So, what is your agenda (as if it weren't obvious!)?

Do you believe in God? If you believe in a Creator God, as described in the Scriptures, He has made His agenda clear from the beginnings, whenever that might have been.

He gave visions to men and women in anticipation of events to come. They are all on record, and were made before Jesus made His appearance. He foretold a Messiah, and Jesus was incarnate. They said He would die, and then be exhaulted. All His struggles were witnessed, and they recorded many events confirming His life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

God gave us intelligence, and the right to make our own destiny. Does He grieve over the lost souls. Of that, I am assured. It also tells me that in Scripture.

I could quote the chapters and verses, but you apparently already know everything... so I won't waste bandwidth.

Job did not follow instructions on how to react to disaster, and knew they were not from God. God did not make Job do anything. God did have a clue about Job's faith, though!!! What am I missing?

What are you trying to implicate through your rants and ignorant screeds? Do you think God peed on your wheaties? Has He done allowed illness to befall you. Maybe you should look to the real source of illnesses...

Consider His servant Job... lost his family, lost his riches, had boils all over his body, ridiculed by his friends...na still praised God, from Whom all blessings flow!

[WVKayaker]

He foretold a Messiah, and Jesus was incarnate.

Correction: He They (the prophets) foretold a Messiah, and Jesus was incarnate.

[MarDav]

“You have no idea if that child can even see into God, much less if he considers it a bonus.”

If you are talking about the “child” in the story in the gospel of John, then, yes we do know that he can see, “see into God” (if, by that, you mean understanding God’s purposes) and that he considers it all quite a bonus.

If you are simply talking about any child (child ‘X’) who comes to accept Christ as His Savior, then, again, I would have to say that he considers him/herself blessed because the arrangements of his life (including the blindness) were all a part of the path that led him to God in Christ.

The problem many may have (and which cause them to posit these “not answering the prayer of the amputee” scenarios) is that they consider this earthly life all that there is to life. They ignore the more profound, spiritual side of themselves (including the idea of the eternality of the soul,” which, when they look through such “blinded” eyes cause them to impugn the character of God. Seldom do they ever trouble to consider the amputees whose prayers for something other than a replacement arm, something on a different plane—spiritual insight and understanding about God’s purposes for their lives, are answered as their savior, Christ draws alongside to both comfort them and remind them that after this short time here on earth there will be an eternity spent in Heaven with the Savior in new, glorious bodies.

If you know of any of those amputees angry at God over His perceived neglect of their prayers, would you ask them to read the following:

1Co 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
1Co 15:36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
1Co 15:37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
1Co 15:38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
1Co 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
1Co 15:40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
1Co 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
1Co 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

And, in love, warn them with this:

Mat 18:8 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

It would be sad indeed for that amputee to have the lost limb keep him from the kingdom of heaven.

[Marysecretary]

He’s doing it to bring us BACK to Himself, not to punish us.

[stuartcr]

My agenda is to ask questions.

I believe in God, but not as described in the bible. Besides, as you well know, I was talking about your agenda.

I’m not the least bit upset with God. I just believe that as the Creator of everything, He is responsible for everything. I don’t understand why many believe that only the good things are God’s work, and the bad things either aren’t or they are mysteries.

Do you believe that God knew before He created him, what Job’s reactions were going to be to all his trials and tribulations?

[stuartcr]

How do you know?

“see into God”, was what you said, so you would know what it means.

[stuartcr]

Doesn’t He already know what we are going to do?

[evangmlw]

That’s like saying you wouldn’t have children if you knew they were going to misbehave and you would have to punish them. God gave us choices and consequences. America has made many poor choices when it comes to obeying God. These are all natural consequences of disobedience. Mom tells a child not to put the finger on the stove. The child does it anyway. As a natural consequence, it burns. God tells a man not to put his private part in another man’s rear-in, man does it anyway. Now he has aides — a natural consequence of being “stuck on stupid.”

[WVKayaker]

My agenda is to ask questions. stuart little

No, your agenda can be more accurately described as to ridicule and complain.

If you have questions, go to Radio Shack, they say they have answers. If you would like to make a point, by all means do so, but please quit your incessant whining and quibbling. Your complaint is with God, not man.

Do you believe that God knew before He created him, what Job’s reactions were going to be to all his trials and tribulations?- stuart little

Asked and answered. But, to put an eternal God along a time line is interesting? Why don't you ask Him? You seem to be fighting with His Spirit! I'm sure you have His attention.

[MarDav]

How do you know?

“see into God”, was what you said, so you would know what it means.

How we know anything of God is by virture of His revelation of Himself. You, yourself acknowledged in another post that you believe in God. How? Why? Which God? What do you base your belief in God on? Creation is a good start, but there are all kinds of religious systems that place a belief in nature-gods. Is this the God you believe in? The evolutionist doesn’t even necessarily call that God, but Nature (with a capital ‘N’). The question you’ve asked me, “How do you know?” Is a very profound question, but it is one we must ALL ask ourselves...

Now, to my answer...
I believe in the God revealed in the Bible, the Creator of all that is. I believe this Creator has chosen to reveal Himself to His creation by His own ways, with His ultimate revelation being His Son:

Heb 1:1 God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

...and just from these few verses you can see that this revelation is a very profound, and ultimately most important revelation. For it is a revelation that speaks to the very character and nature of God, of man, of pre-existent eternity, of eternity beyond time, of the purpose and goal of all that God is, all that man is (or was ever intended to be) and how God will/has reconciled all things to Himself by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When God speaks, it behooves us to listen. He has spoken, I have turned to hear (no self-glorying here, just humble acknowledgement of my absolutely lost estate and my need for One greater that myself to deliver me) and I now live by on faith in Christ:

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Further, I have come to understand and acknowledge that any departure down my own self-created “slippery slopes” of doubt, my own “profound” questioning of His purposes, my own deep meditations on life and God that depart from what He has said in His word is merely my own attempt (via my old nature—for I, too, was a doubt-filled, reaoning, contemplative sort who had all kinds of “meaningful observations” to make about the apparent contradictions between God’s character and the world around me—all brought to an end when I came to understand that what I ultimately know about eternity, life, the purposes of God can fit into one of His thimbles)—these are merely my own attempts to impose my own will in a direction that takes me (just like it took Adam and Eve) in a direction away from God. Am I free to do this? You bet! Have I done so? On more occasions than I care to mention (or am even aware of). But I am also free to yield to God’s revealed will. I am free to walk by faith, walk in His Spirit, walk in Christ.

Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

The real enslavement, the true demonstration of man’s lack of “free will” (if you want to call it that) is not that God is imposing His will on the lives of men—therefore they have no free will, but that sin is imposing its death-producing effect on humanity. Man is absolutely powerless to deliver himself from his own sin nature, or the consequences of it. Apart from the power of God, man is nothing more than a poor, helpless, doomed sinner being driven into the ground by his own devices. But, God’s revelation of Himself is still being revealed in the hearts of men and women everywhere and they, by the exercise of bowing their will and spirit to the Spirit and will of God are being made free.

How do I know? I came to experience the life-change that comes about when the sinner turns from his sin and listens to the voice of God revealed in His gospel “for it is the power of God unto salvation...”

[stuartcr]

No it isn’t.

A parent, as opposed to God, is not infallible, and does not create children knowing exactly what and when they will do something. If God knows something will happen, it must happen.

[stuartcr]

Why is it, that you feel you can define my agenda better than me?

Why shouldn’t I ask questions here?

Please point out which thread number you answered that question, I cannot find it. I am asking you, not God. If you cannot answer, just say so.

[gitmo]

Ugh ... I hate that statement. It is not supported in any scripture yet people quote it as if it is.

It comes from Aesop's Fables.

[gitmo]

Ugh ... I hate that statement. It is not supported in any scripture yet people quote it as if it is.

It comes from Aesop's Fables. Actually, the quote was "The gods help them who help themselves."

[stuartcr]

My belief in God comes from self-evidence, that is all I have. Since I believe there is only one God, I can’t answer which God.

I do not say that I know, only that I believe. I think it is disingenuous when people state that they ‘know’ something, as I believe that knowledge is something that can and should be able to be proven, while belief, is simply that, a belief.

[Treeless Branch]

The only logical/religious explanation I have ever uncovered for storms and cancer is the following. It is a principle from the Christian metaphysical movement and has a basis in all mystical aspects of all world religions. Essentially, God is entirely good, and any evil is not real. This is exemplified by Jesus’ actions in calming the storm and walking on water - i.e. controlling nature. Jesus said we would do greater things than him. So we as spiritual beings have the power to change weather, but do not realize it.