Tuesday, November 17, 2015

When It's Hard To Obey




I know God is right.

I know His way, is the Good Way.

I know He takes me to joy and He has my best in His mind.

But I don't like it!

I am a child at my heart.

A hard hearted and headed child who willfully wishes to have it her way.

After hurting myself until I could not hurt more,

I accepted, unwillingly, that I could not continue alone.

But I did not like it.

I go where You send me, I do as You wish,

And I obey You without a word.

But in my heart I rebel.

Why can't Your way be my way?

Why can't You seen things the way I see them?

Why can't You work the world the way I wish?

I accept and obey, but I do not love it.

I don't find the joy in the obedience.

Is it time to find that joy?

Are You done teaching me?

Have I managed to learn something?

Or have You secretly changed my heart, in Your loving, sweet way?

Why are You so gentle with me?

Why do You carry me through the storm I have caused?

Why do You protect me from the fire I have started?

Why am I, like a baby bird safe in her nest, even among the hurricane?


Why am I loved?

Why am I cherished?

Why do You seek me when I pout and try to hide from You?

Why do You protect my heart from breaking into thousands of pieces?

When I break Your heart every day.


Give me the joy of obedience.

Help me to find the content in following Your way.

The true happiness that waits me in You.

Let me see a glimpse of that moment, of Your presence.

Give me a taste of Joy.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Where is God when You are Sad and Alone?


Four months ago I left my home of more than three years.

A home that we had made together with my son.

It was hard, he missed his dad, it was a new place, new school, new friends.

And for me it was a new place, new people to work with, new climate everything was new.

But we made our home and we were blessed.

Then our financial support ended, we had to end the work I was doing and we had to leave our home.

It was an end and a new beginning.


A beginning we weren't so happy about.

My husband asked me to move back to our home, he told me he was sorry.

So we decided to risk it all and go back.

There has been many days when my son has said he wishes to be back in our home, with his friends, in his old school.

When he didn't wish to be with his dad again.

When he would say he was happier when there were just the two of us.


There has been many moments I have missed my work.

So many moments when I have missed the wonderful people I was able to work with.

The warm and loving, funny Kichwa people who opened their jungle villages, homes and families to me.

And now I'm here in the cold Andes.

Not knowing what God has planned for me.

Just clinging on the hope that there is a plan.

That something will happen.

That this not-doing, not-working, not-having friends, almost not-having God with me isn't the all.


I cling on to the hope that God is with me, where ever I may go.

But is God with me when I'm sad and alone?

I am jobless, and I feel homeless.

Like this house where I'm currently living in belongs to someone else and I'm just a visitor.

My only work is being a mother and a wife, and it feels so strange after so many years of having a job of my own.

Of feeling that I was doing something for God and for other people.


I don't know myself anymore.

And it makes me feel so sad and alone.

The few familiar things left to me are my Bible and my books.

Not even a church where I could go to.

And I haven't been able to find a living, breathing God on those pages.

I felt that not even my prayers have really been lifted to the heaven but they have stayed.

Heavily hanging over the earth and my heart.

I have felt so sad and alone.

Abandoned by everyone else.


Until I finally had the courage to look in the eyes of the pastor.

And there was joy and hope.

There was a person who saw my worth.

A person who was excited to have me in his team.

Who was delighted that I would be there to help our in our work.

Who knew that there was a plan for me.

Who told me that God had made me a place.

Here in this cold town that felt so indifferent to me.


Where was God when I was sad and alone?

Preparing the place for me.

Making sure I would find the right people.

That I would fall into the place He had meant for me all the time.

That I would be doing the work He wanted me to do.

Not what I imagined would be the best use of my talent.

Not with the people I imagined would need me.

But in a place, in a time and in a way that He had prepared for me.

Monday, July 20, 2015

How Can God Be Both Loving And Just?


HOW CAN GOD BE BOTH LOVING AND JUST?

It would seem that love and justice are incompatible.

If God is just, He must punish sin.

But if He is loving, He would forgive sin.

How can He be both?

Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.
James 1:17


These attributes of God are not contradictory.

He is both absolutely just and unconditionally loving.

Each of these characters of God complements the other.

God is “justly holy” and “holy just”.

His justice is administered in love, and His love is distributed justly.

God is the author of all good and people have the free will to follow Him or separate from Him.

God is completely righteous and morally perfect (Psalm 18:30).


"God acts mercifully, not indeed by going against his justice, but by doing something more than justice; thus a man who pays another two hundred pieces of money, though owing him only one hundred, does nothing against justice, but acts liberally or mercifully."
St. Thomas Aquinas

He always does what is right—there is no “darkness” in God, not the smallest speck of imperfection (1 John 1:5).

God Himself is the standard for what is right, good, and moral.

But if God is perfectly righteous, then anything that falls short of said perfection is sinful, and every human being who has ever lived, since Adam’s fall from grace, has committed sin (Romans 3:23).

Because Adam sinned, the entire human race now has a sinful nature (Romans 5:12).


But people do not go to hell because of Adam’s sin; they go to hell because of their own sin, which they freely choose (James 1:13–16).

If someone chooses to live a life separate from Him, they have chosen to separate themselves from the provider of all that is good.

In this world that is not always an observable condition, for God has extended a blessing for all based upon His promises and His longsuffering.

When you leave this life behind and you've chosen to separate yourself from God, He will not violate your free will either.

The only difference is that you are now going to eternally exist in that chosen state.

If you choose to be separate from everything that is good, then what will you have left?


What kinds of options are open to you if any good thing isn't one of them?

Man chooses to suffer in eternal torment because he chooses to reject God and all His goodness.

If you have nothing that is good (no rest, no comfort, and no peace) then eternal torment is your only option.

He has given us His written word to point the way.

God is also merciful.

The perfect example of God’s love and justice is the cross.

In His rich mercy, God made a way for sinners to avoid the punishment of hell by trusting in the atoning work of His Son, Jesus Christ (Mark 16:16).


God sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins because of His love, so that His justice could be satisfied and His love released. (Romans 6:23)

When Christ died for our sins, the Just suffered for the unjust so that He might bring us to God. (Romans 5:8) (1 Peter 3:18) (2 Corinthians 5:21)

“The case is the same with one who pardons an offense committed against him, for in remitting it he may be said to bestow a gift. Hence the apostle [Paul] calls remission a forgiving: "Forgive one another, as Christ has forgiven you" (Eph 4:32). Hence it is clear that mercy does not destroy justice, but in a sense is the fullness thereof. Thus it is said, "Mercy exalts itself above judgment" (Jas 2:13).”
Summa Theologiae I:21:3

For Christians, the penalty of sin has been removed and placed upon Christ on the cross (1 Peter 2:24).

Because of the sacrifice of Christ, God is still just—the sin is punished—yet He is also merciful to all who believe.

We may rest assured that no one will suffer in hell who could by any means have been won to Christ in this life. God leaves no stone unturned to rescue all who would respond to the convicting and wooing of the Holy Spirit.
Dave Hunt


God’s justice demands that sin be punished.

But His love compels Him to save sinners.

So by Christ’s death for us His justice is satisfied and His love released.

There is no contradiction between His absolute justice and unconditional love, thanks to Christ’s sacrifice.

“God is like the judge who, after passing out the punishment to the guilty defendant, laid aside his robe, stood alongside the convicted, and paid the fine for him. Jesus did the same for us on Calvary. Surely justice and mercy kissed at the cross.”
Norman Geisler


We know that God's attributes work harmoniously.

The idea that justice and love conflict, is the result of the attributes being defined in isolation from one another.

In other words, in order to understand justice, we need to understand God's love.

In order to understand His love, we need to understand His justice.

"Justice means that love must always be shown, whether or not a situation of immediate need presents itself in pressing and vivid fashion. Love in the biblical sense, then, is not merely to indulge someone near at hand. Rather, it inherently involves justice as well. This means there will be a concern for the ultimate welfare of all humanity, a passion to do what is right, and enforcement of appropriate consequences for wrong action. Actually, love and justice have worked together in God's dealing with the human race. God's justice requires that there be payment of the penalty for sin. God's love, however, desires humans to be restored to fellowship with him. The offer of Jesus Christ as the atonement for sin means that both the justice and the love of God have been maintained,"

Millard Erickson.



This is Good God Questions Monday. A series dedicated to those good, and difficult, questions about God, universe, life, sin, Christ, love, and everything related.

Why is it so important to answer questions about God?

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”
1 Peter 3:15

Even little children can ask tough question, but there are good answers for all of them. The Bible exhorts us to find them and give them.

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Colossians 4:6

This post is based on the book “How Made God? And Answer To Over 100 Other Tough Questions Of Faith” by Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler.



The First Monday we wondered:



The Second Monday we wondered:


The Third Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN GOD MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING?


The Fourth Monday we wondered:

WHAT WAS GOD DOING BEFORE HE MADE THE WORLD?


The Fifth Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN THERE BE THREE PERSONS IN ONE GOD?


The sixth Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN A GOOD GOD SEND PEOPLE TO HELL?


The seventh Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN GOD BE BOTH LOVING AND JUST?

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Seek God Only


Every age has its own characteristics.

Right now we seem to living in a strange age of religious complexity.

The simplicity found in Christ is rarely found among us.

There are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy our time and attention but never satisfy the longing of our heart.

“The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.”
A. W. Tozer – Pursuit of God


We must first determine to find God, amid all the externals.

Then we need to proceed in the way of simplicity.

Now as always, God discovers Himself to the simple hearted, to the babies and little children.

And hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and prudent.

Who is God then?

And how to find Him?

If we would have all our religion


 “lapped and folden in one word, for that thou shouldst have better hold there upon, take thee but a little word of one syllable: for so it is better than of two, for even the shorter it is the better it accordeth with the work of the spirit. And such a word is this word GOD or this word LOVE.”
The Cloud of Unknowing

We must simplify our approach to Him.

We need to strip down to the bare essentials.

The habit of seeking “God… and” effectively prevents us from finding Him.

If we were only to omit “and” and we shall soon find Him.

“Lift thine heart unto God with a meek stirring of love; and mean Himself, and none of His goods. And thereto, look thee loath to think on aught but God Himself so that nought work in thy wit, or in thy will, but only God Himself. This is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God.”
The Cloud of Unknowing


Strip down everything in prayer.

Put away our effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood.

If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.

And in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly looking for.

“We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true we can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many for the One.”

A. W. Tozer – Pursuit of God

Monday, July 13, 2015

How Can A Good God Send People To Hell?


HOW CAN A GOOD GOD SEND PEOPLE TO HELL?

"If God really is all loving, then how can He send anybody to hell?"

This question is an embarrassment for many Christians today.

The Bible teaches that God is love, and yet, it warns that those who reject God face everlasting punishment.

But aren't these two somehow inconsistent with each other?

A lot of people seem to think that they are inconsistent, but in fact this isn't at all obvious.

After all, there is no explicit contradiction between them.

The statement "God is all loving" and "Some people go to hell" are not explicitly contradictory.

For make these two are inconsistent, there must be some hidden assumptions which would serve to bring out the contradiction.


God doesn't send people to hell against their will.

God desires everyone to be saved (2 Peter 3:9).

Those who are not saved do not will to be saved (Matthew 23:37).

“The door to hell is locked on the inside.”
C. S. Lewis

All who go there choose to do so.

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done’. All that are in hell, choose it.”
C. S. Lewis

The detractors of hell make two crucial assumptions.

First of all, they assume that if God is all powerful, then God can create a world in which everyone freely chooses to give their lives to God and are saved.

The second assumption is that if God is all loving, then God prefers a world in which everyone freely chooses to give their lives to God and be saved.


Since God is both willing and able to create a world where everyone is freely saved, it follows that nobody goes to hell.

These both assumptions have to be necessarily true to prove that God and hell are logically inconsistent with each other.

If there is a possibility that one of these assumptions is false, it is though possible that God is all-loving and yet some people go to hell.

“Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.”
C. S. Lewis

According to Bible, God’s nature is both perfect justice and perfect love.

Both of these are equally powerful and neither can be compromised.

God is just.

He is totally fair.

He is the most competent, intelligent, impartial, and fairest judge we will ever have.

Every human will be guaranteed absolute justice.


And this is precisely the problem!

God’s justice exposes our inadequacies.

Every person has failed to live up to God’s moral law and so finds himself guilty before God.

Thus we find ourselves under the law of divine justice.

We reap what we sow.

So our problem is that nobody measures up.

If we are judged for who we are and what we have done, if we rely on God’s justice.

We all go to hell.

There is nobody who deserves to go to heaven.

To be able to go to heaven we must cast ourselves on God’ mercy.

God literally pleads us to turn back from our self-destructive course of action and be saved.

That is why He sent His only son to die for us.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God’s justice and love.

In order to be able to go to heaven, we only need to place our trust in Christ as our Savior and the Lord of our lives.


If we reject Christ, we reject God’s mercy and fall back on His justice.

Then there is no one else to pay the penalty for our sin – but ourselves.

God doesn't choose to send anybody to hell.

His desire is that everyone be saved, and He pleads with people to come to Him.

It is matter of our free choice.

“I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully ‘All will be saved’. But my reason retorts, ‘Without their will, or with it?’ If I say ‘Without their will’, I at once perceive a contradiction, how can the supreme voluntary act of self-surrender be involuntary? If I say, ‘with their will’, my reason replies, ‘How if they will not give in?’”
C. S. Lewis

God is just and He must punish sin.
(Habakkuk 1:13) (Revelations 20:11-15)

But He is also love (1 John 4:14).

His love cannot force others to love Him.

Love cannot work coercively but only persuasively.

Forced love is contradiction in terms.


Hence, God’s love demands that there be hell where persons who do not wish to love Him can experience the great divorce when God says to them, “Thy will be done!”.



This is Good God Questions Monday. A series dedicated to those good, and difficult, questions about God, universe, life, sin, Christ, love, and everything related.

Why is it so important to answer questions about God?

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”
1 Peter 3:15

Even little children can ask tough question, but there are good answers for all of them. The Bible exhorts us to find them and give them.

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Colossians 4:6

This post is based on the book “How Made God? And Answer To Over 100 Other Tough Questions Of Faith” by Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler.


The First Monday we wondered:



The Second Monday we wondered:


The Third Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN GOD MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING?


The Fourth Monday we wondered:

WHAT WAS GOD DOING BEFORE HE MADE THE WORLD?


The Fifth Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN THERE BE THREE PERSONS IN ONE GOD?


The sixth Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN A GOOD GOD SEND PEOPLE TO HELL?


The seventh Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN GOD BE BOTH LOVING AND JUST?