SO MANY HORRIBLE ACCIDENTS ON OUR ROADS!
One woman, Jacinta Achieng, a survivor, together with her son Brian, from a truly horrific bus crash in 2000 was reported at the time as saying 'Ít is by God's Grace that we have survived - I know now that there IS God, and we shall Praise the Word of the Lord all the time'. It seems she had not had much time for God before the accident. And it was a hard way to wake up to the fact of God. BUT what of those other who survived with her? Were they all aware of God's protection and care? Or were some of them as blind after the accident as they were before?
And then again, what about all those who actually DIED in the crash? Where are they NOW? Were they especially sinful that they had to die while others lived? So many questions. There was another Accident involving two matatus and a falling Blue Gum tree that fell on them both just near Wareng School, here in Eldoret. In one of the vehicles a man was sitting between others, and those on either side of him died instantly - but HE lived! WHY? How did it happen that the tree fell just at that moment, and was so selective in choosing who it struck and killed? And of course, there are all those who are grieving because of the loss of a loved one.
Where IS God when we are hurting?
Tragedy and Hurt always raise a multitude of questions among the Believing and Unbelieving alike - and, let's face it, there is hurt occuring all the time, everywhere. People are hurting all over the world, as they suffer the pain of living. If God is a God of LOVE, how is it that He allows all this suffering and torment? And, whilst not easily finding an Answer to these questions, many turn away from the whole idea of God, and even set themselves against Him, and all those who declare God exists! Hard to blame them at times!
JOB - in the Bible - lost his property, his family, his land, and his health, all in a matter of days. His wife said to him 'Why don't you just curse God and die? But Job replied and said to her "You speak as one of the foolish women speak. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?' Earlier, when the first news of the death of all his children in a hurricane was brought to him he had said 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord'. There are not many who take total calamity in their stride, like that. Job was only able do so because he had an unfailing faith and trust in the existence and goodness of God, no matter what happened. It is also said of ABRAHAM, concerning his indefatigable faith in God, that - under hopeless circumstances Abraham hopefully believed. He had nothing, and no one other than God, to hang on to. Abraham Lincoln once said ''I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go'. Overwhelming circumstances coming unexpectedly upon us can often force us to cry out to God - a God we had previously ignored, as we trusted in our own strength and conceit.
And God, the only God, who created each one of us is determined to do all that He can to catch our eye and make us realise our need of Him. He is even willing to HURT us and to make us SCREAM out! WHY? Because He Loves us, and knows that if we do not turn to Him, and trust completely in Him, we WILL die a death far more terrible than any we might still have to face in this life.
Look at Luke 13v1-5. Some told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the Sacrifices. And Jesus said to them - 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, just because they suffered such things? I tell you NO. BUT unless you repent you will all likewise perish. OR those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them; do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you NO, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish''. SIN has nothing to do with people dying in bus accidents and so on. We are all sinners, and all facing the Death Sentence UNLESS we have come to Christ and the Cross. HAPPY are those who die in faith with Christ, for they are now with God for ever, and have no Judgement to face that will seperate them from God. BUT, alive or dead, without God we are IN our sins, and under God's Wrath, and wait only for Judgement. God is anxious to make us to consider our end, and where we now stand. Where to YOU stand? Are you ready, at a moment's notice. to meet your Maker and look Him in the eye without FEAR - but with gladness?
In the last Book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, we are told of the terrible worldwide calamities and plagues, and judgments that God will let loose upon Mankind in a last effort to bring him to his senses; to make him to realise his iniquity, and to repent of his sins. In Revelation 9v20 it is written - 'But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood which can neither see nor hear, nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their sexual immorality or their thefts...'' ALL these HURTS will be permitted by a Loving God in an effort to turn those living a lifestyle unacceptable to Him. To bring them a change of mind and heart - to repentance. The whole purpose of CHASTISEMENT is turn us away from a worse punishment - from DEATH itself. INDEED, a very old and wise doctor of medicine from India once shared with me when I was suffering pain, and he said, 'Be GLAD for the pain - for without it you would not have come to me, and I would not be able to save your life. Pain alerts us to our NEED, and LEADS to LIFE''. He was a Brahmin Hindu, and his words opened up my understanding to so many truths.
BUT JOB was a good man, and was in favour with God, was close to God. YET God permitted him to go through the worst of multiple calamities. WHY? It was not to catch Job's eye or heart. NO! It was to prove something to the Devil. Satan was sure he could make Job curse God and thus die, but God knew that a man or woman who truly trusts in Him would never be moved. He or she would be secure, established, and unable to be brought down.
Kind David in Psalm 16v8 says - I have set the Lord continually before me; because HE is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.'' and in Psalm 23v4 he says ÝES. though I walk through the deep sunless valley of the shadow of death (hopelessness) I will fear and dread no evil, for YOU are with me..' And in Psalm 62v7 he says 'With God rests my salvation and my glory; He is my Rock of unyielding strength and impenetrable hardness, and my refuge is in God. Trust in, lean upon, rely on, and have confidence in Him AT ALL TIMES.'' God wants us to know these things. He also wants the Devil and all the Powers in High Places to SEE this. We MAY be hurt, may suffer loss, may endure emotional conflict and anguish of heart, BUT HE WILL BRING US THROUGH INTO JOY. In Psalm 66v12 David again writes and says out of his own experience - "You caused men to ride over our hearts when we were prostrate; we went through fire and through water, but you brought us out into a broad, watered place; to abundance and refreshment.'
JACINTA, the lady in the bus, having come through what must have seemed worse than death, could truly say from her experience - "I NOW know there is GOD''. And thus also David again in Psalm 124 writes - Íf it had not been the LORD was on our side, Israel can now say. If it had not been the :LORD who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they would quickly have swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us; THEN the waters would have overwhelmed us and swept us away; the torrent would have gone over us; THEN the proud waters would have gone over us. BLESSED be the Lord who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. We are like a bird escaped from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.'' ALL this is so true, but we MAY still suffer loss; we may suffer pain, we may shed tears - BUT we will never be given up for dead by the One Who wants to SAVE us from all our afflictions if we BELIEVE in Him.
WHERE IS GOD WHEN IT HURTS?
HE is right by our side; with us in the trial and in the hurt - and HE wants to prove Himself to you, and He wants YOU to prove HIM for yourself by trusting in Him, and trusting in HIM in the midst of your pain. HE doesn't just want your love and trust when all is well and life is easy. He wants you to love and trust HIM in the Bad Times, so that He can show you even better days.
DON'T spend time trying to work our WHY the Accident happened, or why some DIED and some did not. IF your life was spared it was for REASON. If people died it was for a PURPOSE. Remember even JESUS died and suffered, yet HE was without sin, innocent of all accusation. God let HIM hang and suffer, and DIE there on the Cross, even as He loved Him. WHY? It was for ME - for YOU. It HURT Jesus, and GREAVED his friends - but the PURPOSE was to bring eternal JOY. TRUST IN the Lord with all your heart and BELIEVE in His Goodness, and in the fact that HE wants the BEST for you.
HAND OVER your doubts, bitterness, hurts, and unbelief to God right now, and say LORD, I want to trust in you right now just as I am. He will come right there where you are, to quieten, comfort and altogether satisfy all the longings of your soul.
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