My Answer

From: Debbie Mann (deborahjmann@insightbb.com)
Date: Sun Jun 08 2003 - 14:15:47 EDT

  • Next message: George Murphy: "Re: The forgotten verses"

    BlankThe question is, "How can a kind and loving God condemn 'good' people?"
    or alternately:
    "How can Christians say that they have the only way when so many people are
    not born to Christians?"

    Three little modern day parables, first:

    1. If Colin Powell, or Al Greenspan, or Clint Eastwood (pick one or make up
    your own) called me up and invited me to dinner and then said,
    "I really enjoy your company. Take this cell phone and call me anytime. Just
    say the word, 'Jesus', and the switchboard will patch you through."

    My reaction would not be, 'I can't accept this because he isn't doing it for
    everyone else.' It would be, 'Wow, this is wonderful. Oh, my. And he's doing
    this for me!'

    2. If I, (Now you need to know a little about me for this to really sink in.
    I am totally independent and totally spoiled. My house isn't fancy, but it
    is totally comfortable. We have two refrigerators. There is not a time,
    ever, when a dozen beverages and several kinds of chocolate aren't
    available. I ALWAYS have cashews. And some of the ways in which I'm spoiled,
    I hate to even admit - because they're so decadent. (I'm whispering now: we
    have a hot tub, and two of those massage mats.) ) Anyway, if I, who keep my
    own credit and my own business, were to don those horrible Moslem rags and
    live the life of a Bedouin for three years and then tell everyone over there
    that all they had to do was go to the nearest phone booth, call a number and
    say, "Debbie sent me." and they would be given a comfortable apartment and a
    full college scholarship, including whatever remedial training they needed
    and that they'd have plenty of money to live on. And then, they went around
    saying how unjust I was because I didn't do it for the Chinese - I'd be a
    little ticked. "I gave up airconditioning and hot baths and ate nothing but
    houmus and bread for three years for this? I rode on the back of a bus, when
    I didn't have to walk in dirty uncomfortable shoes, and had men treat me
    like dirt for this?"

    3. You are interviewing for a job. You have kids and a wife at home and the
    unemployment ended last week. The job for which you are applying is great,
    and pays plenty, but you aren't qualified for it. While you are waiting for
    the interview, a man comes up and begins talking to you. He is wonderful and
    leads a wonderful life. He asks if you would like to be like him and do what
    he does. You reply, "Yes, oh, yes." He snatches away your resume and tears
    it up - handing you his in return. Immediately you are called in to the
    interview.
    "This man took my resume and left me this one." You say as the important man
    behind the desk reaches for it.
    "You met my son. Do you want to be like him?" He asks.
    "Why, yes. But, I didn't do these things - I'm not qualified."
    "My son will help you. You have the job with all its benefits."

    My answer is:
     I don't know, you don't know, none of God's children really know whether
    the people next to you are phoning into Colin Powell and whether Mr. Powell
    is taking their calls. No matter what the person says or doesn't say, God
    and the person alone know the state of the heart and their salvation.

    God has made it easy, through His Son, who was also totally connected to
    Him, for you to phone home. You choose for you. People do not save other
    people. God saves other people. We are not all the same and God will not
    deal with us the same.

    Jude 22,23 And of some have compassion, making a difference and others save
    with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by
    the flesh.

    ICor 9:20-22 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the
    Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law that I might gain
    them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without
    law....to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made
    all things to all men that I might by all means save some.

    This doesn't sound like a hotsy totsy, exclusivity minded God to me.

    II Peter 3:9 .... not willing that any should perish, but that all should
    come to repentance.

    We are all different. God has to reach us differently. Some need fear.
    Others only respond to gentleness. God wants to reach us all. That means
    you, too. Many of these people from other cultures respond with great
    gladness and reach their whole families or even villages. When missionaries
    entered China after an absence of decades, they found millions of
    Christians - in a country where they had last seen a few thousand and where
    Christianity was illegal during that period of growth.

    Don't worry about the justice being doled out to your brother. You could be
    left at the station waiting for him, and then realize that he is already on
    the train - and you are not.

    Debbie Mann, PE
    Debbie Mann Consulting
    (765)477-1776


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