If we can glimpse just a little way beyond the destruction, we may be able to understand the nature of our Father. Jesus said, “If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.” Truly, we who have a deep yearning for God and a deep desire to do His will, know and experience the deep, deep love of God for us. What of those who have hardened hearts, who are unable to submit to God's will; those who hold uncountable incidents of grievances and can't seem to bring themselves to forgive others as God's Word commands? Will they experience God differently than those with compliant souls? They sure will! And might they even die in their sorrow, never knowing that God is love? Indeed, yes.

I can only truly see things based on my own experience with God. God does not give me pain. Mostly, when I have it, I am suffering in defiance of God's commands and have slid into a definition of myself that is incorrect. I have defined myself other than a child of God. God has set it up so that we are not allowed to make of ourselves anything other than what we really are in Christ (once we've fully accepted Him as Lord and Savior). When we define ourselves outside of Christ, we have made ourselves something that needs to scrunch itself up in order to try and fit the mold from which God made us. The excess of stuff that is causing us to have to scrunch ourselves is called dross in the Bible. Dross is the impurities; the infestations. God set up the universe in such a way that dross will be burned, impurities will go up in smoke. Wherever there is smoke, we often find tears. Whenever impurities in our hearts are being released, our knees are often bent as we kneel in prayer, bowing before the Lord, humbled in His presence. In this sense, God does not CAUSE my pain. I do, by my restrictive and obsessive definition of myself which I have forged by callous behavior toward others, excessive preoccupation with my own perceived needs and desires, or my tendency to lash back at people who have been sent by God to help me.

God, then, has not set up a world in which He randomly gives us pain. He has set up a world in which, by our free will, we have many opportunities to get with the program. We did not create ourselves. We have been created by God. We, however, have been given free will. By our free will, then, we have misinterpreted our function in this world, which is easy to do because what appears to be happening here, in this world run by Satan, is injustice (or victimization) resulting in hate, anger, envy, resentment, and other facets of fear. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and, upon our acceptance of that, those sins should no longer be our focal point. As we see our faults, we need no longer cringe disgustedly, but gladly give them to Him that He may heal them. We no longer would keep what Jesus died to eliminate from us. We would rebel against the rebellion and worldly ways and strive to be like Christ.

When we judge by what appears to be happening, we assume incorrectly that we know what is going on. We don't. We just think we do. If, when you were in pain, you have ever had a time when God gave you peace and took away the pain, because of your contrite and submissive heart, then you know that you have become better, more Christ-like because of it. You were transformed by the renewing of your mind, as Paul said Christ can do in us. Of course, because of our free will, we can misinterpret the pain and think God is unfair and that life, in general, is lousy. The effect this would have on us would be increased pain because we would be trying to make the world and ourselves fit into our incorrect definition. The problems, then, come when we live our lives AS IF every appearance of this world, is true.

Whenever there are major disasters in this world, our faith can be shaken because it appears as if hundreds of thousands of God's innocent children have been divvied out God's wrath and have suffered and died. Based on your experience with God and His life-sustaining, life-affirming, life-giving traits, does this seem like an accurate evaluation of God? Let's remember what we've taught ourselves for hundreds of years. Death is not a bad thing. It leads to the gates of heaven, through Jesus Christ. The death of those saved, then, leads to more joy than we can comprehend in this world. For those unsaved, however, death can be an entirely different experience. For now let's focus on those who are His, and what their attitude should be in the midst of suffering. Hopefully we can offer hope and mercy and compassion upon the rest.

My God does not withhold mercy on a whim or toy with us, like a cat would a mouse. Yet God does not tolerate prideful, haughty, and unmerciful behavior from us and will shake our individual worlds mightily, to rid us of that behavior. He sustains us and upholds us, no matter what happens, giving us every opportunity to find Him, love Him, and listen to Him. He gives us our direction, both from His Word, as well as from the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We cannot see beyond these bodies, or sense beyond these limited bodies' senses, but by faith you will find that God is quite benevolent, even giving us His Son to die for us. What more could He possibly do that could be more meaningful to us, to get our attention and make us love both Him and His Son (Who are really one)? What more could He do to give us motivation to learn to hear the Holy Spirit's still small voice, instead of the world's loud and boisterous clanging? He truly has given His all for us. Can we not give our all to Him?

We have been created in the image and likeness of God. God is spirit. He is not physical, except when He came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, to become the atonement for the wages of sin and set us free. An uncaring God would never have done that. I cannot, then, in all fairness to Him, know He is a personal and caring God for me, but somehow isn't for everyone else.

The physical world, then, and our physical bodies are what cause us to judge incorrectly because these are the only “appearances” we have. We cannot see spirit, therefore, we cannot see who we really are, as we were created in God's image. We, then, have nothing to go on but the “half-picture” the world and our bodies provides for us. The “half-picture” is the appearances Jesus told us not to judge by. The “half-picture” shows us that which is flesh only, not spirit. The “half-picture” shows us Satan's kingdom, this fallen world, not the world where Jesus resides, heaven.

As we try to understand what happens to an incomprehensible number of God's children when disaster strikes, we surely realize that it can't be done. God knows us all individually, as well as collectively. We can barely eke out a definition of ourselves, let alone try to define others' hearts and others' lives. When we try to, we actually fall into a kind of Satan-induced waste of time because we ponder what we cannot know. What can we know, then? We can only know ourselves and our relationship with Christ. The way we can know ourselves is only through the ones He places in our path. When they oppress us, we know some dross must be burned up in us, and we go to the Lord in prayer. When we are purged of all that hinders us from loving others, unconditionally, without judgment, expectation, nor the pollution of a jaded, carnal viewpoint, then we'll know we have reached the state God desires for us. Then Christ's work can be done through us in greater and greater capacities. Trust me, the angels are singing and trumpets are heralding our arrival as true children of the living God, when this happens. Our journey, then, has taken on a new excitement, for everyday we will see the marvelous works of God, as He shares His word through us.

Spending time attempting to judge large groups of people (be they a race, a country, or a city) is another way to waste our precious time. Again, we must only come to know ourselves (which, logically, must be understood as all we CAN know). Every time we try to know more than that, we are making assumptions, we are judging, we are drawing conclusions, we are, in short, making a mistake. We must come back home to our own mind and heart and stop trying to know how others are doing. If we will follow through on all we know Christ has asked us to do, the others around us will be taken care of by God, without our interference. Truthfully, all the world waits longingly for each of us, individually, to discover that with God, all things are possible. As each of our individual worlds have less and less an external, worldly focus and more and more a Christ-centered focus, miracles will abound. Miracles transform uncertainty, apathy, and depression into many wonderful and varied fruit of the spirit. The time of Christ's return draws nearer and nearer as each one of us allows His “heavenly” peace, love and joy to cascade from our hearts into this parched world, quenching its thirst in a big way.

I know that our bodies can be used for any purpose we choose. Our hearts and minds can be so filled with God's love and joy that our bodies, triumphant in Christ, can carry us around as we shine God's light wherever He desires we shine it, as we submit our lives to Him. Our bodies, then, can be fully involved in His purposes, not our own. Of course, our hearts and minds can be filled with carnal lusts, vengeance, anger and other fleshly qualities and then our bodies seem to be on a quest to find all those who would fulfill our fantasies as we find other bodies with which we would act out these fantasies. The world will always have an over abundant supply of people willing to play “receiver of our lusts,” or “agitator of our vengeances.”

The bottom line, here, is that our bodies and carnal senses should not dictate nor define. They are merely tools through which we can spread the joy of the Lord, thereby breaking the chains that have bound us for so long to this world. Our bodies can also be channels through which we spread the lusts of the flesh, thereby tightening the noose of the world and Satan around everyone's precious neck. Our bodies are vehicles through which we act out what our minds and hearts believe is the truth. Real truth will free us from the carnality that we have been attracted to for so many years. God's truth will set us free (as Jesus told us).

Once again, our eyes can only see bodies. It cannot see our spirits. Because of this, we are very limited in our ability to make judgments about what is happening when people die. We assume horror and unimaginable suffering as people are swept out to sea in a tidal wave (or name any other disaster here). But, does God love us and sustain us or not? Have we had the chance to experience the tremendous love of God in the depths of our hungry souls? As these shells we live in are kicked off, is not this love of God even more available, as we transition out of our bodies and into His arms where we are continually sustained? Is this so hard to believe? When we needed God, did not He become available to us at just the right moment? He did for me. Will He not do that for others, too? Parents do not awaken their children by alarming them and neither does God, who loves everyone with the same unconditional love. Everyone has just the same opportunities as we, to awaken to Christ and His mighty love for us. Of course, we have to make that choice. To choose to not do that leads to pain in many ways for we are refusing to acknowledge the truth.

This world can be a prison for us. We feel we are in exile, here, and there is no hope of escape. Is this some sort of prison planet and we, its inmates? Pray with me, please. Pray without ceasing. Let this world be one in which we, following the Lord, listening to the Holy Spirit, are guided carefully and purposefully through it as we gradually have increase in faith, love and peace and other fruit of the spirit. This world is then no longer a prison of pain, but a brief stopping point, where we shine God's light before we disappear into Him, and into His realm of love forever.

The world may shake and rattle our dishes and the tidal waves roll but we are spirit and belong only to God. Never once are we forgotten by Him but given new bodies in Christ, as we so believe in Him, and we will reside with Him forever.

God sustains us. As we love Him, He loves us. As we love His children, He has promised to bestow love to us in return. We cannot know anything else but His promises to us in the Word. Our hearts are sympathetic for the many that have lost their lives, no matter what disaster has occurred. Indeed, is not this world itself, one big disaster in process? Does this not give us strong cause to spend more time in prayer, more time honoring our fellow travelers on this planet, more time knowing the truth so that we might be free?

In order to be free from fear, we must choose to love, for perfect love casts out fear.

O Father, teach me to love as I have never loved before. O God, I desire this with all my heart. If, today, I have swayed one person off the path that leads to You, I'm so sorry. heavenly Father, bring this person back onto the path to You, O Lord, and bring me back, too, God, so that I might be of use to You and Your purposes.

O Father, I do not want to be afraid. I want to live confidently in You, knowing always Your reality, Your peace and Your love. O God, teach me to love. Teach me to love as You did when you sent Your Son, Jesus, to die for me on the cross, cleansing me once and for all of all my sin and of all the sin I would declare in others. If I can love, O God, in Your perfect way, You have promised that I will be free of fear. This world shakes and rattles and rolls too much and I cannot bear it any longer, O God. Help me to love others so that I can experience Your deep, deep love, which grants me peace and wipes away my tears which come because I'm afraid of what life is going to bring to me next. I know all pain in my heart is merely due to my lack of understanding.

You have said that perfect love casts out fear, God. I hunger so deeply for this perfect love. I thirst for it, O God. With all my being, God, I want Your perfect love, that I might cast it before others, that I might know it for myself and be free of even the slightest fear forever and ever. Thank You, God. Thank You, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, thank You.

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