{"id":14469,"date":"2017-03-24T11:04:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T15:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=14469"},"modified":"2017-05-12T08:10:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T12:10:47","slug":"god-reigns-and-the-son-shines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=14469","title":{"rendered":"God Reigns and the Son Shines!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 3\/24\/17\u00a0 our signboard displayed the following message…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

FORECAST:<\/span><\/p>\n

GOD REIGNS, <\/span><\/p>\n

AND <\/span><\/p>\n

THE SON SHINES!<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Why do bad things happen to good people?\u00a0 What’s the use of following God if good things still happen to people who don’t believe in God while bad things happen to people who do believe in God?\u00a0 Books upon books have been written on this question, and this little website post isn’t going to be able to fully tackle it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But here’s something submitted by one of our readers that might shed some light on one facet of this question:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t
I recently had a dream where I saw my deceased wife.\u00a0 I was walking in a field when I suddenly came upon a wall.\u00a0 My wife was laying on top of the wall, propped up on one arm\u00a0 As I approached the wall, I started to wonder how I could get up to the top.\u00a0 It was too high for me to climb.\u00a0 But this thought didn’t have much time to rattle around in my brain.<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as I was near to the wall, my wife reached down and scooped me up, gave me a big kiss, then (just as I started to worry about how I’d get back down), she let go of me.\u00a0 But I didn’t fall.\u00a0 I gently drifted back towards the ground, and then I woke up.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

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Walls.\u00a0 Obstacles.\u00a0 All of us face them.\u00a0 We can become overwhelmed with thoughts and worries of how \"\"<\/a>we’ll ever get around or over them.\u00a0 Our minds become busy trying to design our “ladders” that we can use to achieve a certain task or to get through a difficult “valley” in life.\u00a0 But we find that our ladders don’t work.\u00a0 We become totally overwhelmed, and we discover that the only thing we have going for us is that God understands our predicament.\u00a0 If God wants us to get over that wall, He will reach down and give us a way.\u00a0 If He wants us to go around it, He will provide a path of escape.<\/p>\n

So why do bad things happen to good people?\u00a0 That is a tough question.\u00a0 But certainly one facet of its answer lies in the fact that God is constant.\u00a0 That God sees our situation.\u00a0 That He loves us and wants us to succeed at accomplishing His will.\u00a0 Here are some familiar verses in what might be an unfamiliar paraphrase (Romans 8:26-29, from The Message):<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. <\/span><\/p>\n

He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.<\/span><\/p>\n

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you’re standing before a wall and you think you’re all alone, know that God is there.\u00a0 If getting you over or around that wall “shapes your life along the same lines as the life of his Son”, you can bet that God will deal with that wall and turn it into something good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The weather forecasters frequently get it wrong.\u00a0 Sometimes they predict a “dusting of snow” and we get pummeled with three feet of snow.\u00a0 Or they may may predict yet another “Storm of the Century” and it turns into a misty drizzle.\u00a0 Life is full of uncertainties, but faith allows us to grasp that God is the one constant that we can depend on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yes- if we seek God and walk in faith, we will see God.\u00a0 Regardless of how crazy things may seem, God is ultimately in control.\u00a0 He’s on the top of our “walls” ready to help us.\u00a0\u00a0 He does Reign!\u00a0 The “Son will shine” into our hearts and lives and turn bad into good.<\/p>\n

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+\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0 +<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This button will let you view other Signboard Messages:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Signboard Messages<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n

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Why do bad things happen to good people? Is God really in control? Does He care???
\nOn March 24, 2017 our Signboard said: “Forecast- God Reigns, and the Son Shines!”
\nNo matter what happens, God is still in control and Jesus is ready to shine into our lives… if we let Him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[144,137],"class_list":["post-14469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-signboard","tag-godspresence","tag-godsprotection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14469"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14669,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469\/revisions\/14669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}