Tragedy

This week, innocent women and children were brutally slaughtered by a madman. How can a just God, how can a loving God, how can an omnipotent God allow such a thing?  How can we trust such a God, or even believe in such a Being?  We cry to God, "How can You allow this to happen?"  And He answers, "I did not do this, you did.  I gave you free will.  You created a society where guns are easily secured. You created a civilization where graphic, violent videos and movies are everywhere and called entertainment.  You allow all manner of hatred and hostility to pour into homes through the internet in the name of freedom of speech.  You support a culture so dedicated to individual rights that mention of My Name is all but forbidden from public discourse."  God gave us all free will rather than create a world of puppets with no evil. So, we suffer with violence, hatred, and unthinkable crime because we have the power to choose, and many choose evil. But God knows the pain of those parents who lost their precious children far more than we do. He not only watched his only Son be tortured and murdered, He planned it. God ordered the execution of the only Innocent Man to ever walk this earth, His own Son.  God planned the solution for our evil, at His own expense, so that all who believe in Him have far more than a pitiful 5 or 50 or 90 years, but have all of eternity to live in the midst of true love.  Such a guarantee of life does not lessen the pain for those parents, but it opens the door to peace and the promise of being reunited. And that is exactly what Christmas brings, not sentimental carols and happy faces, but the cross. A baby born to die so that we may live. God breaking into our world to rescue us from ourselves and our own destruction.  Christmas, after all, is an awesome miracle of a loving Creator, a very somber plan of sacrifice of His own Son.  God coming to us.  ~ I pray, not that your Christmas be merry, but holy, and His. JBM

Focusing

'Tis the season of busyness, when try as I might to be spiritually focused, my mind races over my to-do list, even as I lie in bed trying to sleep.  Changing jobs in January has only added to my anxiety.  I remember the words of a dear friend several years ago: "Everyone needs a half hour with God every day, unless you are really, really busy,......  then you need an hour."  Truer words were never spoken!  I had begun to use an Advent devotional book over breakfast to help calm and focus me, one that Melissa had used.  Then a friend gave me two more Advent devotionals as a gift. Now there's a message from heaven if ever I saw one!  I now have three devotionals to read over breakfast, stopping my ruminating and focusing on the miracle of God bursting into our human history to save us from ourselves.  So, each day, I will remind myself three times that God waits to burst into my life with miracles, I only have to invite Him in...  Blessings to you this Advent season! - JBM