Broken Toys

God is our Father. He is the perfect father and yet many people still blame him for the ups and downs and injustices of life.  When they pray and they don't seem to get the answers they want right away, they may get angry or may even doubt God, his love and existence.

As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend,

I brought my broken dreams to God, because he was my friend.

But then, instead of leaving Him, in peace, to work alone;

I hung around and tried to help, with ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried, "How can you be so slow?

"My child," He said, "What could I do? You never did let go." 

Author unknown

God does so much better than we could imagine and as we grow, we learn to yield to what's best. Yielding to God's love brings great peace to our lives.

There are some things we hang on tightly to for a lot of different reasons. Our environment and culture exert certain pressures on our minds to cause us to be unsure, lack confidence and commit to 'quick fixes'. The bottom line is fear. But!:

There is no fear (terror, panic flight) in love (Godly love) ; but perfect (mature, completed) love casteth (with force and effort) out fear: .1 John 4:18a

The "toys of this world" come and go.  As we mature, some things get old and we move on hopefully not clinging to the childish things that need to be left behind.  God replaces our fear with power, love and a sound mind which are the faithful solid tools of life and with these tools we have peace that exceeds our expectations.

Darkness and Gloom - Turn on the light!!!

This past week has been rainy and cloudy. It can feel gloomy when weather like this drags on so long. The dark gray clouds seem to exert a heavy pressure on the air.  Finally the sun blew it all away yesterday. It was so nice to see bright light again!

Light can be physical and it can be spiritual. In John chapter 9 there is an interesting record that seems to parallel both:

 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation,Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. John 9:1-7

Jesus and his disciples passed by a blind man and the disciples asked an interesting question about how this man's blindness originated. They wanted to know if it was caused by sin. Sin occurs when a person ignores God and sets out to do something he shouldn't do. They wanted to know if it was his sin or the parents sin that was responsible for the blindness. Jesus said 'Neither'. 

There is one main reason that bad things happen in this world and that is because there is evil in this world. God doesn't cause blindness so he can show a miracle. Since Genesis 3, the adversary has had opportunity to mess up God's original creation in many ways. Sickness and disease entered after  Adam and Eve transferred power to the adversary and he has been messing up everything ever since.

Jesus explained that he was to work the works of God who sent him (it is interesting that Siloam means 'sent'). The blind man received his sight. Darkness turned to light for him.

Spiritually when things get bad, dark and gloomy, Turning to God's word turns on spiritual light. Spiritual light causes spiritual gloom to flee!