Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 21, 3 November 1944, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakatnne Mmist ers' Association}.

THE QUESTION BOX

Can it be said that God ever deliberately sends- sickness or calamity upon a person ? No, I do not think it is true to our Christian faith to say that God ever wills calamity upon anyone but, the, problem is an old one and not easily answered. Since ever man began to think at all lie has related his sufferings and his diseases to the will of God. For long centuries all physical trouble whatever was- regarded as the direct visitation of the Almighty. The old theology saw no problem and you must humbly submit to it. But as knowledge, has grown i our thought about God has changed. We l*«ve discovered what causes diseases like typhoid fever and and how they can be prevented or controlled. So> today we don't dream of saying that God the Father is responsible for such diseases or sent them, upon us j when the plain truth is that they are brought about by the plain folly or the sin of man. God no more wills the sicknesses and troubles that come upmi us, than He wills our sin. Of course., in a sense God is ultimately rei sponsible for everything in the universe. He is responsible for making the world a connected and dependable system where good produces good, and evil produces evil, and Avhere suffering is one of the effects produced by the ignorancc and sin of the ' human race. But He is not responsible for the way the folly of nicn has put His system out of gear. And indeed the message of the Gospel is that He has made Himself at bitter cost to Himself for setting it right again. The primary ground for our faith that our diseases are not sent upon us, by God is that Jesus has revealed Him as our Father. And it is that highest conception of. the meaning of fatherhood that will not let us todaj f ascribe, to God motives and acts that past generations used to do. Then it. is clcar from the Gospels that Jesus- regarded sin and disease as definitely contrary to the will of God, because, he healed such cases at every chance He got. In His eyes sin and cjisease arc both evil

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

things against which a good man must be continually at war. And even when ills are due to our own lolly and the. Father cares lor us none the less and still wills that we be well and strong. He is sorry when our sins and follies or the results of another's sirns ■> and follies come to roost in our '5 bodies. He. did not send that or will it 5 and He may heal us still. And even if our sickness, cannot be healed in the present state of our knowledge then isn't it a help to bear it a help to bear it remembering that ? if we face it with faith and courage, there is something wc can learn from it that we could learn in no other way. "I SAT WHERE THEY SAT" (Ezek. 3-.15 Marg) Jesus Christ! 'tis a friend like Thee We need in our land today The doors of our hearts are open wide ; Come, in to uphold and guide, 'Tis Thy loved ones who call, for whom thou haste died "Sit with us in our grief to-day." Jesus sits where the exiles sit By thus shattered homes today; He sees their sorrow their need 3 I of bread, I Their empty hearths where no fires burn red t, Whispers "I had not wnere to lay my head ? " As He sits with them today. Jesus sits where ths mourners sit ? On their darkened rooms today; He hears the widows and orphans' cries, He wipes the tears from the anguished eyes And tells them, '"By Me shall thy dead arise." That is where Jesus sits today. Jesus sits where the. wounded lie, On their beds of pain today; He is evermore, the sufferer's friend ? O'er each weary couch in love He will bend ■J His pity can know neither measure nor end. Jesus; Be with us all today.