God :
• Created you.
• Loves you.
• Sent Jesus to make a way back for you.
• Works for the good of those that love him.
• He protects you from evil?

Like it or not, acknowledge it or not… this is the progression a lot of us subscribe to. Last night in class we talked about why God created and why he does not always stop evil. It was really interesting to hear people talk about how they think God should be in the business of preventing pain and suffering while others disagreed and sited good reasons concerning free will and love. It is really easy to see where you fall in that discussion just as soon as you have really painful things happening in your life. When you are hurting, for whatever reason, it is easy to feel alone and uncared for. When people in your life die, it is easy to blame God or think that he doesn’t care. Mandy was running through some quotes today and read one that really struck me. It said “It doesn’t say that God’s love will keep us from evil; it says evil cannot separate us from the love of God”.

Some of us live in a dream world here in America where we feel insulated from the reality of life by our money, houses and neighborhoods. What we need to remind ourselves of is that Satan is alive and active. This world is broken and corrupt. We are living in a fallen world, but in spite of that we have a God who is pure and holy and amazing. We have a God that made the ultimate show of love when he sent his son to die for us. From cover to cover the Bible tells us of the Father’s business, and that business is the redemption of mankind.

My prayer for this week is that you will take time to look through your Bible and be reminded (or see for the first time) the story of the Father’s love. My prayer is that we will all be able to stand in the face of pain and anguish in this life and still be so full of faith that we are able to say “For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. “

Striving alongside you for the prize,

Jay