WHY GOD ALLOWS PAIN...really good

---

This is one of the best explanations of why God allows pain and suffering that I have seen... A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things." The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside." "Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me." "Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world." If you think God exists, send this to other people--- If you think God does not exist, delete it! BE BLESSED & BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS !!!!!!!

---

The Church's One Foundation: JESUS

Dear Brother/Sister in Christ,

In Job 14:14, Job asks, "If a man dies, shall he live again?" This question is essential to every human being. One answer is found in John 11:25-26. In this passage of Scripture, Jesus is responding to a statement made by Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus. Lazarus was a dear friend of Jesus who had recently died, and Martha was saying that if Jesus had been there, her brother would not have died.

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die...'"

What is crucial to understand here is that Jesus is not talking about natural or physical death. He uses this opportunity to state a profound truth that is the underlying foundation of Christianity. This foundational truth is that a person is either spiritually alive or spiritually dead based on the person's relationship with Christ while he or she was physically alive.

When a person believes and confesses Jesus as Savior and Lord, this person is deemed to have experienced the new birth. He or she is now alive to God in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:22). This person is then said to be born-again (John 3:3), saved (Romans 10:9-10), a child of God (John 1:12), or a Christian (1 Peter 4:16).

The opposite of saved is lost. Therefore, anyone who does not believe and confess Jesus as Savior and Lord is considered a non-Christian, a non-believer, unsaved, and condemned (John 3:16-18). However, the Word tells us in II Peter 3:9 that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

When God created the earth, He invested the totality of Mankind in the first man: Adam. God gave Adam dominion over the earth and all that was in it (Genesis 1:26). The devil, in the form of a serpent, tempted Adam's mate, Eve, to eat of the fruit of the tree that God had commanded Adam not to eat. She succumbed to this temptation, and when she offered the fruit to Adam, he also ate of it.

In this act of disobedience, Adam rejected God's Lordship. By this deed, Adam put the earth and all Mankind, whom he represented under the dominion of Satan. As a result, Adam's rulership of the earth passed to Satan.

The most tragic consequence was that Satan's rebellious nature, called "sin nature," became a part of man's nature. The sin nature spiritually separated Mankind from God. This spiritual separation is called spiritual death.

God is so good, and loves you and me so much, that even though Adam disobeyed God, He did something about spiritual death so that we could escape its penalty of condemnation. That "something" is really a "someone"-His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to earth in human form. Through His death, burial and resurrection Jesus provided the redemption necessary for Mankind to enjoy the father/child relationship that had existed with Almighty God before Adam's sin. However, there is one stipulation. Every person, upon reaching the age of accountability, must now choose between having God as his spiritual Father (through Jesus) or having Satan as his spiritual head by not accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Peter says in Acts 4:12: "Nor is there salvation in any other [referring to Jesus], for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Jesus, speaking of Himself said in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

From these verses we can see that Jesus is God's only way for man to be saved and become spiritually alive.

Jesus said in John 5:24: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."

Every person who comes into this world inherits his or her parents' sin nature. They received this nature from their parents, who got it from their parents, and so on down the line, all the way back to Adam and Eve. This nature is a spiritually dead nature. This is why the Bible says we move "from death into life" when we accept salvation through Jesus. The moment a person confesses Jesus as Savior and Lord, he or she immediately becomes the possessor of eternal life.

What It Means to Worship

Dear Brother/Sister in Christ,

When many of us think of worship, we think about a slow praise song, or waving our hands in the air during church service. But true worship starts on the inside of you. The Greek word for worship is proskyneo which means "prostrating, bowing to and laying aside our own self and our own life." To worship God is to bow your desires down before Him, and let His will be done in your life; it is an inward state of being that continually honors and reverences God.

In Matthew 4:10, Jesus demonstrates the manner in which we should always be willing to lay down our lives and our bodies as a living sacrifice, even during temptation. In this scripture, Satan was tempting Jesus by offering Him the world and the very kingdoms that Jesus had come to take back from him if He would bow down and worship him instead of God. In the face of this test, Jesus responded by saying, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord they God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Jesus laid down the temptation to yield to His flesh in order to accomplish a greater mission. So likewise, you have to be willing to put God before everything else in your life.

Can God trust that He can work out his plans and purposes through you? A perfect example of this is in Genesis chapters 42–46, when Jacob thought he had lost his beloved son Joseph forever. Through God's mighty hand, however, he reunited Joseph with his father Jacob and his brothers.

Joseph was Jacob's favorite son, and his older brothers envied him because of this. They sold him into slavery, and tricked Jacob into believing that his son had been fatally attacked in the wilderness. God was with Joseph, however, which gave him the power to prosper everywhere he went. He was thrown in prison after being falsely accused of rape, but he prospered even behind bars, and was promoted. Joseph eventually became Pharaoh's highest ranking official after he interpreted a mind–boggling dream for the ruler.

Years later, during a severe famine, Jacob's family came to Pharaoh for food. As the chief official, Joseph was the man who was responsible for supplying their need. When Jacob's older sons came to him to buy food, they did not recognize Joseph, and he used it to his advantage to see his younger brother Benjamin and request him to return to see him after their first trip to Egypt. Jacob feared the possibility of losing another son, but he submitted to what was being asked of him. As a result of his being obedient to Joseph's orders, and the will of God by releasing Benjamin to Joseph once more, the Lord was able to reunite this family, and restore what Jacob thought had been lost. Not only did Joseph reveal his true identity to his father and brothers, but God also used him as an avenue through which He could funnel his provision to them during their time of need.

Jacob operated in true worship in the face of fear, and losing something that was dear to him—his youngest son Benjamin. Are you willing to do the same? This is what worship is all about; a sacrifice must be given before the God–kind of abundance is released. What is God trying to get you to give up for His plans? It may simply be a good deed, money or clothing. Whatever it is, if you are holding something you treasure from God, you are keeping your Benjamin. You have to trust God, that he will bless you because of your sacrifice, and heart of worship toward Him. You cannot see it as a loss, but as a spiritual gain. When you lay your desires and your plans aside for God, He sees it as true worship.