Sunday, September 28, 2014

This Is Good!

The rest of this chapter (and book) this story is from, is just "as good!" This is excerpted from:




This Is Good!
[...]
Meanwhile, there is much "futility" in creation. God subjected creation to futility by His own will. It was a judgment of God upon all creation because of Adam's sin. Yet He did so with a good purpose in mind, because God's judgments are remedial and corrective. Through discipline, God will bring all things to Himself. That which we call evil, God has the power to turn into good, even as Romans 8:28 says,
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
A good illustration of this verse is found in a story I heard recently. There was a king in Africa who had a close friend that he grew up with. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an unsafe area. Cannibals captured him and took them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way. As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.
"You were right" he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."
"No," his friend replied, "this is good!"
"What do you mean, 'this is good'! How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"
"If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you!"

When we learn to view all things through the eyes of God, then will we truly know Him. The true knowledge of God begins with a recognition of His sovereignty. The more we know Him, the more sovereign He seems to be. The less we know Him, the more sovereign man seems to be.

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