How to Respond to Disaster by Bill Johnson

Author:Bill Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Destiny Image, Inc.
Published: 2020-04-07T17:10:31+00:00

Chapter 3: It’s Not His Fault

Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.

— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

God is usually blamed for the evils that exist in the world because if He is God, He can remove any problem quite easily because He is big and powerful. But to rid the world of sin and its consequences would require something extremely dramatic—removing all sinners. And apart from being born again, how many of us would be left? C.S. Lewis once made a statement that has helped me quite a bit throughout the years—“once the author steps on the stage, the play is over.” He can fix it all in a moment. But when He does, time stops, eternity begins, and the final line has been drawn in the sand. His answer would be quite painful. His patience, which we see in full operation right now, is so that we can gather as many into the family as possible. His longsuffering is beyond all of our abilities to comprehend and comes at great personal cost.

Fixing this world’s problems through a “military invasion of Heaven” is not the answer we want. For then He enforces His will over humankind, destroying the greatest of all creations called the free will. In doing so He would then forfeit the chance to have a people of divine purpose. He chose instead an invasion of love, where the hearts of people are conquered by one who sacrifices fully for their well-being. As a result, we now have a Gospel of power that solves the issues at hand quite well, enabling us to bring that same message to them that changed us forever. We now just need people who believe it, live it, and will risk all to display it.

But to rid the world of sin and its consequences would require something extremely dramatic— removing all sinners. And apart from being born again, how many of us would be left?

Jesus displayed the heart of His Father perfectly in every possible situation. It didn’t matter whether it was disease, tormenting demons, storms, mothers with dead children, crowds with nothing to eat, or one of the numerous other calamities recorded in the gospels. Each situation became an opportunity to reveal what the God of the universe was really like. Time and time again we are left awestruck when He is manifested as the Father we would all dream of having if we had the ability to dream in that measure. Was this display of miracles a temporary exhibition of His kindness? Many think so. For them, it was God becoming manifest in that way until the cannon of Scriptures was completed. If that weren’t so sad, that idea would be laughable.

I’m so thankful for the Scriptures, the absolute Word of God. The Word of God is given for our instruction. In receiving it, we become equipped, empowered, and directed to a lifestyle that displays and fulfills the will of God on earth.

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