| Subject: Re: Uncle Screwtape |
Author:
Yeager
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Date Posted: 14:22:28 03/14/02 Thu
In reply to:
Frizzell
's message, "Show me the money" on 09:13:53 03/14/02 Thu
Bill:
Very interesting. Incendently, that is my favorite quote in the Screwtape Letters. Ultimately, I do believe it is the only way to defeat the devil.
As far as "where have all the good times gone?", I have been reading in the O.T. and here is what I have considered: I read how the Israelites one month after crossing the red sea wished to go back to Egypt claiming they had onions, meat, fruits, ect... there. At this point in the reading you might consider the Israelites to have lost their mind. After all, who would want to go back into slavery let alone forget that they crossed through two solid walls of water? If you go on further you see enhanced complaints by them regarding getting mannah and water and again wishing to go back to Egypt.
My whole point is that perhaps the best times are today, assuming we are obeying God. Perhaps all of our view are "the grass is greener". I know when I was in college, all I could think about was wanting not to be poor. Today, I think about how great it would be not to be stressed or perhaps putting a bucket of water leaned up against my freshman neighbors door.
I think the issue for me is accepting mannah today as God's provision. When God provided mannah for the Israelites it was received with thanksgiving. Later, however, it was received with scorn.
The other issue is to consider what you are getting in return with your hardships. Would you be blessed or cursed if God give you a stress-free, rich, and perfect life? Doesn't he say that trials produce perseverence, perseverence character, and character hope? How then could we obtain character and perseverence? Could we obtain it through a book? - I think not. Perhaps then God is doing us a favor by giving us hardships. Perhaps he loves us enough to want to make us effective in our lives and worthy of service to him. I doubt a diamond would look as beautiful if it was dug out from rock and sawdered to your spouses ring without any refining. I also doubt that the life of the apostles was trial-free because God wanted to make their lives difficult.
Only through trials and tribulations will you be the man that God wants you to be. There is no other way. You may not like it, you may go kicking and screaming; but God does have a purpose.
Yeager
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