pedronegro

mmmm good stuff. even though it's noon, it's too damn early. i think the bad things that He "allows" are done with a purpose of good in mind. i've been taught my whole life to say just that, but i do believe it. the good is for good, and the bad is for good, we may just not recognize that until days and days later, or until we're dead, and thats the part that we don't like.
 

matt pool, i love this guy
 

our minds are too small to comprehend the long term effects that bad things have. also, evil is not from God, evil is from a world in which God has allowed humans to freely choose between him, or the alternative. God does not rejoice in evil, however, he allows it's existence because it is in the nature of free will.
 

amen noah, kind of what i was going for, but mine was on more of a "throwing rocks at girls heads to show them you like them" level.
 

good stuff guys. put matt's and noah's together and you've got your answer.
 

i second that. mix matt & noah (hi noah my name is josh. nice to meet you) stir for 8 minutes and you've got your answer.

another question is "what is bad (or good)?" is a righteous God handing over a sinful people to their sin bad? or is it right?

great question peter. keep um coming.
 

thats tough josh. i have to sit and ponder on that. does a righteous God hand a sinful people over to their sin at all? if HE does, it is right, for he is righteous. therefore, there is no question...
 

or do the people themselves fall in to their sin purely from freewill? Our God is a God who so richly desires our love that He is willing to let us have the choice, and by so doing He risks rejection. He has the power to "make" us love Him and do what is right in his eyes, but when love by us is done in force, it loses its genuine act of love. does that make sense?
 

I just wanted to say that I love when we all have these discussions. It is more challenging for me than anything else I do these days. My time at church has been minimal lately, to say the least.