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Recently I received an e-mail message that was entitled "Things I Really Don
't Understand." It had a list of questions for which there seems to be no
clear-cut answer. Here are a few of them:
Why do doctors and lawyers call what they do practice?
Why is abbreviation such a long word?
Why is it that when you're driving and looking for an address, you turn down
the volume on your radio?
Why is a boxing ring square?
What was the best thing before sliced bread?
How do they get the deer to cross the highway at those yellow signs?
How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?
These questions represent a lighthearted humorous reminder that there are
indeed a lot of things in this life that we just really don't understand.
But let me take it to a deeper and more disturbing level. For example, we
don't really understand disease. Why is a youngster perfectly healthy for
13 years of his life. and then suddenly just happens to be in a place where
he suddenly encounters some germ or bacteria that invades his body and
destroys it? This happens in meningitis cases.
And we don't understand accidents. They are so random and indiscriminate.
You start out a day that is like any other day. and then something happens
in a matter of seconds. and life is forever different. You can never go
back beyond that accident.
On and on we could go with our list. of things we don't really understand.
Why is there so much pain in our world? Why do good people suffer? Why do we
hurt one another? Why can't people get along? And why do some of the best
prayers seem to go unanswered?
Now, all of these difficult questions prompt us to raise yet another crucial
question: What can we count on from God? When we face the troubles of the
world, the heartaches of life, the tough challenges of this existence. what
can we count on from God?
This parable in Luke 18 points us toward an answer. At first glance this
parable is confusing to a lot of people. It does sound pretty strange when
we first hear it. The parable involves two people: an unjust arrogant judge
and a humble but persistent woman. The judge ignores her at first, but
finally grants her justice because she is so persistent. She won't give up
and she won't go away. so eventually he gives in and comes through for her.
Now that's the parable. Jesus then makes his point and he frames it in the
form of a question. He says, if an unjust judge gives this woman justice how
much more will God bring about justice for his chosen ones? Let me put back
in the form of my earlier question: What can we count on from God?
1. FIRST OF ALL, WE CAN COUNT ON GOD TO HEAR US WHEN WE PRAY.
2. SECOND, WE CAN COUNT ON GOD TO BE WITH US WHEN WE ARE HURTING.
3. THIRD AND FINALLY, WE CAN COUNT ON GOD TO GO WITH US WHEREVER WE MAY GO.
The
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