Sovereign or not

The subject of G-d's Kingdom is the central message of Jesus preaching. When Jesus is preaching that , he is preaching about what your opening post is asking. When will G-d's kingdom come into my situation and bring justice ?

Mat 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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The answer is His kingdom has come already with his first coming but it is not fully here yet. We are in that in between stage. Jesus second coming will establish His kingdom.

Kingdom is about authority. When you ask is G-d sovreign ? You are really asking does G-d's kingdom reign extend to this earth and to these situations ?
Jesus said to pray , thy kingdom come , thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So your cry for justice is a throughly biblical prayer.

Tenebrae said:

God is sovereign, if that is the case, then why does He allow such horribleness and cruelty

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I sometimes think of it as, this person may do greater works for the Lord with their illness than they would in good health. Perhaps, their illness is inspiring someone somewhere and that inspiration will lead to them investigating the father and eventually coming to faith in Christ Jesus.

I agree with Faulty on this.

I think at times we try to understand by imposing our own sense of what we think is just or unjust on a situation when our own sense will only ever be flawed and squewed (sp?) by own own experiences/biases etc, sometimes without us knowing and we are only human. God's ways arent ours and we just cant understand.

Only God has a perfect sense of justice and He does promise that He will judge and reward accordingly one day everything that we have said and done (and I reckon by default what has been said and done to us). Only God has all the facts and only God knows what we can handle. We only see a little not all like God does.

God is God and we just have to trust His choices in what He allows. To do otherwise is to deny who He is.

Some of the hardest things in my life that I thought I could not endure and that I held up to God as proof of His lack of love were in hindsight now the greatest evidences of His compassion, for God does not willingly bring affliction on the sons of men. His heart is full of compassion. Those things brought me to Him.


If we start questioning His love for us because of circumstances we experience or see then we are in great danger. We open ourselves up to being separated from Him in the times when we need Him most and that is exactly what the devil wants.

We cant understand His ways or why He chooses to allow some things, but He is God.

He will not allow more than we can bear.

He will get us through.

He will never leave us.


Do not let this start you on a track of questioning the One who suffered and died for you. I know it is hard but choose to trust Him anyway that He knows what He is doing because He does.




hug

When I think of God, being just, holy, loving, a Father...

And then I hear people asking how, if God is all these things, can he allow _______ (a myriad of events)

I remember to put things into the perspective of eternity.

Consider this:
What happened to you yesterday, will be a faint memory for you 50 years from now.
What happens to you 50 years from now will be a faint memory for you 100 years from now.
What happens to you 100 years from now will be a faint memory for you 1000 years from now.
IF... IF.. IF you have Jesus.

How we know that God is just, kind, loving, and a good Father, is simple. Instead of giving mankind what we deserve, for eternity, He provided a way for us to be forgiven, so that we could spend eternity with Him.

For those who know Jesus, death has no sting.
For those who lose a loved one that knows Jesus, there is comfort in the knowledge that the grave is not eternal.

For those who do not know Jesus, the thought of a God, who allows death, suffering, and sorrow, is enough to provoke anger. It's easy to be angry when we point the finger of blame in another direction. But when we understand what God has given to us, through His mercy and the sacrifice of His Only Son, Jesus, then we begin to see that this isn't a God who wants His creation to suffer needlessly.


I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1Corinthians 15:50-58

I'm a citizen of heaven, and one day I am going home. And that day is going to last forever, and forever, and forever. Praise God!

Yitzchak said:

The subject of G-d's Kingdom is the central message of Jesus preaching. When Jesus is preaching that , he is preaching about what your opening post is asking. When will G-d's kingdom come into my situation and bring justice ?




The answer is His kingdom has come already with his first coming but it is not fully here yet. We are in that in between stage. Jesus second coming will establish His kingdom.

Kingdom is about authority. When you ask is G-d sovreign ? You are really asking does G-d's kingdom reign extend to this earth and to these situations ?
Jesus said to pray , thy kingdom come , thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So your cry for justice is a throughly biblical prayer.

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Very good post, and well said.

Peace...

In addition, God asked us to pray that His will be done on earth, as well as in heaven, ovbiously because His will is not being done on the earth, as it is in heaven. The bad things that happen to us and to others are not the will of God, they are simply areas where the authority of Gods kingdom have not yet been extended by the church, His body.

The problem with the "super-duper-soveignty" folks, is that they confuse power with authority. God has unlimited power in heaven and on earth, He is after all, omnipotent. But while He has complete authority in heaven, His authority on earth is limited by man's free will to choose, under the dominion of this planet given to Adam in the garden.

In other Words, God used His authority when He gave man dominion over this earth. Now, because man has this God given authority, God is waiting on us to partnership with Him in bringing His will to pass here. He will not do it without us, His church.

As long as we are blaming Him for the bad things, instead of believing Him for the good things He has promised, His will wont be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Which is why the view that all these bad things are in the will and plan of God for me, blessed be the name of the Lord; must die a quick and painful death. Such a view is a lie, and a distortion of the truth, and blames God for everything, both good and bad. What a horrible thing to do, calling God a child molester, a rapist, a murderer and a liar; or worse, saying He allows such things to happen for our betterment. Shame.

Peace...

even in our freewill God is Sovereign
remember Jonah
he was trying to run away from obeying God and God caused circumstances to turn him around and get him to where God wanted him to be


imho we tend to think we are more in control than we really are

Tenebrae said:

God is sovereign, if that is the case, then why does He allow such horribleness and cruelty

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The book of the prophet Zechariah says that the Lord returns he will be king over the whole earth. Will be, not is already.

When the Lord Jesus returns everything will be put right.

The parable of the tenants. The owner of the vineyard is coming back.

dkbwarrior said:

In addition, God asked us to pray that His will be done on earth, as well as in heaven, ovbiously because His will is not being done on the earth, as it is in heaven. The bad things that happen to us and to others are not the will of God, they are simply areas where the authority of Gods kingdom have not yet been extended by the church, His body.

The problem with the "super-duper-soveignty" folks, is that they confuse power with authority. God has unlimited power in heaven and on earth, He is after all, omnipotent. But while He has complete authority in heaven, His authority on earth is limited by man's free will to choose, under the dominion of this planet given to Adam in the garden.

In other Words, God used His authority when He gave man dominion over this earth. Now, because man has this God given authority, God is waiting on us to partnership with Him in bringing His will to pass here. He will not do it without us, His church.

As long as we are blaming Him for the bad things, instead of believing Him for the good things He has promised, His will wont be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Which is why the view that all these bad things are in the will and plan of God for me, blessed be the name of the Lord; must die a quick and painful death. Such a view is a lie, and a distortion of the truth, and blames God for everything, both good and bad. What a horrible thing to do, calling God a child molester, a rapist, a murderer and a liar; or worse, saying He allows such things to happen for our betterment. Shame.

Peace...

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I like this, why are we given authority and power?
We have a part to play.

Why are we instructed to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead and cleans lepers?

FoundInGrace said:

even in our freewill God is Sovereign
remember Jonah
he was trying to run away from obeying God and God caused circumstances to turn him around and get him to where God wanted him to be


imho we tend to think we are more in control than we really are

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If God has no control over anything and faith in Him is an utter absurdity.

If I did not believe in the absolute sovereignty of God:
1. I would despair of my eternal destiny. I would have no assurance of salvation. Knowing the depravity of my soul, I would most certainly apostatize were it not for God’s sovereign preservation of me (cf. Rom. 8).
2. I would be terrified of all suffering, with no confidence that God can turn evil for good and bring me safely through (cf. Rom. 8:28 and relation to vv. 29-30).
3. I would become manipulative and pragmatic in evangelism, believing that conversion is altogether a matter of my will/skill vs. will/skill of unbeliever.
4. I would cease praying for God to convert and save the lost. If the ultimate causal factor in human conversion is the self-determined human will, not the divine will, it is futile and useless to ask God to work or touch or move upon the human will so as to assuredly bring them to faith.
5. I would despair of the political process and live in fear/anxiety/resentment of those elected officials who oppose the kingdom of God. See Daniel 2:21; 4:17,25,32; 5:18-31.
6. I would live in fear of nature: tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, wind and hail and rain (cf. Psm. 147-148).
7. I would despair of ever doing anything of a spiritual nature that God requires and commands of me. Phil. 2:12-13.