Reflections
Changing our minds
You must have heard the story of the grim-looking woman who offering a tract to a passerby, said, 'Would you like to become a Christian?' 'No thank you,'  said the other person, taking a look at her sour face, ' I have enough troubles of my own'.
Why is it that so many people who claim to belong to Christ present such a gloomy image to the world? In the main they are not hypocrites for their lives have no blemish, and their characters are spotless. Yet somehow their lives are not radiant, and they fail to put a desire in the hearts of others to reach out to Christ. Somehow or other we have given the men and women of our generation the impression that to become a Christian is to carry a heavy load, dress in black and live a life that is bleached of all colour. It is true that we do not cheat, swear, get drunk, or
philander with the opposite sex- but neither do thousands of people who are not Christians.
If we claim that a Christian is someone in whom Christ lives, then why is it that we give so little evidence that He is inside us? One possible answer to this is that we have not passed through the experience of which Paul speaks in Rom.12:2. We have surrendered our wills to Christ but there has been no transformation in our minds. Our thinking has never been reshaped. The Bible says it quite plainly, by the renewing of our minds we are transformed. And how is this achieved? By giving our minds to Him, then He gives  His mind to us. 'Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus... and be renewed'.

Reflections

Why did God let evil happen

In looking at the apparent defeat of God's purposes in the garden of Eden,  (Gen 3) people sometime say, "why didn't God put out His hand to prevent these things from taking place? Why didn't the Almighty intervene to prevent such a catastrophe?" There are several answers to this question.

1. God made us as free agents and is obliged to respect that freedom. If His heart of love would have been content with marionettes, and not men, then He could have had  a sinless and perfect world.

2. God rules the world by inflexible laws which apply equally to everyone. The universe would be greatly unbalanced if there was no principle of cause and effect. If quinine killed malaria germs on one occasion, and killed the patient on another, no medical service would be possible. Having established the universe on firm laws, God would violate His own nature if He intervened to change them.

3. God foresaw that he would transform evil into good and made the gain greater than the loss. A young army officer said, "Weather in war is always favourable, if you know how to use it."  That is the point, - if you know how to use it. Infinite wisdom  knew how to use man's sin and rebellion to further the divine goal, and  there is, therefore, no sin, no suffering, no frustration, no disappointment that cannot be gathered up by Him  and used for higher ends. God is never nonplussed - He always has a way out. If He  can't do this, then He can do that -  and both are equally good in the final results. When God is faced with problems He does not break up - He breaks out.