Between the Hedges (Replay)

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February 26, 2008

Good afternoon family.

I pray that all are doing well this fine Tuesday in February. Today, I want to take a minute or two to talk about the hedges that God has placed around out lives (and no Deidra we are not talking about UGA Football :-) ). What I'm talking about is God's protection that he places around His own. let's go to some scripture please.

Job 1:10 "Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." 

For those who don't quite remember the story, this is the passage where the devil is asking God hasn't he placed a hedge of protection around Job? Then the devil go on to suggest that the very moment God touches all that God has bless Job, he will surely turn on him. So, you can read the rest of the story in its entirety, but lets talk about that hedge for a moment. What is a hedge?

One definition says that a hedge is a line of closely spaced shrubs and bushes, planted and trained in such a way as to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area. Look at that. A boundary. You know a territory. You are God's territory and He protects what is His. If you ever notice in life wherever you go, God seems to always have your back? He keeps you from the very mistake that could take you out or end your life or send you down a spiraling abyss of mess for the rest of your life. Not only that, the hedge just ensures that what's inside stays inside and what's outside, stays outside.

I can testify that I just started a new job last week (PRAISE GOD!) and I haven't seen anything that bothered me or disturbed my spirit, but I know that I've met two people already who Loves the Lord. God can place people in your live as well to be your hedge (See Proverbs 27:17). So no matter where you go, a hedge follows you. You just stay in the hedge and everything will be alright.

Be blessed gang and have a good one. 

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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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He Deals With Each of us Differently (Replay)

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January 29, 2008

Good afternoon fam,

I hope that everyone is doing well this nice Tuesday. I want to apologize for my recent leave of absence from the list, but I'm back in the saddle so lets get things rolling. Also, I want to wish my boy Ryan (who is the brain-child of WFTD) a Happy Birthday today. Keep on living your life in a Godly manner broham and do not let anything separate you from that. Alright, so now to some word.

Scripture please: 

Hebrews 12:6-8 "(6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (7) If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (8) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." 

Isn't it amazing that as of 2005, "2.14 billion people made up the world's Christian population" (for more information click here)?! What's even more amazing is that God knows how to handle all of us, even though we are all unique. I mean there are some identical siblings out there, but we are still unique. As verse 7 above states, God deals with us as we are sons (or children) and if there are any parents on the list, we know not all children behave the same. Some you can speak to one time and that's all it takes for them to get the message. Some you have to nearly lose your mind, before they get the idea that you aren't playing with them and they should obey. This is the same thing that God has to do to us Christians.

Johnny, may be the most obedient person to God you know so when God chastises him, He gets the message immediately. However, Billy might here God's message but chose to go right instead of going left like he was suppose too. Again it takes a different tactic to get the message across that Billy should have turned left! You may be asking what does all this mean and why should I care? Well, here you go. You cannot look at other people's situations and wonder how God made it look so simple for them. You may be experienceing something in your life that you know other people have gone through, but for some reason your experience does not seem to be the same. No matter how much advice you receive your situation seems to be unique. Well, we have to first look at the individuals involved and understand what God is trying to show and/or do to them. The testimony that you will have at the end of your journey cannot possibly be the same as someone else because your experience is unique between you and the Lord.

Here's another example. I may have mentioned before that when my wife wanted to leave her job in July/August 2006, the Lord knew that I looked at my Excel spreadsheets as was like, "uhm no, you can't leave". According to the numbers things didn't add up. However, after crunching some numbers and going on some assumptions, I was like ok we can do this. So, what happens, God threw in a monkey wrench. Guess what, we were pregnant with our second child (SURPISE!) AND some monies that I had counted on wasn't coming. To make a long story short, the Lord had to deal with me differently to get us moving into the direction He would have us go. In the end we were just fine.

Keep your eyes on the Lord and follow his Word closely. He may have been getting you to take some steps (that you thought were the final answers you were asking for) to prepare you for a larger move that He has for you.

Be blessed gang and have a great one. 

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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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Clean Surface Before Applying (Replay)

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January 9, 2008

Happy Hump Day family,

I hope all is well with everyone this morning. Today is another great day in the Lord and I thank God for waking me up this morning to be able to see another day. It is truly a blessing because the Lord has really been working on me. The Lord and I have been in some serious dialog lately, so He has His hands on me, reshaping and remolding me. If I sound a little un-Antoineish sometimes, it's because I'm in God's garage getting a tune up (speaking of which, sorry Deidra, I know I have unfinished business) and trying to understand what is happening to me right now.

So with that said, let's go into the WFTD. You know whenever you take something apart to put on a new part, or to simply add some adhesive to something the instructions clearly state: "thoroughly clean surface and dry before applying". A good example of this is for Auto Mechanics. When they take parts off your motor for repair, a lot of the times they have to scrape off old adhesive from the place in order to apply the new adhesive and part. Why do they do this? Well the adhesive and new part will not hold as well if the surface applying it to is dirty. Another example is your rear view mirror. For those of you who have had to replace your review mirror, you know that the instructions say to take a razor blade and scrape off the old glue, clean thoroughly and dry the surface before applying the new adhesive (and ultimately the mirror). If you don't you won't make it out the driveway before the mirror is sitting in your lap.

This is how God has to do us a lot of the times. God has to clean off old adhesive where junk or old parts once hung in order to apply new adhesive and new parts. Sometimes, it may not be a replacement part, it could simply be an addition for you, but still God has to clean the surface before adding to you. If you've ever gotten glue, paint, oil, etc. on your arm or hands, you know that sometimes require some serious scrubbing and washing to get it off. Sometimes depending on how soiled you were, you may have to scrape, and that didn't always feel nice. Some scripture if you will:

2 Corinthians 5:17 "(17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. " 

Old things are suppose to be passed away, but how many of you know that some things, God has to bring you back into his shop for subsequent repair and updates? Just like a car repair or maintenance though, no one ever said it would be a pleasant experience always. Sometimes you are without your car for a few days because of the magnitude of the auto repair. For children in Christ, sometimes its like we don't know what is happening in our lives until God is through with the maintenance/repair work.

Proverbs 3:11, says "My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:". Again, simply put, God has to work on us and not every work will feel pleasant to you, but just know that all that God will and can do is Good. If you experienced this part in your life, then this may be all familiar to you. If you have not, I pray that this word will help you when (NOT IF) you reach a point such as this in your life. God works in many ways that we do not understand, but we must know and accept that whatever it is He does to us, it is for our own good.

Be Blessed Gang and have a Happy Hump Day. 

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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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If...Then....(Replay)

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December 11, 2007

Good morning family, 

I pray that all is well with everyone. I don't know about where you are, but in Raleigh, the weather has been absolutely awesome. It's mid December and we are sitting at 80 degree weather, while the majority of the country has ice storms. It will not last long, but lets enjoy what God has provided while it lasts instead of missing it when it's gone. 

A lot of the times we tend to fall into a situation of missing something when it's gone. Then we find ourselves saying statements like, “if only I had......then......” With family members, when one passes away, we sometimes regret that we didn't do something and wish we had the chance to do it all over again. We are reactive people in stead of proactive people. To take it a step further, we like to put conditions on why we haven't done/didn't do something or when we will do something. This even trickles over to our relationship with the God. 

There are many times you here people say things like: 

• “If I can just get myself together, then I'll come to church and serve God.”
• “If only I had not done XYZ, then I would come to church and serve God.”
• “If I could just finish this work, then I would do more for the Lord.”
• “If I had money left over after bills, then I would tithe.”

See the problem here? In these examples, serving God is secondary and dependent upon the completion of another task. Well without any more hesitation, lets hop to some scripture: 

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;”

Malachi 3:8 “"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'"In tithes and offerings.” (see Exodus 23:16, where God commands that the people were to bring the 1^st fruits of their labor to him) 

God should not be secondary in our lives but first in our lives. If you place God first, your statements would change from “If..Then” to “God did”. Let's look at how placing God first changes the first statements: 

• “I came to church to serve God, and He put my life back together.”
• “I came to church to serve God, and He forgave my sins.”
• “Now I do more for the Lord and He gives me all the time and ability I need to finish my work.”
• “I tithe and I have money to pay my bills and some left over for my wants.”

God can turn your whole life around if you let, Him, but you have to learn to let go. Let go and let God have His way in your life. Until you learn to do this, your life will always be filled with a bunch of “If's” followed by a number of “thens”. Remember, God did do/is doing/and will do anything in your life. 

Be blessed gang and have a good Tuesday. 
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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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The Disintegrating Family (Replay)

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October 30, 2007

Good afternoon family.

Sorry to get WFTD out so late. Today is a little different and rather a reflection on how things use to be and where I see them headed. This past Thursday thru Sunday (10/25 – 10/28), my household and sister (Deidra's sister) traveled to Hattiesburg, MS to funeralize (is this a word?) her grandmother.

Despite the occasion, it was a time that the entire family got together. It is a large family and I enjoyed meeting another side of my wife's family whom I've never had the opportunity to meet. The kids played their hearts out, the family enjoyed each other's company, and there was much eating going on down there! All of this made me reflect back on when I was growing up and how my father's side of the family got together all the time. You know, the family reunions, family trips, kids racing barefoot down dirt roads (some of yall might not know about that LOL), etc. It was all a great time.

However, I said all that to say, the family of today has transformed and is no longer the family of old. As older family members pass away, who were patriarchs or matriarchs of the family, it tends to splinter and smaller families of the family tend to stick to themselves – no longer "doing the big family" thing any more. I realized this after I looked at my kids and saw that my Daughter & Son don't know cousins like we did. As children, we seem to have known tons of cousins and remembered their names even if it were nicknames. But children of this generation, do good to know one or two cousins.

Why? The family is disintegrating. Many of us are so busy with our household lives that we tend to forget about the extended family. Not even family reunions hold as much meaning any more. Not until we lose someone does the family bind together for the one occasion and then back onto our merry ways.

People change and times change. There is no longer the mother with 9 children and each of them having children. You're lucky today if household has one child. The solution you might ask? Well I don't have a global one, but I do have a suggestion: enjoy your family while they're here. Your kids will never really know what a family is like until you teach them what a family is – so if that means the change has to start with you....then let it start with you.

Be Blessed folks.
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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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The Missing Piece (Replay)

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October 23, 2007

Good morning family,

I pray that all are doing well this day. I have a question for the list. Have any of you ever seen someone who does not believe in the Word of God? Let me go back a little bit for you. Were you that someone who did not believe in the Word? If you were what changed your mind?

Last week I saw a question about the Bible and whether or not any atheistic or non-believers ever read the Bible. The answers that I saw were truly amazing and I was blown away. Believe it or not a lot of atheists have read the Bible from cover to cover. I even saw where there was a guy who was once a minister and later decided that the Bible was all "foo-foo" and became an atheists. So then you might ask, why doesn't one believe?

Discernment

The missing piece from the equation is Discernment. Just what is discernment? A good definition says, that it is "discretion: the trait of judging wisely and objectively" (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). Also, "Discernment is not a function of the mind; it's a function of the Holy Spirit which is in union with your soul/spirit" (http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/3386.htm). Of course we know that Jesus promised to send a comforter also known as the Holy Spirit.

John 14:15-17 "(15) If you love me, you will obey what I command. (16) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— (17) the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. "

See, any one can read anything and totally miss the true meaning. This is exactly what happened to the people who read the Bible and still didn't get it. During a class, the entire class can go through the Bible in a semester and take tests on it and look at it from a scholarly point of view. However, if there is no spirit of discernment, the reader totally miss what God is trying to share with you.


In regards to the former minister turned atheist, he neither had the spirit of discernment. If you truly possess and believe with your heart, there is no question about what's in the word. It's when we start to try to understand the scriptures with our own mind and attempt to make sense of them in a worldly view when we get into trouble. It only takes the devil one good opportunity to slip you a spiritual mickey and then you're left not knowing what to believe. That's just long enough to keep you away from God. I John 1:4 says, "...do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.". Guess what, without the Holy Spirit working in you, the devil can work on you, hence, you cannot discern the truth.

Even when you are not saved, the Lord has ways of nudging you that He exists. He can use people, accidents, events, etc. to speak to you, but remember from a past WFTD, we are made free beings. We are made free to by God and to love God, but it's when we make the choice to ignore the signals that you do not believe what the Word of God says. It's like tasting new foods. If you never listen to the inner urge to try sushi, you'll never know that not all of it is raw and that it actually tastes pretty good. If you never yield to the inner inclination to try God, you'll never be able to expect to read His Word and understand in the same manner one of His disciples might understand.

The next time you hear of someone who just doesn't believe, remember they made a choice to not believe. Even if they say, I tried God but He didn't work, you can check that excuse at the door. If they tried God, the probably only plugged into the "Source" intermittently and leaned on their own understanding instead of the Lords. Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;".

Trust in the Lord and listen to the Holy Spirit when He taps at your spiritual door. "When the Spirit sounds a warning, your mind may not be able to perceive what's wrong. Have the courage to acknowledge that something is wrong when your spirit is troubled. Share what you are sensing with others, and ask the Lord for wisdom." (http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/3386.htm)

Be Blessed Gang!

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Antoine E. Hall

Blog:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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Can't Get Right (Replay)

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November 13, 2007

Good afternoon family,

I pray that all is well with everyone.  Today is a great day in the Lord as He has been truly working miracles in our lives.  Today I want to talk about just being plain old hard headed.  It's nothing profound, but just straight to the point.  In 1 Corinthians 4:21, Paul ends with "What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?"

Just to give you some quick background, this is Paul's first epistle (or letter) to the church at Corinth. Basically, the Corinthians are down there acting like they have no home training, when indeed they received the Gospel from Paul.  Now Paul has caught wind and basically is sounding like a parent:  Do you want a whooping (yes whooping and not whipping)?  You better straightening up and fly right!  He even has gone so far as to send Timothy to Corinth to help the people remember the teachings of Christ so they can right what they've been doing wrong (see 1 Corinthians 4:14-17). 

Many of us have been spoken too by the Holy Spirit, instructed in the Lord, and encouraged by friends in Christ, but still choose to do the wrong thing.  How many times will you need to be told to follow the Word of God?  How much of a whooping does one have to take to know that going against God's will in your life is not good for your health?  If there is something you just haven't been able to get right with the Lord, it's time to do so.  You should look to Him right now and ask him to forgive you and show you (or remind you) how to follow Him as He has instructed you.

Sorry to sound angry, but I'm not.  Just that sometimes, we just can't get right!

Be Blessed All, and have a good one.
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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33

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A Study on Evil - God Chose This World (Replay)

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September 25, 2007

Good afternoon family.

It's good to be back as I missed you guys.  Ryan, thanks for holding down the fort while we were out on vacation.  That's how it should be.  When your brothers/sisters are out, other brothers and sisters step in to fill the void.  So, again thanks bro-ham.  Today will be our final day on the study on evil.  Again, I was pulling a lot of this information from the chapter called Questions About Evil in the book "When Skeptics Ask" and I was urged by the Holy Spirit to share with you all.  I pray that you all got something out of it because if not I did *LOL*.  Well without delay let's go to it.

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Yep, there it is again.  If you ever picked up a bible, the first sentence you read in the Old Testament is the above verse.  Pretty simple in idea, but let's keep in mind, God CHOSE to create this world.  You do realize that He had choices?  I mean why not - He is God and has all power in his hands.

In reference to evil, one might think that if God knows all things, why didn't He foresee that the world would be flooded with evil.  That's something that we cannot overlook as it is a valid question, but, you then have to ask the following question.  If God did not create this world, then what other options did He have?  God could have "a) not created anything, b) created a world without free creatures, c) created free creatures that would not sin, [or] d) created free creatures who would sin but would all be saved in the end."¹  By the way, I am not saying this is an exhaustive list for the Lord.  Let's look at each one briefly.

A) ...not created anything.  -  Yep, God could have not created anything but this is a moot point.  We know that God created something out of His love and made man in his likeness (see Genesis 1:27).   Had God creating nothing we would not be having this conversation.

B)  ...created a world without free creatures -  We've already answered this one before.  It is free will that allows us to love one another.   For God to create non-free creatures would be evil in itself. 

C) ...created free creatures that would not sin - Now this is a possibility.  Adam was created with free will and without sin before the apple incident.  "Jesus did it throughout His whole life (Hebrews 4:15)."¹  This is a great idea in theory but making theory reality is another thing.  This is like saying we can make a car that will never need "gassing up" or recharging.  GM, Ford, Nissan & Toyota could tell us this is a great idea but making it happen is a totally different story.  It's all pretty theoretical.  The way that God guarantees we would not sin is to alter our freedom a little bit.  See where this is going?  Tamper or altering our freedom to make us [not] do something is dabbling in evil.  Of course this is impossible of God. 

D) ...created free creatures who would sin but would all be saved in the end - Well this is almost like our world today but has one problem.  Not all will be saved and this goes against biblical teachings.  Mark 16:16 says, that "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."   We know that hell is real and all those who turn a deaf ear to the Lord will not go to heaven.  God does not force us to love Him as "forced love is rape; and God is not a divine rapist"¹ (this one was good, I had to use this quote).

So, God ultimately chose this world.  In this world we have freedom to choose and this choice is a grace from God.  In that we have free will, we are free to love God, free to hate God or free to be neutral.  Either way, the choice is up to us.  Evil is a matter of choice and we can either choose God or choose evil.  Even the evil that we cannot control or appear to be pointless (sickness, death, etc.) still give us choices.  In the midst of it all, we can choose God or not.  In the end evil will be overcome as God will separate good and evil with heaven and hell.  Again, I ask why not this world?  "Ultimately, we must trust God who knows the beginning from the end and sees the grand picture. He will have the final word and He will be vindicated."²

Be Blessed Gang and have a good one!


¹ Geisler, Norman and Brooks, Ron. When Skeptics Ask. Copyright 1990.  pp. 69-74.
² CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS AND RESEARCH MINISTRY.  http://www.carm.org/questions/suffering.htm-------------- snip ---------------
 Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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A Study on Evil - What's Its Purpose and Why So Much? (Replay)

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September 5, 2007

 Happy Hump Day Everyone,

It is truly a great day to be alive.  I started feeling a little under the weather these past couple of days but I've already spoken to this thing and I'm coming out!  Besides my wife and I have a vacation to attend next week, so no room for sickness *LOL*.  I could call the slight sickness evil but then that would be me choosing to remain sick instead of speaking directly to it and doing something about it :-) .

We've made some good headway thus far.  We've:  1) defined evil,  2) found it's origins,  & 3) talked about defeating evil.  Today we are going to talk about what is the purpose and why is there so much of it.  I mean let's be real, everything has a purpose right?  Even if it isn't always for the good there is a purpose and this leads me to believe that there is a method to God's madness (He's not really mad, just some slang yall :-)).  "There is a difference between our knowing the purpose for evil and God having a purpose for it.  Even if we don't know God's purpose, He may still have a good reason for allowing evil in our lives"¹. 

Let's look at our good friend Job.  In Job 1:6-22, the Lord allowed Satan to test Job.  It was rather like a bet but God allowed Job to endure this suffering so that he might further call on the name of God.  In Jonah 1:17, it says, "But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights."  You might say that was just wrong, but you have to look at what happened.  The Lord had given Jonah orders to go preach, but he ran.  Well he was swallowed by the fish and allowed some time to think.  In the next chapter, Jonah 2, we see that Jonah prays to the Lord and eventually surrenders to the Lord's will.  Another example.  If you keep telling a child (like our child) to quit standing on the top of her toy box after a while you will have to stop talking.  One day she will eventually fall, but she will learn that she cannot stand and dance on the box any more.  It's the little ways God uses evil to stop us from allowing greater evil to consume us.

"But good gracious Antoine, what about all the other evil that seems to be running rampant?"  Well, to answer this question we have to look at the gift of free will that was given to us by God.  As human beings we have choices to make.  Unfortunately, not all of us make the choice to follow God and because of this some choose the path to hell.  You can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink.  In other words, you can show people the right way, but ultimately they must choose that path.  So, to wonder why is there so much evil, you have to analyze the human race and not God. 

Before I go, I wanted to leave you guys with some scriptures about how not to choose to evil and how to follow God:

1. John 3:18
2. John 3:36
3. John 5:39-40
4. John 8:24
5. John 12:48
6. Luke 10:16
   

 Be blessed gang and have a good one.

¹ Geisler, Norman and Brooks, Ron. When Skeptics Ask. Copyright 1990.  pp. 65-------------- snip ---------------

Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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A Study on Evil - Why Can't Evil Be Stopped (Replay)

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September 4, 2007

Good Morning Family,

I pray that everyone had a good Labor Day yesterday, although it seems like more people work now-a-days on Labor Day than have the day off.  In continuation with our study on evil, today we will tackle the question of "why can't evil be stopped?"

To ask "why can't evil be stopped" implies that there is a counter question.  That would be "why can evil be stopped" and as Christians, this should be our view on questions such as this.  However, even for Christians this may be a tough question to answer.  Typically the argument goes something like this:

1. If God is all-good, He would destroy evil.¹
2. If God is all-powerful, He could destroy evil.¹
3. But evil is not destroyed.¹
4. Hence, there is no such God.¹

Hmmm.  Numbers 1 & 2 makes perfectly good sense to us thus far, but because of 3, number 4 throws up a red flag to any Christian with an ounce of Jesus in them *LOL*.  To say that God cannot do such a thing suggests that He is not the omnipotent God who we claim He is.  That is rather counter productive to anyone who follows the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Exodus 15, we see just a sample of after-effects of God's power against evil:

"(6) Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.  (7) And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble."

This was the children of Israel after God had plunged the pharaohs army into the sea, who were coming to destroy them.  God DEFEATED evil in this scenario. So the question is still "why can't evil be stopped?". 

"If someone said that God should stop evil and suffering, then should God then stop all  evil and suffering? If God only stopped some of it, then we would still be asking the same question of why it exists. So, if we want God to stop evil and suffering, then He must stop all of it. ...He must stop that person from thinking his own thoughts. To do that, God must remove his freedom of thought. Furthermore, which person on the earth has not thought something evil? God would be required, then, to stop all people from exercising their free will. This is something God has chosen not to do."²

Destroying evil would be destroying the gift of freedom which allows us to love one another.  As we learned last week, if God did this, it would be an act of evil in itself.  God is not capable of evil but of only love.  The real answer is that God can defeat evil.  There is a difference.  To destroy something means to "do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of" or to "destroy completely; damage irreparably"³.  The definition of defeat is to "win a victory over". ³  With destruction you do not damage one thing, but it can have lasting side effects and/or inadvertently destroy other things.

Take for example 9/11.  When the terrorist decided to fly planes into the World Trade Center, their plans were to cause the destruction of 2 planes and to damage the 2 buildings.  However, the end result is that 2 buildings along with a couple surrounding buildings were completely destroyed.  Even Bin Ladin himself said he was shocked the buildings fell as that was not in the original plan.  As a contrast, the US and Coalition troops are in Iraq trying to defeat the enemy.  To defeat the enemy means they are to be no longer operable to cause havoc or destruction.  So they are not necessarily "irreparably damaged" but defeated to the point where they can no longer operate.  Or, to look at it another way, they have been disbanded or dismantled.

This is what God can do. "When will God defeat evil" is the real question at hand.   Just because it hasn't happened yet, does not mean it will not happen.  He will defeat evil some day.  God does not operate in our time, but rather when He sees fit.   Ecclesiastes 3:1, says "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven".   Net/Net, Those who wonder the answers to the question will have to wait a little longer as God has not deemed it the proper season to defeat evil.   "Apparently God would rather wrestle with our rebellious wills than to reign supreme over rocks and trees"¹.

Be blessed gang and have a good one!


¹ Geisler, Norman and Brooks, Ron. When Skeptics Ask. Copyright 1990.  pp. 63, 65
² CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS AND RESEARCH MINISTRY.  http://www.carm.org/questions/suffering.htm
³ WordNet.  http://wordnet.princeton.edu/.  "destroy, defeat"
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Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:  http://toinebo.blogspot.com
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/AntoineHall

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

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