Follow up, I wrote this about two months ago, but I'm It also relates to your situation God is good ........all the time, all the time........ God is GoodTuesday, Feb 26, 2008 I went to a conference this weekend. And in this conference this was basically the slogan. " God is good all the time and all the time God is good." I heard a story about that saying once, a conferenc just like ours was chanting it over and over and over again. And a man rushed up to the speaker and said " God is good, try telling that to New Orleans, it just got completley destroyed a few minutes ago, and my family, my wife and two kids, are in that city" The problem is god is not always good. At this conference I talked to a girl who was standing at the edge of a balcony thinking about ending it all and throwing herself off. I was literally ripped into pieces. Literally meeting somebody who was that close to killing themselves. How is it that we have a God in heaven who cares and blesses us everyday and yet allows things to get so bad that we think about cracking our head open from a lunge off a balcony. Is God good, Is he love?? This is a question which we all deal with. This is the question which caused me to lose my faith. and raised my current faith.You probably remember the tsunami in asia 2 years ago. The one which obliterate several countries and killed several people. I remember seeing pictures of the countries which were struck. And all you would see were houses after houses Just torn apart. Bussinesses ruined, cars in pieces. Miles and miles of destruction, until you got to a christian church.These churches had almost no damage. Most people thought "what a wonderful way to spread Gods word." I thought " How could God kill all those people just to show off some churches." I started to dbout. After that New Orleans happened, genocides started in darfur ect.. I finally realized the havok of the world and all I could think was " That it was the judgement of a hateful God." My trust in God started to fade, than my belief. The God I was taught was a lie. and I was finally ready to be "set free" At this moment when I decided to give up God, 8:30 at night. I did the smartest thing In my life. I prayed. I asked God that if he was real and if he was love show himself to me. I expected it to bounce right off the ceiling and hit me in the forhead. It didn't.At first nothing happened. ten minutes later I was about to crawl into bed when a I heard a voice say. " read the bible" "Ha Ha that couldn't be God" I thought " there is no way that could be God, he doesn't exist." yet I opened up my bible anyway. and opened right into the book of wisdom. The title of the book was all I needed to read. God was going to give me wisdom. That he did the very next day. I on the other hand woke up even more of a skeptic,. I could imagine Jesus smacking himself in the head and saying " are you kidding me, I spoke to this boy, and he still doesn't believe." so I walked into church, its a requirement in our family. and I slept through the first half, and woke up right in time for the homily. It conveniantly started " most people have the image of God wrong." I grinned. The way this homily was going to go down is that hes going to tell the parish of how angry of a God we have ans therefore throw me the pitch so I could hit my faitth out of the ballpark. He continued " Most people think that God is an angry God, well I am here to tell you that God Is love" God had striked me out. First he talked to me himself, than he talked to me through his biography ( AKA the bible) and then he talked to me through a priest. All relating to each other, all way to coincidental to be coincidental. My problem was solved the mustard seed was planted again. For the next year I went through the bible to recover more of my faith, Therefore giving me a stronger faith. Why is this important. Because it shows the fulfillment of Gods promise. He was going to give me wisdom. a wisdom which I am sure will keep growing until I die. So God is Love, but How?? how can we have natural disasters, genocides, people being raped, people commiting suicide, pain, suffering. How does all this take place with an Loving God. example 1- Why do we have amputeesA soldier in battle loses a leg. How could God do this if He is love. Simple, he doesn't. you see we have this great but very dangerous gift called free will. and the definition in this case is If Al Quieda wants to blow off his leg they can. And God has to permit because not doing so would be a violation of our free will. This is the case for most of the catastrophes, the holocaust, genocides, murders. God has to permit, and while a tear probably goes down his cheek while he watches, all he can do is watch. The great thing is that the victims of these tragedies are blessed. Read the beatitudes( mathew 5: 5-12, The persecuted will be blessed), God says it personally.He will be blessed on earth and in the afterlife. and heaven is eternal happiness, can you imagine what a blessing is in heaven??? I know I can't. example 2- why do we have amputees part 2different scenario, a construction worker is working on the job when his leg gets crushed by a falling pillar of steel . The doctor has to amputate his leg. This is a horrble accident not caused by humans.( the machinery broke down.) This obviously has to be in Gods will. Why does he let his leg be amputated then, because in every negative theres a positive. The machinery will be fixed, his family and friends will be inspired by his strength, the amputee will have his faith grow by getting through this. And he too will be blessed. Jesus himself says it best As he went along he saw a man blind since birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. ( John 9: 2-3) example 3- old testamentIt is a fact that God orders the isrealites to kill more people than you find getting killed in Rambo. but why??? Becusse while we have a loving God he aint no hippy. Most of us agree that ww2 was a war which needed to be fought. and even though we lost millions of people imagine what we would of lost in a worldwide holocaust. It is the same in the old testament, If God hadn't proclaimed war on the people on the pagan nations. The world would have been worse off than it had before. and the fact is War was the only way. Could Hitler haev had a change of heart. I dbout it, he had himself shut himself off to God. And the only way to stop him was war. Again the same in the old testement. So the moral of the story God is Good and God is love. and we live in a world where the very opposite is true. Where death reigns instead of life. Where hate is breeded instead of life. And God has to take unpleasant actions so things can turn out the way he wants them. And the way he wants them is the way we want them. God knows whats best. His ways are higher than our ways. God is love, learn this truth, believe this truth. AND IF YOU EVER DOUBT GODS LOVE TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT HE ENDURED ON THE CROSS. IT IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY FOR HIM NOT TO BE LOVEGod bless youYour brother in christ Ryan Fitz