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GOOD GIFTS FROM GOD

NOT EVIL

Misconceptions About God

This a good time to clarify other misconceptions many folks attribute to God when they have trials or adversity. It's an absurdity and unreasonable, when things are going well many praise themselves, yet when trials beset us some say: "This is an act of God," or "God gave me this trial," or, "This temptation from God is too much for me," or "God's hand is heavy on me..." Talk about a bad rap! So let's clear the air with truth from His Word:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and comes down from the Father of lights..."
(NKJ, James 1:17)

We should remember this and show our appreciation daily. Directly, these "good gifts" can be specific blessings such as free gifts, circumstances, incomes, opportunities, et cetera, or indirect as the air we breathe or weather we live in. If you choose to live in a big polluted city and ingest foul air and water you may suffer for it, but the air and water originally were clean and "good," and we certainly have a variety of climates wherein to make our abode.

After hurricanes typically uninformed and not-so-smart politicians (although prominent but still stupid) will say as they often do while assessing extensive human and infrastructure damage: "This is an act of God." Truth is, marine biologists will tell you hurricanes are indeed good for the sea; so the problem is not hurricanes, it's people who choose to live in the path of these conditions...they must accept the consequences. Actually, at the creation humankind chose to live their way, rejecting God; and so the reality is many disastrous events such as an earthquake, tsunami, tornado, and so forth can strike without warning:

"...time and chance happen(s) to them all.
For no one can anticipate the time of disaster.
Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare,
so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them."
(NRSV, Ecclesiastes 9:11-12)

Some so-called "religious people" will claim this or that calamity is punishment for sins of people...giving God another bad-rap. As usual, their understanding is based on self-righteous arrogance instead of truth. If from God there would be warning, and also Christ actually addressed this subject with a "tower" that fell and people were killed; that calamities are not necessarily because of people's sins.

"Surely the Lord God does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
(NKJ, Amos 3:7)

"...those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them,
do you think that they were worse sinners
than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no..."
(NKJ, Luke 13:4-5)

Others will proclaim when in the midst of a temptation or trial that God is tempting them with evil; or if not evil God must be at least tempting them in some way:

"No one when tempted should say, 'I am being tempted by God;'
for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself tempts no one.
But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it;
then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin,
and that sin when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived..."
(NRSV, James 1:13-16)

Continued in the eBook...