November 2020 Newsletter
Newsletter
November 2020
Robert Lindenberger
3325 3rd Avenue
Mims, Florida
32754
321-368-7184
We
walked, and we said, "Aww!" And we walked some more saying, "Oh!
And aww! And a "look look here!" and a "look look there!"
with more "oohs!" and "awws!" Then we stopped, and the
lights went out. We were six miles under
the earth in Monmouth Cave, Kentucky. It
was dark enough that we couldn't see a hand raised in front of our eyes. Complete
blackness! We stood there in
that darkness, but the silence was deafening.
My heart started racing in my chest, and I was sure other people could
hear it thump. Finally, what seemed like an eternity, the lights came back on,
and everyone clapped and screamed, "Praise the LORD!" (Bible
belt). That was an experience I shall
never forget.
Another
horrific time in my life was visiting my son and watching him die of ALS's
horrible disease, Lou Gehrig Disease. He
asked me this question: "Did God create sickness and evil?
Well,
will Let's look at this for a moment: At
first, it might seem that if God created all things, then sickness and evil
must have been created by God. However, evil is not a "thing" like a
rock or electricity. You cannot have a jar of evil. Sin has no existence of its
own; it is the absence of good. For example, holes are real, but they only
exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole, but it cannot be
separated from the soil. So, when God created, it is true that all He created
was good. One of the good things God made was creatures who had the freedom to
choose good. To have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides
good to choose. So, God allowed free angels and humans to choose good or reject
good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things, we call
that evil, but it does not become a "thing" that required God to
create it.
"Does cold exist?" the answer
would likely be "yes." However, this is incorrect. Cold does not
exist. Cold is the absence of heat. Similarly, darkness does not exist; it is the absence of light. (Someone
in the cave turned the lights off.) Evil
is the absence of good, or better, evil is the absence of God. God did not have
to create evil, but rather only allow for the absence of good. That's why I say
all the time. "God is good all the time; all the time, God is good.
God
did not create evil, but He does allow evil. If God had not
allowed for the possibility of evil, both mankind and angels would be serving
God out of obligation, not choice. He did not want "robots" that did
what He wanted them to do because of their "programming." God allowed
for the possibility of evil so that we could genuinely have free will and
choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him.
As finite human beings, we can never fully understand an infinite God
(Romans 11:33-34). Sometimes we think we know why God is doing something, only
to find out later that it was for a different purpose than we originally
thought. God looks at things from a holy, eternal perspective. We look at
things from a sinful, earthly, and temporal perspective. Why did God put a man
on earth knowing that Adam and Eve would sin and therefore bring evil, death,
and suffering to all mankind? Why didn't He create us all and leave us in
heaven where we would be perfect and without suffering? These questions cannot
be adequately answered this side of eternity. What we can know is whatever God
does is holy and perfect and ultimately will glorify Him. God allowed for the
possibility of evil to give us a real choice in regard to whether we worship
Him. God did not create evil, but He
allowed it. If He had not allowed evil, we would be worshipping Him out
of obligation, not by choice of our own will.
God did not create
sickness, but he allows it.
God created all there is from nothing, and He has no
end. God created many galaxies, the
stars, and the earth. He created Angel
beings, and one called Lucifer (d evil) was created most like Himself. Lucifer wanted God's glory, honor, and
praise, so God cast him out of his heavenly kingdom. God created man on planet earth exactly like
Himself (perfect). And from the man, God
created woman. (Perfect).
Lucifer (d evil) has the power and intelligence to
invent. God created man for ease. D evil invented dis ease.
If you are hurting in any way, spiritually,
emotionally, or physically, you can know you are attacked by the d evil but only
with God's approval. God will bring
blessing out of d evil's attack and love you closer to his kingdom. I will use my life with Marian as a wonderful
example of living with pain.
I met
Marian when I got a job working with mentally handicapped people. We spent many hours working together and
finally married. She did well and even
grandfathered into being the Facility Manager of a home. This home had six high functioning men. They called her mom. One day she took the men on an outing and worked
a 16-hour day. When she came home, she was pooped. The next day with their day off and we went
to a free market. We were walking around
looking at things, and she said, "Bob, I'm going to the van; you look
around, I'll be okay." Well, I continue to look, but I heard the worst
scream I have ever heard in my life. I
looked and could see Marion bend over, still screaming. The men in her home were brought to the flea
market and saw Marion. They got out of
their van, and one embraced Marion with a hug but lifted his legs. Her back could not take the 150-pound man and
broke the infusion in her back, which had started to heal. That was the end of her working life and the
beginning of a life of pain. Fifteen
years of pain every day, to be exact.
Marian's
pain grew worse, and I had to quit work and take care of her, and that was when
we were looking up to see the bottom of the barrel. Down, down, down went the finances, and we
finally lost our home, moved to Florida, and Marian went to heaven 10/12/14 as
a winner.
What
devil brought bad Father God got good from it.
The pain was BAD, but God used it to bring us closer in relationship
with Him. It brought me back to Him, so
I could help Marian grow spiritually. It
is not a happy time to see someone in constant pain, but we can retain our
joy. I would tell her Jesus loves you
and tell her about His suffering and dying, and we would watch THE PASSION OF
CHRIST and cry and then Thank Him. We
never went to bed until we had prayer together, and I would make her smile
before I left her bed. Our favorite song
was
Just A Closer Walk
With Thee
When my feeble life is
o'er
Time for me will be no more
Guide me gently, safely o'er
To Thy kingdom's shore, to Thy shore.
Life living with pain or living with someone else in pain ain't
easy. The secret to success is Hebrews
12:2 "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our
faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." If you are
down, He (Jesus) will lift you up. One
step at a time, sweet Jesus.
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