Thought for May 19

 History:

  • 1536: Anne Boleyn beheaded
  • 1662: Act of Conformity causes 2000 Puritan ministers in England to be forced from the church for refusing to accept the Book of Common Prayer
  • 1883: Bill Cody opens Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
  • 1884: Ringling Brothers circus premiers
  • 1906: Boy's Club of America organizes
  • 1919: Volcano eruption on Java kills 5,160
  • 1928: First Frog Jumping Jubilee in California
  • 1935: NFL adopts college draft to begin in 1936
  • 1943: Berlin declared "free of Jews"
  • 1960: Alan Freed and 8 others accused of taking payola
  • 1964: 40 secret microphones found in US Embassy in Moscow
  • 1973: Secretariat wins Preakness in record time [later broken]
  • 1977: "Smokey and the Bandit" premiers
  • 2018: Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle
  • 2019: Robert Smith announces he will pay off college loans for students at Morehouse College
  • Born: Johns Hopkins, Ho Chi Minh, Nicholas Winton ["British Schindler" save 600 children from Nazis], Malcolm X, Curly Neal [Globetrotters], Andre the Giant, Grace Jones, Nicole Brown Simpson
  • Died: Nathaniel Hawthorne, TE Lawrence, Howard Grose ["Give ofYour Best for the Master"], Ogden Nash, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Millie [George HW Bush's ""Millie's Book"], Morley Safer, Alan Young [Mr. Ed]
Thought:
Reading Romans 8:28 again this morning. "we all know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." This is a hard scripture to believe, accept, trust. When we look around it seems that things are not working for good for Christian friends. They suffer loss, pain, injury, disease, job loss, failure. 
  • We know. If I base what I know on what I see and hear physically, I have a hard time believing this verse. But that is not what I know--here knowing means believing. By faith, I believe that God is working all things out for our good. I don't understand how or why or why now, but God has promised and so I believe even though  I cannot see. Faith must become sight. 
  • All things. Surely God is not using all things--what about the loss of a child, the cancer diagnosis, ALS. When sin came into the world, the perfection of Eden was lost--pain, death, disease entered the world. They are the tools of Satan. BUT God takes those arrows of Satan and turns them into a means to give Him glory. When a saint faithfully fights a dreaded disease--God is glorified. When loss cannot rob us of our joy, God is glorified. God is sovereign and is working in every situation.
  • For good. Here is where God speaks to me today. The verse does not say that God causes all things to work for our comfort, our happiness, our preferences--it is for good. Makes me think of Joseph--what his brothers intended for evil, God used for good [not Joseph's comfort, pleasure, happiness] but for good. When bad things are happening, Satan intends them for evil--to cause fear, doubt, and turn us away from God. God uses those events for our "ultimate' good and His eternal glory. The cross may come to mind--what man intended for evil, God used for good. I may not see or understand, but I know that is exactly what God is doing in my life. 
Blessings
Larry

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