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January 5th, 2004 |
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Bumper Sticker Philosophy
It seemed to peak in the 60’s and 70’s (Visualize World Peace, Make Love Not War, America—Love It or Leave It), but bumper sticker philosophy is a uniquely American form of communication. Recently, I spied this brief missive:
May All Beings
Cease From Suffering
My initial reaction was, “Noble, but naive.” My next thought was, “Not very scriptural either!”
In the Gospel of John, Chapter 16, Verse 33, you will find these words: “In this world you will have trouble.” Wow, what kind of a promise is that???
Of course there is suffering in this world. We all know it—we’ve all experienced it. And it comes from God’s love.
What? God loves us, so we suffer? No, God loves us so he created the world, created us to fellowship with Him in this world, and yet He didn’t want us to be robots. He wanted us to love Him of our own volition, so he gave us the free will to accept or reject Him. In exercising that free will, Adam, for all of us, chose to reject Him in the moment. As a result of man’s sin, we live in an imperfect and fallen world. One in which beings suffer. One in which we do have trouble!
But why did God have to tell us in His word that we’ll have trouble? In that same verse John states, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.”
Well that’s swell! How does that give us peace? Just read the rest of the verse…
“But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Christ can cover the suffering. Christ can handle the trouble in this world.
Wow, that’s someone I want to get to know. How about you?
Paul Neighbors
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