Page 592 … Pleasing God
“Paul was stoned and left to die … He was imprisoned … The Romans wanted to kill him … He was shipwrecked … And yet the last chapter of Acts tells us that the islanders built him and his men a bonfire to celebrate their escape from death. God had watched over them with His love, His mercy, and His Grace through all of it. Their faith must have been pleasing to God.”
Dan, are you actually suggesting that anyone who survives trials of great danger automatically has a personal faith that is “pleasing to God”? If so, what of all the hundreds of thousands of Muslims (& Hindus, & Buddhists, & Taoists, & Jains, & Sikhs, & Jews, & Bahai’s) who have endured similar trials? Obviously their faiths were similarly “pleasing to God”, right? Otherwise they wouldn’t have survived – at least according to your logic …
And what of the surely tens of thousands of atheists who have survived similar ordeals? They don’t even have a particular faith, so according to your logic they should all have all perished, and yet they did not … Hmmmm … Could it be instead that surviving our lives’ tests and trials is not as important as humbly following The Way of Christ? Could it be that surviving this life (and even gaining salvation in the next) is not as important to the all-Loving Father of Jesus as selflessly serving others while we have the chance to do so? Either way, regardless of how you personally answer these questions, Jesus certainly seemed to answer them with a resounding YES! Once again, I ask you to consider the Word of God …
“For I have set you an example, that you also should do for others exactly as I have done to you … If you understand these things, blessed are you while you DO them … A new commandment I give to you, that you Love one another. Just as I have Loved, so you also are to Love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples: when you show Love for one another.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 13:15-17 + 34-35)
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