Who's To Blame?

Early this morning I was directed to look at an inspiring video about a young man who had been shot several times and lived. He attributes his life and miraculous recovery to the hand and grace of God. The video was awesome and can be found here in it's 15 minute entirety. Like many Youtube videos people who watched posted comments, and many of them were inspirational. However one comment in particular from an Atheist asked the question why would God save this young man and not other good and innocent youth that get shot on city streets like Chicago daily. 

Here is the quote posted "I believe this story is true, and I also happen to be an atheist. This kid was extremely lucky, plain and simple. If god chose to help him because he was such a great person (15 year old punk skater, his own words), then how do you explain kids being murdered randomly in a park in Chicago like the female honor student who played at Obama's inauguration? She seemed like a good person to me, yet she is dead. Too bad god couldn't help her out..why do you think that is so?"

Since this blog/daily devotional is about sound theology, I have undertaken the task of briefly explaining this because there is a lot of confusing information about how God interacts in the world. 

First God is LOVE and God loves us. 

Second because God loves us so much, God wanted us to love him not by force but by choice. Therefore we all have free will/ the option to make decisions. 

Thirdly we can make great decisions all of our life, but the person next to us has the same ability to make decisions. They might make horrible decisions that can effect all of us. Examples of this happen everyday when someone chooses to shoot up a school or rob a bank. These things does not mean God does not love us, nor do they mean the Devil made someone do something bad. We must remember who is to blame for our good and bad decisions, as well as the decisions of others.

The biblical example I would like to offer up for refection is Genesis 3. Just like Eve and Adam no one can make you do anything, temptation is always around.

Genesis 3

New International Version (NIV)

The Fall

 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”

Who's to blame in your life for the bad decisions and the negative temptations  that you have given in to ? 

Merciful God we pray that you help us to understand you better, to love you and each other more. God show us how to make the best decisions in our life and enable us to show many others how to do the same. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Be well, and be blessed Love PJ.