Ask Kate Night

Well, girls, you asked and I tried my best to answer!  

In case you couldn't be there last Wednesday, I really wanted to share my answers on our blog!  Feel free to comment any further questions, or if something is unclear, or if you just want to be the first person to comment on the blog :)

THREE QUESTIONS

You girls wanted a night to ask questions and we only got three!!!!  However, ya'll covered a pretty broad spectrum with your three questions; love, evil/free-will and creation!  Philosophers and theologians have been trying to answer these questions since the beginning of time, so I'm glad yall have confidence in me! I just read a great quote from Andrew Louth that said, "The purpose of theology is to safeguard against misunderstandings that frustrate a life of prayer."  I hope that you realize that as we answer these questions, our purpose in life isn't just to find answers, but to know God.  

So, anyway, the questions and answers:

1. Do you really love me?  The short answer is, YES!  I love you girls so much!  I'm so thankful for each of you!  The book of 1John, talks a lot about love (remember our "Summer of Love" study over 1John?) and 1John 4.19 says, "We love because He first loved us."  Girls, because God showed me unconditional love, I can show unconditional love to the world.  As a side note; we show love by our actions (1John 3.16-18, 4.20; James 2.26). If someone tries to make you feel bad for disagreeing with them or correcting them by telling you, "you don't love me," then they are trying to manipulate you.  Love isn't always easy and it's not always popular, sometimes we have to confront people's sin because we love them. I'm thankful for the times that friends called me out on lust or laziness or pride, those are times that I leaned into God and learned to trust Him in my weakness.  I'm so thankful for the friends who took a risk to hold me accountable because they loved me.

2. What was God's motive for allowing all the evil things to happen to the Jews in the holocaust?  Again, I'm glad you think I can answer this, I'll do my best. I think 1John has some insight for us on the subject of God's involvement in evil when it says, "Do not let anyone lead you astray.  He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning." (1John 3.8a) I think Scripture is pretty clear that people who pursue evil things are actively pursuing the enemy, when people pursue God, they actively pursue righteousness. The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy us, but we see in John 3.8b that the only thing Jesus came to destroy is the devil's work.  Where Jesus is, there is freedom and life.  So, with awful events like the holocaust, I tend to lean away from God allowing those things to happen and I think those things break God's heart.  Hitler was depraved, crazy with power and totally absorbed in ungodly ideas which produced an unimaginably ungodly event.  As for God "allowing" it and other evil things to happen (I think you already know where I'm going) I think it goes back to The Garden in Genesis.  Because Adam and Eve chose to believe the serpent's lie over God's word to them (Genesis 3) we learn that God loved us enough to let us do what we desired.  God created us that we will desire Him, but he allows us to have free will so we might choose to love Him-- the flip-side of course, is that we also have free will to listen to the lies of the enemy and choose to sin against Him.  I heard a preacher recently say, "Sin isn't a matter of being 'good' or 'bad' it's a matter of being 'alive' or 'dead'" Satan has always led us away from God into sin saying, "you won't die..." but we see in Genesis that he lies-  Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the LIFE." I hope that is a helpful answer.  I know I skirted around it a little, and I know that there are many instances in the Old Testament where God instructs that people be killed, I'd love to talk about this more in a face-to-face, Bible-open conversation. (Really, I'd love that!)

...and finally #3!

3. Why did God create us? Was He that bored? In Genesis 1.2, we see the Spirit of God hovering over the formless, empty waters of the earth when he says, "Let there be light." God goes on to create 

E V E R Y T H I N G

then in Genesis 1.26 "God said, 'Let US make man in OUR image, in OUR likeness..."

God said to God... ???

The way I've heard this explained is that God the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one God who live and reign eternally together in Heaven.  So in their creative community they decided to create humanity.  Scripture doesn't really say WHY God decided to create us, but we do see that He wanted to do it and so He did.  Later we see that He wanted to know the people He created, He spent time with them in the garden (Gen 3.8) He and Adam worked together to name all the animals (Gen 2.19+20) and it seems like God genuinely liked to be with humanity.  So I think based on all that, God created us because He wanted to :)

I hope that the Lord is helping you all to work through all the questions you have as you seek Him in prayer and in His word.

Keep seeking Him! He wants to be found by you!

Love, Kate