How I Teach Bible

The Bible is not like history, science or math or even art. There is a lot of research in educational psychology, teaching strategies, etc, that is applicable to those other disciplines. I would suppose that some of the strategies for teaching math would be inappropriate for use in teaching English and maybe some of the ones for approaching history wouldn’t work for science. And maybe some would work across the board. I don’t dispute this. I have no basis to dispute it because I am not trained to teach in any area of worldly disciplines except visual arts.
In art, I am well-founded in a lot of different strategies that I have been exposed to over the 35-plus years I have been teaching in that subject area. Some of them I use and some of them I don’t use. Some of them I use under certain conditions. Some I use all the time.
I have been evaluated yearly during 30 years of teaching visual arts in Cleveland, Ohio, public schools; Eagle Heights Academy, in Revere, Massachusetts and at Riverside School. In all my evaluations I was rated excellent in all categories of examination. In Cleveland, I was a department chairperson and was a finalist for the position of Supervisor of Fine Arts, the top job.
But Bible is different. Bible is not taught using the abilities that reside in the teacher alone. It is taught, actually, by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God manifests Himself in the teacher in order to reach to the student with the mind of God and to edify that student, child or adult, with the things that God has for him/her. The teacher is a vessel. The teacher is not a puppet. The teacher is a body, soul and spirit. He is also a combination of flesh and spirit and so-called “old nature” and “new nature”. As such, the teacher has a will which he can use to choose to yield to the Spirit or not. If he yields to the Spirit, the Spirit will use him.
According to1 Corinthians 12 and other passages, God’s way of equipping a person to teach Bible is by grace as a gift/manifestation. The “gifts” of the Spirit are actually, properly translated, the “manifestations” of the Spirit. These are not received by any means that is under the control of man’s will. The Spirit gives them to “whoever he wills”. There is no mention of training, of schooling, or of development under the control of the recipient of the gift. The gift is given in its complete form. It is whole. (The unfortunate rendering of the word “study” in 2 Tim. 2:16 (KJV) has been used to support the study of scripture as a text book. The proper translation gives us this phrase: “be diligent to show yourself approved….” That is an entirely different idea.) There is no need for the recipient to contribute to it anything except acceptance and yieldedness. If there is development it is entirely in the control of God and is done supernaturally. God does a lot of things to/in us that are not even discernible until much later. An example of this would be the way trials create patience. God is able to make us into better Bible teachers his own way. And he does.
What is our part? How do we “prepare” for teaching Bible? We are responsible to read and meditate on the scriptures. We also are to assemble together to be acted upon by the same Spirit through others. That is our part. God will not give us understanding via osmosis. To feed our memory and experience into which the Spirit taps to bring out “things new and old”, we must “walk with Him and talk with him”. We can’t be carnal and expect our gifts to work properly. (That’s what happened in Corinth, remember?) And so, I have acquired in my mind the principles and doctrines that are there for the use of the Holy Spirit through reading, meditating and comparing scripture with scripture either alone or with the help of other gifted ones. Some of those gifted ones have been my pastors, authors, radio preachers, guest speakers, and “laymen”.
I first realized I had the gift of teaching when I was 25 years old. I was in a situation where I had to regularly lead inductive Bible studies and found that I was blessed to be able to take a passage and open it to others’ understanding in ways I realized were beyond my own innate abilities. At this same time I was struggling to teach art in Cleveland. The contrast between the two situations was striking. I had limited knowledge of what was in the Bible, as you can imagine. (I would still say that today.) But for the purposes at hand I knew enough. I found that when it was my turn to expound, my mind was filled with the memory of almost every verse that touched on the matter before us and in an order that was so logical and so thorough, that all I had to do was open my mouth and put it all into words. I have continued to teach this way ever since.
I have never been told that I was teaching heresy by any group that I have taught. I have never been told I was wrong about any passage. I have never had the Lord upbraid me and reveal to me through His word that I had been teaching false doctrine. On the contrary, I have often been told, privately, face to face and in notes and letters, that I have been of great help. I also have had Bible teachers who were ranked higher in the estimation of many tell me that I should never stop what I am doing.
Along with my gift, I use discretion, kindness, love, wisdom, all of which are also given by God and can’t be picked up in in-service or from books. Of course, God sees where there is room for improvement. But this project is under Jesus’ control, in Jesus’ schedule and Jesus’ agenda for his servant. The improvements must be effected spiritually, because the Bible teaching is a spiritual activity. I would not expect to find anything in any education professor’s research which would add to it. I think it’s possible that a researcher might stumble onto something that God has taught me as well, but that would be a possibility that, at this point, is not worth my time and effort to discover.

How to Study the Bible

How to study the Bible is a simple matter, really. You don’t. You don’t study it, that is. That is, you shouldn’t. Study is “an effort to learn by thinking or reading,” according to The Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionary. Such activity by Christians is not called for in the Bible. In fact, quite the opposite is the case.
I know that by saying this I am contradicting an idea taught by many esteemed preachers. Since I was saved at age 14, I have listened to a parade of Sunday school teachers, missionaries, clergymen, counselors and Bible teachers stress that we ought to spend a lot of time “digging out the treasures of the Word.” With all due respect, I value all the work they did on my behalf, but they were not correct about this issue. Let me map out the facts for my reader.

There is a great misunderstanding and misuse of this verse:

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15

At first reading this verse seems to call us to study in the normal sense of the word. But it really doesn’t. “Study” in Greek, here, means to “show diligence” or to “endeavor”. It does not mean in any way to do anything scholarly. So, then, reading it that way would go something like “Endeavor to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” That’s a little different, wouldn’t you say? And it is absolutely true.
This admonition is for Timothy to go to work for God. He needs to demonstrate God’s approval of his ministry in two ways. 1) He is to be diligent in his work, not being lazy, reluctant, fearful or anything else. 2) The “rightly dividing” of the word of truth is also a requirement for God’s approval. If Timothy does not dissect (divide) or expound the word of truth rightly, he will not be showing that he is approved by God for his ministry.
Moreover, he didn’t need to learn to do that. He had received it as a gift, by the laying on of hands and by prophecy. Take a look at 1 Timothy 4:14. Compare this with the explanation of how gifts are given by the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 and it is evident that Timothy did not become able to do God’s work by going to seminary. He didn’t learn to preach in a class that he took for that purpose. If he was true to the teachings of Paul, he would have, like Paul, eschewed “excellency of speech”. He would have “counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8) which he obtained not by taking courses in ancient languages, or hermeneutics (how to interpret the Bible) or Old Testament Survey. He would not have obtained it by pouring over the manuscripts and scrolls trying to make sense out of them with his intellectual faculties. How did he obtain that knowledge of Christ Jesus? I will take that matter up in just a moment.
But first, read 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is plain. The apostle Paul refused to use the wisdom of man or the means of man in finding wisdom. He plainly states that God has revealed to us the things that He has prepared for us in a spiritual way (verses 10, 12 and 13). If we look at what the Lord Jesus Christ said about this we find that in John 14: 26 He promises that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and bring all things to our remembrance that He said to us. Again in John 16:13 He tells us that the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth and show us things to come. Later, Paul disowns the education that he obtained in the traditional way, at the feet of Gamaliel, when he averred in Philippians 3:8 that he counted all things loss and waste for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Being equipped, Timothy was now to just get out there and do his job in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 13. It needed to be done and Timothy was the person who was approved. Human servants of God are nothing in themselves. They are “earthen vessels.” They are just containers. God uses the emptiest. He sometimes has to work with people until they are as empty as He wants them and then none of their stuff can get in the way. He is the worker. We are the conduit. We should, like Timothy, be diligent and endeavor to be a useful conduit.

Now I will answer how we do receive things from the Bible that edify us and correct us and all the other good things found in 2 Tim. 3:16.
First of all, I am not saying we can get the truth of God in any other way but by reading the Bible. I will repeat that. I do not believe that anyone can get the truth of God in any way except if he or she reads the Bible and reads it prayerfully. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Let no one criticize this paper by saying that I am advocating obtaining truth by “osmosis” or some other way. I am thoroughly convinced that God’s Word the Bible is the only source of truth and doctrine, that exists. Further, I testify that I was taught the truth that I am passing on in this paper through the reading of the Bible and the Bible only.

In 1 Timothy 4:13, Paul says “…give attendance to READING….” Timothy knew what Paul taught about acquiring knowledge and understanding of the things of Jesus Christ. He knew that Paul’s line was the 2nd chapter of 1 Corinthians. Look at that chapter again. Just what does it mean to receive the things of God? The Greek word for “receive” here is “dechomai”. It’s a pretty straight-forward word., actually. It means if something is offered you take it. You don’t refuse it, you almost embrace it. Now if I am offered a piece of pastry, it has already been baked. I don’t have to make the pastry myself. I don’t have to exert any effort. Therefore, I cannot take any credit for the goodness of the pastry, either. If I receive it I just get the good of it, the work has already been done for me. 1 Cor. 2 :12 & 14 tells me that the Holy Ghost (Spirit) offers me “things” that I can receive. I just take them. It is a bit like just reading. Isn’t that interesting? It’s just what Paul told Timothy to do. Then, in 1 Cor. 2:10, there is this word “revealed”. This word in Greek means “something which is presented to the senses, sight or hearing….” So the things of God are presented to me and I take them. Simple.
1 Cor. 2 :13 says “comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” The words really say, “sharing spiritual things by spiritual means” (or “to spiritual men”, who would be able to receive things spiritually).

So, then, the proper way to approach obtaining the knowledge of Christ Jesus is to read the Bible. Not to study it like a textbook. But to simply read it and allow the Spirit of God to impress us with the particular truth He has for us for the day.
How much can a person read at a sitting? This varies from person to person. Some people have “Attention Deficit Disorder.” If we are to believe the experts in education, more than half the population has some difficulty focusing on what they read. People who have this problem can’t read anything for very long. without being distracted away from it. On the other hand some people, who don’t have this problem, can read for a long time.
I usually recommend reading the Bible for 5 minutes at a time or, if a really interesting thought is found, read until coming to the end of the thought. This way, some reading is accomplished every day. Five minutes is not a challenge to a busy person or someone with a reading problem and if something comes up that is really interesting it doesn’t need to be cut off at the 5 minute mark
Let me say that when the Holy Spirit starts to reveal things in His Word, we remember things that were said in other places in the Bible and want to compare them. The use of a concordance is helpful and even a Bible dictionary helps when we run across a word that seems to need a little explanation. But there is a FINE LINE between using these helps to get us through what the Spirit is putting before us and our taking up the Bible as a textbook.
We cross that line when we abandon the attitude of humility and dependence on the Holy Spirit in our reading and begin to move forward with our own initiative. When we do that it is an easy step to using logic to explain verses that the Holy Spirit has not revealed to us. This leads us to the intellectual attitude of not wanting to leave any loose ends so we insist on coming to some kind of conclusion. If we can’t come to a Spirit-given conclusion fast enough to satisfy us, we may draw our own conclusion or adopt one that we find in a commentary. Once this is done, it is hard to move us off holding that doctrine. We don’t like dangling questions and once we have an answer we like to stick with it. This makes us closed to any further input. We may not even listen to the Spirit of God, if He invites us to look again at the issue in question. This is especially true if we have adopted the “popular” answer to the question. No one likes to swim against the current.

Where am I getting all this “stuff”?! A better question is “Where is the Evangelical church getting all their stuff?” Regarding Bible study, I have looked in vain for any precepts in the Word that encourage me along the lines of Bible school, seminary, correspondence courses, textbooks, commentaries, “key” verses, etc. I know, the references to teachers are a handy place to base these ideas. But remember, teachers are shown in scripture to operate in the sphere of the local church. This is the proper place of their service. When we meet together for edification, our gifted teachers help us as it teaches in Ephesians 4:11 – 13. They are duty-bound to be in the same spirit as we are when we read alone in our closet. (1 Peter 4:11) We should not be hearing any personal treatises, theories or agenda when a teacher gets up to minister to the local church. There is no mention of “preparing a sermon”. I have already covered the question of the qualifications for a minister. There is no requirement or even a recommendation that the person be formally educated. Peter wasn’t. Has there been an educated minister after Peter who has written anything that should be included in the Bible? Where am I getting this stuff? From the Bible as I received it from the Holy Spirit’s teaching (1 John 2:27)

Consider the Bereans, who searched the scriptures to see if some things were so. They were noble. It is always good to look in the Book to see if what someone says is so. Look and see if I am right about what I am saying in this paper. The term that is used of them “searching” is the same term as is in 1 Cor. 2:14, “discerned”. This basically means to investigate. Notice two things that make a difference. The Bereans were noble, yes, but they were also Jews. They would fall into the category of 1 Cor. 2:14; “natural men.” They couldn’t get anything from the Spirit like we can. Then it says that many of them believed. Natural men cannot have things given by the Spirit so the inclination of these Jews would be to approach the investigation in the traditional ways, by digging into it intellectually. The Holy Spirit met them there in order to give them something that they could receive. He quickened them and they became able to receive, spiritually, the gospel and be saved. So, the Berean Jews had only one way to search the scriptures, by the normal means defined today as “studying”. Christians, though, have the indwelling Spirit and can “receive” from Him as they “investigate” spiritually. Christians can investigate spiritually. Do you see it? The unsaved are dependent on fleshly means. The Christian is enabled spiritually.
Ezekiel 44:17 & 18 shows that God does not like us to work, in the normal sense of the word, when we minister. He did not want the priests to wear clothing that produced sweat. Sweat is a sign of human work and God will not have His things mixed with the works of man. This is an important principle. I once heard a talk on Luke 16:3 admonishing us to “dig” for things in the Bible. Well, digging produces sweat. It’s a faulty picture of what Christians should do to receive things from God. God has them all prepared and will give them to us spiritually. God doesn’t want us to use our own abilities, or it would only be the most intelligent among us who would be able to be edified. Think about that.
In the Middle Ages, the only people who could read were the clergy. They were known to be great scholars. The common man was at the mercy of his minister regarding what God required of him or promised him. Were they trustworthy? Again, they were known to be great scholars. Did the church improve under this system? Is there evidence of great strides in what is referred to in Ephesians 4? Certainly they were closer to the Bible times and had access to manuscripts that have doubtless been lost since then. Certainly they were very dedicated with less distractions than scholars have today. Again, what did the church gain under their care?
So, then, what does it mean, practically, to investigate and receive, spiritually?
We already know that we should read. We know too that we should be empty. If we take the attitude of the Laodicean, that we are rich and in need of nothing, we will receive nothing from our reading. We must think of ourselves as ignorant before God. Needy. We open the scripture and read. If we read awhile, we may come upon something we have never seen before. We may pounce upon it and eat it up and make it our own. On the other hand, we may be of the right mind to receive something but nothing seems to be there except the same things we knew from previous readings of the same passage. The Holy Spirit always has a reason for what he does with us. It may be that we need reminding and encouragement in things we already know. Another reason may be that we need to have the input of the present reading and then add to it tomorrow’s reading and the next day’s and so on until it all comes together by the management of the Holy Spirit to show us something we need to see but never have before.
While it is essential that we read alone, too, it is just as Biblical to hear the reading of the Word in a church meeting. There, brothers are in the same state of mind as I cited above in 1 Corinthians 14, humbly waiting on the Holy Spirit to bring something out of the passage that they should mention or that another would mention and they could benefit by.
Our brain and thoughts do play a part in our receiving of things from God. At the end of 1 Corinthians 2, it says that we have the mind of Christ. This means that we, as indwelt by the Holy Spirit, have access to the mind of Christ as is explained in verse 11. When we humble ourselves, the Spirit can impart from Christ’s mind to ours what the Bible is saying.
Rarely will it ever be other than what is plainly written. Only in some passages where there is much symbolism will it be difficult to understand what God wants us to know. Remember, some of us are uneducated. God does not depend on man’s educational systems in order to be able to communicate with his people. All that needs to be done is to look in the Book and see what other places the same subject is covered. (II Peter 1:20) If we read the Bible a lot we will know it so well that we will remember where these places are. So the brain, whatever its capacity, depending on our genes, is necessary for receiving the things of God but only under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Our intellect is fallen. Augustine taught that Adam’s morals and his body was affected by his fall but his intellect was not. This was a grave error. The church at large is still suffering from this bit of bad doctrine. So many church scholars and thinkers have assumed this to be correct and have depended on logic and philosophy to augment what they thought the Bible was saying. I have been told by professing Christians that for some issues which bear on the church, they would rather go to philosophers and psychologists than the pages of scripture. This is how bad it gets! I don’t think many Bible-believers are of that mind, but many of them believe the intellect, in itself, is dependable and hold that we need to use it to “study” the Bible.
As I said, there is a fine line between reading at the direction of the Holy Spirit and doing scholarly study. Often we begin reading and stumble onto verses that are controversial. We get interested in finding out the truth about these verses and so we dig in with our concordance and commentaries. That is where we cross the line. We decide to track down all the possible correct interpretations and choose one that sounds right. Just as often, we hit a dead end. This is why the verses are “controversial”; because others have attempted the same pursuit and not been totally successful. Had they been successful there would be agreement between them about the verses. The fact that there is controversy as to the interpretation indicates that many sects have been “studying” with their intellect rather than at the leading of the Spirit. Many scholars insist on having an opinion about every question that arises. Not to have an opinion on an interpretation, they think, makes them look ignorant. It makes them look incompetent as scholars. The Bible is very clear that there ought to be no “schools of opinion.” (Gal. 5:20; New Trans.) These are works of the flesh. We should not fall into the same trap, insisting that we find answers to all the problems. We can live a very good life while keeping an open mind, waiting for the Spirit to teach us or not, whatever the will of God is for us.
When the Holy Spirit is involved in our reading, we find that we are carried along, remembering, just as Christ promised, other things that are said in the Word. We go from verse to verse while the Lord orchestrates our minds to see what it is He is teaching us. When we come to the end of it, there is no more. We have our lesson for the day. How much time we spend is variable. The amount is not important. The content is. The way we receive the content is.
So, to summarize,
Depending on intellectual scholarly study is of the flesh.
The Bible does not tell us to “study” itself.
The correct way to receive things of God is to read and wait on the Lord.
Meditation was David’s habit. He mentioned it often in the Psalms. “Eating” God’s words was something the prophets were told to do.

What has been the result of Biblical scholarship? I mean the kind where more than reading and prayer is practiced. Count the divisions in the church which is “one body”, eh? The number is the same as the number of denominations. Then multiply that by about 3 because there are usually an average of 3 different parties in every local church. We can only be of one mind when we all submit our minds to the Spirit to teach us as He promised in John 14.

Affiliations (a few thoughts addressed to the Elders of my Church)

Dear Elders,

Here are some thoughts I have in regard to the idea of our church making affiliations with other churches.
The church is the body of Christ. It is one body (I Cor. 12:13). In God’s mind it is not divided. It is the only affiliation of Christians that is mentioned in the Bible. The fellowship that exists in the church is not helped by extra or separate affiliations. There is no thought of those in the Bible. None of the Apostles who wrote instructions to the early church suggested that any of them join a “fellowship” or have affiliations of any kind. They already had the “greatest” affiliation that ever existed and it exists now. That is the body of Christ. All the parts relate to each other in fellowship and in works. This is taught in Romans 12:4&5 and also Romans 12:9–16.
Please look at I Corinthians 12:12–27. Here we have the instructions for everything that the church needs in its interpersonal relations. If these instructions are followed, all the needs of the church are supplied. There is no thought here of a need to join another fellowship or affiliation. These attitudes and behaviours are to take place within the fellowship of the Body of Christ. That is, we look at ALL Christians though the view of I Corinthians 12:12-27. Also, read Ephesians 4:16 and context. Then John 17:20–23 we have Christ himself asking for “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3).
I know that you know these passages and verses very well. Comparing them with the practices of Christians in the various denominations reveals that many act against God’s will to set up a society or group that has a membership of Christians that is smaller than the entire church. We accept these things because Christians have been accepting them for hundreds of years and it is thought that this is normal. It was not in Christ’s mind in John 17. He wanted complete unity.
We sometimes don’t realize that we are taking in a seed of an idea which, when it grows, can bear bad fruit. The idea of having any kind of sub-group, extra-church organization, para-church organization, alliance or affiliation of churches is not in the Bible. The early church did not have any separate groups until heretics caused them. There were Judaizers. There were Antinomians. There were Gnostics. Then there became Catholics and non-Catholics a couple of centuries after Christ ascended. If you remember church history, the Catholics made some decisions very early, which set them apart from those who refused to agree with them. After that came all the hierarchy and abuses that mark that group throughout history. Then the Reformation caused more divisions and after that there was a flood of divisions which left us with so many different “churches” today.
It is warned that there would be schisms or sects in the body (I Cor. 11:17 – 19). People often have wrong ideas, as in Galatians 5:20 where “heresies” can be translated “schools of opinion”. A school of opinion is a group that has decided that they will interpret a certain scripture in a certain way. The interpretation they hold separates them from their brothers and sisters. They are no longer teachable on that subject. Such people are heretics. They draw others away into a separate affiliation and cause a part of the body to be separated and there is a division. There are biblical ways of dealing with this but, historically, churches have not followed them. Solving such a disagreement is very difficult and stressful. Churches that experience such divisions usually just give up and separate into two groups. People who agree with a heretic go off with him and start a new “church”.
So now we have many divisions in the church. Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists (and even among the Baptists, we have Southern Baptists, Regular Baptists, Hard Shell Baptists, Missionary Baptists, and many more others.) These were formed as a result of a disagreement between two or more Christians who felt it would be better to start a new group than to pray until God showed them a way to deal with their argument. New members come in to one of these churches and they don’t know all that is believed by that church. They rarely research to see what ideas may be believed in any group other than the cardinal doctrines. They would probably not realize which doctrines were wrong anyway because they are still babes in Christ. So they are included, without knowing it, into a sub-group of the universal body of Christ. They just adopt their church’s stand and say “our church believes….”
How does our church see itself as different from other evangelical believer groups in the world? Is it that we are not charismatic? Do we hold certain important beliefs that they do not? It has been said that some in our church feel we are the “best” church; that we are the only ones who are really completely right. I totally agree that some of our differences are necessary to maintain the testimony of Christ. I believe that there are many dogmas out there that it would be wrong for us to adopt. They are unscriptural. We need to separate ourselves from these. But does that require us to affiliate with others that agree with us?
When churches form fellowships or affiliations within the frameworks of their denominational beliefs they often have many happy years. But sometimes there are disagreements and divisions within them anyway. No matter how sincere men are in their intentions to keep these affiliations simple and happy, eventually, there is trouble. Maybe the second generation doesn’t have the vision of their parents and it happens then. Also, we often have individuals who like to take control. In an affiliation, this is easy. Manipulation and intimidation is possible when there is an official organization where manipulators and intimidators can work to take control. If our church was a member of such an affiliation, there is no guarantee that it could not happen to us. The whole idea of affiliations is unbiblical. God cannot be asked to bless something that is outside his instructions to us. When we form an affiliation within the body of Christ, we are asking for trouble.
I am not saying that our church has any but the best motives for considering affiliating with a group of some kind. But I think it is unscriptural and dangerous. We can simply just practice the unity that already exists in the body of Christ with our brothers and sisters here and across the globe. We can visit our brothers and sisters in various places, and minister to them, if they will allow us, enjoy their ministry, but please let’s not form, or join, an organization.
I am realistic. I know how Christians behave. Many would not accept the fellowship of our church because of doctrinal differences. We may find it almost impossible to practice the unity that Christ asked for in John 17:20-23 even here in this small town we live in. But we should take that position anyway.

Your brother, who loves you dearly.

WHY DOES NOT GOD STOP THE TROUBLE?

This question is more in the minds of thinking people than any other. The problem of the innocent who suffer for the guilty; the apparent hopeless confusion of world affairs; the collapse of any standard of right or wrong --- all cause a great number of people to doubt God, even to question His existence.
It seems clear that when you ask why God does not stop the trouble His ability is not in doubt. It is, rather, that we question why he does not act. So, then, why does God apparently do nothing to stop the ”trouble”?
Think a minute, what is it that He has to stop? It is people. It is hatred, violence, lust, selfishness, jealousy, dishonesty and a whole host of other things. Very well, then, the question to us is “Are you prepared to let God stop these things in you?” Yes, that is where the rub comes. The whole issue is essentially a personal one. What about your selfishness, your jealousy, your sin? To be brutally frank, if you are not prepared for God to start with you, you can never again ask the question “Why doesn’t God stop the trouble?”
There is another thing to consider. Instead of sitting afar off, criticizing God for his negligence, we need to consider some sobering facts. It is certain that one day God will stop it all. He will break into world affairs in the person of his son to destroy everything that is evil in the world. If we refuse to be separated from that which God must judge, namely the sin in our lives, then, inevitably, we will be judged with it. If God appears to be silent now, it is because he loves to deal with men in mercy instead judgment. He is giving us all more time.
And, when you ask, “Why doesn’t God stop the trouble?” have you ever thought about the Cross? Why didn’t he stop it there. Why didn’t God deliver his son from murder at the hands of wicked men? There is only one answer to that: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5)
God allowed it in order that the judgment of human sin should be borne at the Cross. He is, therefore, now able to deal with us in mercy because judgment has been met. Yes, all will be judged. The only difference is that all who put their faith in Christ, crucified and risen, are able to say that judgment for them is not future but past.
The wonderful thing is that in response to repentance, which means a change of attitude towards the machine that makes evil in us and faith, which means that we trust Christ now, God calls us his child and will begin to work in us to shut off that engine that creates the part that we contribute to the trouble of the world.
Author Unknown