Keep updated! Join the Jesus Cafe mailing list. Your Email Address : subscribe unsubscribe		The Big Picture (or... When God Doesn't Make Sense) By Jules, October 1999 Recommended Reading "When God Doesn't Make Sense" by Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family Imagine this: You're a happy-go-lucky kid, running an errand for your father. While on this errand, your ten older brothers decide that they don't like you. As a matter of fact, they despise you. So, they take your coat from you, throw you in a big hole, sell you as a slave to the neighboring country, and tell your father that you're dead. Life would look pretty bleak, huh? It might appear that God had abandoned you. Not so. God was right there beside Joseph all the way through his many trials and tribulations. He used this AWFUL situation to make Joseph the 2nd most important man in Egypt (second only to Pharaoh). Incredibly, God took Joseph's situation and turned it around to SAVE the lives of the same brothers who sold him into slavery. This demonstrates an amazing truth about God that can bring comfort to those who find themselves in desperate situations. God did not put Joseph in that pit nor sell him into slavery. A few misguided and imperfect men did that. However, God DID take that situation and make good come from it. Many of us find ourselves in circumstances that puzzle us. We believe that a "loving God" could never allow "this" to happen. Fortunately, God sees the big picture from beginning to end. He gave us free will, and knew that some would use it for evil. (Consider the alternative: robots who parrot praises to a God who forces Himself of people. yuck!) Because He wants voluntary followers, He created the world in such a way that He could even use peoples' evil choices for the good. your good. Recent, but vivid examples, are the shootings at Columbine and Wedgewood. Men, who made free-will choices, shot and killed a number of innocent people. Since that time, hundreds of people have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior as a direct result of the shootings. Their ETERNAL lives have been saved because God used the evil choices of people and turned it into good. Your circumstance may not be as "big" as Joseph's or the shootings, but it is just as important to God. He sees YOUR big picture, and knows the good that is going to come from it. Take comfort in this truth. We serve a faithful God. What do you think? Add your thoughts and experiences regarding this topic to our message boards.
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