Page 32 - Dainfern Precinct Living 3 2021

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

IS GOD MERCIFUL

OR IS HE JUST?

BY PETER STOFFBERG
ill you have it when it becomes or
available? Is it safe, effective,
and ethical? Will it have negative
Wlong term-effects? Why have
governments granted pharmaceutical giants
indemnity against legal liability concerning it? Will
the people refusing it ruin it’s efficacy for everyone
else? Will they cause us to be imprisoned in these
terrible restrictions forever?

We are easily triggered by this emotive debate. You must love the Lord
Take for example this statement recently shared your God
on social media: “If the time comes, I 100% with all your heart,
support mandatory vacations for everyone. If all your soul,
anyone refuses they should be FORCED.” all your strength,
and all your mind.
Does it raise a strong response in you? Go back And, Love your neighbor as yourself.
and read it again slowly. Are mandatory vacations
really so bad? If you’re one of the few who are LUKE 10.27
able to see the word vacation first time, rather
than your brain auto-correcting it to vaccination,
then please bear with the rest of us. Regardless
of how you saw it, it’s disturbing how easily we
can be triggered into emotive reactions before
we are sure of the facts. Being triggered can lead
to reaction, and reaction can lead to incidents.
Whether we react with words or weapons, we
can quickly cause great harm to others. We’ve
all done this, got triggered, reacted and, so often,
regretted.

Someone recently shared an objection to the
Christian faith with me. They asked “How can you DAINFERN COLLEGE AUDITORIUM www.familychurch.online
believe that God will just forgive a murderer?”
They have a point.
How can God even suicide? What things have we said in anger
be just and fair that have negatively altered the entire course of
if He can forgive a human life? How can God forgive that? Is God
such an awful merciful or is He just?
crime? Imagine
the injustice of a Jesus provides the most beautiful solution to
judge dropping this dilemma. At Easter we remember that God
the case against became a human being, and that He suffered
a murderer, torture and then death, in order to pay for all
because he felt our crimes, whether perpetrated by words or
sorry for them, weapons. If we trust Him to, He does not leave
or thought their our crimes unpunished - He takes the punishment
good deeds for us. That leaves Him perfectly just, and in the
made up for their perfect position to show us His mercy.
crime? But that
leads to another We can’t trust our minds or the actions they lead
question, what’s us to, but we can trust in a God who loves us this
worse, harming much.
people physically
or harming them Have a blessed Easter vacation.
emotionally? What
about words that
lead to depression

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DPL