The hurricane season will be coming to a close soon here but not before delivering some horrible storms that have left scores dead, property obliterated and flooding that has even now yet to abate. With the storms there have been proclamations by alleged 'preachers of Christianity' that this storm or that one was because of the the gays, the vote on Kavanaugh (yeah or ney?) or any reason that seems to fit their desired agenda. I double-dog-dare-you to find any section or snippet of scripture that can spell out such a link.
At the same time we have here in this passage from Corinthians a notation of the things that God was unhappy about and how the Israelites suffered so. They too were given the answer and the resultant denials and straying was met with their own demise in many ways. I think God may very well have a great deal to be unhappy with us about. We too were given the answer in The Way, Jesus Christ. How is that going for us? It is easy to point fingers at people you think have strayed or at least have strayed worse than you. We are after all, sinners, every one of us. Who is to say which sin is worse? Who is to say you are even right about another persons actions? Yet we do and blame the marginalized, those that do not agree with us, don't follow our own plan or vision of salvation. And yet we are all mired in the same miasma of our own petulance and sin.
God has set forth a magnificent creation in no simplistic manner, no matter how you look at it. God also gave us free will, a conscience, a soul and the ability if not penchant to love. I a firm believer that God does not mete down his beloved creations with punishments for actions we have taken, for lives we have perhaps so errantly lived. We make our own punishments by our own choices and not punishments administered by some faux televangelist seeking money for his 4th jet to 'proclaim the good news of salvation'. We are in command of what happens to us, no need or desire for God to punish us. If we create a green house world by our collective actions and inaction's, it is not God who brings the superstorms that kill us, it is ourselves. If we live by Madison avenue and a never ending quest for the next best thing and fulfillment through objects, we will die not fulfilled one iota of divine destiny. God does not punish us but we punish by whom or what we place on thrones in place of our Creator.
Before we start blaming others for their sins, perhaps we need to seek what it is about ourselves that needs to be addressed. Matthew 7:4 says it so well. God, I believe, is more concerned about your own actions and not your concerns about your neighbors actions.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
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