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God Causes All Things

             And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-29)

I know: the first verse in this passage is the go-to verse for anyone wishing to fulfill their responsibility to love and encourage without bothering to love or encourage. It’s the verse with which we may throw away those who are struggling so we don’t have to listen to their crying. I know. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an important, good verse. The first step in understanding it is to put it back into context, at least a little.

The first step in any discussion is the definition of terms. So when we use the term good, we tend to mean pleasing to us, accommodating us, and generally being the way we want. To see what God means, we need to look at the next sentence. Good means conformed to the image of His Son. Good means fitting us to be the siblings of Jesus Christ. And that’s where we go on what a friend describes as a “Yabbit” (Yeah, but…) hunt.

We can’t say we don’t want to be like Jesus, but we want to be like Him in power and authority more than we do meekness and love. And “they” are wrong. Can’t God see that? Think about the good we could do if we only had the power, or as described in The Lord of the Rings, the “one ring.” We’d rather be Boromir than Gandalf or Galadriel. 

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