My Father in Heaven is Perfect

Growing up in New Orleans,
Camille realized that a lot of evil happens in the "Big Easy,"
but because she grew up in a Christian family,
her family and friends had sheltered her
from the drinking, gambling and voodoo
that so often characterizes the city.

When their home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina,
Camille's family lost everything.
The days following the storm were traumatic.
Her friends were missing--
many had to move, while one actually died.
Everything she owned had been ruined.
Life as Camille knew it was suddenly altered forever.
Her family moved to Texas to find a new home.

It was hard to rebuild their lives with new friends and places.
One day at school Camille met some Christians
who believed that Hurricane Katrina
was the direct result of God's judgment
on the people of New Orleans.
They told her that God was angry
with all the evil that took place in the city and
He had decided to destroy it to punish people.

With her heart sinking, Camille began to cry.
She wondered what she, a Christian teenager,
had done to deserve such a punishment.
If God is such a God of love,
where was He during Hurricane Katrina?
She had always trusted God!
Why had He let her down?

The way to understand such disasters
is to view them from God's perspective.
If God cares about a sparrow falling to the ground,
then surely He cares about every human who is hurting.

Who is responsible for pain and suffering? 
Does God hurt people to force them to obey Him?
Can you really imagine the same Jesus
who once calmed the raging sea,
telling the waves to destroy the people of New Orleans?
No, God is the lifegiver and restorer, not the lifetaker.

God's enemy Satan is the destroyer.
When disasters hurt people,
it's important to remember that we are in a war zone.
God created this earth as a safe home for man.
When Adam and Eve ignored God's advice
they placed this world in an unatural state
by turning it over to Satan.
Yes, God is ultimately in control,
but He does not take away freedom of choice.
For a short time on this earth
He is allowing Satan's sin experiment to play out.

Sometimes we struggle to understand
why God has temporarily allowed Satan to have his way,
But we need to remember that God's government
is not based on coercion.
He desires no twisting of arms or forced obedience.
Those who live with God forever will live with Him
only because they choose to be with Him.

The deceiver wants us to imagine that
God is revengeful and forceful.
Satan hopes the disasters he creates will be blamed on God.

Someday in love, God will do His strangest act;
God, the life-giver,
will let go of those who refuse to be a part of Him.
This too, is an act of His love-- 
He simply will not force them to dwell with Him forever.
He will simply let them go.

Meanwhile, God is allowing Satan
to have his way with this old world--
Earthquakes, floods, starvation, tsunamis,
cancer, murder, wars--you name it.

When earth reeling events happen,
Christians don't have to fear.
We can put our trust in Jesus.
He, who once calmed the angry seas,
promises to never allow us to be given
more than we can bear.
He has promised,
"Lo I am with you always!"

It is always the darkest before dawn.
Things will look very bleak
Then in glorious light,
shining across the ruined earth's landscape,
Our Creator, Jesus, will come in clouds
and every eye will see Him!

Every tear shed
and every anguish once suffered
will be erased in the light of His glory.
God will make a new heaven and a new earth
and all these former things will be forgotten.

Even so come, Lord Jesus!

God Gave Control of the Earth
to Adam and Eve,
but they  gave it over to Satan 

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s;
But the earth He has given to the children of men.
Psalm 115:16

On This Earth,
Time and Chance Happen to Everyone

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,  nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
but time and chance happen to them all.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 

God's Character Treats All With Love

But I say to you, love your enemies,
bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;
for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:44-45

It was Satan's Idea to Ruin Job
But God Gave Him Limits

Then the Lord said to Satan,
"Have you considered my servant Job?
There is no one on earth like him;
he is blameless and upright,
a man who fears God and shuns evil."

"Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied.
Have you not put a hedge around him
and his household and everything he has?
You have blessed the work of his hands,
so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.
But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has,
and he will surely curse you to your face."

The Lord said to Satan,
"Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands,
but on the man himself do not lay a finger." 
Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Job 1:8-12

God's Angels Are Now Holding Back
Satan's Power to Destroy

After this I saw four angels standing
at the four corners of the earth,
holding back the four winds of the earth
to prevent any wind from blowing
on the land or on the sea or on any tree.
Then I saw another angel coming up from the east,
having the seal of the living God.
He called out in a loud voice to the four angels
who had been given power to harm the land and the sea:
"Do not harm the land nor the sea or the trees
until we put a seal on the foreheads  
of the servants of our God."
Revelation 7:1-3

Despite the Trouble of This Life
Jesus Will Have the Final Word 

These things I have spoken to you,
that in Me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation;
but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

Inspirational Thoughts:

Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment
visited upon them by the direct decree of God.
It is thus that the great deceiver
seeks to conceal his own work.
By stubborn rejection of divine love and mercy,
the Jews had caused the protection of God
to be withdrawn from them,
and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his will.
The horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem
are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power
over those who yield to his control.
We cannot know how much we owe to Christ
for the peace and protection which we enjoy.
It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind
from passing fully under the control of Satan.
The disobedient and unthankful
have great reason for gratitude
for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check
the cruel, malignant power of the evil one.
But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance,
that restraint is removed.
God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner
of the sentence against transgression;
but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves,
to reap that which they have sown.
Every ray of light rejected,
every warning despised or unheeded,
every passion indulged,
very transgression of the law of God,
is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest.
The Spirit of God, persistently resisted,
is at last withdrawn from the sinner,
and then there is left no power to control
the evil passions of the soul,
and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan.

-The Great Controversy p.35