God's
Fourth Great Gift
by:
Pastor Dan M. Appel
My mother is dying.
Some time in the past year or two a stray virus invaded the DNA of one of the cells in her colon and began to replicate itself. Last summer she began tiring easily and bled occasionally from her colon. When she went to the doctor he said that he thought it was an ulcer bleeding, gave her some medication and sent her home. When she still wasn't better in the fall, she returned to his office and he decided to do a colonoscopy. He discovered a tiny spot that looked malignant and scheduled a surgery that he thought would be a short one. Several hours after the operation began, my mother's doctor and the surgeon were very subdued when they came out to the waiting room. Instead of a tiny spot, they discovered the tip of a large tumor that had grown out into her pelvic cavity, surrounded a number of major vessels, and attached itself to the pelvic wall. They removed what they could, hoped that they got it all, and closed her up. They told us that if it recurred, chemotherapy or radiation would do no good.
Two weeks ago my mother had a follow-up cat-scan and they discovered that her cancer had recurred aggressively. Worse, it shows every indication of starting to invade her spinal column - a prospect the doctors say will create the worst pain it is possible for a human being to endure - with nothing that they can do to control her agony. They are contemplating radiation, hoping to slow it down enough that the malignant army in her body will invade a place where they can control the pain as she dies.
My mother is dying and I'm mad as . . . well lets just say that I'm mad as that hot place that pastors are only supposed to talk about in their sermons.
Actually, I am more than angry. I am experiencing a whole gamut of emotions - all of them negative. Fear, despair, loneliness, frustration, anger and helplessness are just some of the nameable emotions that are coursing through my existence as I think of her death. This is someone whom I love. In one very real sense, she is the one who created me. She fed me from her breasts, sacrificed for my happiness, made my school lunches and helped me with my homework. She taught me to cook, laughed at my silly jokes, soothed my broken heart, and faced my tormentors like a caged lion. In short, she loved me and my sister with all of her heart. She was my first Valentine, the one who taught me the true meaning of Christmas and who taught me that people, and especially family, were more important than things. She came to love God as a young bride and gave herself and all of her resources including her children to the church she came to love. Her confidence in God and her understanding of the real meaning of stewardship in all of its forms taught me that love for God is a tangible thing that expresses itself in all areas of life.
If you can appreciate my feelings, you have already gone a long way toward understanding the Bible and the God who inspired it. It is the passionate agonizing story of His feelings about the loss of His dearest loved ones. You can read the story in Genesis, the 1st book of the Bible, chapter 3.
One of the most important things to God is the power and freedom that we each have to choose - even to choose to reject Him. He created us as creatures with free moral choice. We are not robots - we can choose to be His friend or to reject Him; we are free to choose His Kingdom or that of His enemy Satan. Apparently God created all of His intelligent beings with this marvelous freedom. So far as we know it was one of angels, the term used in the Bible for God's heavenly created messengers and staff members, who first rebelled against the rule of God. His name was Lucifer, Son of the Morning, and he was one of the chief angels in heaven - the place where the capitol of the universe is located. He chose to rebel against the rule of God and took 1/3 of the other angels with him. Lucifer, Son of the Morning, became Satan, the Adversary. In other places the Bible calls him the Devil, Azazel, the Great Dragon, and The Ancient Serpent. The Bible in Revelation, the final book of the Bible, tells us that there was war in heaven and the Devil and his angels fought against Michael and His angels and were defeated and thrown out of heaven. We next find them on this earth lying in wait to destroy God's newest creation by leading them into rebellion against their Creator God. That Ancient Serpent set out to take revenge on God and he succeeded.
The immutable law of the universe specificed that the just wages of rebellion are death.1 Adam and Eve freely chose to rebel and break that law. If you had been God, what would you have done? The temptation must have been tremendous to destroy this whole earth and everything on it and to start over. It would have been easy for Him - He had created it all in the first place. But there would have been a terrible price. Remember, God has no desire to create robots. If He had instantly incinerated this world and its inhabitants along with Satan the rebel and all of his fallen cohorts, He would have been served forever by the rest of His creation out of fear. Terror is an altogether different emotion than the loyalty of love. God could not, would not, bear the thought of those He had lovingly created serving Him out of anything but love.
So, rather than killing us, God, while we were still rebels, died for us."2 "God loved the world" that is you and me, "so much that He gave His only Son so that whoever believed in Him would not be destroyed, but would have eternal life."3
God, to go back to what I said at the beginning, experienced all of the negative emotions we experience when those we love face death. He was so angry at what sin was doing to His loved ones He was willing to die in their place, so that they could be forgiven and welcomed back to His family.
If that does not make you feel loved, I don't know what will!
If you'd like to know more about this incredible God, we'd like to tell you about Him. Why not drop by and visit us. We talk about Him in our church's services. We are discovering what a pleasure it is to know Him, and to serve Him, and worship Him. He is becoming our Friend as well as our Father and being a part of His family is great beyond anything you have ever imagined. We'd like to introduce you to Him, or if you know Him already, we'd like to help you to get to know Him better. And, while you're there, introduce yourself to me. I'd like to get to know you. Or if you can't visit our church services, why not drop me a line by clicking on the link below.
I'll look forward to hearing from you.
1. Romans 6:23
2. Romans 5:7,8
3. John 3:16
© Dan M. Appel
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