09/01/2022 – “The truth of the matter is, Satan and God may want the exact same event to take place – but for different reasons. Satan’s motive in Jesus’ crucifixion was rebellion; God’s motive was love and mercy. Satan was a secondary cause behind the Crucifixion, but it was God who ultimately wanted it, willed it, and allowed Satan to carry it out. And the same holds true for disease.”-Joni Eareckson Tada (see attached commentary)
This quote connects directly to so much of scripture. Do we really believe what we say we believe is really true. As Peter Kreeft notes in “How to be Holy”, our current men’s book study fellowship: His favorite verse: Roman’s 8:28 , certainly strikes us as too good to be true. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who are called according to His purpose.” It is all about faith, hope and love. And hope that is seen is not hope! Unfathomable as it is, we serve an unfathomably powerful and loving God!
Check out this footnote I see in 8: 29 – 30: “.. Beyond God’s foreknowledge of His people, He has ‘predestined’ a general outcome for them: being ‘conformed to the image of His Son,’ so that at His coming Christ will exult with His many brothers and sisters who bear His family resembalance. So God ‘calls’ these His own people (9: 24-26); He invites them be His. Before the bar of justice, God declares them ‘not guilty.’ They are ‘justified.’ At Christ’s return, God will ‘glorify’ His people, restoring the glory diminished by sin (3: 23; 8:17).”
So, “too good to be true”? For the world – absolutely!, for our God: absolutely not!, his love and holiness has no bounds…
SolI Deo Gloria indeed!