Christians Say the Darndest Things

August 5, 2010 in Christian with 14 Comments

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This post comes from something I heard a few days ago that didn’t really settle well with me. This person said that God gave them a certain disease so they could now minister to those with that same illness. What? God gives diseases to bring folks to Him now? That’s a new one. Let’s discuss this.

What’s a topic/statement you’ve heard someone say lately that you don’t exactly agree with?

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the more i try

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http://twitter.com/emaconly Emily Macon

In reference to the story about the baby drowning during a baptism: “Well, maybe it was God's will.”
Prudence

I don't think God gives diseases, but I think He allows them to happen. We live in a fallen world. The effects of sin ravage our bodies. Disease is one of those. If you look at the story of the blind man whom Jesus healed and the disciples asked if it was his parent's sin that had led to him being blind, Jesus response was neither his sin or his parents but that he was born blind so God could have the glory in his healing.

Nothing gets to us that doesn't go through God's approval for allowance first. He doesn't make us ill.
http://twitter.com/jackalopekid Adam Smith

agreed he allows it. im just tired of the blame everything on God mentality.
http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com @kylelreed

I had this discussion on my blog yesterday but it lends from this type of discussion…a candidate who was running for state auditor was described as a christian that was pro-life and pro-gun.
I have a hard time seeing those two stand together.
http://twitter.com/Joshfong Josh

Well, I don't think that't quite right. I believe that God doesn't give you that illness. BUT, as Romans 8:28 says (All things work together for those who love God), He can use that situation to bring someone in a similar situation closer to Him.
Megs

Just cause you've got a gun doesn't mean you're killing people.
Plenty of people have been killed without guns involved.
http://twitter.com/JeremyDurocher JD

Those 2 things go just fine together. One is about faith, one about politics (2nd Amnendment). During elections things tend to get messy because people tend to mash their faith and politics together.
http://twitter.com/JeremyDurocher JD

This is similar to your other tweet earlier about Ann Rice. Our churches need to do a better job educating the congregations about the truths of the bible, as well as the other stuff we are doing.
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Wayne

Don't know if God gives them or not, though I would appreciate a God who didn't. But I do believe God is big enough to hear our rants about being ill and still love us.
joanpball

This is a tough one. When God told Satan to take Job and do anything to him but kill him, who did what to God's most faithful servant? God had a point to make and Job was the sacrificial lamb through whom he chose to make it. I don't really have a problem with that. He is the potter and I am the clay. The Bible makes clear that he made some to keep and some to throw away. Was I made to keep? To throw away? To receive blessings? To be a sacrifice to show the Devil who's boss? I don't know. I will tell you that my life was happy and comfortable before I came to believe in God and that it has been the hardest seven years of my life since I came to faith. Is that God? Frequently I think it is–molding me and making me as an answer to the prayer of my heart: make me into the woman you want me to be with a will that is perfectly aligned to yours. When Paul was on the ground blind from his encounter with God it was not Satan or the fallen world that threw him there. It was God. God is good, but God is also jealous. God is good, but God also rebukes. God is good, but our definition of good and his may be very very different.
http://twitter.com/jackalopekid Adam Smith

great thoughts joan. have only read the 1st chapter of the book that u sent. i promise i'm getting to it my friend. life has just been so busy
http://twitter.com/jamieleefinch Jamie Finch

No way, dude.
That's not the kind of sufferng that He talks about giving us in order to discipline us as sons.
That kind of suffering is a product of the fact that our world us broken and those kinds of things just exist in that brokenness. They are products of sin. God has nothing to do with “causing” them. By nature, He can't. He tells us that in His Kingdom, once it comes fully on earth, there will be no sickness or disease. So if those things are not a part of the Kingdom of God, how could they be directly caused by God Himself?
What He does is allow, and then redeem.
It's a part of that whole “making all things new” deal. He doesn't HAVE to redeem sickness and disease to be used for the purpose of ministry (or REALLY, His glory), but He can and does. Similarly, He doesn't have to redeem the decisions we make to sin, but He can and does.
Saying that God causes disease is another way of saying that God desires disease for us. And that is just absolutely not true. Not only that, but that line of thinking is incredibly dangerous because it can cause us to begin to believe lies about His character that we might not even be aware we are believing.
http://darylhb.blogspot.com/ darylhb

A few weeks ago our church was studying John 9:1-5, the account of Jesus healing a man who'd been born blind.

Jesus said that “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”. Everyone immediately assumed that Jesus meant the man being born blind was planned by God and the conversation degenerated to a discussion on the fariness of God.

But I don't think that's what Jesus meant at all.

After Jesus said that this had happened so that God's glory could be revealed, he began speaking about his own role, and the disciples' roles (indeed our roles, if we are followers of Christ), in doing what they'd been called to do.

This would suggest that when Jesus said, “this happened so that God's glory might be displayed,” the “this” he was referring to was not, in fact, the man's blindness, but Jesus' actual encounter with the man.

The man was not made blind so that he could be healed and so reveal God's glory.

Jesus met the blind man and healed him so that God's glory might be displayed.

This is in line with Romans 8:28, which says, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him”. Bad things happen without God. They are not of God. But God turns them around to bless people and reveal His sovereignty.

The man being blind was merely a result of living in a fallen world that is imperfect and flawed. How many other blind people have there been on this earth that never got healed? Does that mean that God “made” them blind for nothing? Of all the blind people in this world, Jesus met this man and healed him.

It was not his blindness that glorified God, but his healing.

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