Have you ever prayed for something, and when you didn’t get it you felt like your prayer had been ignored by God? Well, most Christians have felt that way at one time or another. 1 Peter 3:12 says “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” If that be the case, why does the Lord allow our prayers to go unanswered sometimes?

Well, the answer is, he doesn’t. God always answers the prayers of His children – it’s just that sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes we ask God to give us something or do something for us (or for somebody else) that simply isn’t in His will, therefore he cannot grant that wish. After all, God knows what is best for His children, even when we do not. Many times we are spared from unnecessary suffering or hardships because our Heavenly Father had the wisdom and compassion to tell us no.

Other times, the answer might not be a simple yes or no – often it will be “not yet”. In Romans 8:28 we read, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  You see, God has a master plan for each and every one of His children, and some of the things we ask for might very well fit into that plan, just not at the point in time in which we ask for them.

As a young child, I would occasionally ask my mom for an expensive toy, and her reply would often be “wait until your birthday” or “wait until Christmas”. And sure enough, when the appointed day rolled around, the toy that I had wanted so badly would be waiting for me when I got out of bed that morning. Her answer to my request hadn’t been yes or no, it had been “not yet”.

Unlike my mom, God doesn’t “answer” our prayers with words, He answers them with deeds – or the lack thereof. But rest assured, God always answers the prayers of His beloved children – always! We just have to be prepared to accept the answer He gives us and always remember that He knows what is best for us. Our kind, loving and supremely wise Heavenly Father always has a good reason when He says “no” or “not yet”. You can count on it!

Most people, even those who are not Christians, are familiar with the Genesis account of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. If you are one of them you can skip past the following passage and simply read my comments below if you wish. For everyone else, here is the saddest story every told:

 

Genesis 3

1 – Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 – And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 – But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 – And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 – For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 – And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 – And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 – And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 – And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 – And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 – And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 – And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 – And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 – And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 – And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 – Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 – And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 – Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 – In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

20 – And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

21 – Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

22 – And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 – Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24 – So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

 

That folks, in my opinion, is the saddest story ever told. Before Adam and Eve willingly disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden tree they were perfect, sinless, and upright in the eyes of God. And as such, they were given the right by their Creator to live forever in what was surely the closest thing to Heaven that any human since would ever experience on planet earth.

Before their fall into sin, Adam and Eve were blessed with lifestyles the likes of which the rest of us can only dream about. First of all, they didn’t have to work for a living. All they had to do was walk through the most magnificent garden in the history of the world and eat of the bounty that awaited them. There was no tilling of the ground, no planting seeds or pulling weeds. All they had to do was pick whatever they wanted and eat it. And no doubt everything growing in that garden tasted absolutely great!

And in their perfect state, Adam and Eve were also completely pain-free. They would never get sick, or even die for that matter. Like God Himself, they could live forever in what was quite literally a perfect world. But alas, it was not to be.

When Eve allowed herself to be deceived by satan (who presented himself in the form of a serpent) and Adam joined her in eating of the forbidden fruit, they immediately lost their state of perfection. At that precise point in time they became mere mortals just like you and me. Instead of living a life of ultimate luxury that would never come to an end, they suddenly found themselves facing death – but only after having to struggle just to survive through the very short and difficult lives that all sinners must live.

Now comes the really bad part for everyone that came after them: Not only did Adam and Eve bring pain, sorrow and death to themselves by disobeying God, they passed the curse of sin on to their decendents as well. Except for Christ, every human baby ever born came into this world a sinner. As God in the flesh who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Jesus wasn’t subjected to this horrible birthright. But all the rest of us were. Like it or not, we are all sinners regardless of how “good” we think ourselves to be.

As sinners, it is we humans who have to accept the blame for the bad things that happen to us in life, not God. Some people think that since God is all-knowing and all-powerful that He should simply protect us and shield us from harm. Sorry, that’s not the way it works. Adam and Eve indeed had that ultimate form of divine protection before they fell into sin, but by disobeying the only directive that God had given them they forfeited that protection for all time. And not just for themselves, but for all the rest of us too.

When God created man He gave him the ability to make his own decisions, and unfortunately one of the very first decisions he made was a poor one. In a nutshell, God is not to blame for our problems. We are.

But as sad as this story is, it does have a happy ending. Although that one original sin back in the Garden of Eden took away mankind’s right to live forever in a perfect world, the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us on the cross at Calvary restored it. But the restoration isn’t automatic; we have to accept it in accordance with God’s plan of salvation. Would you like to be forgiven of your sins and live forever in a perfect world, never again to suffer or die? Well, you can. Click here to find out how.

Today’s “Picture of the Day” features a breathtaking image of the sun shot in extreme infrared, and writing the short narrative that accompanies it got me to thinking about just how amazing our own “personal star” and the God who created it really are.

Just image if you can the total amount of energy consumed by man since the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now, consider this: The sun produces more energy than that staggering amount every single second.

Moreover, consider the fact that there are trillions of stars in the universe, and our sun is just about average in size and energy production. It’s enough to boggle the meager human mind.

If God’s creations are capable of producing so much energy, just image how powerful God Himself must be! The fact is, God’s power has no limit. There is nothing that He cannot do if he wishes to do it. There is also no limit to His love and mercy if we will only choose to accept it.

I hope that each and every one of you have the merriest Christmas ever! Please click here if you are interested in reading my thoughts about Christmas and the amazing Child whose birthday we will be celebrating today.

2 Corinthians 5:8 – “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

It’s always sad for those left behind when a precious loved one passes away, but in reality the very second that a Christian’s earthly life comes to an end is actually the best time of that person’s life. The process of dying is often an unpleasant and mournful event for a Christian’s family members and friends to witness, but we can all rejoice in what will come next.

Just as soon as the last breath is taken, that beloved person immediately begins a brand new life in Heaven, never to die again. He or she will spend a literal eternity in a land where joy knows no bounds and sadness and suffering are completely and literally unheard of. Our wonderful and supremely loving Lord will be there, as will every one of our loved ones who died after having accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Heaven is a place of ultimate peace and joy, and life there will never, ever end!

Yes, it is sad indeed to lose someone we dearly love, and he/she certainly deserves to be honored, remembered and missed. But if that person’s final destination was Heaven, we should also be mindful of and happy about the fact that the new life he/she is now enjoying is infinitely better than the one left behind down here.

Are you prepared to go to heaven when your earthly life comes to an end? Have you accepted Christ as your own personal Saviour? If not, I urge you to click here to find out how.

I took Houdini for his morning walk a few minutes ago, and as we were strolling back towards the house I saw something that really caught my attention. Just a few feet in front of us a single, solitary leaf broke free from a branch on one of our huge sycamores and slowly drifted to the ground below. The autumn air was cool and crisp and there was virtually no breeze, and that beautiful plate-sized leaf simply floated downward like an inverted parachute, taking what seemed like a full 30 seconds to find a suitable resting point on the grassy earth.

Now you’re probably thinking that watching a leaf fall from a tree is no big deal, and you’re right. But such a peaceful scene is one of God’s many small, yet mighty precious gifts that He sends our way on a daily basis. Of course that leaf would have fallen even had Houdini and I not been there to see it, but see it we did. And for that I am quite thankful.

Vacations are nice – it’s good for one’s spirit to just get away every once in a while. But we needn’t hit the road just to seek out the simple things in life that really matter most. Our God is a loving God, and He gives us many wonderful blessings each and every day. All we need to do is learn to recognize them when they show up.

Matthew 7:12 – Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

When I was a youngster, one of the first things the teacher “taught” us at the beginning of each school year was The Golden Rule. In order to make it easy for the younger kids to remember, the teacher usually paraphrased it something along the lines of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And remember it we did. But nowadays kids aren’t being taught the message that Christ was teaching in the famous passage of Mathew 7:12, and for all too many of them it shows in their attitudes towards their peers, family members and authority figures.

In this modern age of “tolerance”, kids are being taught to accept as normal all varieties of abnormal behavior, but somehow they are missing the important lesson that they need to respect others because we were all made in God’s image. Instead of learning that each and every human being has an intrinsic value inherited from our common Creator, they are being taught that our society’s basis of respect should be “tolerance” for those who are different from them. It makes no difference to the educational establishment what those differences are or how much they deviate from traditional and moral norms, they are still to be respected at face value because anything less would be “discrimination”.

As a result, many of our kids are now growing up with a strong sense of entitlement (i.e. selfishness) instead of the once-universal belief that everyone deserves the same fighting chance at achieving happines and success in life. Anything goes as long as the end result is getting what WE want and living the type of lifestyle WE want to live, regardless of how much those things deviate from our nation’s Christian heritage.

I believe that’s why we see so many kids getting into trouble on a scale that was simply unimaginable even 25 years ago, and until our schools go back to teaching the fundamentals that I and those who came before me grew up with (starting with The Golden Rule), things are only going to keep getting worse.