Store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven
where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Why Pain?

I’ve touched on this topic many, many times, but it’s one that seems to come up a lot.

What people don’t seem to realise is that pain and suffering and yes, freewill make possible for us to develop the currency of heaven - love.

I've said many times that we get married because we think we're in love - and in a worldly sense that's true. However, it's marriage itself that teaches how to love; it teaches us the true nature of love - heavenly love. For a marriage to be successful in a Biblical sense, both partners require the ability to die to self and dying to self is the gateway to agape love.

“Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven,” can only be done when we are given the chance to accumulate this treasure. And the only way we accumulate this treasure is when we are in situations that give us the option to NOT love. In fact, we, humans, are part of God’s plan, not to destroy evil but to defeat evil.

“Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”

Humans alone, out of all the animals on earth possess a unique capacity for evil and for good. We alone out of all the animals on earth possess a unique capacity for discerning right from wrong. This has been with us from day one.

Good is not something that evolved.

Evil is not something that evolved.

Our moral capacity is hardwired and has been this with us since the beginning.

Artifacts and records from the past show this to be true. People from the very beginning of recorded history have been concerned about good and bad behaviour. The Bible tells us that the very first human family experienced the disaster of murder among siblings - over the proper manner of worship no less. Our ability to commit evil is unique to humans. No other animal species possess our desire nor our capacity to destroy others of their kind.

These abilities and capacities for good or for evil were placed in us just as the constants and quantities of nature were placed into the universe at the Singularity. These capacities were placed in us for a reason.

Some people are incapable of seeing or finding any good reason for tragedy. They ask, "How could a loving God allow anything that brings difficulty into our lives?"

The opportunities (tragedy, suffering, pain, loss) to express our capacities for good or for evil were placed in our environment for a purpose to accomplish a plan.

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