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What God Taught Me:

Our Actions Have Consequences

By John Kubicek

We are all sinners. We all do things knowing that they are wrong. And, we all go through times in life when we suffer greatly. Though our sinful actions and our suffering are not always directly related, but in most cases, they are.

In an article by Greg Laurie, "Wasted years: Does that describe your life?", we read about King Solomon, and how he initially followed his father David's good example. However, he eventually forgot his devine commitment to the Lord. "He began to love both the Lord and the world. According to Scripture, however, that will never wash. And in this rebellion against God, much like the prodigal son, Solomon broke away from his roots, his foundation, and decided to take a crash course in sin."

The words that Greg Laurie wrote struck home with me. I just read the column tonight, just before writing this. I wish I would have read them several months ago, maybe even several years ago. I may not have had those "wasted years". In the situation I am currently going through, where my heart is very heavy with sorrow, it was a case of "wasted months". And yes, I've had times of wasted years, but I didn't learn from those experiences, so blatantly apparent were the lessons I should have learned, but I didn't. This time, though, I am looking back and finding some good from that experience, and I may have actually learned something from it this time.

You see, the experience was totally inexcusable on my part. I should have known better right from the very get-go. Yes, I made a horrible decision, I followed my worldly desires, and it led to things that ended up having horrible consequences, not just for me, but apparently for somebody else. I ignored the red flags that kept popping up on me throughtout a relationship with somebody. It was wrong from day one, and I knew it, but ignored it. I rationalized it. in a worldly way, and temporarily went into being in stuck on stupid mode. And when I did that, I began ignoring other commitments I have to God. There were many things that I could have been doing - such as writing here - but no, they were put on the back burner, weren't they?

When it happened the other day, I could only ask why do I have to suffer like this (still in the "stuck on stupid" mode). But, it finally happened. It was right after reading what Greg Laurie wrote about Solomon. I finally got the message - the one that wasn't written in that "Dear John" email I received three days ago. It was the message that God still loves me, but that I was being taught the consequences of my ways. That will tend - I pray - to make me think twice (or never) before going off in the worldly direction. The point where I'll never have to think twice - or even once - is when I learn not to even get in the position of being tempted by who ever or what ever is trying to pull me away from my relationship with the Lord.

Thanks be to Jesus for helping me before I completely destroyed everything I am working and living for.

The prodigal son has finally returned - to his family and God's family! Hallelujah!

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John Kubicek, Editor, johnny2k.com Forums



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John Kubicek, Editor, johnny2k.com Forums

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What God Taught Me:

God giveth, and He taketh away.

By John Kubicek

We've all heard that one before, right? Do you know for sure what the meaning of it is? Have you had times when you thought that was cruel? I doubt it. Not if you have kids. You give them a liberty, and they mess up. Give them the car keys to go on a date, and they come home with a fender bender, or worse yet, the cops nail them for some bad offense caused by irresponsibility. You then "ground" them, you take away their "rights" to drive the family car for a period of time. (For the purpose of the remainder of this post, please keep that phrase in mind, "period of time". You'll see why later.)

Back in late July, God gave me a wonderful gift. He gave me somebody in my life that I could love with all of my heart and soul, body and mind. I was picked out of a crowd, somebody loved me for who I am. I don't like to use the word "infatuated" in this case, because it very much felt that our love was totally mutual. In fact, I know it was!

But then, as referred to in the previous post in this topic, things suddenly went horribly wrong. In all honesty, to this day, I've never quite figured out what it was that caused a love that seemed would last forever, to become suddenly so absent. Gone! Just like that. An email, what we'd call the standard "Dear John" letter - this time literally.

It leads me to the question today, did she really mean it when she started it with, "You may not understand right now..." As always, she was right. I didn't understand then, but I think it is now slowly seeping into my already over-saturated gray sponge. Now, I can look at it a whole new way, after what my gray-sponge mind processed this morning, somewhere after my 14th hour at work, with that information. And then, driving home over snow and ice covered roads seemed to further ignite my spirit for what I'd eventually be writing right now.

First of all, there are many things that God does in your life, in all of our lives, that "we won't understand right now". That's a no brainer, as you know that, at first, His decuples didn't understand why the Lord was going to the Cross and leaving them. Of course, they eventually made sense of it all, and that is recorded in the New Testament of the Bible. Many things that happen in your life, you just may not be able to make sense of. There are those heart-breaking bad breaks that we all have. We ALL HAVE!

Second of all, there is that "period of time" that we have to go through while we learn what the Lord wants for us. Those bad things, just know for now, that it's just my humble opinion, God doesn't make bad things happen, He just knows that they will happen. While we all have free will, there is no way that God could or would "program" all the things that happen. But He does know the things that will happen, and if we listen to the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, we learn - eventually - how to handle it! And again, that it is taught how Peter, Paul, and the rest, went on to understand why it happened, why the Lord died on the Cross on Calvary.

It comes down to beginning to understand over that period of time. My heart is still very heavy with grief, but knowing that His message is totally consistent, throughout time, that the Lord giveth, and the Lord can take away. And just thinking about that just for a few moments, you see it happening throughout time. Adam and Eve, they had the Garden of Eden. They blew it. They lost it. Then, again, when the world was populated, people sinned with no remorse. They could have had it all; civilization was just beginning to advance. They blew it. Only Noah and his boat load of family and many various species survived it. The rest were washed away.

And then, the message to the world was sent to us. A baby born in a manger, the One whose birthday we'll be celebrating in two days. God gave his only begotten Son to us. We know Him, the Lord Jesus, as a teacher of what true love is about, and He is our savior. He redeems us for all that we have messed up on in the past! And then what did the Lord do?

Well, the Son of God died on a cross, for us, for all of our sins, for those who believe in Him. But think, God took the Lord away from us! The Good News is, it's only for a "period of time"!

See? The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. What I've found out is that when the Lord takes away, he always gives us something that is even better! And do we deserve it? It's like the Father that loves His children so much, that despite the fact they are still learning about life's consequences, he still gives them back the keys to the car - yeah, His new Lexus!

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Thank you!

John Kubicek, Editor, johnny2k.com Forums

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