Bets With The Devil

[RevRainbow]

Are You still having bets with the devil, Lord?

Job lost it all so You could prove a point;

You knew already Job would not cave in,

yet his faith, like mine lately,

was sorely tested as he watched

his belongings perish and family die.

Are You still having bets, Father?

Sure, after it was over You restored him;

new kids and cattle, but I can’t help thinking

they were but replacements –

did he not mourn the loss

of those he initially loved –

for the lives sacrificed

to prove Your point?

And David, whose son of his sin

was taken before he could speak

or even be aware of his existence,

because the child was not meant to be

in the first place – a child of lust –

Yes, Your actions were just

because of one’s sin there must

be a wage to pay, I heard You say:

Death.

Scripture says, “In all things give thanks

for this is the will of God concerning you.”

Give thanks? I would rather run up

and pound my fists against Your chest!

You have brought me close to You

through affliction, trial and tribulation

and…have I not lost faith?

Why then this ultimate burden of grief?

You could have taken me, this old sinner

with charcoaled lungs and a list

of lifelong failures, instead;

thus sparing not only myself, but mother,

brother, sister and friends

such profound sorrow and grief!

Give thanks? A spiritual anomaly,

so it seems to me,

one that tears at the fiber of being

to lift up hands that hang down,

change mourning into gladness

when my heritage has been destroyed!

So be it. I will bear the cross,

I will cling to your robe hem

as a little child, trusting,

and You know why?

It’s all I have to hope in.

Like David said when his son died,

I shall go to him,

but he shall not return to me.

If this be not so –eternal life-

then mortal life itself is a travesty

of creation – we worship vanity -

has no meaning or purpose;

and we are most to be pitied.

and I have not beaten my fists

upon the chest of the Creator

in anger over death,

but merely have beaten upon the air.

So I choose to continue to believe,

my faith remains intact, yea,

even stronger; thus, O Lord,

You have won another bet

with the devil and it cost me,

as it did You, my only son.

[grateful]

beautiful

[Atwater Vitki]

RR- yes, beautiful, yet I sit here literally in tears, understanding the source of such anguish. That is truly a testimony to Faith.

Our hearts, thoughts and hopes remain flowing to you and yours.

Blessings of Peace,

[Fawzo]

Every time I think of Job or your Son Joe I see how much agony you are going through and think how tough it must have been for Job as yourself. I'm sure even if you could have 7 more sons they could still not replace the one you loved so dearly and lost.

When I think of all the horrendous acts people who have their minds twisted by fear enact on the innoncent of our planet and how God just sits there and watches and does nothing when he alllegedlly knows when even a sparrow hits the ground and yet we are told that he will send she bears to rend over 40 kids to pieces for calling a bald headed man bald headed it just makes me shake my head.

No God's ways are not my ways and if the insecure, vain, angry, jealous entity portaryed in the Bible is a ture representation of God then I am very glad that my ways aren't his. What loving parent would ever allow their child to suffer by allowing everything and everyone they loved and cherished to suffer and die around them. That is just siick whether it is being done by a human Soiopathic killer or a God.

Like the claims of the One Catholic Cleric recently who stated that the man whom the Pope allegedly casts 4 demons out of is being made to suffer because of Mexican abortion laws.

The God I know is one of love and compassion which exceeds the limits of human understanding. He gave us free will and created the perfect laws of nature and does not interfere in the events of our Universe. To interefere would be to directly oppose someones free will.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Fawzo

[Bro. Hex]

He is not "gone": Joe, he may not be, any longer, "in-the-flesh", but he touched many lives.
He lives on in the hearts of those who knew and loved him.
So long as there is one person among us who remembers him fondly, he is "with us".
And when the last of those who remember him have gone, then WE will have all joined HIM.

Carl Jung was very close to describing the nature of the human heart/mind/soul... perhaps as close as it is humanly possible to dissern. We are ALL somehow joined together, in an unknowable mystical way. Call it the universal collective unconscious, as Jung did, or leave it "unnamed"... we live in, and through each other.

Peace be with you, my friend.

[RevRainbow]

Thank you Bro Hex. I always knew you were Jung at heart. Peace.

[remove]

beautiful, so deep felt