"But"

           There are certain words that would cause you to raise an eyebrow now an then. You don't want to hear a brain surgeons ever say the word "oops" while performing surgery. It is like hearing your mechanic say, "oh oh!" You know something is wrong and going to probably cost you a lot of money. I recently heard a family member reading a statement from their church which went, "We believe in God, but...." Whatever would come after that word "but" is going to raise some eyebrows to say the least. No matter how hard you try to soft pedal the following words, it will end up still causing the listener to question the statement. How can there ever be a "but" when referring to anything that is from or about God? Genesis 25:18 says, “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

         In this account, Abraham is trying to influence God to spare a couple of cities if there could be found a certain number of righteous people. In his effort to do so, Abraham tries to remind God about God's own character in hopes of pleading his case. We know the outcome as there were not found even ten righteous people in the city and it was destroyed. Abraham's words however, serve as a reminder about God's character and His sovereignty. The simple statement, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” serves as picture of God's sovereignty over whatever is going on in the world and even in the universe. It is all under His authority. Once you put a “but” after “God” you are in deep trouble and there is nothing that you can say that is going to come out right. We should know that whatever God does is right. Abraham knew that. We sometimes hear people begin a period of questioning God with the statement, “How could God do this?” We don't know all of the intricate parts of the event that took place. We can't say that Mother Nature did this or that or that things just happened and sometimes people get caught up in events where they have no control. God is simply not confined to our perspective of His actions in any situation, even our own. There are those people in the world that just think God might need some help in a certain area and so they inflict their reasons on what is going on when in reality, they have no idea themselves. What about our own thinking during the course of events of any given day? Can we say with Abraham, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Of course, whatever God does is right. Praise God today for God's involvement in every area of our lives.