Ordained Evil

[Edit] Man, in no way did I capture the spirit of the message. I'm just so bad at reorganizing and communicating thoughts. =[

I was trying to finish up the rest of the resolved messages today, the only problem being I don't remember which sermons I listened to. But anyway, seeing as how I forget everything as soon as I stop hearing about them, I decided to finally blog some thoughts, because I've got time and I finished a midterm today =]. So I was listening to John Piper's "How Sin serves the Glory of Christ" (go to resolved.org if you want to dl the sermons) and it was more about God's sovereignty over all things, in this case over the sins that we commit. So, remember when Joseph gets sold to Egypt by his brothers, and like 20 years later or something his brothers come back to buy grain. Joseph, second in command of all of Egypt, had all the power to imprison them for life, or anything...exact revenge...whatever. But he says that while they meant it for evil, God meant it for GOOD.

Now, that just seems so crazy, that God could use even someone's sins to do a GREAT work, even a GOOD work. I feel like when I sometimes read the Bible, I read it like a story, especially the history parts, and the gospels. When I read the part where Solomon begins to turn away from God because of his wives, I just want to yell at him, "HEY FOOL! CUT IT OUT!" And then when I read through the crucifixion, I imagine that if only I had a time machine, I would go back and stop that from happening. Is it sinful to think that? Because what I've done is forget all about the fact that God is Sovereign over ALL things, and then will the cruicifixion not to happen. The Bible is filled with flawed people, messed up things, because People are MESSed up. Ever since the fall, we've all been flawed, every one of us, but the one person who is perfect is GOD. Even before Adam's fall God had perfectly planned out the crucifixion on Calvary, and through all of man's sins, he was able to set up the only way possible for us to escape the grasp of Sin and Death. God did not simply use the evils that we committed for his Good, but he had meant the WHOLE time for all of it to happen.

So I realized, this calls for me to look at life and the word with new eyes. I'm going through Ezekiel and I've been going through the prophets, and reading about all the sins of Israel and Judah and God's plan of judgement and salvation upon them. It's a little depressing reading all about impending doom and destruction coming upon a wicked people. BUT, now I need to see that even with all their wickedness, God intended to use it to show his power, grace, sovereignty, and judgment all along. Isn't it crazy? Judas committed the most heinous of crimes by betraying the SON of GOD, and yet, God meant to use that so that he could make his love and grace manifest through Jesus' sacrifice for the whole world! And so? Even though the world is filled with evil, and we experience so much of it, we shouldn't ever despair, but instead, Give thanks in ALL circumstances, and be joyful ALWAYS, like it says in 1 Thess 5:16-18, because we know that He is sovereign, that His plan is Perfect, and there is nothing that goes on without the approval of his Good will.