Tim - I am glad I could help. There are so many questions that we will probably never fully be able to answer. The Bible does say that Gods ways and his thoughts are beyond our ways and our thougths - to put it into leymans terms - we do not have the capacity to fully understand why and how he does what he does. We try to understand it, via the Bible, and Bible studies, etc, but God doesn't have to answer to us, so until we are on the other side, so to speak, some questions will just have to go unanswered, as much as that frustrates us. And I guess, if you do believe in God, and that He does work all things for good in the end, you just have to trust that, even if you don't understand it. That is what faith is all about - to me anyway. Something that is hard to remember or keep in mind, especially when you are struggling with something or going through a devastating experience, is this - we may not see the good come out of horrible situations because sometimes it won't be in our lifetime. Time is not measured the same with God as it is with us, and he sees a much bigger timeline than we can imagine. He may allow a terrible evil to exist that we see in our lifetime, but he sees how it will come to good years, or even generations from now. Anyway, again, that is just how I see things.
Well said, except that last part. Not that we redeem ourselves, but like you said at first, so we can work at being Christ-like. I like how you sum it up, and put it in a way people who struggle with it might follow.
You are right about that redeem part - Christ already redeemed us, our part is trying to live like him. I could have found a different word to put there.
Ash
