I was watching a documentary on the Holocaust, and they had a small segment on Anne Frank. I'm sure most of you know who she was and probably read her diary in school, as I did. I'm also sure most of you know her fate - death in a Concentration Camp about a month and a half before the end of the war.
It troubles me greatly knowing that she, and the 6 million Jewish victims of Hitler, are now in Hades.
I know doctrine. I know that we are all sinners deserving hell. I know the holiness of God demands punishment for the lost. But I can't help thinking about that poor girl, suffering in darkness, a victim of a satanically possessed mass murderer.
She harmed no one. Loved greatly. Just a child. Yet her eternal fate is sealed.
Maybe I'm just in a melancholy mood. Maybe I don't understand as much as I think I do.
Thoughts?
Wow., My thoughts? I can REALLY relate to your post Budman. I go through those thoughts when the issues of life come rolling in especially about other people and those I love and know about. (and then I begin to think of the millions I don't know about) Innocents in the world like Anne Frank and millions of girls and boys like her. There have been BILLIONS since the world began.
Babies who are aborted or who have died in other ways., children who are sick and are dying of some illness like cancer or being tortured and abused. The injustise of it all! The magnitude of it all is overwhelming to the human mind and emotion and senses. I've noticed seeing these things in the world and the way it makes me feel (so sad and without answers) forces me to consider the overall BIGNESS of God.
I have worked on a daily basis with elderly people who were sent to a memory care facility. That forced me to consider the way human reason and emotion and even human dedication can't be depended on. The people I worked with used to BE accomplished individuals who did great things for society.
Their life long accomplishments were not known to many people anymore. Some worked for the American embassy in other countries in the 1940-50s. Some were military officers and traveled all over the world. They knew and rubbed elbows with the elite of the world. They had and lived out high standards for their lives. Respected and respectable human beings.
Major quality people who did amazing things in life. Yet., here they were when all was said and done.... in the winter of their lives., in a memory care unit all alone in need of my care.
Some even shunned by their families who they raised to be good citizens and MAJOR contributors to society. Some of the elderly people in memory care have family who could not handle being around them. Sons and daughters who just couldn't bear seeing their parents and many avoid the visits at all costs.
It was a major education for me to Learn about the lives many of these people lived. Often times they even saved others by their own personal behavior and kindnesses. Yet here they were in a place most people can't stand to even think of visiting because it's so scary. Their loved ones trapped., sitting in their room alone.
They often wander the halls at night checking all the doors and trying to go in. Humanly speaking they had lost their dignity and were not even recognizable to who they once were.
It really showed me how desperately we need Jesus. How God doesn't look on the outward of us but loves us unconditionally based on Himself not on us. Only He could manage to see through all the fog of this life that we see. We are totally blind and unable to manage on our own.
It came to me that God loves these elderly people so much He sent Jesus. They have nothing as far as being worthy goes. They can't respond to Him with something worthy of His time. And yet He loves them and Jesus died for them. I also compared my life to the lives of these accomplished people. They lived amazing lives at my age and contributed so much more than I ever could.
It boggles the human mind!!! How can any of us stand??? And while I considered these thoughts about life and Jesus over the months., I came to realize His love and grace is beyond human reason. AND THANK GOD IT IS!!!!! WOW.
It is very hard to look to the right and to the left here on earth. No wonder we are told in the Bible to not look any place but straight a head to Jesus. And strange and impossible as it may sound., it teaches us how to love others the way God loves us. The stark contrast of how undeserving and unlovely and even UGLY we humans are ...and yet God's pure love is unmerited... unearned by us is poured out on us.!
It really shows what the meaning of God's grace in Christ is. And it really shows how learning about grace DOES teach us how to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Seeing this kind of love doesn't make a believer want to sin., it causes us to want to live righteously. And His love does motivate and constrain us. Consider it pure joy. Only by grace can we do that.
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