Pain Killers

John 3:17-21 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Most people reject God because they feel God has rejected them. Man has fallen. Our world is less than perfect. People die of starvation while I throw food away, good women are raped, bad men get rich, children die in terrible ways. Your dad thru you out of the house, you were sexually molested, you were poor as kid, your mom died at an early age. The list goes on, your dad left, maybe you never knew him, your best friend murdered, you have never had respect, nobody likes you, people laugh at you, men have rejected you, those you love have betrayed you. Pain, Pain, and more Pain. We live in world of pain. Some of us have seen more than others. Our pain is the most terrible thing that we have experienced. Whether consciously or subconsciously we design our lives to avoid and cope with pain, we want to be rich so that we never have to be poor. We want to be beautiful so that we will be loved, we are mean so that we are not disrespected, We hurt others so that we never have to be hurt. We do drugs and drink to forget bad memories, we live wildly because we don't feel our life is worth living. I could go on forever. We all do things to avoid and to cope with pain. Some things we do are more drastic others are more subtle. Whatever you do to some extent it at least dulls the pain a little otherwise you wouldn't do it. I think we get mad at God when he tells us that we can't do things that help us cope with our pain. The majority of things that are sinful are a vice in one since of the word or another. Murder is done for revenge (coping with our anger), sometimes for money ( coping with the pain of not having any, or perhaps coping with the pain of having to work to get it), sometimes its to keep people quite (fear of what would happen if someone found out). How about another example; adultery usually its done to cope with some type of pain in the marriage. Drugs are used to deal with all types of pain. Even homosexuality comes from the pain of not having enough or the appropriate kind of attention from men. So when God says we can't do these things we feel like he is telling us to live in a world of pain, boredom, and suffering. "I won't believe in God like that we say". God came to the world to save it and not condemn it. In the verse above we read that those who do not believe stand judged because the light of the world came but we loved darkness. It goes on to say that we do not want to come out of the light because our deeds will be exposed. Its why so many don't believe. If they believe in Jesus then they believe that his way is the right way and their deeds will be exposed as evil and therefore they will have to stop. Their coping mechanisms will have to stop. So we decide to remain in darkness. We are not condemned by God we condemn ourselves by remaining in our places of pain and coping. Let me tell you what stepping out into that light does. It exposes you all of you, your weakness and your pain. Its not so that it can be judged but so that weakness can be made strong and pain healed. God is not there to take away our coping mechanisms but rather remove the need for them. Would you rather have a bottle of pain pills to help with chronic pain or the procedure which removes the pain altogether. Which to you seems like the better way to live. I encourage all us to take a look at why we do what we do, are we sinning to avoid pain, why don't we see if we can get that pain removed.