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UGW #13-15: Limiting God's power? Does He cause nations to sin?

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  Understanding God's Will #13, 14, 15 #13: But aren’t you limiting God’s power when you say that He’s not in total control of everything?               No, I don’t think so.    And yes, He is in control of everything as far as everything that happens to us has to go through Him first.    And I am not saying that He’s not all-powerful.    I believe that He is indeed all-powerful.    If He chose to wipe out the earth in a second, He could.    He could do whatever He wants to do.   He could control every movement we make, if that's what He wanted to do.   But I don’t think that He  does  do whatever He wants to do or control every movement we make.  Because that's not how He wanted things to be.    I think that when He created the world, He decided to make man with a free-will that He (generally) will not override, even though He can....
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UGW #12: God works all things for good?

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  Understanding God's Will #12: I used to take comfort in the fact that God does whatever He wants to do and that God causes everything to happen for a reason.    But if that’s not the case, then what?                I once heard about a mom and dad who were going away for vacation.    They had to leave their nearly-adult teenager at home.    They knew that he might end up making bad decisions; he might throw a party and do things that they didn’t want him to do.    And they had the power to prevent that.    They could have stayed home or sent Grandma over to watch him.                But in their wisdom, they knew that he was going to be an adult and on his own in college in just a year or so.    And they realized that this was a good opportunity to test him and to see what decisions he would make.    They encouraged him to choose wi...
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UGW #11a: Does everything happen for a reason?

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  Understanding God's Will #11: But doesn't everything happen for a reason?  Don’t you think that God could’ve caused bad things to happen for a reason, even if He didn’t really want them to happen?                  Sometimes, maybe.    I wish that I could say no ... and yes.    No, because I don’t want to think that God causes bad things to happen.    And yes, because I want to believe that all bad things have a purpose and that He is in total control.    It makes the bad things a lot easier to face then.    (And for the record, I think that our view of what’s “bad” can and does differ from God’s.    Our perspective is so, so cloudy and flawed compared to God’s.)              I think that the Bible does show times when He causes something “bad” for a reason (but He never causes sin or evil).    Some...
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