Message Minute
Your Message Minute with Pastor Chris Byars

Acts 2:23
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“Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.”
Acts 2:23, NKJV
The perennial question, “Why does God allow evil to occur?” We could look at the words of Stephen as he was proclaiming the Word to the Pharisees and we could ask, “Why would God allow for the crucifixion of Jesus and then the martyrdom of Stephen and so many other Christians?” Could God stop it? Of course, but what would that accomplish? The issue of evil isn’t God’s allowance but the reality that we have it in our hearts at all. This is why God allowed His Son to be crucified for us, to offer us a way out of the bondage we find ourselves in. God can create something new and good through the evil that tries to destroy. It’s not that God desires evil. Evil is and until our Lord returns and restores Creation, evil will be. Without the sacrifice of our Lord, there would be no hope for us. We can see the purposes of the evil one and, through Christ, we may reject them. We may turn away and seek a new path. When we find the resistance of the world coming against us, we are comforted in knowing that out of this we may stand as a light to the world and others may come to know Christ Jesus. We can live the witness of our Lord and the Apostles who ministered to those who persecuted them and forever sing our Lord’s praises and know His peace.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.