UNDERSTANDING GOD'S WILL: THE INTENTIONAL WILL OF GOD
When my niece, Chris, was seventeen, she was diagnosed with a rare form of juvenile leukemia. After nine years of hundreds of chemo treatments,struggling to complete her nursing degree, wigs, and a bone marrow transplant, Chris died. To this day, it's hard for me to say that Chris' death was God's will. Oh, I get it that when we pass from this life into the presence of the eternal God that we receive the ultimate healing, and that sometimes, that's the only way healing is going to occur. I get that. But to say that death, violence, war, devastating diseases like leukemia and AIDS, abused, neglected, abandoned and starving children, droughts and floods are the will of a loving God -- really?!?!? I mean -- REALLY?!?! Lesley D. Weatherhead in his book, The Will of God , writes: "The phrase, 'the will of God' is used so loosely, and the consequence of that looseness to our peace of minds is so serious ... There's nothing about which we ought to t...