God loves people! He assuredly takes no pleasure in the wars, plagues, and natural catastrophes that cause such agony.

Why, then, if God has the power to prevent wars and sickness, does He permit little children to die of leukemia?

Sometimes people will not receive Christ because they "cannot believe in a God who would let children suffer." Their attitude is understandable but they are not in possession of the facts.

God created man in paradise on the earth. But man chose to disobey God. God's Nature being what it is, even a single infraction of His will must be dealt with in totality. The original sin has been dealt with in totality—six thousand years of the insane howls of the disenfranchised dust of the ground.

We are not to blame God for being perfectly righteous. The unchanging moral perfection of God is our only hope of an ultimately peaceful, joyous society.

The worst result of the sin of Adam and Eve was the loss of fellowship with God. It is this that God wishes to restore. It is to this end that He gave His Son to die on the cross for our sins. Mankind needs to be reconciled to God!

We must remain careful that the goal of reconciliation is kept in mind. Perhaps because of the influence of humanism (man-centeredness) it has become popular to speak of the need for Christians to go and relieve the sufferings of the world.

It is part of the package that Christians do what they can to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. A glance at history will disclose Christians at the source of many if not most of the great humanitarian efforts, from the care of lepers to the abolition of slavery.

Antichrist himself will encourage Christians to go forth and relieve the suffering of the world (not that he will care a fig about human suffering but in order to exalt himself.).

If we would avoid missing the mark, we must hold constantly before us that the goal is to reconcile people to God. Our job is not primarily to remove the mildew or the cancer. There is a place for this. Our task is to work with God so that the mildew or the cancer will turn people from sin to righteousness.

Sometimes people are better off spiritually if they are not delivered immediately. If we relieve the pain of people, we have done a limited, temporary good. If we turn people to God, encouraging them to keep His commandments, we have done a massive, eternal good.

People come to pastors wanting to be extricated from their problems. Often (not always) their problems are the direct result of not obeying the Lord faithfully. In this case the best we can do is get them back on track with God.

We have been charged to go into all the world and lift up Jesus Christ! We are to make men and women, boys and girls, His disciples—not just believers, but disciples! We are to charge them to keep the commandments issued by the Lord and His Apostles. In the process we are to cast out devils, heal the sick, and raise the dead. But these are not humanitarian efforts as such, they are signs pointing toward the highway of holiness.

As we work with the Lord, let us make sure we do not take the side of mankind against God. This is easy to do when we see human misery. Look past the skeleton child, the anguished mother, to the cross of Calvary. Present God's amazing love. Reconcile the mother and child to God if you can.

The child will go to the garden of God. The mother will see her child again in the Day of the Lord.