Why Do Good Things Happen to Bad People?

Question: Why do Good Things Happen to Bad People?

Answer:  There are several reasons good things happen to bad people:

1. God loves bad people.  Jesus taught us to love our enemies and that this is loving like God the Father loves.  He sends life-giving rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45-48).  We sometimes call this “common grace.”  God gives grace, undeserved favor, to people who are spitting in His face.  He still loves them.  They are made in His image and matter to Him.
2. The image of God in us expresses itself in doing powerful and good things for others.  God created and so do we (in our limited way, of course).  We are driven to make a positive difference in our world and the benefits of that coming from all those who use their gifts from God for good are that good and bad people experience good things.
3. God shows kindness to bad people to lead them to repentance (Romans 2:4).  Gratitude is a pathway to repentance.  If they resist such kindness they will experience His judgment in the end.  He compassionately reaches out to those who may yet reject Him.

What Are the Proper Elements to Use in the Lord’s Supper?

Question:  My Church has been using Oyster Crackers for unleavened bread ? And Grape Juice for the wine. I am very concerned about the Crackers. Are we not supposed to use unleavened Bread ? I’m very concerned !!!

Answer:  Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper during Passover and at Passover they would only use unleavened bread to remind them of the day they left Egypt in haste and left behind all the old life.  There is nothing said in Scripture about what exactly we must use in our supper to commemorate Jesus’ sacrifice and promised coming again, but we have historically used elements similar to those at the Passover dinner to show continuity with that past deliverance and our own.  Jesus is our Passover Lamb.

But I don’t believe we are required to use unleavened bread.  There are some places on earth where believers would have a hard time coming up with either of these elements (I’m thinking Papua New Guinea and other remote places).  The most important thing is that we are recognizing in these elements the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ for us and anticipating the great wedding feast of the kingdom when we will sit down to meal with Jesus as his bride and commemorate the coming of the kingdom to earth.