SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

            In one of the final scenes of the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest stands before the grave of his beloved wife Jenny and speculates about the nature of human existence.  Are we, as his mother believed, destined to follow a particular course in life, or, as Lt. Dan suggested, perhaps entirely at the mercy of chance and circumstance?  Forrest concludes that our course through life is directed both by destiny and chance.  Perhaps that is so.  Yet there is another aspect of human existence which sometimes combines with, and may even trump the other two – that is our freedom to choose.

            God has made each of us a “moral free agent.”  He has given us the freedom to choose, but he also has a plan for each of us.  Even though God may point us in the direction that we should go, there is no guarantee we will fulfill his plan for our lives.  Chance often intervenes to prevent us from fulfilling our destinies.  Like some cosmic game of poker, some of us are dealt a worse hand in life than others.  The trials of life – temptations, sickness, unemployment, war, famine, among other things – may keep us from becoming all that God wants us to be.  Often we have little control over these things, and they have the power to lead us down paths which can be both uncertain and dark.  Yet most of the time, it is our failure to make good choices which keeps us from fulfilling our God-given destinies.  All the while Satan is there, mocking God and claiming victory because of the bad choices we make.

            Even so we have one advantage over Satan that permits us to make good of the bad things that happen to us.  We trust in a God who is omniscient and knows the outcome of all things.  He can see the big picture while Satan cannot.  Satan is so full of hatred and bitterness that he has been blinded, living only for the moment and looking only for an opportunity to do as much damage as he can right now.  He sought to kill Jesus as an infant and eventually succeeded in killing him as an adult.  Yet Satan was blinded to God’s purpose for his Son.  So consumed with hatred was he that all he could think of was kill, kill, kill.  Certainly had Satan been able to see the big picture and understand that Jesus’ death would mean the salvation of mankind, he would have done everything in his power to keep him alive.  God continues to be victorious over Satan today because he takes the evil that Satan does and finds a way to turn it into something good.  Yet God can only do this if we allow him to work in our lives.  We are his agents here on planet earth.  If we yield ourselves to his will he can do great things through us.  He can even take the bad things that we face and turn them into something good. 

            Queen Esther had an important choice to make.  Would she stand up and fight for the rights of the Jews, or would she let the fear of death keep her from approaching the king on behalf of her people?  Mordecai’s words to her as recorded in Esther 4:13-14 were: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”  This was her time.  God had placed her at the king’s side so that she could bring about a great deliverance for the Jews.  Though Satan intended evil for the Jews, God took a bad situation and with the help of Esther, he saved the Jews and thoroughly trounced Satan.  We too can defeat Satan.  With God’s help we can take the bad things that have happened to us and turn them into something good.  Who knows?  Maybe you can find a way to use your own struggles with life’s trials and temptations to help someone else.  Defeat Satan by taking the bad in your life and turning it into something good.  Step up and embrace every opportunity to do good deeds.  Who knows?  Maybe God has brought you to this point because he has a special purpose for you too.

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