Luke 9
51When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;

52and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.

53But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.

54When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

55But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;

56for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."] And they went on to another village.


I am sure all of you are aware of the tragedy in Japan that happened this weekend. My thoughts and prayers go out to them and I hope that I can assist in any small way that I can. I thought it would be a fine time to touch on a subject. Now I know there are going to be people out there who will say this is "divine retribution" or "divine punishment" but I say that you do not listen to them. Christ is of a different spirit. Christ is not a condemner but a redeemer. Those that say that this is God's will that they suffer do not know of the God they claim to serve. If anything they are acting like the paganus, the "country bumpkins", of ancient Greece and Rome who would say that "Leprosy is a curse of the gods, why should we heal or help those who are cursed?" or "Let's burn those hospitals and leper colonies do they don't bring the wrath of the gods." Christ's God is not like this. (while pagan derives from paganus, paganus means something quite different from pagan).

So you may ask where is God in all of this? Where is God now? God is in the individuals that are helping them recover. Regardless of denomination, religion, or irreligion, the spirit that is of Christ is upon those who are helping to rebuild those that have lost and suffered and that same spirit is in those who are suffering and lost so much. Nature is cruel and indifferent to what we go through. It is a machine that does what it needs to do to keep itself running smoothly and operating optimally. How fortunate we are to know that Christ is of a different spirit.