No Pain, No Gain - What Can we Learn from Obedience and Discipline?

By Pastor Alfred Massaquoi

Introduction

Many of you might have read my previous article, entitled: 'Happiness - How to Find True Happiness,' haven't you? Was it interesting or not? Most times when you read these articles, I should appreciate if you "like" or "dislike," and state your "comment." This evaluation will help me a lot to do better: your comments would be taken into good strides - for no comment is foolish or stupid...

Well, happiness in the previous article, although individualistic based on one's values and perspective in life - interpreted as good or evil as a person's case maybe - the bottomline is that happiness comes from within one's very self when he/she sees it fit to help people transform their sorrows into laughter, their joy and accomplishments into success and prosperity. This indeed is true happiness, for "There's more happiness in giving than there's in receiving."

Today, people reject pain and seek happiness forgetting that no pain, no gain - that obedience and discipline from God's standpoint go hand in hand.

Life is a pendulum - it's not always a "bed of roses" or "milk and honey." Gone are the days God sent manna from heaven; quails as meat from the east wind; water from the rock; victories in battles by Himself at battlefronts; cure from snake bites, a look at the master serpent, and the rest of signs, wonders and miracles He performed for His people, Ancient Israel.

This article will land you into scriptural quotations supporting the argument that no pain, no gain, that obedience and discipline are the key components of a healthy Christian life.

From which Perspectives do We Learn No pain, No gain?

Today, we've got to eke out a living as it's said "survival the fittest" in that our ability to provide daily bread for ourselves and families is predicated on our determination and strategies to survive in measuring up to the culture society sets for us.

This means hard work, hardships, suffering or pain, endurance, obedience and discipline and the will-power to succeed are the recipe needed to confront the harsh reality of life - in that, no pain, no gain -  is tantamount to failure in Life.

This argument about pain can be looked from different angles - from a positive to a negative perspectives.

From the negative perspective - In Liberia, say, a woman, 28, lives with her boyfriend. He is financially buoyant, so he pays the rent, buys the food, pays all the bills and etcetera.

The Lady said, although the guy refuses to marry her, she dires not quit the relationship of 7 years for fear her needs wouldn't be met, and she and two children would suffer economic hardship.

Another example, in Liberia, a young man due to unemployment and a quest for a better standard of living, joins the Masonic Craft or other secret societies to seek out opportunities, believes that his pursuit is right.

Furthermore, a man calls himself a pastor visits shrines and the occult to make his followers believe that he's god-incarnate with the powers to grant them the success and prosperity they seek.

Or, in America, a woman deliberately aborts a pregnancy because it's unwanted ignoring the fact that abortion is murder, while also, 'man-marries-man' in church believing in gay right that there's nothing unnatural about same sex relationship, and such similar with lesbianism.

Moreover, politics in Africa is poli-tricks - where the tricky or crooked politician running for high office, won't only rig the elections, but indulges in ritualistic killings to ascend to fame, power and authority with impunity in a rein of terror.

Thieves disguise by night to the mercy of households when they break in houses with weapons to commit armed robbery.

People commit corruption or white colar crime today all in the name of being able to beat the system so as to make ends meet or to become super super rich.

Those are just but a few examples of the negative views about rejecting pain as the people involved in the illustrations above believe they gain by the indulgence in self-aggrandizement, that any failure is contrast to not doing those things at all.

Now, the positive angle of pain - could be illustrated by the examples that follow:

A mother could allow her child to undergo a painful operation to remove a bullet in the flesh if that child is to survive, or a mother, out of maternal love, staves so that her child would eat.

Or, the 28 year old woman reasons to herself, "Although I'll suffer economic hardships should I desist from fornication, it worths it to obey God rather than to satisfy my own understanding or my desire for a better living condition."

Or, the thief would say, "Am nolonger a thief, so, I won't ever steal whatever my needs maybe because it's against God's will to take something that doesn't belong to me."

Therefore, if others are executed or jailed for life for armed robbery, the former thief or armed robber escapes death simply for his decision to quit stealing in actuality benefits himself - or rather gains his life from death.

People today Chase Gain the wrong Way

Nevertheless, there are many gains today people gain when they just stop, turnaround and do the right thing in view of the fact that - no pain, no gain.

Doubtless, have you ever heard it's said, "Nothing comes by so easily," or "As you make your bed, so shall you lie on it," or "Rome was not built in a day," or "To be a man is not easy?"

Yes, these familiar clichés well drive home the point that life is nothing but a struggle - yes, life is an empty dream in that if we take short-cuts to avoid pain the critical reality of life would catchup with us sooner or later.

In other words, the problems we strive to escape from would dawn on us at the time least expected, and unless we pass through by doing the right thing our lives would never become better - it might seem our situation moves "From bad to worse, from worse to ridiculous, and or from the fry pan to the fire."

On the contrary, people around the world today have sought solution temples and benevolent pastors masquerading as angels of light to find answers to their miseries rather than the wisdom to allow God brightens their pathway.

When someone gets a little misfortune, health-wise, or financial-wise, or whatever, they tend to panic in search for solutions, thus they gallivant from one church to another to consult demon-possessed spiritualists who perform magic rather then miracle.

Let me prove scripturally why suffering or pain is vital for all Christians to look forward to if we're to please God. See the evidence below: 

Biblical Facts About Obedience

James 1:2-4:

My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Hebrews 5:7-10:

In his life on earth Jesus made his prayers and requests with loud cries and tears to God, who could save him from death. Because he was humble and devoted, God heard him. But even though he was God's Son, he learned through his sufferings to be obedient. When he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him, and God declared him to be high priest, in the priestly order of Melchizedek.

Romans 6:16:

Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey—either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God. 

1 Samuel 15:22,23:

 Samuel said, “Which does the Lord prefer: obedience or offerings and sacrifices? It is better to obey him than to sacrifice the best sheep to him. Rebellion against him is as bad as witchcraft, and arrogance is as sinful as idolatry. Because you rejected the Lord's command, he has rejected you as king.”

Acts 5: 29,32:

Peter and the other apostles answered, “We must obey God, not men. We are witnesses to these things—we and the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to those who obey him.

James 1:12,13:

Happy are those who remain faithful under trials, because when they succeed in passing such a test, they will receive as their reward the life which God has promised to those who love him.  If we are tempted by such trials, we must not say, “This temptation comes from God.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 

Hebrews 11:32-40:

Should I go on? There isn't enough time for me to speak of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they fought whole countries and won. They did what was right and received what God had promised. 

They shut the mouths of lions, put out fierce fires, escaped being killed by the sword. They were weak, but became strong; they were mighty in battle and defeated the armies of foreigners. Through faith women received their dead relatives raised back to life.

Others, refusing to accept freedom, died under torture in order to be raised to a better life. Some were mocked and whipped, and others were put in chains and taken off to prison. 

They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were killed by the sword. They went around clothed in skins of sheep or goats—poor, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not good enough for them! They wandered like refugees in the deserts and hills, living in caves and holes in the ground.

What a record all of these have won by their faith! Yet they did not receive what God had promised, because God had decided on an even better plan for us. His purpose was that only in company with us would they be made perfect.

2 Peter 2:9,10:

And so the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and how to keep the wicked under punishment for the Day of Judgment, especially those who follow their filthy bodily lusts and despise God's authority...

Biblical Facts About Discipline

Hebrews 12:1-11:

...And do not be discouraged when he rebukes you. Because the Lord corrects everyone he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a child.” 

As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. 

Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne. 
Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners! So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up. For in your struggle against sin you have not yet had to resist to the point of being killed. Have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as his children? 

“My child, pay attention when the Lord corrects you, endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; your suffering shows that God is treating you as his children. Was there ever a child who was not punished by his father? If you are not punished, as all his children are, it means you are not real children, but bastards. In the case of our human fathers, they punished us and we respected them. 

How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live! Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness. 

When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.

Conclusion

Evidently, the above scriptures explain themselves well helping us appreciate that if Jesus, the son of God, and our redeemer had to learn obedience from the things he suffered, how much more us humans inferior to Christ - won't we suffer pain to gain eternal life prepared by God since the founding of the earth?

If "Nothing comes by so easily" why not accept the discipline from God by having it borne out in our minds that no pain, no gain?

Happiness - How to Find True Happiness

 By Pastor Alfred Massaquoi

Suicide bomber's detonation

Introduction

Dear readers, I can guess right you might have been going through my blog sometimes to find out what's new have I written on, but unfortunately, you found out nothing new, rather, the old stuffs kept staring at you. I've gone away, for say, three weeks or more? Well, the truth is, I've fallen illness for some time. But the love and mercy of God, I should say, made me well and kicking. 

Don't feel sorry for me, because, I wasn't that bad anyway, and besides, being ill from time to time is a phenomenon common to everyone. But the essential is that am with a sound mind and body by the grace of God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In all this, I had you all along on my mind. And I had prayed God gives you spiritual comprehension from the things I write in the name of Jesus Christ our Master, who has assigned me to his task. I abide in him as you abide in me by the spiritual food ditched out to you at the appropriate time. May God's love and mercy continue to dwell in you.

Nonetheless, I wasn't looking for happiness should you decipher is the reason behind this topic, because I found happiness long since. By reading this piece to the end, you'll notice how I found happiness long time ago. And don't ask me why I chose to write on happiness this time around. I guess I've been inspired is the only reason I can afford now to give you.

Conversely, your happiness is my concern as many of you have wondered where in the world have I been as I've made you accustomed to reading my blog.

However, I've been away actually concerned with one or two things disconnected with writing as I mentioned ill health plus being beclouded in my mind by anxiety about the church. Anyway, I'll wish myself welcome back.

Now, to cut the goose to the chase, why the topic, happiness, and how to find true happiness really necessary?

A happy child

People's Definition of Happiness

Most Europeans may say, listening and watching nature is happiness to them. Because nature is man's natural habitat, little wonder some people glue to nature find happiness with the natural environment. Most keep animals as pets, and while others find identity with the physical environment - environmentalists fighting for its preservation.

Well, to many other people happiness means a lot more different as opposed to others. A girl may think a brand new hand bag or shoe is what she needs to make her happy at the moment.

Someone else would say a brand new car makes him or her happy. Yet, other thinks a job promotion is happiness, or a lucrative job is happiness, while a new date could be a young man's happiness, or being married to the person you love is true happiness.

And to most people a lot of money is a recipe for happiness. Yet, sexual gratification, fame, power, good health, glory, wealth, affluence, the ability to influence others to your way of thinking, either as a manipulator or a credible person, brings most people reasons for happiness.

Therefore, "One man's chop is a poison for another" - meaning, one man's happiness is another man's pain. And so, happiness is relative in that in relation to what you feel makes you happy or brings you pain is relatively acceptable or unacceptable by your next door neighbor.

Nevertheless, what is the standard or who lays the standard for happiness since everyone of us has our choices of happiness? 

Happiness is Individualistic

Yes, we all have values, and what we value is a basis of our happiness. And our values centered on two things: means and ends, and with ends, there are two things involved: happiness and pain.

As humans we seek happiness than we seek pain, but pain or happiness depends on the individual's perspective, as already elaborated. Depression, sadness, poverty, broken-home, divorce, bereavement, discouragement and disappointment, joblessness, just to mention a few, pains the heart.

This quest for happiness down through the century helps us understand why people did the things they did, loved the way they love, worked the way they work, and thought the way they think.

For example, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany who believed to have massacred 6 million Jews in a Gas Chamber, felt happiness by doing so, while the Jews being murdered didn't think it was happiness for them. They felt pain. It was their worse nightmare to be put to death in such a painful way.

Dictators, evil people, or evil perpetuators don't think they're evil, else they won't commit evil. They find happiness by being bad, and their victims believe they have been hurt by evil. But to evildoers, they didn't think they've committed any wrongdoing. They think we label them wicked or evil by our own standpoint or value.

Happiness is on the mind of a Suicide Bomber

Terrorists believe they're Happy

ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or the Islamic State (IS), or Daesh, its acronym in the Arabic language, has been blamed for being a terrorist organisation by the UN and many countries.

ISIL is widely known for its beheading videos of soldiers and civilians, journalists and aid workers, and the destruction of cultural heritage sites. Thus, the UN holds ISIL responsible for human rights violation and war crimes, and Amnesty International charged ISIL with ethnic cleansing in Northern Iraq on a scale unprecedented.

ISIL  is a Salafi jihadist militia group, an unrecognised proto-state, which follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam that gained global notoriety in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in Western Iraq, captured Mosul and carried out the Sinjar massacre.

The multi-billion-dollar question is, does ISIL; Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (famous for bombings in London and Madrid and other planned attacks); the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the Boko Haram in Nigeria (known for its suicide bombings, rape and abductions), for instance, think they are evil, or do they believe they are practicing evil, or do they fear they are  committing crime against humanity, which is evil; or do they think they are only labeled as "terrorists" organization by "infidels"?

Has somebody called these "terrorists" over, and sit them down on the round table to sincerely and genuinely ascertain specifically why they are abusing their own lives and that of other humans? Does anyone try to seek remedy of the situation without taking sides by being a party to the problem?

Does negotiation or conflict resolution mean shuttling between rival factions in different rooms refusing to see each other? If they are to come to terms with the conflict, won't they see each other in the face and talk? Why would you resolve a dispute without having the other party involved?

Furthermore, should the West sit back as perpetrators of violence and war, regime change, and the rest - with its apparatus the UN, the CIA, the Pentagon, the MI5, the Secret Societies, just name them, point an accusing finger forgetting that the rest of the other fingers point to them as evil? Judge for yourselves what they do. Do their acts of atrocities make the West happy, or do atrocities make terrorists happy, don't they?

Doubtlessly, Evil brings happiness, likewise, Good brings happiness for some people. It depends on what is Evil, and what is Good for some people? Thus, which one of these make you happy? What is happiness for you? 

Standard for Happiness

Generally, there are standards that make for happiness. For example, the rule of law. Because law is a social construct, meaning, society makes law, and provides enforcement for its violation, it's painful if one defaults the law as no one is above the law. Hence, it brings happiness to the punisher of the law.

The punisher is happy because he's doing the right thing in that you accepted to obey the rules and regulations, but you perhaps willfully failed to do so. Thus, your happiness ends where someone else's happiness begins.

In this case, the law is a deterrent to bad behavior (depending on society's definition of bad behavior since bad behavior in one's culture is acceptable by another as good behavior) you might consider right in your eyes.

Terrorists know no law beyond its own interest for they lack conformity to the cultural legislation of society and they create their own culture with their own rules to govern themselves. Thus, rejecting societal culture and the means of achieving  them brings terrorists under the spotlight of being rebellious when they leave their enclave and force outsiders (with abduction, suicide bombings and crime against humanity) to buy their ideology without sound reasoning.

Consequently, happiness - what is true happiness? What do you think? And what do I think?

I cannot tell you what I think else I might be judging you by my own standards? But if I talk of a yardstick, which is a generally accepted standard, could be adjudged by reasonable men to be just and worthy of emulation.

No doubt, God is the standard. He sets the standards for all humans so that it may go well with us as we sojourn this unknown world of ours. God, in effect, is the law - His rules and principles when observed are hope, and are the sources of true happiness.

God's law can be understood this way. Think of a driver in his car plowing the high way streets and not respecting the traffic rules. Imagine what would happen if he sways off his lane, or runs 100 kilometers per hour in the city, or ignores the traffic light? 

Why Obey God?

Certainly, there would be a ghastly accident! Whose's to blame for the loss of lives, and himself? Obviously, himself, because he ignored the traffic rules, doesn't he?

So, too, if we ignore God's law, we're bound to be unhappy. We're not only free morale agents, but our freedom is not without responsibility. We cannot do whatever we want to do with our lives. We might be hurt or might hurt others.

So, the happiness we seek comes with responsibilty. We're accountable to God. He has the right to set the standards for us. We're answerable to God. He's our Boss, our Supreme Ruler. And because He's loving, His rules are just, merciful, and loving - all intended for our happiness.

God is happiness. He gives happiness rather than pain. Until we begin to appreciate this by subjecting ourselves under His rulership, we cannot find peace nor happiness.

For instance, God's rule: "Thou shall not commit murder," is so clear cut that if terrorists and other belligerents just obey this rule, would there be the need for the violence, war, crime and genocides in our century?

Let's find out what God Himself tells us about happiness as we read the following scriptural quotes below:

God Teaches us Happiness

Isa. 48:17-19:

The holy God of Israel, the Lord who saves you, says: “I am the Lord your God, the one who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go. “If only you had listened to my commands! Then blessings would have flowed for you like a stream that never goes dry.

Victory would have come to you like the waves that roll on the shore. Your descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand, and I would have made sure they were never destroyed.”

God is the Only Source of our Happiness

Ec. 2:26:

God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who please him, but he makes sinners work, earning and saving, so that what they get can be given to those who please him. It is all useless. It is like chasing the wind.

True Happiness is Giving

Acts 20:35:

I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.’”

God's Acceptance brings Happiness

Gal. 4:6-8:

This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does:

“Happy are those whose wrongs are forgiven, whose sins are pardoned! Happy is the person whose sins the Lord will not keep account of!”

Conclusion

What did you glean from the scriptures above on happiness? We were talking about 'Happiness - What is True Happiness?' weren't we?

As you have seen true happiness is not your possession, such as whatever you have or your needs and wants in life. But most people believe money is happiness because of what money can buy for instance, while others may look to self gratification for happiness.

If money is that happiness, why do most money people sometimes feel furlough, foreboding or despondent, and sometimes wish to take their own lives?

This certainly helps us appreciate that wealth, power, fame, authority over people, good health and what have you, is only beneficial for a little time, but happiness from God in any form or shape, is permanent, yet, it benefits its receivers everlastingly.

No wonder the Bible said that true happiness is giving more and receiving less. How true this is when you consider happy many who have done great sacrifices in their lifetime to help thousands, if not, millions to gain life, happiness, success and prosperity!

Mahatma

In our times, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a British trained barrister-at-law, was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. He employed nonviolent civil disobedience, which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world, but was assassinated by being shot.

Nelson Mandela

The late Nelson Mandela of South Africa had gone to prison for 27 years to see apartheid relinquished in that country.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa, called by Catholics as Saint Teresa of Calcutta  was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She founded in 1950 the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic faithfuls with over 4,500 sisters, active in 133 countries since 2012.

The congregation managed homes for people dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. They ran soup kitchens, dispensaries and mobile clinics, children's- and family-counselling programmes, orphanages, and schools. And members of the church, who take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, profess the vow: "To give wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor."

Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Catholic sisters called Missionaries of Charity, just to mention a few hardworking and self-sacrificing people, were or are certainly happy, weren't they, when they saw people's lives transformed by them?

The best way to find happiness then is to help others find happiness when we give up your talent, time, energy, money or resources for them, when we, not only provide for their needs, but we help them grow in Christ's love by teaching them God's word for salvation. Yes, this is true happiness, and God will supply your needs accordingly by means of Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Righteous Suffers for the Unrighteous - Who Says God is Unjust?

​By Pastor Alfred Massaquoi

800,000 Tutsis and Moderate Hutus Slaughtered

Introduction

​A righteous person is someone who worships Almighty God Jehovah: he prays to God regularly, does good and turns aside from doing bad things because he loves God and wants to please Him.

Inspite of his devotion to God, today, many are the calamities of good people. It's like a good man jumps into one trouble to another; it's like jumping from the fry pan to the fire, or his problems grow from bad to worse, and from worse to ridiculous!

On the contrary, the unrighteous man or the wicked man doesn't seem to have problems at all. You can see that his children grow healthy, drink milk, go to the best schools and obtain all the love, care and attention money can afford; whilst the poor good man's children feed on one meal a day, often go to bed hungry; and seemingly, the family tends to eke out a living on less than a dollar a day, only if this dollar is found.

Furthermore, the wicked rich man, if he's in trouble or a lawsuit, his money doesn't get tired to bail him out, in most poor African countries, like Liberia. True, don't go into dispute with the wicked rich and powerful for you won't win to tell the story, if God isn't by your side. For the wicked rich, life is a success. Life is glamorous, sweet and fulfilling.

Why throw Caution to the Wind?

This scenario described in the introduction is not often always the case that the good person sleeps with hunger, and the wicked rich becomes richer. Also, don't get mixed up nor be confused when I describe the 'wicked rich' and the 'poor good man,' in such terms.

Conversely, this does not mean that 'all poor' are good, and 'all rich' are wicked. Today, there are many rich people who fear God and worship him, whereas, there are many poor people who love money and material things. So, they tend to be bad. Therefore, righteous and unrighteous is not applicable in this sense.

Nonetheless, people blame God for permitting injustices -- suffering -- yes, untold suffering. But they don't stop to think that blaming God will do them more harm than good, that pointing an accusing finger at God for wickedness reaches Him nowhere as the distance between God and man is a distance separated by the firmament.

Sadly, we live today in a world where some men have power and others have to suffer under them. How true this is today when we watch dictatorial regimes in some parts of the world crash their peoples, often to death. Is it God?

Evidently, we have all witnessed abuse of power around the world that have resulted into uprising and violence, war, war crimes, crime against humanity and genocide, famine and disease.

Is God responsible? Or does He execute the acts? Creating us simply doesn't make God the perpetuator of bad things that happen to us! Let's see below how man has dominated his fellow man to his injury irrespective of God's commands to "love your neighbor as yourself -or, do unto others as you want them do unto you."

Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide 

Today, people commit hideous crime like "Ethnic Cleansing." Is God to blame? Haven't you heard about ethnic cleansing, have you? Well, ethnic cleansing* is a process in which an ethnic army group advances and expels civilians of other ethnicities from towns and villages it captures and creates an ethnic enclave purely for members of its ethnic group.
In former Yugoslavia during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina* between 1992 to 1995, there was widespread ethnic cleansing.

A large number of Bosnia Muslims and Bosnia Croasts expelled from their homes by Bosnia Serbs, while some Bosnia Serbs did similar thing to Muslims and Serbs in Central Bosnia. However, Bosnia Serbs committed the worse atrocities* compared to the other ethnic groups.

Serbian military commander in Bosnia, Ratko Mladic,* most times issued specific orders to his subordinates to shell a particular village more than others believed less Serbs and more Muslims lived there.
More than 200, 000 civilians killed in Bosnia and Croatia since the war, and tens of thousands of women raped, some, more than hundred times*. Their sons and husbands beaten and tortured in concentration camps, and millions displaced from their homes due to ethnic cleansing.

The number of those who lost their homes increased with the expulsion of Serbs from Croatia and with the ferocious atrocities committed by Serbs* against the Albanian majority in Kosovo.

As of May 1, 2005, ten years after the war ended, 14,444* total number of persons as of date have not been found by the International Committee of the Red Cross tracing request opened by families.*

Clothes of the murdered in the Rwandan genocide

April to July 1994 saw the worse genocide¶ in Rwanda's history, when, in the next three months, Hutu extremists massacred 800, 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Kigali, the nation's capital spreading the genocide throughout the east-central African nation.

"Within an hour of the plane crash, the Presidential Guard together with members of the Rwandan armed forces (FAR) and Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe (“Those Who Attack Together”) and Impuzamugambi (“Those Who Have the Same Goal”) set up roadblocks and barricades and began slaughtering Tutsis and moderate Hutus with impunity. Among the first victims of the genocide were the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her 10 Belgian bodyguards, killed on April 7." ¶
As you can see the people targeted were members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and political opponents despite their ethnic origin. Evidently, ordinary citizens incited to go brutal in arms against their neighbors by local officials in the Hutu led government.

Rwandan Hutus about 85% felt insecure by the Tutsi minority having long dominated the country, although, in 1959, the Hutus had overthrown the Tutsis monarchy, which resulted into tens of thousands Tutsis exiled in Uganda and neighboring countries. Tutsi rebel group styled the Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF) of a group of Tutsi refugees returned to Rwanda in 1990 in an invasion, and fighting ensued until a 1993 peace deal was agreed.#
But what sparked the genocide, was a plane shot down on the night of April 6, 1994# killing everyone onboard, including the then President Juvenal Habyarimana, and counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi (both Hutus).

Militias take to the Streets in Mayhem

Shortly, Hutu extremists# took to the streets in a well-planed slaughter campaign blaming the Tutsi's RPF rebels, but the RPF said the plane was shot down by Hutus themselves as a pretext to carryout the genocide.

Hutu militias handled a list of government opponents, and murdered them and their families. Neighbors slaughtered neighbors, while some Hutu husbands killed their Tutsi wives for fear of being killed if they refused.#

At road checkpoints for ID cards, which had people's ethnic group on them, Hutu militias often used machetes# to slaughter Tutsis as most Rwandans kept machetes around the house, and thousands of Tutsi women abducted as sex slaves.

Whilst these killings went on the UN and Belgium mission# in Rwanda, did nothing to stop it using an alibi that their forces were not given a mandate.

Another nonchalance, was the US refusal to involve in the conflict because US troops were killed in Somalia a year before. The Belgians and most UN peace keepers pulled out when ten Belgians were killed.#

As for the French, allied to the Hutu government, allegedly set up a safe zone, but was accused# of not doing much to stop the massacre in the area, and Rwanda's current president also accused French involvement in the slaughter - a charge denied by France.

Certainly, the list of wickedness or unrighteousness or lawlessness goes on and on from country to country, where the innocents and the law-abiding people suffer the consequences. 

People Praise Men than Praise God

Another wickedness we have seen in this world is for an evil man to be praised for his crime. Solomon said wicked men buried but people on their way back home from the cemetery praised them in the very city they perpetuated their crime.

Fidel Castro still lives on even though he is dead

An example can drive home this point, although, I don't share the views about the late Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz in the following documented reports about him because I cannot judge him or label him an unrighteous man. 

According to Wikipedia^ on Fidel Castro, he was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister for 18 years and then as President for 32 years.

Politically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, Wikipedia stated that Fidel also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011.

Wikipedia said that under his administration, Cuba became a one-party socialist state, where industry and business nationalized and state socialist reforms implemented throughout Cuba.

It said Fidel participated in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, and later planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, but failed in 1953.

He was imprisoned for one year, according to the  report, and upon his release, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, called the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Che Guevara.

Returning to Cuba, the report says Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in aguerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, the report says, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister.

Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of government, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western hemisphere, according to Wikipedia, and elaborating, policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control...

Frances Martel° in his article on Fidel in breitbart.com carried the banner headline: "Cuba has released Danilo Maldonado Machado, an artist also known as “El Sexto,” after nearly two months in prison for having celebrated the death of Fidel Castro in public."

Frances reported, "While the Cuban government alleged that his arrest was related to spray-painting the words “se fue” (“he’s gone”) onto a wall in Havana, Maldonado was never charged with a crime or allowed to stand trial.

He spent 57 days behind bars for the graffiti and a Facebook Live video in which he asked passersby if they were happy that Castro was dead. The video was filmed the night dictator Raúl Castro announced his older brother’s death."

He continues, "During the first few days of his arrest in late November, Maldonado was reportedly stripped naked and beaten until police induced an asthma attack and then refused him an inhaler. Maldonado told his mother Victoria that he suspected that guards were sneaking tranquilizers into his food in order to prevent him from shouting, “down with Fidel” and “down with Raúl,” from his prison cell where other inmates could hear him. Maldonado refused to eat initially.

In prison, Maldonado wrote letters surging the Cuban people to revolt against communism, smuggled out by his mother and published on Facebook by his fiancée, Cuban-American journalist Alexandra Martínez. “The Cuban people march by force under the sun and shout slogans like ‘I am Fidel,’ but many are silent because the Cuban people fear, and with fear one cannot be free,” he wrote. “We must learn to demystify a murderer, because if not, that day [that Castro dies], nothing will happen.”

However, "Fidel Castro is more of a presence in death than in recent life" wrote Mimi Whitefield∆ in the miamiherald.com world news stating, "Castro’s ashes reside in a granite tomb that says simply “Fidel,” and during the nine days of national mourning following his death, Cubans by the thousands chanted “Yo Soy Fidel” (I am Fidel) as a caravan with Castro’s ashes moved across the country en route to Santiago."

Whitefield said, "Two months after the remains of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro were laid to rest, his voice and thoughts continue to resonate from beyond the grave.

Castro, via events in his honor and retrospectives, still makes an almost daily appearance on the front page of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. After the recent end of the long-standing policy of allowing Cubans to enter the U.S. without visas, his thoughts on independence and self-determination were even included in the Cuban government’s Jan. 12 immigration declaration."

Solomon's View on Life

Solomon said people commit crimes readily because they are not punished quickly enough, and a criminal may commit hundred crime and still live. Nevertheless, he advised if we have fear of God, everything will be fine for us, but the wicked will not escape death. He said like a shadow the wicked die young - not referencing to Fidel Castro and all those perpetuators mentioned in this piece, but his statement is in reference to us all. So, beware!

Therefore, Solomon said it's nonsense or useless to see in this world where the good man receives the punishment for the wicked man, and the wicked man gets the reward of the good man. Come to think of it, are all those people locked behind bars in Liberia guilty of the crime they accused them of? Why do criminals walk down the streets shoulders high in borrowed robes of honor and the righteous man (one who fears God and does what is right) caught up like an animal in a trap?

Worrying causes pain to our health, therefore, Solomon suggested why not enjoy yourself because the only pleasure a man has in life is to eat and drink and enjoy himself during the short time he finds food for himself in this miserable world.

You'll never understand despite being wise what God does in this world -- no matter how long and hard you think and stay away from sleep at night and day. How harder you try, Solomon said, you'll never know, even scientists claim to know the universe, but they don't.

This renders us to believe that God controls the action of scientists and good men; He controls even their love and hate. Certainly, we don't know the future, likewise, Scientists don't know God's plan for the trillions of planets in our universe.

Ethan• in a Scientific online journal said that our Sun is just one of an estimated two-to-four hundred billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, and there are around two-to-three trillion planets in our galaxy.

He reported that 100-200 billion planets found in our Milky Way, and 10 trillion planets are in our galaxy alone in the universe, therefore, he elaborated, "With at least 200 billion galaxies out there (and possibly even more), we’re very likely talking about a Universe filled with around 1024 planets, or, for those of you who like it written out, around 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in our observable Universe."

Scientists perhaps could be accurate to estimate the billions of stars making up a galaxy, the billion of galaxies and the trillion of planets in the universe, yet, they cannot explain correctly God's purpose and significance for the arrangement of the universe.

Also, scientists guess life is in mars, and they're looking for life in the other planets through space exploration, but Ethan says, "Let's keep looking for not just planets, but for water, oxygen, and signs of life," which testifies that God has only shown scientists what He wants them know and nothing more nor less.

Come think of it, how possible the  same fate or destiny awaits the righteous man and the wicked man; the same fate occurs to the good and the bad, to those who go to church and pray to God and to those who don't know God, to those who offer sacrifices and to those who don't?

However, don't think granted you're a good person you're better off than a sinner. Know also that a man who takes an oath isn't better off than a man who doesn't. That's why Solomon said this is as wrong as anything that happens in this world in a situation that we all have the same fate alike.

Solomon cautioned as long as people live, their lives are full of evil and madness, and suddenly, they die. But the living has hope, he said, but adding that the living know we'll die as opposed to the dead that knows nothing at all in that they have no further reward; the dead are completely forgotten. Yes, what dies with them is their love, hate and passion. They'll never again take part in the world of the living.

Therefore, Solomon said we should be happy and cheerful that it's all right with God. God wants us to always look happy and cheerful much more to enjoy the woman you love as long as we live this useless life God has given us in this world. So, we enjoy every useless day of our lives because that's all we'll get for our troubles.
Since we shall all die and in our graves there exists therein no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom,  we must work hard now at whatever we do for the great beyond will house us forever.

Just think of it, most people deprive and starve themselves all in the name of saving huge money for troublesome days ahead. However, whilst savings in itself is very good, but what's very bad you deprive yourself from healthy living and food that saves life under the pretext that vegetables and fruits, so expensive, you can't afford them -- what of if you can afford them?

Some people, who lack healthy diet, develop malnutrition and other diseases; they get seriously sick and die a premature death. Do you know that those food rich in nutrients like magnesium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, sodium, copper, manganese, selenium, protein, folate, choline, calcium, zinc, carbohydrates, low colaries, and all the vitamins: A,C,D,E,K, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12 and the rest, help keep the doctor away?

Therefore, eat good food always, and drink red wine from time to time. Learn to be happy and cheerful if you don't have all the means of life, or if you do, either of you will sooner or later realize that life is so short, and suddenly you die, and your riches are not buried with you in the grave.

Also, while it is a good thing to forge ahead in life - to excel in all things - at work, in love and family life - in short, in whatever, bear in mind to be more careful and play safe with a balanced attitude that not too much optimism should ginger our actions. Why, the fast runners don't always win the races; the strong man doesn't always win the fight; wise men don't always earn a living; intelligent men don't always get rich; and capable men don't always rise to the top.

Donald Trump - US 45th President

The US President Donald Trump is a sterling example of a man who rose to the top without political, military, and a Harvard educated experience. According to Forbes, Trump networth is 3.7 billion US dollars as of 2017. This billionaire beat Hilary Clinton, a seasoned politician of the establishment. Brexit - is anther glaring example, when in a referendum, Britain, unbelievably, opted out of the European Union.

We don't get often always what we want in life because bad luck happens to everyone no matter your status in life. You never know when your time is coming; like birds suddenly caught in a trap, like fish caught in a net, we're trapped at some evil moment when we least expect it.

Conclusion

Now, what is the meaning of this writing to you: The Righteous Suffers for the Unrighteous - Who Says God is unjust? Have I convinced you enough that God is not to blame for all the human sufferings, rather, we have ourselves to blame?

Well, in our preceeding exposé, Solomon in Ecc. 8:9 makes the point: "I saw all this when I thought about the things that are done in this world where some people have power and others have to suffer under them."

How true this is? Remember also that God did not create evil or man's evil nature or desires because He's God of love (1 John 4:8), but we have ourselves responsible for human suffering as we've read examples above of the Rwanda genocide of about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus slaughtered (in July 1994) and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (between 1992 to 1995), which claimed more than 200,000 lives, million displaced, millions became refugees in neighboring countries, and much more human suffering.

Come to think of it, was it God who committed the Rwandan genocide and the Kosovo ethnic cleansing? Perhaps, one would argue God could have stopped the killings, couldn't He, you might wonder?

Now, let's reason it out! How could God have stopped the carnage, when He permitted human authorities (Rom.13:1-6) on the ground to provide law and order to protect lives and properties?

For instance, the UN and Belgium forces in Rwanda pulled out in the height of the genocide; the US refused involvement in the conflict; and the French allied to the Hutu government refused to stop the massacre. France was accused of involvement in the slaughter - a charge Paris denied.

Furthermore, during the period of the genocide, local officials and government-sponsored radio stations called on ordinary Rwandan civilians to murder their neighbors.

So, as you can see, God is not unjust -- it's human rulership or humans themselves that are unjust.

The Bible explains in James 1:14,15 what happens to us when our desires make us misbehave:

"But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires. Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

And 1 Tim 6:9,10 says concerning our desires:  "But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows."

Therefore, Titus 2:11-14 should resonant in our minds: "For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of all people. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world, as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will appear. He gave himself for us, to rescue us from all wickedness and to make us a pure people who belong to him alone and are eager to do good."

Finally, with all these lies and accusations levied against God, "...The Lord has a case against the nations. He will bring all people to trial and put the wicked to death. The Lord has spoken.’”

The Lord Almighty says that disaster is coming on one nation after another, and a great storm is gathering at the far ends of the earth. On that day the bodies of those whom the Lord has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.

Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered, and you will be butchered like rams. There will be no way for you to escape. You moan and cry out in distress because the Lord in his anger has destroyed your nation and left your peaceful country in ruins.

The Lord has abandoned his people like a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the Lord's fierce anger have turned the country into a desert."--  (Jeremiah 25:31-38)

Nevertheless, Jeremiah 10: 23-25 should be the prayer we conclude this exhortation before Jehovah brings His punishment upon those practicing wickedness and lying on God:

"Lord, I know that none of us are in charge of our own destiny; none of us have control over our own life. Correct your people, Lord, but do not be too hard on us or punish us when you are angry; that would be the end of us.

Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you and on the people who reject you. They have killed your people; they have destroyed us completely and left our country in ruins."

Consequently, dear reader, give God the glory, and don't accuse Him for humans' foolishness, and as they say in Liberia, God "has no fish to fry in your oil."
_____________________

Bibliography:

*W. (2016, December 26). Ethnic Cleansing in the Bosnia War. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2017, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_in_the_Bosnian_War

¶Rwanda Genocide. (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.history.com/topics/rwandan-genocide

#B. (2014, April 7). Rwanda Genocide: 100 days of Slaughter - BBC News. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506

•E. (2013, January 5). How many Planets are in the Universe? Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2013/01/05/how-many-planets-are-in-the-universe/

^W. (n.d.). Fidel Castro Death. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Cas Fidel Castro's death, an online news website
°Martel, F. (2017, January 23). Cuban Artist El-sexto Freed after two Months in Prison. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/01/23/cuban-artist-el-sexto-freed-two-months-prison/
∆Whitefield, M. (2017, January 25). Fidel Castro is more of a presence in death than in recent life. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article128744659.html