Playlist:

playlist Go to the Calamity, Response to (topic) playlist

Filter by Categories

Catastrophe to Blessing

CGG Weekly by John Reiss

The principle that all things work together for good to those who love God presupposes situations that appear dire yet ultimately produce benefit for His called people. This connects directly to the concept of eucatastrophe, a monumental and grievous event that resolves in good. Joseph's life demonstrates the pattern, as successive hardships placed him where God intended, enabling him to preserve many lives and revealing that God Himself directed the painful path for a redemptive outcome. The same dynamic appears in personal experience when a severe automobile accident shifted an individual's circumstances onto a new course that proved instrumental in receiving a divine calling. Subsequent involvement with rental property, though marked by financial missteps and eventual bankruptcy, created opportunities for contact with the Worldwide Church of God and further spiritual awakening. Another individual's recent collision likewise produced deeper communion with the Father and the Son, illustrating how suffering can refine relationships with God. Scripture reinforces the necessity of such trials: believers must suffer with Christ to become joint heirs, and troubles of any kind should be viewed as occasions for joy because they develop endurance. The perseverance of Job exemplifies the Lord's compassionate purpose behind correction, which functions more often as a decisive nudge toward maturity than as retribution. Reflections shared within a workplace setting affirm that both hardships and blessings serve to shape people into what they are meant to become, with obstacles functioning as tools wielded by a Master Sculptor. Patience is therefore required, because God completes the work of bringing ultimate good from every catastrophe.

The Time of Jacob's Trouble

Sermon by David C. Grabbe

The curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are warning shots over moral decay and national sins. Jacob's trouble will force a total reliance on God.

Reflections on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sermon by David C. Grabbe

Lessons learned from COVID, as well as possible reasons God allowed or caused the pandemic to sweep through the church and wreak havoc on Feast observance.

Everywhere But Up

Commentary by Joseph B. Baity

Western society is looking to technology, medicine and government for solutions to its seemingly unsolvable problems, looking everywhere but up.