Oh boy, this one is not easy to answer by anyone.

One could expect answers at least sometimes but I have heard of some immediate, spoken answers to immediate, urgent needs.

God talked to Moses, Elijah, Jonah and some other Bible notables in the early Bible days. But there is more – read on.

God has His angels, or messengers who do speak out loud…but NOT how we might expect. Try A Mighty Tempest. This book is a truly amazing story by Michelle Hamilton and her Mother. One was a new Christian, the daughter a non-Christian. Michelle, the daughter was lost in shark and pirate infested waters of the South China Sea for two nights and three days. A ’voice’ spoke loudly and firmly to keep Michelle alive ten or more times!!…sharks and all!! A truly amazing story…but God had a purpose.

Or try Michelle Hamilton’s www.jonahministries.com I have heard Michelle tell her story personally three times in Perth. And have her first book. A genuine story that cannot be denied as a miraculous intervention by a God of love. Michelle is the only human to have a question answered…from above! Yes indeed. The WWW site has a series of videos of her experience, and Michelle is just simply a beautiful young woman. There is a series of short videos of Michelle telling of her amazing story. She has long, thick blond hair – her rescuers thought she was a true ’Americano Mermaid’.

With people I know, and have known, or been told about, answers and miracles have happened and many prayers have been answered by actions of other people – obviously instructed to act by God or his ’ministering spirits’ (angels). See the two miracles at Q100b: Mr Roberts coming back to life from the morgue, and Mrs Effie Duke and her miracle baby, Deborah. Others have had a loaf of bread left at the front door when they’ve had nothing to eat in the house. That situation of no food did happen in Western Australia. In the ’Great Depression’ (1929 to 1939) many in Australia, the USA and other countries were close to starving quite often. That can be hard to believe in 2011 but it did happen. But somehow – not to all of them.

God directs praying people in many ways like a silent voice in your head – but beware of Satan’s deceptive ways. It gets easier to understand as Christians get older and learn more about God. AND, make sure that any idea you might get conforms to what the Bible says.

The Bible has lots of stories to illustrate this. A bit of wisdom. King Solomon wrote: ’Having a lazy person on the job is like a mouth full of vinegar or smoke in your eyes. If you respect the Lord you will live longer; if you keep doing wrong, your life will be cut short. If you obey the Lord, you will be happy, but there is no future for the wicked.’ (Proverbs chapter 10 verses 26-28).

Well done Solomon…we must all do our bit and work too.

King Solomon is the wisest person to have ever lived: handy that he wrote many of his wise thoughts down for us to gain benefit from: Consider reading just one Proverb a day?

Oh boy…that’s me too. I was tall and awkward I and just could not run fast or do cartwheels at school. I was a big lad and just had no sense of rhythm or balance at all. I took lessons in dancing to dance at my wedding but still failed modern dancing. ’Ouch, I’m a failure.’ Well not really, but I have learned to live with it. I recently watched a girl come through a classroom of kids. Just beautiful – she did not walk – she ’danced’ her way through the classroom and enjoyed it very much.

We, all 22 million Australians, are all different. Some good footie players, some good cricketers, some ballet dancers, or netball players, maybe you play music – we all are good at something. And children are growing towards maturity and learning what we are good at and what we are not good at, and trying out many things. Do be patient, God loves you so keep trying things out and find something you like. Music?

Joke: What four legged animal can turn cartwheels? Answer. A horse – you put him in the shafts, connect up the harness, say ’Gee up’ and the ’cart wheels’ turn.

For many reasons and some unknown causes. There is no easy or simple answer to this very often asked question. And please be wary of anybody who says they know.

Bad things can happen to good people and we cannot know why while here on earth. But bad things can also happen to good people…who could be said to be stupid because they do not think very deeply. They eat too much of the wrong foods and maybe drink too much, get too fat and get heart disease, high blood pressure and other sicknesses. Mostly they can be controlled and avoided by being sensible and eat the right food.

God does not cause sickness to us but he does know the future and in many cases God will use a sickness to have a person stop, slowdown, get a medical check up and think about where and how their life is going. This ’Answerer’ (Peter Harris) has had an experience like that.

In 100 QUESTIONS Vol.1, I wrote a description of the drastic changes in my life that led to my being a teacher, then a Scripture teacher for 24 years – and these two books and the 200 questions is a part of the changes brought about by God after I broke my back. Question 72 partly answers your question – about me.

There is a very popular song (hymn) called Amazing Grace. Nobody does not like it. John Newton (1726-1807) wrote it after he had become a preacher later in life. For 30 or 40 years he had led a very bad life. He suffered a lot, was a slave for several years too. On at least five occasions ’Something’ saved him from death. They are described in his life story. God was watching over him – and an illiterate, not an especially pretty girl, became his wife. He thought of, and dreamed of her, very, very often, over many years. He longed to marry her – but had no money to do so. The song ’Amazing Grace’ was Newton’s ’Thank you’ song to God who had led him so far and so safely through life, even though he had often been foolish.

Finally, learning to live with a bad sickness often brings out qualities inside of us, like compassion and care that we did not know we had.

This is very hard for a family to have to bear and I cannot give you an answer. God did not give your cousin his or her sickness. God loves children very much. Jesus never spoke harshly of children – ever. Nobody can truthfully answer your question – along with many others like it. Humans just do not know, but may find a cure one day. Beware of people who say they know – and maybe can even cure it – for money, in advance of course.

Maybe one day a scientist/researcher will discover a cause because there are thousands of chemicals in our environment – in food, air and water and I am suspicious of many of them. Have a look at Q. 108 about poisons in the National Geographic magazine. Not very pleasant reading – sorry!

A beautiful place for us to live in.

The Bible does not say in as many words but my opinion is that it is a place where a child is born – a new life – with ’a clean slate.’ That means he/she knows nothing of hate, love, envy, poverty, luxury and good and bad thoughts. All these things are put in there by the parents, grandparents, neighbours, good or bad food, teachers, and, of course, scripture teachers!!

So the world – our existence – is to teach us about life and help us to grow into good helpful ’Grown-ups’ and be ready to go to heaven – if we want to.

Sadly it does produce some ’Groan-up’-complainers.

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The Answerer

The Answerer - Peter Harris, answered children's questions from his many years of teaching "Scripture" classes.
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