God gives man warnings for his own good and to keep him safe. The Creator of the Universe graciously warns man what consequences will occur if man chooses not to heed His warnings. Yet, in spite of the warnings man often disregards God’s word at his own peril. Let us observe Four Bible Warnings that often go unheeded and yet have dire consequences.

(i)Warning # 1-Remember Your Creator in the Days of Your Youth: One warning that often goes unheeded is found in Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth...” There are at least three reasons we need to remember God from the days of our youth on.

(1)Remember Him for the Lord’s sake. We are commanded to remember the Lord’s sacrifice. I Cor.11:23-24 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” From the days of our youth it would do us good to remember the death of Christ for our sins. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper we need to reflect on the death of Christ for our sins. Also every other day we need to be mindful of His great sacrifice. How can one not be grateful for the sacrifice of Christ?

(2)Remember Him for our sakes. We need to remember Christ not only for His sake out of gratitude, but also for our own sakes. In Philippians 4:19 Paul states that God can supply our every need. He is the One that I can turn to and find comfort from in time of heartache (2 Cor.1:3).

(3)Remember Him for the sake of others. They need Christ! The lost need salvation. Acts 4:12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” The wise man warns against forgetting God.

(ii)Warning #2 is Against Covetousness: Jesus warns against covetousness in a plain manner. “And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Lk.12:15) This is a very important warning for our day and time. Many desire and love money to the point they do anything to get it. Consider what covetousness can do to an individual.

(1)Covetousness will destroy our happiness. Happiness is to mind God, not love something in His place. This is one of the Ten Commandments found in Exo.20:17. Coveting what someone else has, tends to rob us of contentment and erodes our gratitude for what God has blessed us with.

(2)Covetousness will injure our usefulness. One way to be useful is to be generous, but covetousness keeps us from being generous and tends to make us selfish.

(3)Covetousness can cause us to lose our reward! One can be covetous to the point they love possessions more than God. Anything one puts before God is their idol.

(iii)Warning #3 is Against Drunkenness. In Proverbs 23:29-35 the writer warns against the sting of drunkenness.

(1)It is a costly sting. (Prov.23:29-30)

(2) It is a disgraceful sting. (Prov.23:31-33)

(3) It is an injurious sting Not only to yourself, but also to loved ones and others. (Prov.23:34-35)

(iv)Warning # 4 – is Against Transgressors. The wise man states in Proverbs 13:15 that the way of the transgressor is hard. Ever

consider what one can lose by unfaithfulness and transgression?

(1)Loss of a good conscience. (I Tim.4:2) Conscience seared with a hot iron.

(2)Loss of character. Adam and Eve were holy and pure, until they were overtaken in sin. They then lost character!

(3)Loss of usefulness. No longer useful in God’s kingdom, now one is a stumbling block instead.

(4)Loss of soul. Everlasting punishment separated from God for all eternity.

Let us heed the warnings of scripture.

Have you ever found yourself, in the midst of unimaginable grief, pain, heartache, or despair, wondering how you are going to make it through another day? Wondering where your next breath is going to come from? Your world has crumbled beneath you and has left you feeling shattered, empty, and hopeless.

And then a well-meaning friend or family member comes along and drops the infamous "Everything happens for a reason" bomb. You smile kindly and nod. That's all you can do to keep yourself from punching them in the face.

You can't possibly imagine a reason for what just happened.

The more you stew about a possible reason for your pain, the angrier you become. You try desperately to make sense of a situation that won't ever make sense. You reach for answers but none come.

I spent years searching for answers, trying to find reasons that would bring an end to my pain. I thought that if I could find the cause, I could treat the condition. But what I found through years of searching, experiencing, and living is that often there is no reason for why tragedy has occurred.

Sometimes bad things happen for no reason other than we are human beings having a human experience. Pain, heartache, grief, loss, disease, and death are inevitable parts of the human experience.

We hear people say "Life dealt me a ‘bad’ hand" as if pain and hardships are not the norm. We assume that life is supposed to be easy and when things don't go our way, we feel like we have been wronged. Human beings seem to have an innate sense of entitlement. We think that we are owed a pain free existence.

But the truth is that human beings are not exempt from the human experience. And struggle is an innate part of the human experience. None of us are exceptions to this rule. We all struggle. We all suffer. We all experience pain, heartache, and loss. And sometimes, there's just no reason other than we are human and pain is a part of the process.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who was struggling to find peace with "God's plan" for her life including the recent death of a loved one.

"How could this possibly be God's will?" she asked.

Here's the thing about God's will. Are you ready for this? Listen closely:

God's will is not the path we walk, but rather how we walk the path.

God's plan is never for someone to have cancer. God's will is not for an innocent child to be brutally murdered. God's will is not for a teenage girl to be raped. God's will is not chronic pain, illness, disability, or death.

God's will is not an event that happens to us, it's how we respond to what happens.

God's will for us is to walk with Him through the cancer. Through the abuse. Through the death. Through the illness. God's will is for us to draw close to him in the midst of pain. God's will is for us to use our painful life events to carry his message of hope, grace, forgiveness, and mercy.

God's plan was never for pain to be part of the human experience. His plan was for us to live in peace and harmony with Him. The human experience became painful when sin entered the world. Our own free will weaved threads of tragedy, loss, heartache, and pain into the human experience

God is not responsible for our pain. We are not responsible for our pain. What happened in the Garden of Eden is responsible for the human condition. And the human condition is hard wired for pain and suffering. God is not causing us to hurt. He is hurting with us. What we do with our hurt is what matters. How we handle tragedy is what brings purpose into our pain.

There's hardly ever a justifiable reason for the bad things that happen in life. Tragic loss is not laced with inherent specs of good. I used to get so mad when people would say, "you can find good in every situation." That's just not true. There was nothing good about being raped. There is no good in murder or abuse. We have to create the good. We have to choose to respond in a way that brings good into an impossible situation. We have to choose to give purpose and meaning to our suffering.

Not everything happens for a reason. But in everything that happens, there can be a reason to bring hope and healing to others. God can use our pain for a greater good if we choose to let him in.