Happy, Healthy And Wealthy. Sounds Nice, But What Does The Bible Say? Series

HAPPY, HEALTHY AND WEALTHY

Mark 11:22-24

Several years ago I read in Jews for Jesus newsletter, an article by Milton Kohut entitled, “Heaven wanted to wait.” Milton Kohut was Jewish believer in Christ and he shared how when his mother died, he was told, “God takes the best ones first.” That didn’t make sense, and he struggled to understand who God was and why He allowed things like this to happen. He shared that when he was in Korea during the Korean War, he met a missionary who cared for deaf children. Even though they had nothing, they were still joyful. Kohut ultimately came to believe that He could trust the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and His Son, Jesus Christ who died for his sins.

Milton Kohut was a business man and he had meeting in several cities and was finished his meetings in New York. He was getting ready to fly to Chicago for another meeting and when finished, he would fly back to Los Angeles, his home.

The weather turned bad in New York, and his flight to Chicago was cancelled. As a result, he missed his meeting and his flight back to Los Angeles.

American Airlines flight 191 from Chicago to Los Angeles was taking off on 25 May 1979. On takeoff an engine broke lose, damaging the control surfaces of the left wing. The DC-10 never got higher than a few hundred feet and crashed near a trailer park, killing all 271 aboard and 2 people on the ground.

I was at my mother’s watching TV when it happened. The stations interrupted the programming to tell us about the incident. I had flown many times, and thought nothing of it when I fly. But to those on board the DC-10 and to their families it was a different story. I knew that there were most likely those on board who had trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and were now with Him. But I also knew that there were others who for them, would face the reality of a Christless eternity.

Milton Kohut was supposed to be on that DC-10. But the cancellation of his flight from New York to Chicago forced him to change his plans; reschedule his meetings and fly back to Los Angeles from New York. Needless to say he was badly shaken when he heard about the crash. Because he should have died. But for reasons unknown to him, or any of us, God spared him. But others died. He could not explain. And Kohut later wrote an article about his experience and he shared the response from a man who owned a Christian publishing company. One of this man’s employees was on the DC-10. She was going to Los Angeles for a Christian Bookseller’s Convention. She was killed along with everyone else on the plane. This man told Kohut, “I don’t question my colleague’s untimely death, and I cannot tell you how to live the rest of your life. It is my conviction that God has further work for you to do, while my colleague’s work has been accomplished.”

When we look at this, our questions might not be answered, but I can affirm, and I think you can too, that God is loving and just, and He does not make mistakes. Even though I don’t know why, I can still trust Him.

As Job, who went through intense physical and emotional suffering said, Job 13:15 a"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I bwill argue my ways 1before Him.

Several years later, while working at American Airlines, I was meeting with a number of our pilots for prayer. We were fast approaching a deadline of Friday midnight, to which if the pilot’s union and AA management had not agreed on a new contract, the pilots would go on strike. An airline can make it without a lot of people, but it will not survive without its pilots. One afternoon after we had finished praying we were staying around and talking. And I don’t know why, but I shared Milton Kohut’s story with one of the pilots. I was completely taken aback by the pilot’s reaction.

“It was not God’s will for that woman to die. God promises us a life of 70 years.

Psalm 90:10 As for the days of our 1life, 2they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, aeighty years, Yet their pride is but blabor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we cfly away.

It sounded to me that this pilot was implying God made a mistake. Maybe He is not sovereign over His creation. I spent a long time pondering that. Because what this pilot said was completely contrary to what I was taught and believed.