"You must really like to be sick; you bring so much of it on yourself." That comment was from a nearby relative who never so much as sent a get-well card.

"The reason I have perfect health is that I think right; nobody gets sick unless he thinks wrong." That from another relative.

"I know just how you feel about being crippled; I had a bad case of tennis elbow last month." Great. Here's another:

"God must cherish you to trust you with this burden."

"Your present improvement is just wishful thinking." How's that for encouragement?

"I know you fake your limp to try to get attention."

What kind of God do some people have?

A country preacher was visiting his parishioners after a local flood. He called on a farmer whose crop had washed away and whose cows had all been drowned. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth," quoted the preacher, trying to offer some comfort. The farmer looked at him and said drily, "Well, I believe He overdid it this time."

The farmer was right. What kind of God do some people have? Jesus and his disciples passed a man blind from birth. "Who sinned," asked Jesus' disciples, "this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" What kind of God did these disciples have? Did they think that God looks down from heaven and says, "All right fellow. I know that you've been cheating on your taxes and cheating on your wife and I am going to take that precious little baby in your wife's womb and I'm going to strike it blind to punish you? That'll show you. Zap!" What kind of God do some people have?

Sound far-fetched? There is someone reading this devotion today who has experienced a similar tragedy. And you have carried around a burden of guilt. Deep down you have a feeling that God is punishing you for something you have done by hurting someone you love. What kind of God is that?

Of course, there is a smattering of that kind of theology in the Old Testament. If you ever have any question, however, about your sin being visited on someone you love, I refer you to Jeremiah 31: 29-30. Jeremiah is speaking of the coming Kingdom--the Kingdom that will come with the arrival of the Messiah, whom we know as Jesus the Christ. Jeremiah writes: "In those days they shall no longer say, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own sin; each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge." Mark this down. Inscribe it upon your heart: God does not punish children for the sins of their parents. God is the God of love!