Why, God? - Pain & Suffering

Can God still be good when people get cancer?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  How can we reconcile all the bad things in the world with a loving God?  Should we even try?

I attempt to discuss the death of my sister at age 22 of angiosarcoma and how that event has completely affected my view of God and His sovereignty.

 

Scripture Used

Rom 8.28 (NLT)
2 Cor 1.9 (NIV)
Psalm 13.1-2a (NLT)
Jeremiah 20.7a (ESV)
Job 40.8 (ESV)
Exod 6.3a (NLT)
Jeremiah 32.2 (NLT)
Jeremiah 10.12 (NLT)
Psalm 119.68 (NLT)
Psalm 103.19 (NLT)
Isaiah 65.17-20 (NLT)

Quotations & References

CS Lewis: A Grief Observed (pp 42-43)

“But oh God, tenderly, tenderly. Already, month by month and week by week you broke her body on the wheel whilst she still wore it. Is it not yet enough?
The terrible thing is that a perfectly good God is in this matter hardly less formidable than a Cosmic Sadist. The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed—might grow tired of his vile sport—might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless. But is it credible that such extremities of torture should be necessary for us? Well, take you choice. The tortures occur. If they are unnecessary, then there is no God or a bad one. If there is a good God, then these tortures are necessary. For no even moderately good being could possibly inflict or permit them if they weren’t.
Either way, we’re for it.
What do people mean when they say, “I am not afraid of God because I know He is good?” Have they never been to a dentist?”

You Were Made for This: The Cross

Peter made the same mistake we often do: trying to avoid the cross.  Satan tried to move Jesus away from the cross, and he continues to attempt the same with us.  However, the truth of God's message remains the same: No Cross, No Crown.

Jesus explains it was necessary for Him to go to the cross, and so it is also necessary for us to pick up and carry our own crosses if we're to follow him.

Crosses aren't optional.



Scripture Used

Mark 8.27-35 (NLT)
Mark 4.41 (NLT)
Ephesians 4.11-12 (NLT)


Quotes

No Cross, No Crown.

The idea of “coming to church” instead of “doing church” makes us water down what it means to “be the church."

If you want to keep reading: http://relevantbeliefs.blogspot.com/2010/01/point.html 

You Were Made for This: Discipleship

Ultimately, we were made to become like God.  God made us in his image in the garden, but through sin and willful disobedience, we tarnished that image and drifted away from him.  Our lives on earth are a journey back to Him.  That beings with faith in Jesus Christ as God, and it continues as we strive to again reflect his image.  That process is called discipleship.

 

Scripture Used

Gen 1.26 (NLT)
Col 1.15 (NLT)
Matt 28.20 (NLT)
Eph 4.24 (NLT)
1 Cor 10.13 (ESV)
Rom 12.2 (NLT)
Prov 23.7 (NASB)
Acts 4.24 (NLT)
1 Tim 4.15 (NLT)

Quotes & Statements

We get consumed by our comfort and forget our character.

Many want to show up, hear a sermon, sing some songs, then go back home.

When you meet God, your behavior and your beliefs change.

Temptations are just as much an opportunity to do right as they are to do wrong.

The battle for sin is fought and won in your mind.

Religion: Doing stuff without the right motivation
Hypocrisy: Saying stuff without the right actions
Christianity: Creeds & Convictions, but also Conduct & Character

Your character is the sum of your habits.

A Bible on the shelf is worthless.

“What has God already told me to do in his Word that I haven’t started doing yet?”

 

References

Warren, Rick: The Purpose-driven Life

Made for This: Fellowship

Your relationship to Christ is personal, but God never intended for it to be private.  We were made to live in unity with each other.  The church—our Christian brotherhood—is especially called to show love within its ranks.  Christian love focused outside the church is evangelism; when it is focused inside, fellowship occurs.

 

 

Scripture Used

1 Peter 2.17
Phil 1.3-11 (NLT)
1 Cor 13.13
Phil 1.2 (the Message)
Rom 12.5 (NLT)
James 3.18 (the Message)
Eph 4.15 (NLT)
Gal 6.2 (NLT)
1 John 3.18 (NLT)
Gal 6.10 (NLT)
Eph 4.3 (NLT)
2 Tim 2.33 (NLT)
1 Cor 1.10 (NLT)
Rom 14.19 (Ph)
Eph 4.2 (NLT)
Rom 14.13 (NLT)
Prov 17.4 (NLT)
Matt 18.15-17 (NLT) [referenced but not quoted)
Phil 4.2-3 (NLT)
Heb 13.17 (NLT)

Quotes & Statements

You were called to belong, not just believe.

Your relationship to Christ is personal, but God never intends for it to be private.

Referenced CS Lewis: The Weight of Glory

1. Less is more
a. Move beyond potato salad
b. You can worship in a crowd, but you can’t fellowship in one.

2. Be honest
a. Accept the tunnel of chaos.

3. Love with your hands
a. Stop saying “I’ll pray for you.”
b. Let Nike take over your spiritual life; just do it.

4. Prioritize the brotherhood
a. Be available.

5. Take the initiative
a. Be a friend to have a friend.

 

· Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is immaturity.

 

1. Focus on what we have in common, not our differences
a. Look: we all believe we worship the same God, share the same salvation, love the same Jesus, read the same Bible, and have the same destiny.
b. So, forget about everything else.

2. Be realistic
a. God wants you to love real people, not ideal people.

3. Encourage rather than criticize
a. Criticism is satanic. (Rev 12.10)

4. Refuse to gossip
a. People who will gossip with you will also gossip about you.

5. Resolve conflict God’s way

6. Support your pastor and leaders
a. They’re not perfect, but they’re God-chosen.

 

God made the church to meet your five deepest needs:

§ Purpose to live for
§ People to live with
§ Principles to live by
§ Profession to live out
§ Power to live on

(Taken from: Warren, Rick: The Purpose-driven Life)

Made for This: Evangelism

Like a city on a hill, God saved you and adopted you into his family to shine brightly in this dark world.  When we love God, we worship.  When we love fellow believers, we minister.  When we love nonbelievers, we evangelize.

 

 

 

Scripture Used

Matthew 28.19-20 (NLT)

Luke 8.16-21 (NLT)

Mark 3.21 (referenced, but not quoted)

Quotes

In the world, you have to do something to be somebody.

In Christianity, God makes us someone so we can do some things.

“My identity is light, so my activity is shining.”

“My identity is family, so my activity is serving.”

 

References

I referenced George Whitefield’s “How to Listen to a Sermon.”

http://www.contagiouschristian.com/

Warren, Rick: The Purpose-driven Life

Strobel, Lee: Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary

Made for This: Ministry

 Christ commands all of his followers to be servants.  Service, Love, and Faith are so closely related that we should see view “non-serving Christianity” as a contradiction in terms.

 

 

Scripture Used

Luke 10.25-37 (NLT)
Galatians 5.6 (ESV)
Ephesians 2.10 (NLT)
1 John 4.21 (NLT)

Quotes

Vertical Love is Worship
Horizontal Love is Ministry

"If my life is fruitless, it doesn't matter who praises me,
and if my life is fruitful, it doesn't matter who criticizes me."
-John Bunyan

The Love that Pleases God is Active.

Made for This: Worship

Scripture Used:

Matthew 22.34-40 (NLT)

James 2.10 (NLT)

Deuteronomy 6.5 (NLT)

Colossians 3.23 (NLT)

John 15.9-11 (NLT)

Romans 12.1 (NLT)

 

Quotations:

Focusing on what you do instead of why you do it is religious legalism.

 

The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.

 

Your biggest distraction in worship is you.

 

References:

Warren, Rick: The Purpose-driven Life

Made for This: Salvation

 

Scripture Used

Eph 1.9-11 (NLT)

Jer 29.11 (NLT)

Psalm 139.15 (The Message)

Ephesians 1.11 (The Message)

Colossians 1.16 (The Message)

John 20.31 (NLT)

Mark 16.16 (NLT)

 

Quotes

“The greatest tragedy is not death. It is life without purpose.”

 

When we die, we don’t leave home.  We go home.

 

“Everything that is not eternal is eternally useless.” –-CS Lewis

 

When you live close to God, everything else just seems small and trivial. -–Rick Warren

 

“For us this is the end of all the stories…But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world…had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter

 

One of the Great story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever and in which every chapter is better than the one before.” --CS Lewis, The Last Battle (p. 184)

 

“For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal…Our problems are manmade - therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be a big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.” --Kennedy’s speech (1963 Commencement Address at American University: speaking on the Cold War)

 

References

Warren, Rick: The Purpose-driven Life

A Code to Live By

Bible Verses

Proverbs 11.3 (ESV)

Ecclesiastes 12.13 (NLT)

1 Tim 4.12 (NLT)

Deuteronomy 6.6-7 (NLT)

Ecclesiastes 2.22-24 (NLT)

Proverbs 22.6 (ESV)

1 Peter 4.10 (NLT)

Quotes

William Damon (professor of Education @ Brown University)

“When we teach children to concern themselves first and foremost with their own sense of self, we not only encourage self-centeredness but also fail to present a more inspiring and developmentally constructive alternative: that they should concern themselves about things beyond the self and above the self. We fail, that is, to convey to them a sense that there are other important things in life beyond their own individual circumstances and feelings.”

 

Resources

Father Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAKBXBXz1fo

Father Site: http://www.familymanweb.com/

Opening Story: http://www.rhenion.com/catchofalifetime.htm

Book referenced: Lewis, Robert: Raising a Modern-day Knight

Putting God F.I.R.S.T.

Scripture Used

Deuteronomy 6.6-7

Exodus 20.3

Proverbs 12.26

Psalm 50.15

Matthew 6.33

Deuteronomy 6.4-9

 

References

How do I Put God FIRST?

Finances
Interest
Relationships
Schedule
Troubles

Quotes

Taps for Jesus

Scripture References

1 Cor 11.23-29 (NLT)

Acts 2.42 (NLT)

Acts 20.7 (NLT)

1 Cor 16.1-2 (NLT)

1 Cor 11.20 (NLT)

Acts 2.37-38 (NLT)

Mark 14.22-26 (HCSB)

Quotations

Justin Martyr (c. AD 140, First Apology)

“On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together at one place…Then we all rise together and pray, as we before said when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought…and there is a distribution to each, and participation of that over which thanks has been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.”

 

References

(Blomberg, C. (2001). Vol. 22: Matthew)

“Jesus’ words here have led to massive debates, intra-Christian persecution, and huge theological edifices, the weight of which they cannot bear. The doctrines of transubstantiation (the bread and wine become Christ’s actual body and blood) or consubstantiation (Christ is really present “in, with, and under” the elements) make no sense of Jesus’ words in their historical context. As Jesus holds up a loaf and declares, “This is my body,” no one listening will ever imagine that he is claiming the bread to be the literal extension of his flesh.”

A Salute to Moms

Mother’s Day 2010

Scripture

Rom 16.1-13, esp. 13 (NLT)

John 2.1-3 (NLT)

Quotes

Rudyard Kipling:

If I were hanged on the highest hill, I know whose love would follow me still.
Mother of mine, Mother of mine.

If I were drowned in the deepest sea, I know whose tears would come down to me.
Mother of mine, Mother of mine.

If I were damned by body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole.
Mother of mine, Mother of mine.

Anonymous

Wherever I wander; wherever I roam;
wherever mother is; there is home.

Resources

Pictures from Israel Pilgrimage (Online Album)

Straight Talk: 4 of 4

Where do I Go From Here?

 

Scripture

Luke 9.23-24

Matthew 7.21

Philippians 2.9

Matthew 16.15

Acts 2.37-38

1 Peter 3.21

Quotes

We usually begin our journey toward God thinking, “What do I have to do to get this or that from him?”  But, eventually we have to begin asking: “What do I have to do to get Him?”

A Christian is literally, “Christ’s One”

Bono interview with Michka Assayas; The Reason for God: pg 229, f

Repentance is not less than being truly sorry, but it means much more.

It’s not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that saves you.

 

Resources

Keller, Tim: The Reason for God

Straight Talk: 3 of 4

Was Jesus Religious?

Scripture

Romans 7.14-25

Gen 11

Luke 9.23-24

 

Quotes

“The gospel is not so much concerned with what as it is concerned with why.”

Religion: building your identity on moral achievements
Irreligion: building your identify on any other secular pursuit

Religion: Salvation through moral effort
Christianity: Salvation through grace

Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

“I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. You know how earnestly, in the last months of the last year, I labored to relieve suffering; you know that much was done for others…[But as] I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect…at the very moment of that vain-glorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most dreadful shuddering…I looked down…I was once more Edward Hyde.”

Tim Keller, The Reason for God

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued and that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself or less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

 

Resources

Reading

Keller, Tim: The Reason for God

 

Sites

www.podcast.billmesaeh.com (download or hear the series again)

Straight Talk: 1 of 4

How Can I Know God Exists?

Scripture

Gen 1.1

Psalm 19.1-4

Rom 1.19-20

Job 38.1-11

Col 1.15-16

Quotes

-Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers

“Theologians generally are delighted with the proof that the Universe had a beginning, but astronomers are curiously upset. Their reactions provide an interesting demonstration of the response of the scientific mind—supposedly a very objective mind—when evidence uncovered by science itself leads to a conflict with the articles of faith in our profession. It turns out the scientist behaves the way the rest of us do when our beliefs are in conflict with the evidence. We become irritated, we pretend the conflict does not exist, or we paper over it with meaningless phrases.”

“Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same: the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”

“Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every start, every planet, every living thing in the cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover….That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact.”

“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; his is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

Arthur Eddington

“The beginning seems to present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to look on it as frankly supernatural.”

Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker

“Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.”

Francis Crick

“Biologist must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.”

Richard Lewontin

“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover that materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.”

Resources

Reading

Geisler, Normal & Frank Turek: I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist

Keller, Tim: The Reason for God

Jastrow, Robert: God and the Astronomers (Note: I have not read this entire book and am not giving a full endorsement)

For more information on various apologetic-related topics, including Cambrian Explosion, abiogenesis, homochirality, and Christian documents, go to: http://www.billmesaeh.com/Xnty%20&%20Xn%20Living.htm#Christianity_101

Sites

www.bethinking.org (general apologetics)

www.answersingenesis.org (strengths of creationism)

www.podcast.billmesaeh.com (download or hear the series again)