Bible Studies 11 (For newest Bible Study see "Bible Studies 19")
Why Does God Allow Suffering? (Added 3/8/15)
A very dear loved one lost her baby this week. Why does God allow this kind of pain, suffering, and hurt. Why?Of just about every other circumstance in life, losing a child must be one of the hardest trials to go through. Why do people have to pass away? Why is there so much pain, and suffering, and heartache in this world? If God truly loved us and cared about us how could He possibly allow us to suffer this way?
Well I cannot venture to guess exactly why my loved one lost her baby. Or why my Mom lost her son Ted or my Aunt Lainy lost her son Tommy (who had a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters with a new granddaughter on the way and 3 other sweet grandchildren. He was only 49.). I do know both of these men were very strong Men-of-God and they worked tirelessly to make sure everyone they met knew about Jesus. They were doing God’s work.
I don’t know the answers. But I can share some of my thoughts when I watched as my brother Ted (who was only 55 years old) drew his last breath last August. I wondered if perhaps, God took him home when He did to prevent my brother from suffering even more. Perhaps he may have lingered longer and suffered more excruciating pain trying to beat cancer. Maybe God knew Ted was going to go into a coma and remain that way for weeks or even months. I truly don’t know why God allowed Ted or Tommy to pass and my loved one’s baby to pass when He did.
I do know we must remember that God is on his throne and God knows our past, present, and our future. God knows the beginning from the end. I know that even when we are at our darkest He does not leave us or abandon us. We may never know why God allows certain things to happen. We do know that in our lifetime we will have joy unspeakable, unbelievable happiness, and we will be in the depths of despair. Mom and Aunt Lainy mourn the loss of their sons with such heartbroken sorrow that it saddens me to think about what they go through every day. I know my dear loved one, who just lost her baby, is going through the exact same emotions as Mom and Aunt Lainy.
We can question why God would allow a child to be born to a mother who doesn't love them and doesn't care about them. Or why a woman can be raped and become pregnant. We can ask all kinds of “why” questions. One thing we can know is that God knows everything in the future even though we don't know why God allows things to happen that he does. Maybe one of those children I mentioned will grow up to be an evangelist who wins 2,000 souls to Jesus. We have to let God be God. That’s His job.
I do know God loves us. There is no shadow of doubt in my mind of this fact. How do I know and how can I be so emphatic? Because John 3:16 tells me so. This verse says God loves us so much He gave His own Son to suffer and die on the cross for our sins so that we could spend eternity with our loving Father, God. Why would He do that? Because He loves us. However, we have to take this another step and remember there was another mother over 2,000 years ago who lost her Son as well. She suffered terribly. She watched as her son, her baby, was accused, convicted and sentenced to die for crimes He did not commit. He was beaten, spit upon, ridiculed, and hung on a cross until He died.
Jesus experienced every emotion, we do today. He lost loved ones and He knew sorrow. Jesus’ life and death enabled God to know how we feel. How our lives ebb and flow. It allowed God to experience life as a human being with our same emotions and life experiences. So God, through Jesus knows our pain, our suffering, our joy, and our needs. He alone is uniquely qualified to share in our lives.
When we suffer a loss like this, we have two choices. We can either push God away (or further away) or we can come closer to Him. If we push Him away we are the ones who lose. We lose His love, His mercy, His grace, His compassion, His wisdom.
If we push into Jesus we have our Savior and our Friend. He died for us and He loves us. He will comfort us and console us. He holds us in His arms and catches our tears in His hand. Here are just a few verses about our grief and His love:
· "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4
· Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
· "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:21-23
· "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. "Matthew 11:28-30
· "The Lord is near to those who are broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18
One beautiful thing I know beyond any doubt is that as long as my loved one is saved (has accepted Jesus as her Savior) she WILL be reunited with her beautiful baby in heaven someday. And that is a promise from our loving Father. :-)
I wanted to include this link to a message by Christian author and apologist Lee Strobel, who delivered this message just days after the deadly theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2012/07/why-does-god-allow-tragedy-and-suffering/. It is a very good message that may help us understand better.
Remember with God (in this life) we’ll always be going Through something, and not just being In something. He helps us through it and we get stronger and grow closer to Him as we put our faith and trust in Him.
How do we react to the Court’s decision? (Added 6/28/15)
Okay, let me get this off my chest right away. When I heard the news about the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states I was ashamed, dismayed, appalled, disgusted, and angry. Then when I saw that Mr. O lit up the White House in the gay pride colors I felt all of those emotions again, but intensified by 1,000! So, I sat down to write an article/Bible study while feeling those emotions. And I got it mostly done today before going to church. Then something happened: I listened to the preacher and I spoke with my wife (she’s a pretty wise woman and I’m mighty thankful for her). After giving it more thought I was reminded of a few things and am better prepared to write this the way it should be written.
First, a little about who God is:
· God is in control of every moment and He knows the beginning from the end. There is nothing that mere man can do that is a surprise or catches Him off guard. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient: Which means He is all-powerful and can do anything that pleases Him; He is everywhere, and He knows the past, present, and future completely. (Revelation 19:6; Jeremiah 32:17, 27; Psalm 139:7-13; Jeremiah 23:23; Psalm 139:1-5; Proverbs 5:21).
· God is righteous. He cannot and will not excuse or minimize wrongdoing. It is because of God’s righteousness and justice that, in order for our sins to be forgiven, Jesus had to experience God's wrath when our sins were placed upon Him (Exodus 9:27; Matthew 27:45-46; Romans 3:21-26).
· God is truth, He is incorruptible and cannot lie (Psalm 117:2; 1 Samuel 15:29).
· God is holy, separated from all moral defilement and hostile toward it. God sees all evil and it angers Him. God is referred to as a consuming fire (Isaiah 6:3; Habakkuk 1:13; Exodus 3:2, 4-5; Hebrews 12:29).
· God is gracious, and His grace includes His goodness, kindness, mercy, and love. If it were not for God's grace, His holiness would exclude us from His presence. Thankfully, this is not the case, for He desires to know each of us personally (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 31:19; 1 Peter 1:3; John 3:16, 17:3).
So, after looking at just some of His attributes we have to admit there is no one like our God. He is the Creator of all things! He can do what He wants and it is right for Him to do what He chooses regardless of our thoughts or feelings about it. No one can compare to Him.
God wrote the Bible over the course of about 1,500 years through many different men as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write God’s Holy Word. In the Bible we learn about God and we learn how to live, how to worship, and how to obey Him to prevent sinning against Him. So, what is sin?
“Sin is the breaking of God's law. If God says "Do not lie" and you lie, then you have broken His law and sinned. When you sin, you offend God because it is His law that you have broken. Also, the reason God says to not lie, not cheat, etc., is that these laws reflect the moral purity of His nature. Therefore, the Law is a reflection of the character of God. It is wrong to lie because God cannot lie. It is wrong to steal because God cannot steal, etc. The moral law is not arbitrary. It is based on God's holiness.
The law, then, is a standard of moral purity. The Old Testament contains the Law of God. It is a perfect standard because it is God's standard. When we fail to keep the law, we sin. When we sin, we offend God. This offense against God results in a judgment. Laws are laws because they have penalties. There is no law without a penalty. Therefore, breaking God's law brings judgment which is separation from God. "But your sins have made a separation between you and your God," (Isaiah 59:2). And, "the wages of sin is death . . . " (Rom. 6:23). So, to sin, to break God's law, results in judgment. The judgment is known as damnation which is the righteous judgment of God upon the sinner. If God did not judge the sinner, then He is not upholding His holiness, and He would be allowing sinners to go unpunished.” (excerpted from “What is Sin?” CARM.org)
There is one other attribute of God we need to look at. That is “… God is love” (1 John 4:8) and “He has demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s love is perfect towards us.
Now let’s go deeper. Satan has gotten society to accept his lie in this ruling of the Court. Satan’s lie is that “Love Wins.” This could not be further from the truth. In this ruling Satan wins (at least for a time). He has rebelled against God since his pride (pride was the original sin) caused him to sin against God. So what the father of lies (John 8:44) has done is he has taken God’s perfect love, as designed to be between one man and one woman, and twisted it into something that goes against God’s design for mankind. He has taken God’s perfect love and perverted it into filth and depravity. Through this lie he has convinced some to accept, and to join in, his rebellion against God. So when a Christian agrees with secular man and condones this sin (or any sin) we become just what Satan tells the world we are - hypocrites. We become ineffective, ineffectual, useless, and lost ourselves.
As Christians we are to be the salt and the light (Matthew 5:13-14) of the world Jesus spoke of. We are to be righteous and holy and filled with love. We are to love the sinner, but we cannot condone the sin. We must be the light of Truth (Jesus) to this lost and broken world. When we allow others to dictate who we are in God, and how we live our lives, we are not the example of Jesus we are supposed to be.
So, what do we, as God’s people, do? We gird ourselves up and put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and prepare for battle. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) This verse reminds us we are not battling man so much as Satan acting through man. We do not submit to his lies and deception. We allow the love of Jesus to shine through us as we love the sinner, but not the sin. We must stand firm against all sin because all sin is appalling to God. And as His children; all sin should be appalling to us as well. We should be holy without being “Holier than thou.” So we remember that Jesus died for all and, as God’s children, our mission is to bring the love of Jesus to the lost world. At the same time though we must not let the lost world cause us to lose our way and corrupt us.
John 3:16-17 reminds us perfectly of our salvation and what is at stake: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” So, let’s introduce the world (one lost soul at a time perhaps) to Immanuel – God with us.
A very dear loved one lost her baby this week. Why does God allow this kind of pain, suffering, and hurt. Why?Of just about every other circumstance in life, losing a child must be one of the hardest trials to go through. Why do people have to pass away? Why is there so much pain, and suffering, and heartache in this world? If God truly loved us and cared about us how could He possibly allow us to suffer this way?
Well I cannot venture to guess exactly why my loved one lost her baby. Or why my Mom lost her son Ted or my Aunt Lainy lost her son Tommy (who had a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters with a new granddaughter on the way and 3 other sweet grandchildren. He was only 49.). I do know both of these men were very strong Men-of-God and they worked tirelessly to make sure everyone they met knew about Jesus. They were doing God’s work.
I don’t know the answers. But I can share some of my thoughts when I watched as my brother Ted (who was only 55 years old) drew his last breath last August. I wondered if perhaps, God took him home when He did to prevent my brother from suffering even more. Perhaps he may have lingered longer and suffered more excruciating pain trying to beat cancer. Maybe God knew Ted was going to go into a coma and remain that way for weeks or even months. I truly don’t know why God allowed Ted or Tommy to pass and my loved one’s baby to pass when He did.
I do know we must remember that God is on his throne and God knows our past, present, and our future. God knows the beginning from the end. I know that even when we are at our darkest He does not leave us or abandon us. We may never know why God allows certain things to happen. We do know that in our lifetime we will have joy unspeakable, unbelievable happiness, and we will be in the depths of despair. Mom and Aunt Lainy mourn the loss of their sons with such heartbroken sorrow that it saddens me to think about what they go through every day. I know my dear loved one, who just lost her baby, is going through the exact same emotions as Mom and Aunt Lainy.
We can question why God would allow a child to be born to a mother who doesn't love them and doesn't care about them. Or why a woman can be raped and become pregnant. We can ask all kinds of “why” questions. One thing we can know is that God knows everything in the future even though we don't know why God allows things to happen that he does. Maybe one of those children I mentioned will grow up to be an evangelist who wins 2,000 souls to Jesus. We have to let God be God. That’s His job.
I do know God loves us. There is no shadow of doubt in my mind of this fact. How do I know and how can I be so emphatic? Because John 3:16 tells me so. This verse says God loves us so much He gave His own Son to suffer and die on the cross for our sins so that we could spend eternity with our loving Father, God. Why would He do that? Because He loves us. However, we have to take this another step and remember there was another mother over 2,000 years ago who lost her Son as well. She suffered terribly. She watched as her son, her baby, was accused, convicted and sentenced to die for crimes He did not commit. He was beaten, spit upon, ridiculed, and hung on a cross until He died.
Jesus experienced every emotion, we do today. He lost loved ones and He knew sorrow. Jesus’ life and death enabled God to know how we feel. How our lives ebb and flow. It allowed God to experience life as a human being with our same emotions and life experiences. So God, through Jesus knows our pain, our suffering, our joy, and our needs. He alone is uniquely qualified to share in our lives.
When we suffer a loss like this, we have two choices. We can either push God away (or further away) or we can come closer to Him. If we push Him away we are the ones who lose. We lose His love, His mercy, His grace, His compassion, His wisdom.
If we push into Jesus we have our Savior and our Friend. He died for us and He loves us. He will comfort us and console us. He holds us in His arms and catches our tears in His hand. Here are just a few verses about our grief and His love:
· "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4
· Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
· "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:21-23
· "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. "Matthew 11:28-30
· "The Lord is near to those who are broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18
One beautiful thing I know beyond any doubt is that as long as my loved one is saved (has accepted Jesus as her Savior) she WILL be reunited with her beautiful baby in heaven someday. And that is a promise from our loving Father. :-)
I wanted to include this link to a message by Christian author and apologist Lee Strobel, who delivered this message just days after the deadly theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2012/07/why-does-god-allow-tragedy-and-suffering/. It is a very good message that may help us understand better.
Remember with God (in this life) we’ll always be going Through something, and not just being In something. He helps us through it and we get stronger and grow closer to Him as we put our faith and trust in Him.
How do we react to the Court’s decision? (Added 6/28/15)
Okay, let me get this off my chest right away. When I heard the news about the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states I was ashamed, dismayed, appalled, disgusted, and angry. Then when I saw that Mr. O lit up the White House in the gay pride colors I felt all of those emotions again, but intensified by 1,000! So, I sat down to write an article/Bible study while feeling those emotions. And I got it mostly done today before going to church. Then something happened: I listened to the preacher and I spoke with my wife (she’s a pretty wise woman and I’m mighty thankful for her). After giving it more thought I was reminded of a few things and am better prepared to write this the way it should be written.
First, a little about who God is:
· God is in control of every moment and He knows the beginning from the end. There is nothing that mere man can do that is a surprise or catches Him off guard. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient: Which means He is all-powerful and can do anything that pleases Him; He is everywhere, and He knows the past, present, and future completely. (Revelation 19:6; Jeremiah 32:17, 27; Psalm 139:7-13; Jeremiah 23:23; Psalm 139:1-5; Proverbs 5:21).
· God is righteous. He cannot and will not excuse or minimize wrongdoing. It is because of God’s righteousness and justice that, in order for our sins to be forgiven, Jesus had to experience God's wrath when our sins were placed upon Him (Exodus 9:27; Matthew 27:45-46; Romans 3:21-26).
· God is truth, He is incorruptible and cannot lie (Psalm 117:2; 1 Samuel 15:29).
· God is holy, separated from all moral defilement and hostile toward it. God sees all evil and it angers Him. God is referred to as a consuming fire (Isaiah 6:3; Habakkuk 1:13; Exodus 3:2, 4-5; Hebrews 12:29).
· God is gracious, and His grace includes His goodness, kindness, mercy, and love. If it were not for God's grace, His holiness would exclude us from His presence. Thankfully, this is not the case, for He desires to know each of us personally (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 31:19; 1 Peter 1:3; John 3:16, 17:3).
So, after looking at just some of His attributes we have to admit there is no one like our God. He is the Creator of all things! He can do what He wants and it is right for Him to do what He chooses regardless of our thoughts or feelings about it. No one can compare to Him.
God wrote the Bible over the course of about 1,500 years through many different men as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write God’s Holy Word. In the Bible we learn about God and we learn how to live, how to worship, and how to obey Him to prevent sinning against Him. So, what is sin?
“Sin is the breaking of God's law. If God says "Do not lie" and you lie, then you have broken His law and sinned. When you sin, you offend God because it is His law that you have broken. Also, the reason God says to not lie, not cheat, etc., is that these laws reflect the moral purity of His nature. Therefore, the Law is a reflection of the character of God. It is wrong to lie because God cannot lie. It is wrong to steal because God cannot steal, etc. The moral law is not arbitrary. It is based on God's holiness.
The law, then, is a standard of moral purity. The Old Testament contains the Law of God. It is a perfect standard because it is God's standard. When we fail to keep the law, we sin. When we sin, we offend God. This offense against God results in a judgment. Laws are laws because they have penalties. There is no law without a penalty. Therefore, breaking God's law brings judgment which is separation from God. "But your sins have made a separation between you and your God," (Isaiah 59:2). And, "the wages of sin is death . . . " (Rom. 6:23). So, to sin, to break God's law, results in judgment. The judgment is known as damnation which is the righteous judgment of God upon the sinner. If God did not judge the sinner, then He is not upholding His holiness, and He would be allowing sinners to go unpunished.” (excerpted from “What is Sin?” CARM.org)
There is one other attribute of God we need to look at. That is “… God is love” (1 John 4:8) and “He has demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s love is perfect towards us.
Now let’s go deeper. Satan has gotten society to accept his lie in this ruling of the Court. Satan’s lie is that “Love Wins.” This could not be further from the truth. In this ruling Satan wins (at least for a time). He has rebelled against God since his pride (pride was the original sin) caused him to sin against God. So what the father of lies (John 8:44) has done is he has taken God’s perfect love, as designed to be between one man and one woman, and twisted it into something that goes against God’s design for mankind. He has taken God’s perfect love and perverted it into filth and depravity. Through this lie he has convinced some to accept, and to join in, his rebellion against God. So when a Christian agrees with secular man and condones this sin (or any sin) we become just what Satan tells the world we are - hypocrites. We become ineffective, ineffectual, useless, and lost ourselves.
As Christians we are to be the salt and the light (Matthew 5:13-14) of the world Jesus spoke of. We are to be righteous and holy and filled with love. We are to love the sinner, but we cannot condone the sin. We must be the light of Truth (Jesus) to this lost and broken world. When we allow others to dictate who we are in God, and how we live our lives, we are not the example of Jesus we are supposed to be.
So, what do we, as God’s people, do? We gird ourselves up and put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and prepare for battle. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) This verse reminds us we are not battling man so much as Satan acting through man. We do not submit to his lies and deception. We allow the love of Jesus to shine through us as we love the sinner, but not the sin. We must stand firm against all sin because all sin is appalling to God. And as His children; all sin should be appalling to us as well. We should be holy without being “Holier than thou.” So we remember that Jesus died for all and, as God’s children, our mission is to bring the love of Jesus to the lost world. At the same time though we must not let the lost world cause us to lose our way and corrupt us.
John 3:16-17 reminds us perfectly of our salvation and what is at stake: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” So, let’s introduce the world (one lost soul at a time perhaps) to Immanuel – God with us.
