Archive: 2023

This week’s devotions are based on the Week 3 “Explore God” – Why does God allow pain and suffering? (WATCH HERE)

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Who gets the blame for suffering?

When we go through times of pain or suffering, it is natural to try to find someone or something to blame.  It is really hard for us to accept that there may be something I did that resulted in a period of suffering. 

So we blame God. He seems to be the natural one to blame.

But why?
We feel he could have prevented it.  We feel guilt and feel like God is out to punish us and make life miserable.  We feel it isn’t fair and we don’t deserve it.

So we blame God.

But we shouldn’t…at least not every time.

Here’s the reality.  Suffering most often is caused by a direct or indirect result of sin.  Suffering wasn’t part of God’s original creation because sin wasn’t part of God’s creation.  Until it was.  In Genesis 3, Satan tempted Adam and Eve with an offer they couldn’t resist.  “You will be like God.”

Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

All of a sudden sin entered the world, guilt entered the world…and blame entered the world. 

Genesis 3:12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Neither of them wanted to take responsibility for the sinful action, so they blamed Satan (another popular choice) and they blamed God.  They didn’t accept the responsibility for breaking the command God gave. As a result?  Pain and suffering. (Read the rest of Genesis 3)

The legacy of Adam and Eve continues today.  When we suffer because we sin, we have a hard time taking responsibility.  Our culture today excuses the sinner and makes the victim of sin wrong.  Attorneys find the loophole to get a criminal off the hook.  We make excuses, justify, and dismiss our errors (even though we are quick to point out others).  The result?  I can never suffer because I have sinned, because I have a hard time admitting I have sinned.  But suffering can come because of sin.  One gets drunk, gets caught and loses their job while they are in jail.  Suffering because of sin.  One neglects their spouse, abuses them, or abandons them and they go through an ugly divorce.  Suffering because of sin.  One cheats on their test and they fail an important class and are not allowed to graduate.  Suffering because of sin.

This isn’t God’s fault.  Only in the sense that he allows suffering to discipline those he loves.  Should we accept suffering as a blessing, it will bring us back to God.  If we make excuses for our actions, it will lead us to blame God.

We can also suffer indirectly because of sin in the world.  Someone breaks into our home and we lose material possessions we have spent years saving to have…suffering because of sin.  We are maimed by a shooter randomly shooting into a crowd…suffering indirectly because of sin.  We are made to redo a test because someone cheated and no one fessed up…suffering indirectly because of sin.

While we do not have to accept specific responsibility, it leads us to realize we live in a broken world that is affected directly and indirectly because of sin.  Fortunately, God, like he did with Adam and Eve, didn’t leave them with their sin, but rather promised a solution to their sin.

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity

    between you and the woman,

    and between your offspring[a] and hers;

he will crush[b] your head,

    and you will strike his heel.”

The blessing is when we realize God isn’t to blame for suffering, or if he is allowing it to draw us back to himself, we can see God not as the cause for sin and suffering, but the solution for it.

 

Apply: When was the last time you blamed God for suffering?  Was it fair to do so?  What did you realize about the season of suffering that perhaps God used to bring you closer to him?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for your love that you are willing to provide the solution to suffering.  AMEN.

This week’s devotions are based on the Week 3 “Explore God” – Why does God allow pain and suffering? (WATCH HERE)

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Why?

All of us have at some point in life asked this question of God. “Why is this happening to me?”  “Why are you making me suffer this way?”  “After all I have done for you, why are you allowing this to happen to me?”

The question of pain and suffering has long been a challenge for individuals to reconcile with a loving God.  If God were loving would he all the suffering to occur or would he eliminate all suffering?

In yesterday’s message (Click the link above to listen), we surmised that we don’t blame God for all kinds of pain or suffering.  When we are working out or getting in shape for a sports season and endure the pain of sore muscles, we realize, “No pain, no gain.”  If we take a calculated risk and get hurt doing it, we realize that the hurt is the result of our actions and don’t blame God for it.

It’s the pain and suffering we don’t inflict on ourselves, or the pain we don’t think we deserve that challenges us.  At the heart of the question is a sense of fairness.  But perhaps let’s peel one more layer off this onion.  Why do we challenge or blame God for certain pain and suffering in our lives or the world around us?

1. We don’t think we deserve it.  We reconcile in our mind that we don’t deserve the illness we have.  The children don’t deserve to die at the end of a deranged person’s gun.  A loving mother doesn’t deserve to suffer with Alzheimer’s for years.  Our template of what is fair is pressed over God’s infinite wisdom and WE determine the suffering isn’t fair and blame God.
2. Another reason we can blame God is when suffering leads us to realize that part or all of our lives are out of our control.  We want to protect our children, and then they are unjustly hurt or killed.  We want to enjoy life as a family only to have it broken apart by a the actions of drunk driver.  We have plans for retirement only to have them challenged by a new illness.  We were saving our resources for a future vacation only to have unforeseen lawsuit come our way.

The things that are out of our control, we expect God to control for our benefit.  When things don’t go the way we think they should go, we can easily turn on God and blame him for allowing into our lives things that create hardship for us and we perceive he could have and should have prevented them.

Suffering is hard.  No one enjoys suffering and pain that they didn’t chose to endure themselves. Really the issue of suffering is very much a spiritual battle.  Satan wants us to “curse God and die.”  

So how do we face suffering…even when we perceive it is not our fault, unfair or out of our control?  Satan wants to use the time of suffering to lead us away from Jesus.  The Lord wants to lead us closer to him.  So what will it be?  This week we will explore the truths about God that get challenged when we suffer so that as we go through a specific pain or a season of suffering we can conclude as Job did, even after he lost his material possessions and his family:

Job 1:20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

 

Apply: What is your biggest challenge when you go through a season of suffering or see suffering in the world around you?

Prayer: Lord, help me to see your perspective and your heart when I go through a period of suffering.  Lead me to look to you and never doubt your love for me, AMEN.

This week’s devotions are based on the Week 2 “Explore God” – Is there a God? (WATCH HERE)

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Wednesday evening in our group discussion of this question, a couple thoughts were shared in the video we were watching caused me to think.

• If God is real, science will not be able to prove or disprove his existence.
• If God is real, he will have to reveal himself to us because by definition he is outside the realm of human experience or comprehension.

What made these statements thought provoking is it humbled my arrogance, or the arrogance of anyone else who thinks that they can use human reason to fully define, discover, or disseminate who the true God is.

Earlier in the week, I mentioned a debate I watched where the Bible was eliminated as a source to be quoted during the debate.  This left the debaters (both atheist and Christian) the sole resources of human reason and logic to prove or disprove the existence of God.

To be sure, human reason and logic allow us to think rationally about the topic and come to some conclusions.  However, only when God reveals himself will he be known more completely and more fully.  When he reveals himself, one would expect that there were things that couldn’t be explained by science or couldn’t be explained by human reason, because humanity and our observational abilities pale, by definition, to God who is the “supreme or ultimate reality” (Webster.com).

What this means then is we have to look for where God reveals himself.

We’ve seen evidence of God in the nature he created…and we can know his power, wisdom and design.

We’ve seen evidence of God in the reality of morality and the conscience…and we can discover a bit about his perfection and an inherent accountability to him.

We’ve seen evidence of God in the reality of love and goodness…and we can discover a bit about his character and attributes.

But what fills out the picture of who God is are the very words that God inspired men to write about him.  These weren’t men’s ideas, but God revealed himself to them and they wrote. 

20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

The Bible is full of times where God reveals himself to people…not just one, but many.  Each encounter revealed both more detail and yet never contradicted previous encounters.  Finally, he revealed himself by coming to live with mankind.  Jesus was God in flesh.  He is the greatest evidence of God that ever interacted with mankind, proved by his resurrection from the dead.

1      In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 

Is God real? He certainly is.

He is known partially by observation, reason, and conscience.  God is known fully as he has revealed himself in the pages of Holy Scripture.

 

Apply: To continue to pursue this question, take time to read the BIble and ask God to reveal himself more fully to you.  Other authors that have written on this topic are Lee Strobel (The Case for Faith) or Josh McDowell (Evidence that Demands a Verdict).  This is a key question.  Take time to read, research and reflect to settle the question for yourself once for all.

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for revealing yourself to me through your Word.  Lead my not just to know you exist and are real, but you are personal and love me deeply.  AMEN.

This week’s devotions are based on the Week 2 “Explore God” – Is there a God? (WATCH HERE)

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We have a hard time in our culture today identifying something as evil.  In fact, even mass shooters of children are at times “excused” because of mental illness or “insanity.”  Mobs of teens and young adults ransack stores and carry out 1000’s of dollars of merchandise and it is dismissed as “They needed it more than the store did.”  Even putting drag queens in front of young children is viewed as “normal” to expose them to gender “options” as youth.

Does this all give evidence of God?

Yes.

In central Texas, we have had a very long and dry summer.  Some have labeled the time as a period of drought.  When there is a drought, there is an absence of water.  The lack of water and the ramifications of it speak to the opposite of water and the benefits of it.  When water is lacking, drought occurs.  If water were not real, neither would be drought.  

Evil is the absence of true love and goodness.  It is what happens when any awareness of love and goodness disappears.  Evil is what happens when any standard of morality is thrown out.  Evil occurs when selfishness reigns as the deciding factor of what is good.  Evil is the absence of any influence by God in the hearts of people.

Goodness is from God…Evil is not.

3 John 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Love is from God…Evil is not.

1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 

Even though our culture has been redefining or eliminating a standard of morality, there is still a general feeling, “This isn’t right.”  When stores are moving out of cities because of crime, criminals get back on the street, and child molestation is ok under the auspices of gender exploration, people sense, “This isn’t right.”

It’s not.

Remember our conscience is evidence of God’s reality.  It’s a guide of goodness and love and eventually refined by the pages of God’s Word defining goodness and love.  When the influence of the true God is in the hearts of people, peace abounds.  When the influence of God is absent in the hearts of people, evil abounds.

Galatians 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Even if a person was not a Christian and you ask, “In which setting would you like to live?”  one filled with “hatred, discord, jealousy, etc.” or one filled with “love, joy, peace, etc.?”  I don’t think a response would take too long.  The fact that every person would want the second option testifies to the reality that the soul God created in each one of us and each one of us desires to live in the climate that mirrors the image of God…one filled with his love, mercy, grace, and peace. 

 

Apply: How does evil give evidence of God?  Do you agree or not?  Share your response.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for revealing yourself as one full of grace, goodness, love and truth.  Help me to learn and live in these realities each and every day.  AMEN.

This week’s devotions are based on the Week 2 “Explore God” – Is there a God? (WATCH HERE)

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If God is real…we would expect to find a natural awareness of him in the hearts of people.

Often times people will reflect on the religious scene of the world and simply say, “We all worship the same God, but just call him by different names.”  

There are a few interesting things about this statement.

First, the fact that across people groups, there is a natural awareness of God.  Virtually every culture has something or someone that they identify as “god” or perhaps multiple things they designate as “god.”  The recognition of a god is an awareness that there is someone more wise and powerful than they are (see yesterday’s devotion).  

Secondly, in these manifestations of “god” there is regularly some sort of behavior that is expected of people to make the “god” happy.  If circumstances occur that are not favorable, it is assumed that something the people have done have angered the “god” and therefore they are being punished.  The solution is then the performance of the people to ins some way appease the “god” and turn the actions they are experiencing to one’s that are more favorable.

This common occurrence across the world is evidence that god is real (To be sure, it does not identify who the true God is! – more on that in a moment.)  Have you ever asked, “Why do religious systems develop around the world with some “theology” that bases the favor of the god on the performance of the people?

First, because there is a natural awareness of God instilled in the hearts of mankind.  King Solomon alluded to this in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” 

Second, because there is a natural conscience in people that perceive right from wrong and address guilt by activities that are determined to be good and offset that guilt.  The Apostle Paul understood the reality of the conscience that naturally leads us to accountability before God.  He wrote in Romans 2:14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, 15 since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) 

These realities in the world cannot be ignored as evidence for the existence of God.  What people do with them varies immensely.  The Muslim appeases their god with the performance of the Five Pillars.  The Native American appeases the nature gods with their dances, rituals, and sacrifices.  The Buddhists appeases their divine with meditation and escape from the material world.  The atheists makes him or herself god. All of them are seeking to find peace with god…whoever and however they define “God.”

What makes simple all world religions, is yes, they all basically have the same “god” – some manifestation of the inner soul and conscience that seeks to be right with that god.

What makes the God of the Bible stand out over everyone and everything else called God is he is the only one that has truly made himself known to all people through the pages of the Bible and the incarnation of his Son Jesus Christ.  The guess work is removed.  The human invention is eliminated and the One who stands out above everything else called “god” is the God of the Bible who initiated the only solution to a guilty conscience: Jesus Christ.

I don’t know what all the “other gods” would say to the claim that “We all worship the same God and just call him by different names,” but I do know what the one true God would say, (Isaiah 45:5-6) 

I am the Lord, and there is no other;

    apart from me there is no God.

I will strengthen you,

    though you have not acknowledged me,

so that from the rising of the sun

    to the place of its setting

people may know there is none besides me.

    I am the Lord, and there is no other.

 

Apply: What world religions (other than Christianity) are you aware of?  Look at one or two.  What or who do they define as god?  What is the regulated performance one has to do to become right with that god?

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for revealing yourself to us so our souls can be at peace and our conscience at rest knowing you are the true God who has done all for us.  AMEN.