Bible Study August 2, 2012

Hey Gang,


We continue this week in our study of Apologetics with our second series of lessons entitled The Case for Jesus. 

  When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh be careful little eyes what see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh be careful little eyes what you see 

Slow Fade 

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IF

Love Wins - Rob Bell

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Why is Sin such a big deal if love wins in the end? Why did God give man the choice to Sin?

Did God want Adam and Eve to Sin?

Why is Sin such a big deal if love wins in the end?

• Sin is a very big deal and God is not playing a game with us. Jesus is not our fool. He cannot be manipulated - He sees right through us. Jesus knows our every thought; our every intention of heart. If we have no real remorse for our sin and no desire to actually obey Him as evidenced by our deeds... then we do in affect mock Jesus' sacrifice and there will be no forgiveness of sin.

Why did God give man the choice to sin?

• God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him or disobey Him. If God had not given Adam and Eve the choice, they would have essentially been robots, simply doing what they were programmed to do. God created Adam and Eve to be “free” beings, able to make decisions, able to choose between good and evil. In order for Adam and Eve to truly be free, they had to have a choice.

Did God want Adam and Eve to sin?

• God creates man. He gives him dominion over the environment. He puts two trees in the middle of the Garden and tells them not to touch one of the trees. He also created curiosity. God says nothing to Adam and Eve about Satan. He does not prepare or warn them about His arch enemy that is about to be unleashed on them. God leaves the garden and leaves the gate open, so to speak. In marches Satan. Now wouldn't you think that God would have at least warned Adam and Eve that He was going to let Satan enter the garden and try and deceive them? He doesn't! Remember, the Bible says that Satan can do nothing that God does not allow.
• God did not want Adam and Eve to sin. God knew ahead of time what the results of sin would be. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin and would thereby bring evil, suffering, and death into the world.

I. SIN DEFINED – GENESIS 3:1-6

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'” 4 You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of 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.



There was a time in human history when there was no sin. Adam and Eve were placed in a perfect environment with only one law, rule or command. What would happen when the temptation to break God’s moral law was presented?

• Would they trust God?
• Or would they listen to someone else and rebel against God?
• They would rebel.

What was Adam and Eve’s sin? How serious was their sin?

• The woman decided God must be wrong and the man decided God didn’t matter.
• Both acts of unbelief, the essence of all sin.
• The choice of trees was really a choice about their relationship with God.
• Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s instructions in order to become like gods.
• They could have eaten from the tree of life but they chose the forbidden fruit.
• They chose the way of death and rejected the way of life.

Why did God allow Satan to tempt Adam and Eve?

• God allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to force them to make the choice.
• Bible says that Satan can do nothing that God does not allow.

Why is Sin such a big deal?

 

II. SIN’S CONSEQUENCES – GENESIS 3:16-19, 24


16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." 17 To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

………………………………………………………………

24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.



Through faith in Christ, we can be free from sin's consequences, and ultimately free from sin itself. May we echo the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”


What were the immediate consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin?

• Awareness of their guilty feeling about being naked. Tried to hide from God. Separation from God.
• Separation from each other – Adam blamed Eve and God. Eve blamed the serpent.
• The woman would have more pain in childbirth.
• The man would toil in his labor.
• The woman’s desire would be to her husband and he shall rule over.
• Human death – dust to dust.
• The results—evil, sin, suffering, sickness, and death—have plagued the world ever since. Adam and Eve's decision results in every person being born with a sin nature, a tendency to sin. Adam and Eve's decision is what ultimately required Jesus Christ to die on the cross and shed His blood on our behalf. That was a BIG DEAL!

Why is Sin such a big deal?

 

III. EVERYONE SINS – ROMANS 5:12-14

12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.


What were the long-range consequences of Adam’s sin?

• The sin in the garden launched the history of a world of sinners.
• The world became so steeped in sin that God sent a great flood as judgment, sparing only Noah and his family.
• People again became sinful and God called Abraham and made a new start.
• Universal and original sin.
• We inherit from Adam a nature and an environment that’s bent toward sin.

Why is this lesson in a study of “The Case for Jesus?”

• Jesus came to be the world’s Savior from sin, and the Bible starts with the assumption that all people have sinned.
• If sin were not a big deal, Jesus would not have come and we wouldn’t be making a case for Him.

Are all sins equal to God?

• Bible seems to indicate that there are degrees to sin - that some are more detestable than others. Proverbs 6:16-19
• When it comes to eternal consequences of sin, they are all the same.

 

What is your understanding of the "Unforgivable Sin?"

• Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
• Mark 3:29; Matthew 12:31-32; Luke 12:10

Why is Sin such a big deal? 

We begin a new series of lessons this week as we continue in our study of Apologetics. Be in prayer this week as we begin with the very issue of SIN and why it is such a big deal.

See you on Thursday!

In His Love,

David 

Bible Study July 26, 2012

Hey Gang,


We continue this week in our study of apologetics with a final case for Hope - God's involvement in your life. 

1 Peter 3:15

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

• Up to now our case for hope has been our belief in God and His existence. We talked about how He has revealed Himself through creation, the bible, Jesus and your inner spirit.
• Last week we explored one of the hardest questions, if God exists then why does a loving and caring God allow the suffering He does in our world and in the lives of the righteous? C.S. Lewis would tell us that “It is because God loves us that he makes us the gift of suffering.”

As an apologist, you will meet people:

• Who don't believe at all.
• Who are Christians but struggle with their faith.
• Who agree that God exist but they see Him as distant and removed, like a watchmaker who wound up creation and then stands back. Does God really care about the details of my life? 

 

 This is the kind of skepticism we will face with what we have learned so far: Video - Stephen Fry: Are you prepared to defend what you believe against this degree of skepticism?

Stephen Fry - God Does Not Exist 

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Now if you can counter this apologetic, then we are ready to move on to the next question:

Just how involved do you see God in your life?

How differently would we live if we believed that every dimension of our lives—from the happy to the tragic to the mundane—were part of a beautiful and purposeful design in which no thread were wrongly woven?
 

That's what best-selling author and internationally-known apologist, Ravi Zacharias, explores in The Grand Weaver. As Christians, we believe that great events such as a death or a birth are guided by the hand of God. Yet we drift into feeling that our daily lives are the product of our own efforts. This book brims with penetrating stories and insights that show us otherwise. From a chance encounter in a ticket line to a beloved father's final word before dying, from a random phone call to a line in a Scripture reading, every detail of life is woven into its perfect place.

There is one story about a mother who took a job as an inspector for Firestone in Akron, Ohio during World War II. As a result of her scrutinizing expertise, a young sailor escaped drowning twice because of a life-saving device that she personally inspected. He was able to return to his family on leave to tell of his narrow escape—that sailor was her son!

• Did God orchestrate a career path of a mother in a way that would save her son’s life?
• If God can weave the supernatural out of an ordinary factory job, why can’t He do the same out of all the threads of our lives?

When something terrible happens in your life, do you see God there or do you simply think, “That’s Life?”

• How differently would we live if we believed that every event of our lives—from the happy to the tragic to the mundane—were all part of a meticulous and purposeful design.
• There have been moments in my life that I thought God was silent, or even absent; but I know now He was there.

We are going to look at 3 parts of the Bible this morning that give us an explanation and defense for believing that God is in every event of our lives. In each passage we read this morning there is a personal step I want each of you to take in order to see God’s purpose and pattern unfolding in your life: 

 

I. GOD IS PERSONAL AND PRESENT – PSALM 139:7-10

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.




David tells us in psalm 139 that God to him is very personal and very present in his life. David was certain that wherever he went God would lead him and hold on to him. Think about that – wherever you walk, you’ll never walk alone.



Do we see God as personal and present in every aspect of your life or does He just watch you from a distance? Why?



My daughter use to love the Bette Midler song: "From a Distance".

• The sad thing is that many people see God this very way, from a distance. They believe that He wound up His creation only to step back and watch, leaving humanity with no hope of reaching out to a personal God for help. As you think about apologetics and making a case for hope, understand that your life is prime evidence for God's involvement in our world. You need to really give some thought this week to what God has actively done in your life up to this point. The Bible teaches that God is not merely the Creator but also the Sustainer of all things.

Someone read Psalm 139:16 “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!” (LB)

• God planned the days of your life in advance, choosing the exact time of your birth and death.

Someone read Acts 17:26-28 “26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'” (NIV)

• God has reason for everything He creates.
• Job 12:10 says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in His power.” (TEV)

How can I see God’s involvement and purpose in the tragedies that wound me or the blessings that bring joy to my soul?

• Isaiah 46:3-4 says, “I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you.” (NCV)
• God trained Moses in a palace to use him in a desert. He trained Joseph in a desert to use him in a palace.
• I believe God intervenes in the lives of every one of us. He speaks to us in different ways and at different times so that we may know He is there.
• When we want to know about God we have to give priority to His Word – either you trust and believe what He says or you don’t.

How does God always being present help you? How does it scare you?

• To guide and to hold accountable. Reap what you sow. God continues to be involved in the life of every person to the degree that person trusts Him.

Step # 1 to seeing God’s pattern unfolding in your life:


Step 1: Allow God to make your heart tender.

• Tender means receptive. God uses circumstances in our lives whether it is suffering, tragedies or blessings to shape our inner beliefs – our hearts. When we live through a loss – we learn and God begins to shape you. Depending on how you respond: your heart will either have become coarse and desensitized, crushed under the weight of disappointment, or tender.

Now let’s take a look at God’s personal presence in Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is a collection of Moses’ sermons near the end of his life:
 

II. GOD GUIDES AND PROVIDES – DEUTERONOMY 8:2-5

2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.



What had God done for the people in this passage? Why wouldn’t God guide and lead us in our journey to the promise land?

• Led them through the desert, provided them food and water, made it so their clothes didn’t wear out and their feet did not swell.
• Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
• In all your ways acknowledge Him. In all your ways: your schooling, your relationships, your employment, your recreation, your attitudes, your possessions, your music, your reading matter, your television, your desires and aims and goals. In all your ways. Then the path He sets before you will lead straight to the heart of His will for you. Then the way He establishes will be the way to life.

What is Moses’ main concern for the people here before they enter the promise land?

• That they remember what God had done for them. That they not forget how God guided and provided.
• When do we tend to forget what God has done for us? When we focus on our suffering at the expense of our blessing. When we begin to see our blessings as something we earned ourselves.
• A teenage daughter who complains that her parents won’t buy her a particular dress shouts in her dismay, “they never do anything for me.” She slams the door to the room her parents provide, flops down on the bed covered with 14 pillows, turns on the TV or her iPod or calls her friends on her cell phone for which her parents pay the monthly bill for as well, and later drives to a friend’s house in the car her parents bought for her. She has chosen to live by the exception. She didn’t get the dress so she forgets everything else.

How does God sometimes deal with our forgetfulness?

• Maybe through hard times (wandering in the wilderness), maybe through loss (testing’s of our faith), maybe through disciplining or humbling.

Step # 2 to seeing God’s pattern unfolding in your life:



Step 2: Make your mind strong through faith.

• Learn to trust in God’s control and depend on His providence. Faith is a thing of the mind. If you do not believe that God is in control and that He is shaping you for a purpose, then you will lose an incredible insight into Who and where God is in your life. Believe what He tells you through His Word.
• Walking by faith means to follow Someone else who knows more than you do,
• 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
• If God has prepared something for me that will literally take my breath away, then surely He must have a specific purpose for my life here as well.

Now how do you see what Jesus has to do with God’s involvement in your life?

III. GOD STEPPED INTO HISTORY – PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.


Why do you need Jesus to be God? Why do you need Jesus to be human?

• Because God stepped into history, He understands our situation perfectly and can help us in life. Jesus put a face to God.

What attitude is Paul trying to get us to adhere to?

• Sacrifice, humility – love and concern for others
• Ephesians 1:11 says, “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone. (MSG) His purpose for your life predates your conception. You may choose your career, your spouse, your hobbies, and many other parts of your life, but you don’t get to choose your purpose.

Step # 3 to seeing God’s pattern unfolding in your life:



Step 3: See the world through the sacrifice of Jesus.



Conclusion

• If we will fix our tender hearts and faithful minds on the sacrifice of Jesus, then we will begin to see the world according to God’s pattern. Yes there is pain in this world, but we have to begin to see the world of pain through the eyes of the One who best understands it.
• God shows us through His love, at the cross, that He stepped into history to connect and show us the way.

Once you begin to see God’s hand in every event of your life, His design pulls together every thread of your existence into a magnificent work of art. Every thread matters and has a specific purpose.



There was a young British politician who, when visiting Washington, D.C., was hit by a car while crossing the road. The accident should have permanently disabled him, if not taken his life. In fact he said himself that: he should have been squashed beyond recognition. Those who were there saw it as the fortunate preservation of a single life, nothing more. But history showed differently. We can only wonder what today would look like had Winston Churchill’s life not been spared that day. To stop a Hitler, we had to have a Churchill.
 

This is our final lesson of the initial series on The Case for Hope. Our next series of 5 lessons will be on The Case for Jesus. 

Hope everyone has a blessed week as we prayerfully prepare for some spiritual insight into God's involvement in our daily lives. I read where someone in our group had a hole-in-one Saturday at the Greenville County Amateur Championship - Congratulations Todd!! 

In His Love,

David

 

Bible Study July 19, 2012

Hey Gang,

We continue this week in our study of apologetics with the question of all questions - why God allows suffering? Remember Charles Templeton’s initial doubt about God’s existence was over a picture in Life magazine of a mother in Africa, during a devastating drought, holding her dead child and looking up to heaven for why. Some will say that this is a question we simply cannot answer.

Then there's the Philosophical Dilemma: A good God would not want evil & suffering. A powerful God could remove all evil and suffering. Therefore, if God is good & powerful, there should be no evil & suffering. But there is evil & suffering. So God is either not good, not powerful or does not exist.

Shadowlands is a movie and story of C. S. Lewis as he meets an American fan, Joy Gresham, whom he befriends and eventually marries – she has a son named Douglas. The story also deals with his struggle with personal pain and grief. Lewis preaches that one should endure suffering with patience, but finds that the simple answers he had preached no longer apply when Joy becomes afflicted with cancer and eventually dies.

Shadowlands

Click Here to Watch 

  

   

Why does a loving God allow so much suffering and evil in the world?

Does God cause suffering or does He just allow it?

Does God want us to suffer?

C. S. Lewis once said, “It is because God loves us that he makes us the gift of suffering.”


C.S. Lewis would later conclude, "Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers any more. Only the life I have lived. Twice in that life I've been given the choice: as a boy and as a man. The boy chose safety, the man chooses suffering. The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal." 



SUFFERING is a problem in life that comes home to everyone.

1. Whether it’s a child born blind, deformed or mentally afflicted. Or a good man in the prime of life is diagnosed with a deadly disease.

2. Whether it’s millions in the world that suffer from starvation and disease or millions in the world that perish or are made homeless in floods and earthquakes.

3. Lives are lost in acts of terrorism, by brutality and hijacking.



This is one of the most difficult questions for Christians to answer. How do you answer it today? Why does a loving God allow so much suffering and evil in the world?

• The “problem of pain,” as the well-known Christian scholar, C.S. Lewis, once called it, is atheism’s most potent weapon against the Christian faith.
• We ourselves do not establish the standards of what is right. Only the Creator of all reality can do that. We need to settle it, in our minds and hearts, whether we understand it or not, that whatever God does is, by definition, right.
• Having settled this by faith, we are then free to seek for ways in which we can profit spiritually from the sufferings in life, as well as the blessings.

Our lesson this morning wants us to look at the suffering we face in life from 2 view points.

1. The story of Job

2. Paul’s teachings of hope in Romans 8

We begin with the suffering of Job. What do you know of the story of Job?




Throughout the book of Job, Job asked God to give him an opportunity to present his case to Him. Here in chapter 40 God answers Job’s requests.
 

I. WE DON’T HAVE THE FULL PICTURE – JOB 40:1-9

1 The LORD answered Job: 2 "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who argues with God give an answer." 3 Then Job answered the LORD: 4 "I am so insignificant. How can I answer You? I place my hand over my mouth. 5 I spoke once, but I have no answer— twice, but I will say no more." 6Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind: 7 "Get ready to answer Me like a man; when I question you, you will answer Me. 8 "Would you really challenge My justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? 9 Do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like His?



So, what can we learn from the story of Job or his suffering?

• Sometimes our suffering is not because of our sin.
• There is a "cosmic conflict" going on the behind the scenes that we usually know nothing about. Often we wonder why God allows something, and we question or doubt God's goodness, without seeing the full picture.
• Sometimes God doesn’t answer the why.
• Sometimes God is humbling us through our suffering.
• Sometimes God is trying to make us grow-up or mature through our suffering.
• Sometimes God is revealing to us the consequences of our sin – choices we make.
• Our suffering reveals who we are – by how we respond.

The Bible calls Job a perfect man (“blameless and upright,” Job 1:1). Why did God see the need to test Job’s faith?

• In His wisdom, God allowed the test not only to shape Job but also to give to us who come after him an example of how an upright person works his way through pain and hurt. Job already had an upright character, but through his struggles we observe how an upright person behaves in the midst of tragedy. That’s how the work of God gets displayed.
• Job’s faith was being tested to see if God was his only reason to believe. Only by loss and suffering could Job know that he served God not for worldly blessings or even family or even health.

So, what does Job’s story tell you to do when you question your pain in life and there are no answers?



1. Recognize that God will always bring good, that evil and suffering cannot stop it.

2. Remember that God loves us more than we can imagine or articulate.

3. Realize that we don’t have the full picture.

4. Recall Bible truths that help you.

5. Respond to God with obedience – no matter what.



Job 1:20-21 tells us…We must trust God, not only WHEN we do not understand, but BECAUSE we do not understand.



Now let’s look at Paul’s perspective on suffering. Did Paul experience suffering in his life; does he have any experience in this issue?

 

II. PUT SUFFERING IN PERSPECTIVE – ROMANS 8:18-21

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.



How does Paul want us to put suffering in perspective?

• In Romans 8 Paul wrote about many subjects, including hope. He says that the suffering of this life is temporary and it pales in comparison with the future glory. He points out that even creation is waiting for Christ’s return – the new heaven and new earth.
• Peter also reminds us of the glorious salvation God has worked in us. Then he says, 'In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6-7). What wonderful truths to help us in times of suffering! Our sufferings are for "a little while." They won't last forever. Even if they lasted the rest of our lives (as some do) we look ahead to an eternity of glory with our Savior! Compared to that, the sufferings of this present age are only "a little while."
• Our sufferings only come "if necessary." Praise God! They haven't come for nothing! An infinitely wise and loving God has deemed it necessary. He knows what it will take to conform us to the image of Christ, which is the goal (Romans 8:28-30).
• · Our suffering has come to test the "genuineness of (our) faith." Progressive sanctification involves testing and trials. In them, our faith is purged from the junk that is in us. He is using suffering for our good! ("For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" [2 Cor 4:17, NKJV] - our suffering is WORKING FOR US!).
• Our suffering will result in "praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
• "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18).

Where would you say suffering comes from? Does God just allow or does He cause my suffering?

1. Our choices: Genesis 6:5-6 says: "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” Likewise, Judges 21:25 records, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." We make choices every day that bring us pain. Adam and Eve made the original choice to live life apart from God's prescription, but we repeat that choice constantly to lesser or greater degree. We eat foods that are bad for us, we take drugs, we disregard God's laws regarding sex, we knowingly commit crimes, we hang out with the wrong crowd, in short, we play with fire and complain when we get burned. But people are often their own worst enemies, bringing pain through foolish choices.
2. Other people's choices: We've all experienced pain because of someone else's choice, and the more influential the person, the more pain they can potentially inflict upon others. In Jesus' day, Herod's attack on babies caused weeping throughout the land. We all know the results of the choices of Hitler and Stalin.
3. Satan's work: The Bible says that some suffering is a direct result of Satan's activity, although the devil is restrained. Job's pain was inflicted by Satan, and Peter was attacked; the apostle later wrote..."Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
4. God's judgment: Some suffering has come from God's hand, as He exercises His right to judge moral evil. The great flood, for example, killed thousands of people, sparing only Noah and his family. Herod died because of his own blasphemy: "Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died." (Acts 12:23)
5. God's discipline: At times God's dealing with His own people, as He disciplines them as children, is severe. For Achan, in the book of Joshua, his sin brought on death as he became an "example" to the rest of the nation regarding God's holiness. However, it would be wrong for Christians to interpret every illness or calamity as a direct result of some sin (like the "bad karma" approach mentioned above). Jesus actually dealt with this type of thinking in John 9. Seeing a blind man, His disciples asked who sinned, this man or his parents." Jesus corrected them: this blindness was no punishment for anyone's sin." Evidently one purpose of suffering is intended to make us realize our own sinful condition and ask the question, "Why don't we suffer more than we do?"

Is my suffering all part of God’s plan? How am I to see that God cares about my suffering?

• Yes, my suffering is all part of God’s plan. We must remember that God works all things according to the counsel of his will (Eph 1:11) and that he says "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose" (Isaiah 46:10). If suffering comes, it has surely been allowed by God. What do we make of this? Is God cruel? Suffering somehow has its place in the good and glorious plan of God.
• Jesus Christ Himself, when He died for our sins, did not die without terrible suffering. He did not die peacefully in His sleep. He was not executed by painless lethal injection. Even though He had lived a perfectly sinless life, and had committed no crime, He was brutally beaten, flogged and crucified in great agony before being gored with a spear.
• God does care. He knows when humans suffer. But, let's remember, God isn't a mere human. He is God. His perspective is infinitely greater than ours. He sees the "bigger picture" - that our experiences as mortal humans, however painful or unhappy, will be to our eventual benefit. When a parent takes an infant to the doctor for a regular vaccination to prevent some childhood disease, it's because the parent cares for and loves that child. The young child however will almost always see things very differently. When the doctor's needle goes into that little arm, the child will often cry out and howl from the pain. It may look up at the parent, with those big innocent eyes, in the most pleading and pitiful way, as if to say, "Look at the horrible thing that's happening to me! Don't you care about my terrible suffering? How can you just stand there and allow this to go on? Don't you love me?" The parent however knows better. He or she is aware that everything is going to be all right in a very short time (even though it almost always has an emotional impact on the parent to see the child distressed in such a way). A minor, brief pain is the price the child pays for a healthier life later. Just as an infant cannot possibly understand the motives of its parent while it is still only a child, so too we cannot appreciably comprehend God's will for us while we are still as we are.
• It's a matter of perspective - the brief few years of a physical human lifetime, versus the eternity, time without end that will follow. God is our ultimate parent. He knows all about the problems we often have, but He also knows that our experiences with pain and suffering, along with all of the good experiences that we may have, will, among other things, help to make us more understanding and compassionate.

How does Paul put suffering in perspective?

• We live in a bent world and while we live here things will not be fair.
• Present suffering can’t compare to future glory. He says to evaluate present sufferings in light of eternity. Our hope is in eternity – we are assured of a better world.

So Paul goes on to say that while bad things continue to happen to good people; God works all things together for good in the lives of those who love Him. Why Christians can even rejoice in the midst of trials!
 

III. DISCOVER GOOD FROM SUFFERING – ROMANS 8:28-30

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.


What good can we discover from suffering?

1. Suffering keeps this world from becoming too attractive.

• The Bible tells us that we are pilgrims and sojourners, this world is not truly our home and God has prepared something better for us.
• If there was no suffering - No one would want to leave this temporary world and no one would desire the "eternal" home, and therefore prepare themselves for it.
• But the affairs of this life are so ordered - That the world soon loses its attraction and most young people may want to live forever, but by the time a man reaches his "three score and ten" he begins to desire something better. 

• God is in control.

2. Suffering can bring out our best.

• When tragedy comes to us – we see the constant support by friends, the preparation of food and even financial support.
• We see this happen quite often in times of natural disaster, when someone loses a house to fire, tornado, etc. and in times of terminal illness.

3. Suffering gives an occasion to silence the enemies of God.

• Remember the story of Job? Satan wanted to prove God wrong about Job, that he served God only because God had blessed him, but Job's patience under suffering silenced Satan!
• Likewise, God desires that we silence “foolish men.” Who ridicule the teachings of Christ as foolishness. Who say we are Christians only for what good we can get out of it.
• By patiently enduring or doing good in times of suffering - the value of being Christians really shines through. In the faith we have that sustains us in suffering, and in the love we show towards those who suffer.

4. Suffering makes us appreciative.

• We all receive so many good things in this life - It is easy for us to become prone to take them for granted instead of receiving them with gratitude toward God.
• Suffering can help us appreciate more fully - Good health, Good friends, and a loving family.

5. Suffering makes us more dependent upon God.

• Makes us recognize our need of God. Too often, we think ourselves self-sufficient "But when a dozen of the most skilled men in their profession tell you they have done all they can and it is completely out of their hands..." ...you suddenly realize how much you depend on God."
• Draws us closer to God. At no other time are we more likely to realize that we depend upon God for our very breath! As Paul proclaimed: "in Him we live and move and have our being" - Acts 17:28

6. Suffering helps purify us.

• Consider these two passages: 1Peter 1:6-7 - Suffering can be like fire purifying gold. And James 1:2-5 - Maturity can be developed through trials.

 

7. Suffering makes us sympathetic.

• Equips us to help others. It helps us to be better able to comfort others in their affliction. We may think we can sympathize with someone, but until we have been there personally, there is no true understanding of their hurt. Experiencing suffering makes us more likely to "weep with those who weep" - Romans 12:15 and better enables us to serve others.

8. Suffering teaches us how to pray.

• We all may be a praying people - we pray at the right times and maybe we pray for the right things, but in the midst of suffering we learn how to pray – Earnestly, Perseveringly, and with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)

CONCLUSION

If we look at suffering purely from man’s point of view, we will not understand why suffering is permitted. When we look at suffering from God’s point of view, from the viewpoint of His love and plans for us in preparation of eternity, then we can begin to appreciate why He would allow suffering to occur.

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." C.S. Lewis

This is a tough study this week, so be in prayer for how God might speak through you as to how you could answer the question of why God allows so much suffering and evil in this world.

Hope to see you on Thursday!

In His Love,

David