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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.

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…

To be clear, I have no doubt that God is real.  What the challenges of this week is being prepared to speak to the question with those that aren’t so convinced.  A tactic used in a debate I watched a while back led the Christian in the debate to give up the use of the Bible to speak to the existence of God.  That’s like disallowing a biography on a person to prove the existence of that person.  (So hint, when you discuss this question, don’t give up a primary source on the existence of God!)

Here’s the logic.

If God is real as the BIble describes, I would expect to see evidence of what the Bible speaks of in the world around me or vice-versa.  Recently our younger daughter had a pick a world leader from a long time ago.  She picked Cyrus the Great of Persia.  What was a “lightbulb” moment for her was realizing that this very king was referenced a few times in the Bible.  If Cyrus was real, not only would he appear in secular recordings of history, but since he intersected with God, he would be referenced in the Bible.  It would only make sense that the things the Bible claims of God would be noticed and seen in the world around us.

So what are those claims?

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  The chapter then goes on to describe the six days of creation on which God spoke the world into existence and then formed and created mankind on day six.

So if God is real as the Bible assumes and claims and God’s first activity was the creation of all things, you would expect to see evidence of him in nature.  So do we?

Last night our area experienced a strong thunderstorm, winds and hail over 2” in diameter (fortunately it was a short burst and quantity of the big hail…we have no noticeable damage but need to get the roof looked at.) Even though there are those who try to seed the clouds, claim that weather is man-directed, or put the onus on humanity to change the climate, one must acknowledge the power of something greater than ourselves.  Some would explain it away, but the power seen in nature is evidence of a powerful God. 

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

When I came into church yesterday, I noticed a structure built on the table in our kids church out of the magnetic connectors and steel marbles.  It had order, pattern, and structure to it.  My observational assumption was, “Someone made something out of the marbles and connectors.  It’s pretty cool.”  Our observational conclusion when we see design, order, and structure is that it was designed by someone.  We DON’T assume the marbles and connectors just fell off the shelf and landed in the intricate pattern I saw.  If God is real and is the creator of all things, we would expect to find order, structure and design in creation.  One need not look any farther than the human body to discover an order, structure, and design.  The multiple systems that make up our body are organized, structured and design in such an amazing way that they testify to a divine designer.  When we see order in creation, it points to a divine Designer.

A third aspect of creation that speaks to the reality of God is complexity and information.  The double helix design of our DNA contains a myriad of information to instruct each cell its formation and function.  We know that the terabytes of information that can fit on a phone in your pocket is a complex design to store all that information.  We recognize there were pretty smart people in the room to design the complexity of the hardware and then program the complexity of the information.

So it is with God, when we see evidence of complexity and a storehouse of information, we must assume there is a divine being with all wisdom.

If God is real, I would expect to see him in creation…I do…in his power, in his design, and in his wisdom!

 

Apply: What aspects of nature lead you to conclude that God is real?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving evidence of your existence in all the work of creation you did.  The heavens truly do declare your glory and the earth the work of your hands! AMEN