Archive for the 'Bible Studies for Life' Category
If God is Good, Why do People Suffer?
“But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness came. I am churning within and cannot rest; days of suffering confront me. I walk about blackened, but not by the sun. I stood in the assembly and cried out for help.” Job 30:26-28 (HCSB)
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that every pursuit of good is met with only evil? That your pursuit of God is continually met with pain and suffering?
The most common question people have about God is some variation on the idea of God being good, yet evil existing in the world. Why are there disasters? Why are innocents killed? If God is good, why do people suffer? As the Bible reveals answers to these questions, we are reminded of the love and care of God even in the midst of hurting.
Suffering exists in our world for one simple reason: sin, which was introduced into the equation by Adam and Eve. There was no suffering in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned. Cain did not murder Abel until sin entered the world. The flood happened because people continuously did evil.
All evil and suffering exist because sin entered the world. That God is good can be seen by the fact that He did not abandon His creation. Sin is a continual affront to God. The miracle is that He still relates to us at all. Instead of leaving the people He created, we see Him working in history to redeem people, demonstrating His tender care and compassion.
Suffering exists because sin brought it upon us; suffering will ultimately be removed when God makes all things new.
But what about when we suffer personally? It’s one thing to talk about the existence of suffering as a category. What about when I suffer? When you suffer? When a woman is raped or a child is murdered? Why do those things happen? The Bible gives us at least three reasons Christians suffer.
1. A World of Suffering
We suffer because we live in a world of suffering. We are not exempt from it. Jesus suffered, as do His followers. “You will have suffering in this world,” Jesus said1. His promise was not deliverance from suffering, but peace within it.
2. God’s Glory
We suffer so that God may be glorified. Sometimes this happens in healing. But other times it comes by our praise of Him when He chooses not to heal us. When the disciples questioned Jesus about a blind man, they expected blame for his condition to be placed on either him or his parents. Jesus turned their expectations around when He revealed the purpose: that God’s works could be revealed.2
When Job lost everything He owned and all ten children in rapid succession, his response was to praise God in the midst of his mourning. Job’s faithfulness left us with one of the most poignant lines of worship in all the Bible: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Praise the name of Yahweh.”3
3. Our Sin
We suffer when we sin. Too often, we hope God winks at our sin. We want a warning we’ve earned a ticket. We want to smoke for 40 years and never get cancer. We want to ignore our spouse and never face divorce. The simple fact is that God judges the sins of His people.4 Though God is extraordinarily merciful, He is far too loving to allow us to continue in sin. His goal is always that we will return to Him, even in the midst of our suffering.
Bible Studies for Life: Honest to God deals with a number of hard questions like these. I hope you will take a look at this series and consider using it in your church or small group study.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
1– John 16:33, HCSB
2– John 9:1-7
3– Job 1:21, HCSB
4– 1 Peter 4:17
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Why Are We Here?
In recent years, scientific discoveries have advanced at a remarkable rate. Technology has advanced to the point we can hold in our hand computers as powerful as used to fill entire rooms. Information spreads at a speed never imagined by our forefathers. We are but a few years away from private space travel, where consumers will be able to experience spaceflight for the cost of a ticket.
In spite of this illustrious and often mind-boggling progress, many people realize science is ill equipped to answer the basic questions surrounding our existence: Why are we here? Is there meaning to life beyond the physical? Is there anything beyond this life?
Those who look only to science, who limit the acceptable range of answers to materialism, and who deny any possibility of a spiritual realm, are limited in their responses. “There is no reason why we are here,” “The only meaning to life is what we make,” and “There is nothing beyond the life” are about the only answers they can offer.
Followers of Jesus can offer solid, biblically based answers to this question. God did not leave the big questions of life open to guesses and speculation. When someone asks, “Why are we here?” God provides the answer.
The universe came to be because God said, “Let there be…” Before that burst of creative energy, the stars, sun, planets, plants, and animals existed only in the mind of the Creator. Before matter, there was God. One writer said it this way, “God spoke the universe into existence. At least nine times in Genesis 1, you will find, ‘God said.’ These two words emphasize God’s awesome power. He has the ability to command nothing to become something.”1
That God created everything is important, but that alone does not tell us why we are here. Why is there a human race?
The Bible gives us enough insight to know at least three reasons He created us: to know Him, to have a relationship with Him, and to be stewards of the earth.
1. To Know Him
Jesus said in John 17, “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent – Jesus Christ” (v. 3, HCSB). From the moment of creation God’s intention has been that we know Him. The heavens declare His glory and the Bible reveals Him to us. He wants to know us.
2. To Have a Relationship with Him
God also wants to be in relationship with us. In the prayer commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer,” Jesus revealed to us that we should address God as Father. God is not only the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He is our Father as well. “Whenever you pray, say: ‘Father, Your name be honored as holy’” (Luke 11:2, HCSB). Addressing God in this way reminds us that we are in a relationship with Him. He is Lord and Master, of course, but He is also Father.
3. To be Stewards
Last, God has given us the responsibility to steward all He created and placed on this earth. This responsibility was given to Adam and passed along to us. The Bible says, “The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it” (Genesis 2:15, HCSB). The Bibles call’s Christ’s followers managers (1 Cor. 4:1, 2) and Jesus often used parables in which managements or stewardship was the theme.
There is a purpose to our existence; life is not meaningless or arbitrary. We exist to know God, to be in relationship with Him and to manage His possessions until the return of Christ. What an awesome privilege that God cares about us.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.