{"id":5816,"date":"2010-10-25T21:50:53","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T10:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=5816"},"modified":"2010-10-25T21:50:53","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T10:50:53","slug":"answering-the-problem-of-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2010\/10\/25\/answering-the-problem-of-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering ‘the problem’ of suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026 Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?…\u201d Job 2:10<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>This was Job\u2019s response to his wife after his property was destroyed, his children killed and his own health was attacked.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Two of the most common questions I am asked is why is there suffering?<\/strong> And, if there is a God who is supposed to be loving and all-powerful, then why does He allow suffering?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The problem of suffering was raised in recent blogs I wrote:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ken Sande in his book \u201cThe Peacemaker: A Biblical guide to resolving conflict,\u201d says that even though God does not take pleasure in hurtful events and is not the author of sin,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Yet, for his eternal purposes, he sometimes allows suffering and permits unjust acts by men and women when he decides not to restrain, even though he has the power to do so\u2026Even when sinful and painful things are happening, God is somehow exercising ultimate control and working things out for his good purposes\u2026\u00a0Knowing that he has personally tailored the events of our lives and is looking out for us at every moment should dramatically affect the way we respond to conflict.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hence God does not insulate us from suffering, but is with us in our suffering and accomplishes good through it. When we suffer insults, conflicts, hardships \u2013 God teaches us we need to rely on Him. When we suffer the consequences of our sins \u2013 God teaches us we need to repent. When we go through difficulties \u2013 God uses this to conform us to the likeness of Christ. \u2013 From my blog \u201cPeace, conflict and grace.\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Ajith Fernando, in his article \u201cTo serve is to suffer\u201d also looks at the reality that if you are Christian who seeks to witness for the gospel of Christ (particularly in ministry) you will endure suffering.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0In a world where physical health, appearance, and convenience have gained almost idolatrous prominence, God may be calling Christians to demonstrate the glory of the gospel by being joyful and content while enduring pain and hardship. People who are unfulfilled after pursuing things that do not satisfy may be astonished to see Christians who are joyful and content after depriving themselves for the gospel. This may be a new way to demonstrate the glory of the gospel to this hedonistic culture. \u2013 From my blog \u201cTo serve is to suffer!\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u00a0have asked some\u00a0‘guest bloggers’ to contribute to this issue and their articles will appear in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026 Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?…\u201d Job 2:10 \u00a0This was Job\u2019s response to his wife after his property was destroyed, his children killed and his own health was attacked. \u00a0Two of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5816"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5816"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5891,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5816\/revisions\/5891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}