Tag: Suffering

Morning Musing: Romans 8:23

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“Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As a pastor, I’ve done a lot of funerals. Now, by virtue of pastoring churches with a number of young families that aren’t mostly gray-haired, aging congregations, I haven’t done as many as some guys who have been in ministry as long as I have, but I’ve done my fair share. There is a kind of groaning that comes with age. Some of it is, of course, physical and audible. But a bigger part is existential. We know we are slowly dying (or perhaps quickly dying depending on circumstances), and we long for relief from it. Not the relief of death, but something entirely more substantial than that. We long for restoration. Well, this is part of the Gospel’s good news. Let’s explore it some today.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 5:3-5

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“And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The Gospel isn’t just one thing. It is many things, and all of them are good. It’s the sort of thing where the more you explore it and the deeper you understand it, the more you come to find is there; the more you come to find just how comprehensive it truly is. Paul here has started unpacking the benefits of the Gospel. He started with peace, went to grace and glory, and now he takes us into territory it doesn’t seem like the Gospel should touch. Let’s talk about what the Gospel has to say about our hard times.

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Why Do We Suffer?

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This week we are in the third part of our teaching series, Confident in the Face of Hard Questions. This will be the most emotionally challenging stop on our journey. This week we are going to tackle the question of why there is suffering in the world created by a supposedly good God. This is a deeply emotional question with intensely personal elements to it. You have perhaps asked this question yourself. You certainly know people who have even if you didn’t know that about them. The answers to this question won’t be easy, but they are good. Let’s dive in together to see what the Scriptures have to say about it.

Why Do We Suffer?

There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding right now in Gaza. There’s an ongoing one in Ukraine. China is still keeping millions of Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps in the Xinjiang Province even though that has dropped out of the news. That is in addition to that nation’s ongoing and vigorous persecution of Christians…who make up a larger percentage of the population than Chinese Communist Party members. Azerbaijan has launched a genocidal effort to exterminate or otherwise forcibly relocate all of the Armenian Christians in a disputed border region between the nations, leading to massive suffering on the part of tens of thousands. Muslims in Pakistan are becoming more and more aggressive in their persecution of Christians in the nation. So are Hindus in India. The two nations don’t like each other, but they both agree that they hate Christians more. A category five Hurricane hit the Pacific coast of Mexico last week from which the recovery efforts have only just begun. A shooter in Maine just last week murdered 18 and injured another 13, some critically. Several people in our own community have had their lives disrupted just recently by unexpected, unwelcome, and scary news that bodes for a very difficult road stretching out in their near future. 

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Digging in Deeper: 1 Peter 5:10

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“The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in an impatient culture. We like getting the rewards without going through the labor. We want get-rich-quick schemes and fast result diets and exercise programs. If there is any discomfort to be had, we want to do everything possible to shorten its duration as much as we can. Better than that is to avoid it entirely in the first place. Yet this isn’t how the world actually works. If we want to experience something truly good, we have to follow the path to get there. All of it. As he is concluding his powerful little letter, the apostle Peter offers his readers the assurance of God’s incredible intervention in their lives. Yet this blessing does not come without first walking the road to get to it. Let’s talk about that road this morning.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 10:32-34

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“Remember the earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to taunts and afflictions, and at other times you were companions of those who were treated that way. For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, because you know that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things Jesus made clear over the course of His ministry is that following Him was not going to be easy. In fact, it was going to be hard…really hard. When we give our lives to God’s kingdom, the authorities of the kingdom of this world aren’t going to take the loss of their power over us lightly. To the extent they are able, they are going to make our lives as difficult and miserable as they can. The obvious question here is why anyone would sign up for this. Because there’s more to life than this life. Let’s talk about it.

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