Knowing God through Suffering: Introduction, Part 2
Read Part 1.
If God has ordained my suffering, what can I do about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, nothing about my circumstances, but I can do something about my heart.
Knowing God through Suffering: Introduction, Part 1
“So, this is it. This is how I’m going to die,” I thought as I kneeled over the toilet in my underwear, waves of pain slamming my stomach. For the sixth time in two weeks I was experiencing unbearable pain, caused by the lemon-size tumor in my small bowel. What I didn’t know was that it had almost completely blocked my intestine and that I would be in the hospital within the hour. It would be my first of four stays in the hospital, culminating two months later in emergency surgery to fix a perforated bowel.
Discussion
It’s Still a Good Time to Bolster Our Theology of Suffering (Part 2)
Read Part 1.
Our pastor recently asked for a show of hands: “How many of you are aware of someone you knew personally who died in the last three months?” A lot of hands went up. Our pastor is keen on helping believers process these experiences through a biblical grid.
I am, too, starting with myself—hence, this review/meditation.
Discussion
It’s Still a Good Time to Bolster Our Theology of Suffering
In April of 2020, as COVID-19 was disrupting all our lives in ways most of us had never experienced before, I wrote about my personal need to revisit my theology of suffering. It’s interesting to look back on the set of uncertainties that was on my mind at the time.
Discussion
“Can we live out under these regimes a spirit of submission...?”
Body
“The Lord’s suffering is our example, not that we should follow the exact same kind of sufferings as he did (i.e. we aren’t called to literally die on a cross), but that we should follow his manner in our own sufferings” - Don Johnson
Discussion
How Romans 5 Brought Me to Christ When Suffering Had Killed My Faith
Body
“How could God allow such evil? How could he permit suffering to ravage people who love their families and dream of happiness and hope for something better, as we all do?” - TGC
Discussion
“Now we know that the heart of an otherwise healthy young man can just stop.”
Body
“The day we received the report was one of the hardest we’ve had since he died. Yet there was also some comfort in it. It was comforting in the sense that he did nothing wrong and we did nothing wrong. It was comforting in the sense that the people who tried to save him did all they could… And it was comforting in the sense that it was so clearly an act of providence in which the Lord just took him.
Discussion
When Jesus Says, “Mind Your Own Beeswax”
It is interesting that verse 20 refers to John as “the one who had been reclining at table close to him” right after Jesus gives Peter a chance to retract his threefold denial of Jesus with a threefold affirmation of his love. We could easily surmise that Peter the Denier is going to suffer martyrdom while John the Beloved will escape such a fate, and each will do so based on their faithlessness or faithfulness. Yet, there is no hint in the text that this is so. Their differing fates were the result of the good pleasure of God—“if it is my will.”
Discussion
On Healthy Minds in Troubled Times, Part 5: Focus
Body
“…we’re not obligated to think about, let alone agree with, any old thought that pops into our heads. We can direct our minds. We can take charge of our thoughts.” - Olinger
Discussion
Responding to Ongoing Trials
Reposted from Rooted Thinking. By Forrest McPhail.
The Struggle Is Real
Today is one of my “dark days.” Pain has been relentless for a couple of days, restricting my life and ministry. What I do on such days requires much mental discipline.
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