Greg’s Blog

Thinking Through Suffering in Advance

Why is there suffering in the world?

When a tsunami or earthquake hits and thousands die, we wonder, “Why?” When terrorists attack the World Trade Center and thousands die, we wonder, “Why?”

A Christian friend gets cancer, and we wonder, “Why?” A child is born with a disability, and we wonder, “Why?” A young man is killed in an automobile accident and we wonder, “Why?”

A Barna poll asked, “If you could ask God one question, and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?” The most common response was, “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?”

The problem of pain

If you are sharing the gospel with somone, it won’t be long before they ask, “How could a God of love allow tragedy, pain, and suffering?”

C.S. Lewis said that “the problem of pain is atheism’s most potent weapon against the Christian faith.” More people point to the problem of evil and suffering as their reason for not believing in God than any other.

It is not merely a problem, it is the problem.

So why doesn’t God just end all evil and suffering now?

Shayna framed the question this way on my Facebook page: “Did God create evil? God created Lucifer and he fell, thus creating evil. However, if God is all knowing, then He knew we would fall, thus creating evil. But then the question may be, ‘Is evil an attribute of God?’”

The Bible has answers

There are answers to these questions and more. I dealt with this last Sunday at Harvest, as I had a biblical discussion/interview with Randy Alcorn. We will be doing this again this Thursday in Orange County, California.

If you want to tweet or text questions for us to answer, here’s how:

• Tweet your question to my Twitter account here.
• Send it via text message to (949) 464-7340.
• Leave your question on voicemail at that number.
• E-mail your question to oc@harvest.org.

We absolutely must prepare ourselves to answer these questions about suffering. Why? Because we are all going to suffer in life. It’s only a matter of when.

In his book, If God Is Good, Randy Alcorn writes:

Most of us don’t give focused thought to evil and suffering until we experience them. This forces us to formulate perspective on the fly, at a time when our thinking is muddled and we’re exhausted and consumed by pressing issues. People who have “been there” will attest that it’s far better to think through suffering in advance.”

That’s exactly what we will do this Thursday. Think through suffering in advance.

Heaven in HD!

I had a fantastic discussion with Randy Alcorn, the author of the outstanding books Heaven and If God is Good, at Harvest on Sunday.

Randy is so knowledgeable about the topics of heaven and suffering, and we looked at questions like:

• Why is there suffering?
• Why do bad things happen to godly people?
• What, and where, is heaven?
• What will we do there?
• What will our new glorified bodies be like?

We dealt with each of these questions and many more during our three services, with question-and-answer sessions at each service.

Each Q-and-A session I did with Randy took a unique direction, and we have a plethora of outstanding material that I think really enrich you spiritually.

We are actively editing and getting the services ready to post online in HD in smaller, bite-sized segments that you can view here and on YouTube, etc. Here is the first segment:

Click here to watch one of the archived services in standard definition.

There is much more to come this week from these services, so stay tuned and check this blog and/or my Facebook page to find out more.

Check out this interview I just did with my granddaughter!

Yesterday at Church, before I did my Q&A with Randy Alcorn, I did this short little fun interview with my granddaughter, Stella.
I think you will like it!

Frenemies?

We sometimes read about various people in Hollywood who are friends, then become enemies, but then they are back together and described as “frenemies.”

As believers,we can have frenemies too. The Bible warns about this in 1 John 2:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

A frenemy is nothing more than just another enemy.

As Christians, we have to contend each day with three potent enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world, with its allure, is our external foe. The flesh, with its evil desires, is our internal foe. And the devil, with his enticements, is our infernal foe.

The problem for many of us is that we have become “frenemies” with the world. A frenemy is a person who you don’t normally get along with, but if some kind of association appears to serve both of your interests, you temporarily become friends.

It might be a love/hate relationship. You are on, but then you are off. Or it might be a poisonous relationship that drags you down spiritually. Thus, the person becomes a frenemy.

But don’t be deceived! A frenemy is nothing more than just another enemy that needs to be stopped.

Ask Me and Randy Alcorn A Question!

This Sunday, I’ll be interviewing Randy Alcorn about big life issues. It will be, as I like to call it, a “conversational Bible study.”

During each service, we will answer questions from the audience, and I invite you to send your questions about suffering or the afterlife. Here’s how you can submit your question:

• Send a text message to 951-215-6115
• Send a public tweet to @greglaurie
• Send an e-mail to ask@harvest.org

We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will get to as many as we can.