February 7th

The Psalmist wrote of God, The Lord rules over the floodwaters.  The Lord reigns as king forever (Ps. 29:10).  If God is good, and if he is infinitely and perfectly sovereign how and why does He allow so much suffering in the world?  How is it that He allows so much evil when he is the measure of all that is holy and good?  There seems to be a great gape between the God we read about in our Bibles and the world we live in.  Christopher Wright acknowledges this in his book, The God I Dont Understand, and points out that men and women in the Bible who followed God lovingly and passionately struggled with this seemingly irreconcilable problem:

Such radically inexplicable disasters fill biblical believers with desperate, passionate concern for the very nature of God.  So they cry out in vertigo above the chasm that seems to gape between the God they know and the world they live in.  If God is supposed to be like that, how can the world be like this?

For us who share the faith of these biblical believers, this is an agonizing emotion precisely because we too love God In such moments we can even understand those who hate God, and our anger and pain could easily make us shake our fists with them.  But we dont, because our whole lifetime of trust and love for God and gratitude for his limitless goodness and mercy toward us in Christ cannot be overthrown in the day of disaster.  But the pain remains, and the pain is acute.[1]

The questions that come out of the pain and suffering we experience in a universe where an infinitely sovereign God exists are understandable, but what can we do with the emotions that such experiences generate?  What are we supposed to do with the confusion, disappointment, and anger that the evil and suffering God has allowed into our lives?  Is it okay to be angry with God when we suffer?  

This Sunday, I plan to answer the above questions, so I hope to see you in our 9:00AM and 11:00AM worship services.

Peace, 

Pastor Keith 

[1] Christopher Wright. The God I Dont Understand (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan; 2008), p. 53.