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Get your copy today at klove.com slash books. Uh Life audio. Hi from the Salvation Army. You're listening to Words of Life.
Alright. These are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Welcome back to Words of Life. We pray you're being blessed by this series as we discuss what intentional, deep Bible study has meant to this panel of believers.
If, like many Christians, you grew up in a Christian home, but you've never really embraced the Word of God from cover to cover. This series is for you. We want you to be encouraged as we share some simple, practical ways to begin diving deeper into the Word of God. Check out the show notes for this episode for plenty of Bible study resources, and reach out to us and let us know how we can help. Send us an email, hello at wordsoflifepodcast dot org.
That's hello at wordsoflife podcast.org. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation, for he is your health and salvation. I have a note in my phone. Yeah. tried to search quickly because that question comes up all too often.
why bad things happen to good people. One response that I love, and two scripture verses. God doesn't cause evil, but He does allow free will. And even in the worst situations he can bring good out of pain and suffering. His purposes are bigger than we can see.
or no. And the scripture that that supports that From an Old Testament point of view, Genesis 50, 20. What was meant for evil God can use for good. And then in the New Testament, Romans 8:28, we live in a broken world, but God promises to work all things together for good. for those who love him.
I don't know why bad things happen to good people. or to any people. But we do live in a broken world. and we have a message of hope. And that Privilege that we have to bring that message to people is so important.
Only way we can convince them. It is to remove ourselves from the equation and let God reveal Himself if they will seek to know Him. Hey, you're listening to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. We're going to take a quick ad break and we'll be right back. You know, the Bible tells us, I will bless those who bless you.
That's not just a nice sentiment, it's biblical prophecy. and it's a commandment from God. It's a calling and right now we're called to act. The teachings of the New Testament are deeply intertwined with the Hebrew scriptures. As Christians, we are called to honor and respect this shared heritage.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 11:18, Do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: you do not support the root, but the root supports you. Supporting the people of Israel is more than a belief. It's a biblical mandate. By partnering with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, IFCJ, we can live out this calling together.
Just as the fellowship blesses God's children, we know that you will be blessed too. Learn more about the fellowship and how you can live out your faith, bless Israel, and be blessed in return. Visit ifcj.org today. Again, that's ifcj.org. Be the blessing.
Live the word. Answer the call.
Sometimes our perspective. might be just too singular. If we can just open it up. See what God sees. It would take our breath away what God is actually doing around us.
The problem of human suffering is. in my estimation, the hardest in Christian theology to speak into. One way that we have thought about is in terms of free will. As a Wesleyan, I believe that God Although humanity is totally depraved has by his prevenient grace restored A measure of free will so that we could all Uh no. to choose him, uh that we could be able to choose him and uh Choose between At some level, good and evil, and that way he graciously restrains The evil in the world.
But free to have free will. You have to have the ability to choose really, really good things, but also really, really bad things. There has to be that spectrum of choice. in order for you to really have Free will and free will is important for love. You can't force someone to love you and it be love.
Similarly in life. We also have this spectrum of things that happen in life from The things that give us joy in life, the goodness. of life and the beauty of it. But then we also have, of course, these things that Provoke suffering. And then you have What happens after Suffering.
What comes out of suffering has already been shared about so beautifully. And in order for it to have things like Redemption. Or the endurance that comes from Walking through a time of suffering with a loved one. Maybe it's a really hard diagnosis. On the other side of that, there's a kind of endurance that comes, a sort of perseverance, a strength that you didn't have quite before.
That couldn't necessarily come in more comfortable circumstances. That couldn't come in more comfortable. In order to be able to. Glorify God. that even though You lost your job and you really struggled to find what the next thing would be and it was hard to m make ends meet.
You then found that opportunity that you didn't see coming, and things have changed. Whatever it may be. There are goods that come from The struggle. That couldn't be possible if not for our experience of suffering and of hardship. Ways that God redeems such situations, but then examples of his love and glory in our midst.
that you could not have but for The ability of us to experience suffering and for there to be really profound struggles in life. And that means that Because there's this element to our lives of all of us, every single person will experience deep. Terrible suffering. No one Yeah. excluded from that fundamental aspect of human life.
And so because of that, As hard and as terrible, and still for me as confusing as it is at times. There's such beauty actually. the greatest works of literature, the greatest works of art and music. come from these moments of being in the gutter. and then hopefully, by God's grace, finding yourself.
raised up. with Christ. from there. And in the end, that is. hopefully all of our destiny too.
This life as hard as it is oftentimes and for everyone, isn't the end as well. and is actually just a glimmer of all that God wants to give us. You talked about Choice. And I think that is the truth that We will have suffering. And Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart, I have overcome the world, and in me you can have peace. And so I think the choice comes. Because all of us will have that. Suffering, we will have those hard days, and that is when we're faced with the choice. Am I going to let this draw me closer to God?
Or am I gonna Make the choice to turn my back on him and say, I don't want anything to do with you. You're supposed to be loving and kind and good, but this is happening to me now. And so I want nothing to do with you anymore. And I think that may be what has happened to some people. They have chosen to turn away from God.
And to be far from him instead of saying, No, God, I need you now more than ever, and I'm making the choice even in this hard, difficult time. I am going to choose you. And I'm going to Go to you to be my peace, to be my comfort, to give me strength. And that's the choice, right? We choose either to follow him or not.
We choose to read his word or not. We choose to believe it or not. In the same way that God does not create the suffering, God does not create the evil, God does not do that to us, but we have been given the free will, the choice of what to do. And just to make it clear, we're not, we as people that believe in God, that follow God's word, also are not to cause suffering for someone else's growth as well, right? We're not to cause that, but God provides us the promise that he will walk through it as.
Us as leaders, we need to remember that as well. We're not to cause that suffering, purposeful suffering. But we are to stay true to God's word and guide others in the strength and the promises that God provides. We pray that you're enjoying and being blessed by this conversation. We're going to take one more ad break and we'll be right back.
You know, the Bible tells us, I will bless those who bless you. That's not just a nice sentiment, it's biblical prophecy. and it's a commandment from God, it's a calling, and right now we're called to act. The teachings of the New Testament are deeply intertwined with the Hebrew scriptures. As Christians we are called to honor and respect this shared heritage.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 11:18, Do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this. You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Supporting the people of Israel is more than a belief. It's a biblical mandate.
By partnering with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, IFCJ. we can live out this calling together. Just as the fellowship blesses God's children, we know that you will be blessed too. Learn more about the fellowship and how you can live out your faith, bless Israel, and be blessed in return. Visit ifcj.org today.
Again, that's ifcj.org. Be the blessing. Live the word. Answer the call.
When we first got going on this. Discussion You had mentioned just The importance of remembering. And I think that's just another beautiful thing about the Bible: in the midst of suffering, we can look back at all these stories of how God brought people through these. incredible times of difficulty. And I think that, again, is just another thing that God can do to use suffering to help us to remember his goodness.
You know, I was at this point in my life, but God, you brought me through that. And that now gives me strength for the next challenge. You know, so I think so many times in the Bible. You know, the the word remember, remember, remember. We forget easily.
But when we do remember, I think that helps us navigate the suffering. You know, that we do have a good God and that He. Doesn't always protect us from the eventualities that will happen in life, but because of his goodness and our ability to remember that. He will bring us through. I think that's another beautiful thing about God's word in scripture because we can see that.
We can start from the beginning all the way through and see God's faithfulness and how, even when people. Messed up, he was there to pick them up, to redeem them, and just God's faithfulness, how we see His plan working through all of that. And then I think when we look at our own lives and we look back at our grandparents and things that they went through, or our parents and things that they went through, hard things. and how they just held on to the promises of God. And God never let them go.
God was faithful. He remained faithful to them. And what an encouragement that is to me to know that God is still faithful. He's still going to keep his promises always. and that I can trust in that and I can trust him.
Yeah. It's an example of parents. I think our so important and you know unfortunately not everyone has grown up with Godly. Examples as parents. But It's significant to me that God chooses to call himself Father.
to identify himself with that Fundamental relationship in life: that even in the home, you have something. Just by virtue of having a mom and dad, of discipleship happening, because God says, I am Father. And Good parenting, godly, holy parenting. Yeah. who he is as father.
And that's for fathers and mothers. And I say it to say, you know, parents. they will of course provide healthy attachment for their children, a place of Flourishing. loving home They, you know, parents should. Convey to their children just how precious and loved and adored they are.
But then they also provide a context for growth, too, where If I did not exert some discipline in my own home, Things would be really bad, you know? Like my kids. It just wouldn't go very well, and that would happen very quickly. That's another sort of. I think illustration for us embedded in our just the fabric of life.
Of God's role too in correcting and providing accountability and the context for growth.
So grateful that Claudia also said that doesn't mean causing suffering. That's not sending evil to us. God's never the source of evil, but it can be, it often is. Circumstances that then do help us grow and become who he's intended us to be. Yeah.
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These are the These are the words of life. These are the words. These are the words. These are the words of life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life.
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