As Selwyn writes in today’s study: ‘The sin of Adam and Eve has spoilt this world, and though much about it is still beautiful; accidents, calamities and suffering prevail.”

We only have to look at our known history to see that disease, violence and wars have been powerful players on the world’s stage.

As we read today: “When Jesus hung upon the cross, the crowd cried, ‘He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him.‘ (Matthew 27:43). God did not deliver Him (from the cross); He did something better. And it is along this line of ‘something better’ that we must search in order to find the Christian solution to the problem of suffering.”

I can’t fully explain why Jesus needed to suffer on a cross – but I do have a little understanding of what He achieved – His earthly death saved us from spiritual death.

[Let's look at this issue from a completely different angle. A parallel world - all those who follow God's commandments have a fantastic partner, great wealth, live for many years, have many loving children, are never sick and never suffer - their lives are overfilled with joy.  While those, who don't follow God's commandments; die young in fights or from horrific diseases - while alive, they constantly fight, with everyone including other members of their family; they have no wealth, no shelter & are often hungry and cold; their children die while young and their partners abandon them to die alone. I would think that within a very short space of time, everyone would be following God's commandments, even if they had no relationship with Him at all. Do you agree?]

Selwyn continues his discussion on suffering. He suffered a lot during his life especially in regard to his wife and children - as many will know. Selwyn also battled with cancer in the later years of his life – therefore his thoughts on this hard issue are worth considering.  Whereas, I’ve had little in the way of experience with unexpected suffering, my parents have passed away – my father, after a long and painful ordeal with cancer, fought to the end. 

I’ve known some Christian people who had very hard and short lives – yet, there was a sort of conquering joy in their lives. One woman, who in her mid-life, found herself in a long wrestle with breast cancer. She would have one win, followed by many losses; and, at the same time other aspects of her life were falling apart. Yet, she always had a great trust in that whatever was happening – Jesus was using it to advance His kingdom.

Her death was a high hurdle for me to jump – I had a belief that God would heal her.

Now, some years later I’ve accepted the outcome. One reason was the peacefulness of her death. In the hospice, while waiting for her death, she told a mutual friend that there were no loose ends – there was no unfinished business.  All the people, she needed to resolve differences with, to be reconciled with  (including her father) had seen her and reconciliation had occurred – all, was finished.  On her last day, her friends helped the nurses bathe her and dress her, while they sang her favourite hymns – while, they were singing – she smiled, and then died. The feeling of peace which surrounded her death had a strong impact on all who were there.

As Selwyn says: “Although we cannot explain fully why a loving God allows suffering, we know without any doubt that suffering plays a vital part in the development of the soul.”

Jesus, our amazing God suffered on the cross. Jesus also said that we will suffer for our testimony to Him. Why – I don’t know the answer!

We do know that the end-game has been played-out; Jesus has overcome the world. Victory is assured but we are still passengers in a time-capsule, we cannot enjoy the completeness of Christ’s victory until we reach our final destination – called Home.

What’s your view?

Selwyn now moves onto one of the most difficult of topics – developing an understanding of suffering.

As he says in today’s study: “People struggle to reconcile the fact of a loving God with the existence of suffering.” [Especially in the context of when "bad things happen to God's people".] As Selwyn mentions, it is a topic raised by many an atheists or agnostic – but this I can say; I would rather a world of suffering and God; then a world of suffering without God!

I agree with Selwyn when he concludes that “God’s power has not in any way been diminished by sin’s presence”.

Over the years I have gained an increasing awareness of God’s amazing power – there is nothing that He cannot do or control. Satan, as a created being has had certain powers given to him but nothing that compares to what Jesus can do; through whom the universe, and everything in it, was created.

In the story of Job, we have the archetypal cry of a wounded person, ‘why has this happened to me?’ Yet, even Job who had a strong relationship with God, did not receive an answer that satisfies the human mind. It’s a mystery – it has at its core, a huge component of trust, that God loves us and therefore suffering is playing a necessary role which serves God’s good purposes.

What do you think of this topic?

When I first read today’s study, nothing much jumped out for me – but, as I started to think and pray about it, an interesting picture started to emerge.

It’s about the point Sewlyn makes regarding people “who allow things that are almost innocent into their lives. Slowly they widen the forms of entertainment they find acceptable and the degree of language they will tolerate, but this hardens the senses and creates a longing for more.”

The picture is this: we are always moving in regard to our journey with Jesus. We are either moving closer to Him OR we are moving away from Him. There is never a time in our lives when all things stop.

There could be times when we think that we have made no progress, that we are in the same spot we were in yesterday, a month ago or a year ago. But the truth is that the environment of the place where we are ‘at’ – is not stationary. The type or content of books, movies, TV shows, glossy magazines, live shows, music and other things (inc. family, friends & work) which make up our environment are always changing – they are never the same, no matter how small the change might be. Therefor our interaction with our environment is always changing.

For example, the content of a reality TV show of today is more extreme that that of the same show a year ago. The graphics of news reports are more sensational then they were a year ago. The language of heavy metal music is more jarring than what it was a year ago. In might be counter-intuitive; but if we have not noticed these changes then we have not stayed in the one place – we have moved further away from God, as evident by our loss of sensitivity to our changing environment. Therefore, if we feel that we are in the same place that we were in, a year ago – the truth is that we have actually moved further away from Jesus. Do you agree?

To move closer to Jesus means taking active steps – it means constantly monitoring our interaction with all aspects of our environment.

Pause for a moment, and consider the direction you are moving: do you tolerate more sex in TV shows than you did a few years ago? Do you allow more swearing and off-jokes to creep into your everyday conversation then you did a few years ago? Do you watch the same TV shows, that you have always been watching, and allowed yourself to drift along with the changing content?

Or, are you on a different road, do you spend more time reading the Bible than you did a year ago? Do you spend more time with God in prayer seeking direction for your daily life?

You may have answered these questions in different ways; but be certain of one thing – you have moved – one way, or the other – you are not in the same place, as a year ago – the universe has moved millions of miles, since then!

I found the verses from Deuteronomy 30:1-20, good to read through – we should keep in mind that God’s nature did not change, regarding what we learn from reading the Old Testament, to what we learn about Jesus in the New Testament. There are many parallels, between the Israelites wondering in the desert trying to find their way to their promised land; compared to us, on our own spiritual journey as we try to follow Jesus and make our way towards eternal life.

 Here are some of the verses I liked the most: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. … the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase …

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, … ”

God loves us, and He loves us too much to leave us as He finds us. We are all sinners – no one is born ’good’ (Luke 18:19). In John 8:11, Jesus says to the woman caught in adultery: “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Likewise, in John 15:9-10, we hear Jesus say: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. …”

It’s very clear that we are called to obey God’s commands, which means we must try to leave our old, sinful nature behind. I would like to hear from anyone who does not agree with this statement!

Here’s an important observation made by Selwyn in today’s study: “When we don’t look to God as the One who loves us perfectly, we seek perfection in human relationships and are distraught when those close to us let us down. When we don’t look to God for our ultimate security, we seek safety in power and possessions, and then we find that we continually worry about them. When we don’t look to God for our self-worth then we try to seek it from others, and we end up manipulating people or withdrawing from them altogether.” Isn’t this just so true? The saddest part of this observation is that many people who attend Christian churches also demonstrate the same sort of outcomes – it is becoming harder to recognise any difference between those in church, and those outside a church.

Finally, we have Selwyn’s conclusion: “What does it mean to ride with the horses? We need to make the right decisions and we need to examine our lives for the presence of sin.”

For spiritual growth to occur, we must habitually examine our lives for the presence of sin and then take steps to leave it behind. This examination can only be conducted with heartfelt prayer – as, we can be blinded to the presence of sin because it may have been with us for a long time, we think it’s a ‘normal’ part of us. Consequently, we often need the Holy Spirit’s prompting to highlight its presence. We also need to seek God’s help in changing our ways and strengthening our resolve to avoid sin in the future.

What did you get out of today’s study?

I’ve been giving this issue a lot of thought over the past week. The main area of my questioning – why, is it so? Has it been due to the lack of teaching, on the need to be set apart for God’s work?

Perhaps, the Christian churches have been infiltrated with people who are attracted to the religious-club lifestyle - to provide for themselves an outlet for their sense of social duty – helping others, under their own terms and conditions? Perhaps, it part of their cultural heritage; those of a particular group or race identifying with a certain Christian denomination, and they ‘pay’ their minimal membership fees, in order to justify access to various services; e.g. schools for their children?

I recall that once, many years ago, while doing some work for a well known Christian charity, I said to a person who had just told me about a serious personal issue; ‘would it be okay if I pray for you?’ The person, somewhat moved by what I had said,  answered; ‘you are the first person to offer me prayer.’ On reporting back to the organisers, I told them about what had happened. Their response, at that time, surprised me – ‘you must be careful, not to force religion down someone’s throat.’  These days, such a response is all too common – of course, any work for Jesus must be well saturated with prayerful preparation - and it remains a good guide to ask yourself – what would Jesus do? It’s His love which then guides us down the right path, in this, we can be confident.

My current thinking is this: there are many wolves, trying to pretend they are sheep, in today’s church. Over the years there have been many people who have joined religious ‘organisations’ for their own benefit: a safe environment; or a cosy occupation for the gregarious want-to-be’s; or to satisfy a feel-good need, sometimes born out of guilt or loneliness. This has resulted in a significant number of people who are not Christians (in the true sense of the word), reaching position of influence in a church. A good number of these people have hidden, ‘almost innocent’ lives. In general, they have watered down the message that we ‘must no longer live as those who belong to this world.’ They, openly encourage people of like mind – and accept the liberal world view on; individuality of expression, sexuality, Scripture and, most important of all, Jesus’ power and authority.

Today, Selwyn continues with his discussion on hardened hearts. These are the bits I liked from the study, (I’ve rearranged the order): “The deadened soul requires a greater level of stimulation to arouse it. … Since sin numbs us we try to get more out of the things we think will help, but in fact do not. … We are living in an age when the inducements to sin are many, and they crowd in on us from all directions.”

In summary, I think we share many of the same attitudes which  were demonstrated by the inhabitants of Sodom. It’s my belief that God will soon intervene because of this rate of change into darkness. He will not allow His people to be swamped by the increasing inducements to sin, because He loves us. Do you agree?

I think that the verses for reading and meditation are worth a lot of time to examine, to take on-board the main points; and, then apply to our lives.  In particular these following verses (Ephesians 4:11-19, NIV), contain a series of very important points: 

“It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

So I (Paul) tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”

Clearly, these verses tell us that we are on a journey, from starting as infants to becoming more like Jesus – it is not a simple matter of proclaiming Christian beliefs – labelling yourself a ‘Christian’ and continuing on, with your life, as before. We must change how we live – we can no longer live as the rest of the world does. The world indulges in every kind of impurity and they continually lust for more. Just review the last ten years – the type of movies and shows on TV – the sort of articles that make headline news – the constant drift into seeing impurities as ‘something normal’. Don’t you agree that the world, in general, is separated from the life of God – and, is now moving further away, at an ever increasing rate?

Today, it’s more important than ever – to separate ourselves from the world – yet many people are quickly losing the sensitivity required to recognise the urgent need to set themselves apart for God’s service.

Selwyn’s conclusion is good, I’ve reworded it a little, as follows: ‘we are given many opportunities to change, but we often don’t want to change our lives that would result in separating ourselves from the ways of family and friends; of limiting our ‘fun’. The life choices we make often seem ‘almost innocent’, but these choices will result in hardened hearts. So, we, who have hardened hearts, become aliens and cannot enter God’s presence. We, have allowed our spiritual life to wither and die.’

Or, we can follow Jesus – who will lead us on a journey away from the hopelessness of this world – to refine us and separate us from the impurities – to make us, like Him. It’s our choice! (A note for the Calvinists: I’m concentrating more on the choices that we make while on our Christian journey, - putting aside the debate about predestination – for the moment!)