B&H Video Contest: Is God Good?

Here is one of the first entries in the video contest. You can keep up to date and vote here. So far this is my favorite, this student understands the heart of God.

Suffering

I read a difficult book on suffering a couple of years ago. As I was reading this book I often had to set it down and process my thoughts and feelings. In the book the authors challenged my beliefs about God. For me it was an emotionally difficult book. John Piper and a handful of others wrote the book titled Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. And like most of Pipers resources you and read and download it for free here. I have posted a short segment of the book below to peak your interest.

"The impetus for this book comes from the ultimate reality of God as
the supreme value in and above the universe. God is absolute and
eternal and infinite. Everything else and everybody else is dependent and
finite and contingent. God himself is the great supreme value. Everything
else that has any value has it by connection to God. God is supreme in
all things. He has all authority, all power, all wisdom—and he is all good
“to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him” (Lam. 3:25).
And his name, as Creator and Redeemer and Ruler of all, is Jesus Christ.
In the last few years, 9/11, tsunamis, Katrina, and ten thousand personal
losses have helped us discover how little the American church is
rooted in this truth. David Wells, in his new book, Above All Earthly
Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, says it like this:
This moment of tragedy and evil [referring to 9/11] shone its own light
on the Church and what we came to see was not a happy sight. For
what has become conspicuous by its scarcity, and not least in the evangelical
corner of it, is a spiritual gravitas, one which could match the
depth of horrendous evil and address issues of such seriousness.
Evangelicalism, now much absorbed by the arts and tricks of marketing,
is simply not very serious anymore.
In other words, our vision of God in relation to evil and suffering was
shown to be frivolous. The church has not been spending its energy to
go deep with the unfathomable God of the Bible. Against the overwhelming
weight and seriousness of the Bible, much of the church is
choosing, at this very moment, to become more light and shallow and
entertainment-oriented, and therefore successful in its irrelevance to
massive suffering and evil. The popular God of fun-church is simply too
small and too affable to hold a hurricane in his hand. The biblical categories
of God’s sovereignty lie like land mines in the pages of the Bible
waiting for someone to seriously open the book. They don’t kill, but they
do explode trivial notions of the Almighty.
So my prayer for this book is that God would stand forth and
reassert his Creator-rights in our lives, and show us his crucified and
risen Son who has all authority in heaven and on earth, and waken in
us the strongest faith in the supremacy of Christ, and the deepest comforts
in suffering, and the sweetest fellowship with Jesus that we have
ever known.
The contributors to this volume have all suffered, some more visibly
than others. You don’t need to know the details. Suffice it to say that
none of them is dealing with a theoretical issue in this book. They live
in the world of pain and loss where you live. They are aware that some
people reading this book are dying. There are people who love those
who are dying; people who live with chronic pain; people who have just
lost one of the most precious persons in their life; people who do not
believe in the goodness of God—or in God at all—who count this book
their one last effort to see if the gospel is real. People who are about to
enter a time of suffering in their life for which they are totally unprepared.
These authors are not naïve about life or about who you are. We
are glad you are reading this book—all of you. And we pray that you
will never be the same again."

Does God Hate Haiti?

Whenever a tragedy such as the earthquake in Port-au-Prince occurs so do the usual spiritual questions. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, theologian, minister, and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary wrote an article worth reading. In his article he addresses the question "Does God hate Haiti?" He also lays out an appropriate Christian response in contrast to some unfortunate comments recently made by another prominent Christian teacher. Read it here!

Random Shootings, Fatal Accidents, and other Horrible things

In light of the link to the video contest I posted last week I am eager to think about the goodness of God. I found an article in which Dr. R.C. Sproul, the founder and president of Ligonier Ministries and chancellor of Ligonier Academy, was asked, "Why does God let random shootings, fatal accidents, and other horrible things occur?" Here is his response:

"Since we believe that God is the author of this planet and is sovereign over it, it’s inevitable that we ask where he is when these terrible things take place. I think the Bible answers that over and over again from different angles and in different ways. We find our first answer, of course, in the book of Genesis, in which we’re told of the fall of humanity. God’s immediate response to the transgression of the human race against his rule and authority was to curse the earth and human life. Death and suffering entered the world as a direct result of sin. We see the concrete manifestation of this in the realm of nature, where thorns become part of the garden and human life is now characterized by the sweat of the brow and the pain that attends even the birth of a baby. This illustrates the fact that the world in which we live is a place that is full of sorrows and tragedy. But we must never conclude that there’s a one-to-one correlation in this life between suffering and the guilt of the people on whom tragedies fall. If there were no sin in the world, there would be no suffering. There would be no fatal accidents, no random shootings. Because sin is present in the world, suffering is present in the world, but it doesn’t always work out that if you have five pounds of guilt, you’re going to get five pounds of suffering. That’s the perception that the book of Job labors to dispel, as does Jesus’ answer to the question about the man born blind (John 9:1-11). On the other hand, the Bible makes it clear that God lets these things happen and in a certain sense ordains that they come to pass as part of the present situation that is under judgment. He has not removed death from this world. Whether it’s what we would consider an untimely death or a violent death, death is part of the nature of things. The only promise is that there will come a day when suffering will cease altogether. The disciples asked Jesus about similar instances—for example, the Galileans’ blood that was mingled with the sacrifices by Pilate or the eighteen people who were killed when a temple collapsed. The disciples asked how this could be. Jesus’ response was almost severe. He said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish,” again bringing the question back to the fact that moral wickedness makes it feasible for God to allow these kinds of dreadful things to take place in a fallen world."

By no means is his answer complete, but he brings up some important considerations, the fall of humanity into sin and its results on both man and nature, that suffering is not necessarily an indicator of guilt, and moral wickedness does deserve punishment. My plan is to explore this topic and share some of the teaching I come across. Hope it will be helpful.

I am looking forward to these videos!



For more information click here.

Together

In times of trouble The Lone Ranger had Tonto. Batman had Robin when he got himself into a jam. Superman had...well, he is Superman after all! And that is the point. We are not Superman. Why would we think in times of hurt, depression, anxiety, anger, fear, doubt, or any other human struggle we have what it takes to handle it alone? Truth be told Superman is only a comic book hero, and no amount of positive thinking will ever bring us close to being like him.

When Jesus began His ministry the first thing He did was build a community of 12 men. John MacArthur reminds us that even with the many character flaws of the Disciples, after living in community with each other, they carried on a ministry which not only influence us today, but which still impacts the world.

We were created by God to need each other and live in community with one another. we have been created in the image of our Triune God who is constantly living in community. The reason we do not enjoy the same is that sin has corrupted us, and any desire we have for community have become just that…OURS, revealing our selfishness as opposed to selflessness. We must draw our example from the redemptive nature of the trinity. “God is a redeeming God who does something utterly amazing to reconcile us to Himself and others” (Tripp/Lane). At the core of our faith we know that Jesus dying on the cross has put us right with God. When you dig deeper you begin to realize that the very community existing between the Father, Son, and Spirit was ripped in two as Jesus bore a bloody death so that we could have a chance to be put right with God, and once again rightly relate to our fellow brothers and sisters.

Meet the President

For the past three years I have had the great privilege of studying at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary under the influence of its president, Dr. Akin. I never sat in his classroom or in his office for conversation, yet his leadership has greatly influenced me during my time in seminary.

If you asked me what I appreciate most about Dr. Akin it would be his challenge to the students to use everything given us to its fullest potential to bring God glory. This includes our minds. If you listen to him preach you will quickly hear his heart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After sitting under his leadership I feel better equipped to engage a skeptical world with the Gospel.

When you come across godly men like Dr. Akin, you realize you have much to learn from them. I read an interview C.J. Mahaney recently had with Dr. Akin which gives us an opportunity to do that. In this interview Mahaney asks questions that get to the heart of Dr. Akin's character. I hope as you read the interview you will be challenged to improve areas in your own walk with God.