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Note: Each week we will post a brief excerpt from an article that deals with some of the BIG issues of our faith. We do not intend to stir up arguments or controversy, but rather to engage in a healthy discussion of relevant issues.  So please act respectfully as we dive deeper into the Scriptures. 

CURRENT TOPIC: Good and Evil - Why is there suffering?

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross….In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?  I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.  But each time after a while I have had to turn away.  And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness.  That is the God for me!  He laid aside his immunity to pain.  He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.  He suffered for us.  Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ…is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.” –John Stott

Over the next several weeks, we will be continuing this discussion with updated posts & viewpoints.

Verses to consider:
1 John 3:19-20
Job 1:21b
1 Peter 4:19
Ecclesiastes 7:1
Isaiah 55:8-9

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