Why Suffering - Part 2!

I promised it, so without further ado - here it is!

WHY SUFFERING? - PART 2...

At that point she was called away to attend to a customer, so that was the end of our conversation. But I was thinking later about how much of the World's suffering is not even caused by the DEVIL, and certainly not because GOD wants to be mean to people, but rather through MAN'S OWN FOOLISHNESS. Man is his own worst enemy!

Look at the suffering that Man has caused himself by continually fighting terrible wars in which millions have been killed or injured! Martin Luther (a Christian reformer who went loggerheads against the church of his day over ideas like salvation by grace, not needing to pay a bunch of useless fees, and sex not being a sin) called war "the greatest scourge that can afflict humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states and it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it!"

But is GOD to blame for Man's wars? The Bible says, "What causes wars and fightings among you? Don't they come from your OWN LUSTS that battle inside you?"--James 4:1. God isn’t to blame for the suffering caused by war, but rather Man's own selfishness, greed, pride and competitive spirit--the destruction of others for greed or selfish gain--THIS causes wars!

And War isn’t the only thing – there’s also car accidents, which are actually an even greater cause of deaths today then wars! Can you imagine that? More people die every year from the vehicles WE invented then the wars we fight!

Far too many of Man's inventions, such as weapons of war, too-rapid transportation, towering skyscrapers, pesticides, lethal chemicals, drugs etc., are death-dealing and destructive and cause all sorts of suffering.

Problems like these are caused by MAN'S own foolishness over a number of years, often centuries! -- Problems which have steadily grown over successive generations. Can we really blame GOD for all the crap in the world today?

If we were to try to cover ALL the causes of suffering in this World, it would probably take a book! But I hope I've at least given you SOME answers to one of the great eternal questions of this life: "Why does God allow suffering?"

Because WE'VE brought it on OURSELVES! Though we can understand MANY of the reasons through reading God's Word and through prayer, we probably won't know ALL the answers to that question until we get Up There, as there are some things we won't understand until we see things as God sees them.

A very fitting illustration of this is the story of Doctor Handley Moule, when he visited a coal mine immediately after a terrible underground explosion. At the pit's mouth was a large crowd, among whom were the relatives of the trapped and suffering miners.

"It’s very difficult," he said, "for us to understand why God should let such an awful tragedy happen. But I have at home an old bookmarker given me by my Mother. It’s woven in silk, and when I look at the wrong side of it, I see nothing but a tangled mass of threads. It looks like a big mistake! You’d think someone had made it who didn’t know what she was doing.

But when I turn it over and look at the right side, I see there, beautifully embroidered, the letters, 'GOD IS LOVE!'"

"We are looking at this today," he continued, "from the wrong side! Someday we’ll view it from another standpoint and we will understand."

God ALWAYS has a purpose and a plan in suffering, even though we can't always see it right away!

Sometimes, "His ways are past finding out" (Romans 11:33), and we just have to TRUST God, knowing that whatever He does, He does it in LOVE, and that if we don't understand NOW, we will LATER!

"Why Suffering?"

I came across this article the other day, written by an awesome guy named David Berg. It answered a major question I had and one I get asked like literally every time I talk with someone about Jesus. Just thought I'd post it up here for those of you who've always wondered...

WHY SUFFERING?

- By David Berg -

I was talking to a pretty young travel agent the other day, and during the course of our conversation we began to talk about God.

"Oh, I don't believe in God!" she said. "If there is a God, why is there so much suffering in the World today?

“Why do thousands die of starvation every day in Africa? What kind of God would allow a terrible disease like AIDS to run rampant? Why was my best friend just crippled in an automobile accident?"

"Well," I replied, "you can't blame GOD for all the suffering in the World! He's not some kind of monster that enjoys making people suffer. It's not GOD Who causes all these things.

“ A lot of it is the evil work of a powerful being called Satan, or the Devil, and being called Satan, or the Devil, and he just loves to hurt Man and see him suffer!-- In fact, that's one of his main tactics to try to turn Man away from God. He tries to give GOD the blame for his OWN dirty deeds!"

The young lady was quiet for a moment as she pondered this, and then she shot back with the atheists' trump card question which they always try to stump Christians with!

"Well then, if there is a God, and He's ALL-POWERFUL, why doesn't He STOP the Devil and not allow him to cause all this suffering? Why does He ALLOW evil in the World? For example, why didn't He stop Hitler?"

"Well, that's a very good question!" I answered. "But you see, if God had put a stop to Hitler, He also would have to put a stop to YOU!--Because YOU'RE a sinner too, aren't you?

"I'm sure you're not as bad as Hitler, but we've ALL been bad sometimes, haven't we? The Bible says, `ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.'--Romans 3:23.

"So He would have had to stop everybody in the whole World from doing ANYthing bad! Right at the very beginning God would have had to step in and use FORCE to stop Adam and Eve from eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.”

“He would have had to interfere with our FREE WILL and the majesty of PERSONAL CHOICE that He's given each of us to choose good or evil!"

"But wouldn't it have been BETTER if He had MADE us all to be good?" She challenged.

"If the Lord had wanted ROBOTS, yes He could have MADE everybody do good and love Him. But He made us with FREE choice and FREE will, so we could CHOOSE to love Him! You wouldn't enjoy YOUR children much if they were FORCED to love you, would you?” I questioned.

Puzzled, she replied, "Well no, but what does this have to do with suffering?"

I explained, "Because Man was put here to make a CHOICE between good and evil, between doing things GOD'S way or his OWN.”

Stay Tuned For More On 'Why'...

... Part 2 coming up ...

(PS: Okay so the pics were my idea - they're so cute though, aren't they? I couldn't resist, you guys!)

Tales From Wales - The Swansea Scoop

(The Four Horsemen with a few of the Swansea crowd)

Finally back with the story on Swansea - the city we hit on Saturday (and the last city our team went to in Wales). It was a brilliantly sunny day and lucky for us (with a lot of Divine intervention) it stayed that way for all the afternoon.
We really didn't know what to expect in Swansea and some of us were a little nervous, but also excited as we'd been repeatedly told to take our plays there by some of the Welsh young people we'd encountered. Well, after finding a spot at the far end of the walking street and striking up an act... we were in for an amazing afternoon!
There was a large gathering of young people just around the corner from where we were performing, and as the day progressed, more and more of them were drawn to the action. We were as happy to perform for them as they were to watch - the Swanseans (yes I know it's a made-up term...) were an awesome audience.
They were even better when it came to one-on-one and group discussions about the plays, their meanings and the message of Jesus' love. Our team spent the better part of the day in conversation with these very special people, exchanging hugs and email addresses (and taking lots and lots of pictures, hah).
All in all, we have to say that Swansea was an awesome experience for our team and well worth the time and effort! We prayed with lots of the young people there to receive Jesus into their hearts and we know He's going to do mind-blowing stuff in each of their lives now!
We ended our time up in Swansea with a trip to the beach, woofed down pizzas and coke (given complimentary by the local Pizza Hut - the manager was very kind! If you're ever in Swansea, go and eat there!) and those of us who were brave enough splashed around a bit! It was the perfect end to a perfect day! Enjoy the pics!

(Faye with two young men who were brave enough to give Jesus a chance - Jason and Danny, you guys rock!)

(Three beautiful people gathering to watch the 'Everything' play)

(The audience looks on as the 'Everything' play unfolds...)

(Even after the walking street was deserted, it was still going on!)

(Mari and Sam with three new friends)

(It's always great to have people we've just met join in on the plays, but Kyle's acting took us by storm!)

(The Four Horsemen took quite a knocking that day!)

(Faye and Heather showing some boys about some of the signs of the end (check out the 'Mathew 24' pictures on this blog if you're interested...))

(Two damsels in distress hugging a long-haired blonde boy with a sword...and it's not even Josh!)

(Fun at the beach after a long, busy day!)

Tales from Wales - The Bridge End Basics

(The Four Horsemen outside Bridge End Bus Station)

On Friday, our team traveled to Bridge End, a small town in Wales that has recently been victim to a rising number of suicides. We were very keen on performing there, especially the 'Everything' skit as it deals with a wide range of issues known to prompt depression. So, with rain clouds vying for space with patches of blue sky and the sun, we set up on the small walking street in Bridge End.
Our day there was as full of adventure as it was with mishaps....er... 'mishaps' being one confused, depressed woman interrupting the 'Everything' skit several times before eventually walking off with our prop gun. Fortunately, Melody, one of our team members, went after her and not only spent time with this woman talking about Jesus' love for her and giving her a hug, but she even managed to get the gun back!
Even though people were sparser then in Cardiff, we still found those who were interested in the plays and keen to discuss today's issues with us. Quite a few people prayed to accept Jesus into their hearts and some even left us with email addresses and asked us to please stay in touch. We were very thankful to have been given the opportunity to reach Bridge End with a message of hope!
As a final highlight to round off the day, we were requested to perform the Four Horsemen play for a group of young people who were hanging out at a fountain around the corner from where we were based! Wooden swords clashed and battle cries were yelled one last time in Bridge End aftter which we were able to spend some time with these awesome young people before heading home in the throes of a downpour of rain.
Bridge End was definitely a memorable experience! See the pics!

(Faye with some Bridge Enders)

(Melody's just one of those 'people' people...)

(The Four Horsemen did a lot of exploring that day)

(Someone getting a taste of the crown Jesus promises is waiting for us in Heaven!)

(What everybody needs is love!)

Coming up: Swansea...

Tales from Wales - The Cardiff Chronicles

(The Four Horsemen with some new friends from Cardiff)

Well, everyone, here we are! Back after five, fun-filled days on the road in the 'land of the red dragon'...a.k.a Wales.
A team of twelve of us bunked down in Cardiff and hit their walking street as well as those of Bridge End and Swansea with the street plays and a message of Jesus' love and awesomeness, lol. It was amazing, to say the least. We're just going to talk about Cardiff in this post (two others about Bridge End and Swansea coming up, don't worry) due to an overabundance of content (well, there are an awful lot of pictures...I'm posting all my personal favorites here!)
We performed in Cardiff for two days, Wednesday and Thursday, and we loved it! The sun shone due to merciful Omnipotent intervention (it was supposed to be rainy) for the whole first day and we found a perfect spot on the busy walking street to perform the plays.
The young people in Cardiff were a great crowd - a good audience and even more interesting when we talk with them, either one-on-one or as a group. A lot of them prayed with us to ask Jesus into their hearts and were brave enough to give Him a chance in their lives despite all the crap they'd heard about 'religion'. (P.S: To any Cardiff-ites reading this post, you guys rock!).
The second day in Cardiff was wet and windy, which was awkward because the concrete was too slippery for a performance to be safe. But, despite the 'wet blanket' (literally) threatening to envelop us, our team (I tell you, those guys are such troopers. I was moaning the whole time about the weather) went ahead and gave out the Four Horsemen posters, reaching out to whoever was brave enough to stop! After about an hour, Jesus rewarded the faithful and the sun came out, which meant we were not able to stay out but also managed to do our plays for the rest of the afternoon!
We met some very special people in Cardiff and are so thankful we had an opportunity to take our shows (and Jesus) to that awesome city! Enjoy the pics!

(Cate and Mari on the go)

('Death' captivates the crowd on Cardiff's Walking Street)

(The audience watches the final scene of 'The Four Horsemen')

(Three young girls sit closely to watch the 'Everything' skit unfold)

('Jesus' and 'Death' getting along nicely for a change)

('War' explains the Four Horsemen poster)

Stay tuned for Bridge End...