This burning building...

Last week I heard a message that truly rattled my "world view" to the core. The church that I am currently interning at is going through a sermon series titled, "God Questions," which basically is dealing with various questions that the normal person, believer or not, is looking for the answer to. This particular week's question was: "How can a good God allow suffering?" Now to go through and regurgitate (kind of a gross term) this message back would be too lengthy, but I will say that this message has left a lasting impact on me and I think that it is something the Church, particularly the American Church needs to hear today. For the first time I was presented with the answer to this difficult and daunting question; (or at least what I've come to believe it is), God allows suffering in the world, because he loves us. I know that may sound completely crazy due to the fact that most assume that it is because God is harsh and cruel that he would allow some of the evil that goes on in the world to exist, but the thing is, if God because of his goodness would have to no longer allow anything causing pain or suffering to exist, then He would have to completely wipe us all of the face of the Earth. However, it is because of God's love for us (who because of our fallen nature cause others to suffer) that He allows suffering to happen lest he completely kill us all. It is NEVER God's will that anyone go through suffering of any kind. However, no matter how devastating any situation might be, God is able to make it work out for good (Rom. 8:28).

Something else that this message really provoked me to think about was our Christian world view (particularly our American Christian world view). As Pastor Jeff explained, much of the time we view any suffering that comes our way to be abnormal, as if we are just going through a hard time. Somehow we believe innately that our lives are supposed to be smooth sailing, and a few rough bumps are just part of the trip. However, perhaps this picture of life that we have seemed to adopt is part of the reason why the gospel is not more widely accepted in America. If we see this life only as a "beach" which is normally pleasant and beautiful, instead of as a burning building where people will die if they are not rescued out of, the gospel of Christ is no longer good news, but looked at as irrelevant. Because we as Christians either do not really believe in the reality of hell or we are just not setting it constantly in front of our minds, we do not feel compelled to "rescue" those in the burning building that will soon collapse and go down with those in it, because we are just as convinced as they are that everything in this life really will be ok.

I think when we decide to remember every day that we are living in a world that is cursed with people who are dying every day and going to hell even though Jesus Christ has already made the way for them to spend an eternity with a Father who loves them at the front of our minds, "witnessing" to others will no longer be such a chore, but rather we would feel compelled to do so. Perhaps, if we as believers still find it difficult to understand why we should put "evangelism" so high on our list of priorities, we should begin to consider what we truly believe, because as grim as the present picture of this burning building may be, we have a hope, the blessed hope, which is that Christ is our redeemer.