The Mystery of Suffering

"It is the most ungodly and dangerous business to abandon the certain and revealed will of God in order to search in to the hidden mysteries of God." - Martin Luther

"The secret of the mystery is: God is always greater. No matter how great we think Him to be, His love is always greater." - Brennan Manning

"It is easier to gaze into the sun, than into the face of the mystery of God. Such is its beauty and its radiance." -  Hildegard Of Bingen

With deepest regards to Martin Luther, today I would like to visit one of the puzzles of Christian theology, represented in this famous syllogism.

1) God is omnipotent and omniscient.

2) God is perfectly good.

3) Bad things happen to good people.

At the outset, we must acknowledge three things, 1) This is a mystery that has withstood centuries of thought and investigation, it cannot be fully explored in a blog post. 2) That human beings, who are not eternal, infinite, or omniscient, cannot expect to fully understand God’s purposes and ways. 3) It is arguably impossible for human beings to even properly evaluate what is good and bad in regard to their life experiences.

"How Are We To Live In An Atomic Age?"

Today I'd like to address your attention toward two articles written by C.S. Lewis. His writing has always been a source of personal comfort throughout the years and I have especially found the articles listed below to be sources of wisdom that I keep returning to, year after year, because they encourage me to live with eyes focused upward. (“Onward and Upward! To Narnia and the North!” a quote from the Narnia series, "The Horse and His Boy.")

Yes, we live in trying times and there is a lot to fear if we allow our minds to wander in that direction. But we are reminded in Scripture, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). So how do we reprogram our minds to reflect this truth?

A spirit of fearfulness and timidity does not come from God. Sometimes this “spirit of fear” overcomes us, and to overcome it we need to trust in and love God more completely. “There is no fear in love. To help us be complete in love, God has liberally sprinkled encouragement against fear throughout the Bible. God tells us not to be afraid of being alone, of being too weak, of not being heard in our prayers, or of being destitute of physical necessities. These admonishments cover many different aspects of the “spirit of fear.”

Atlanta Braves Clinch The Division!

The Atlanta Braves secured their fourth consecutive National League East crown on Thursday, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3. 

The Atlanta Braves have done it all before — many, many times before — but this one felt a bit different. More satisfying, for sure.

The Braves may have been the reigning champions, but their continued dominance was hardly assured. Atlanta finished the first half with a losing record, at 44-45, and entered August trailing in the division by five games. Nevertheless, the Braves were able to rally by winning games in the second half at a 98-win pace overall.

And there they were Thursday night, swigging champagne, puffing on cigars and celebrating an NL East championship.

"Giving It All To Christ" (Part III of the Salvation Series)

Getting started as a new Christian can be intimidating. So many voices, so many paths, it can be a overwhelming season as you take your first steps as a Christ-follower. I think C.S. Lewis would suggest that we don’t dip into this new life, we dive in! In this Devotional Classics excerpt, Lewis encourages us to abandon the idea of just ​“being good,” and to embrace utter abandonment to God. Step by step, Lewis walks us through the challenge and then offers us a practical exercise for getting started. 

1. How Much of Myself Must I Give?

The ordinary idea which we all have before we become Christians is this, we take as the starting point our ordinary self with its various desires and interests. We then admit that something else — call it ​“morality” or ​“decent behavior,” or ​“the good of society” — has claims on this self: claims which interfere with its own desires. What we mean by ​“being good” is giving in to those claims. Some of the things the ordinary self wanted to do turn out to be what we call ​“wrong”: well, we must give them up. Other things turn out to be what we call ​“right”: well, we shall have to do them.