Gary Hashley
Hello and welcome to this edition of Ask the Pastor. A question was sent into KCMI and forwarded to me by Russ Garrett, and it says, "Hello, I googled the simple and often asked question, 'If God loves me like a father and has good things for my life, in accordance to what Christians often purport to convey to non-Christians, then why do bad things happen to me when I had no role in them? Further, and more problematic He doesn't act on my behalf or others when He could. Let me personalize this: Friends went to another city to start a church plant. After they and others prayed for months and believed this was God's leading, within three months of the plant, his wife was murdered leaving him as a single parent. So where was God, without the ward and tepid explanations Christians give? How do you begin to reconcile this? I have children, and I don't have any power like God, and even I would've acted to protect my kids. Thank you." Well, you know, this is a very common question, and this is a question that probably neither Brad nor I will be able to answer to the total complete satisfaction of the questioner. Because living in a sinful world, we are surrounded by bad things happening to people, and not just the evil people of the world, but even the good people of the world. And there are those who would say, "I don't wanna hear the worn and tepid explanations," and that's a legitimate thought. but yet maybe those ward and tepid explanations are truly biblically based and faith based understandings. One thing I notice in scripture is that I don't find anywhere that God promises me, or promises you as a follower of Jesus, that life is gonna be easy, and that He is never going to allow anything bad to happen in your life. In fact, in Isaiah 30:19, 20, we find both sides of this. Verse 19, for a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as He hears it, He answers you. Now, that sounds fantastic. It sounds like, you know, God's gonna step in and everything's going to be good. The next verse, verse 20, "and though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher." So, one sentence right after another sentence, the first almost leading you to believe that God is gonna make sure that everything goes well, "you'll weep no more. As soon as you cry, I'll hear, I'll answer." And then the very next sentence says, "the Lord might give the bread of adversity and the water of affliction." Now, there are those who would say that if bad things happen to good people, if God is there and He's loving and He's wise and He doesn't step in, then it must mean that God really isn't there. In fact, one author says, "you know, there are some assumptions, a fact, and then a conclusion that we can approach in two different ways. Assumption #1: an all powerful God would be able to end suffering. Assumption #2: an all loving God would desire to end suffering. Fact: suffering exists. Conclusion: an all powerful, all loving God, therefore, does not exist." And I have a dear friend who I went to Bible school with. I flew airplanes with and ministered alongside of, who had two teenage sons killed in an automobile accident. And now he claims he was a fool to ever believe in God, because if God didn't stop the bad thing from happening, then he's not going to serve God. But on the other side of the page, he says, "assumption 1: an all powerful God does exist. Assumption 2: an all loving God does exist. The fact that suffering exists then leads to the conclusion: God must have loving reasons which he is able to achieve for permitting suffering." I'll tell you, when I come across times in my life where life is hard and suffering is a reality, I like to remind myself of what God said through Isaiah 55:9, "for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." And I just remind myself that God doesn't necessarily think the way I think. Because basically the question is saying, "well, if I as a parent would step in and would make sure my children don't endure suffering, then if God is a loving father, then He should do what I think I would do if it were me." And yet, the fact of the matter is, God thinks differently than we do. He never told us that what seems normal to us is normal to Him. He didn't tell us that what seems reasonable to us will be reasonable to Him. And so we face these struggles. I think of Hebrews 11, before I turn this over to Brad. You know, in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter about these faithful people, you know, and early on we read about Adam and Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah, and all these through Joseph and Moses. And then it talks about, you know, "by faith, great things happened." He says, "what can I say? Time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women even receive back their dead by resurrection," and some say, "yes, I like that." But then it says, "some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered, mocking and flogging, even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated." So when I look at that, I realize that there are times where God does step in and wonderful things happen. And there's times He allows hard times in people's lives. Now, I can't say anything I've said is the absolute answer that's going to solve this in everybody's mind. But I'll tell you, as I've lived life for 65 years myself, as I've gone through difficult times, I find that what the Bible teaches about God's mind and God's love and my need to trust Him, it may not be in some people's minds the best answer. But in my mind, it's the better answer than any other answer out there. So yeah, do tough things happen in people's lives? You're listening to a guy whose mom died of breast cancer when I was 29 years old. You're listening to a guy whose nephew died at five days old, because only half of his heart was developed in the womb. But yet, I have found that trusting God and His wisdom and His love and his sovereignty, and trusting that He has a plan, I I don't find that as worn and tepid. I find that as encouraging. Pastor Brad, tell me what's going through your head right now.
