Image by Arenamontanus via Flickr
Our Daily Bread on Apr 1, 2020
Part I
When it comes to questions of suffering and evil, no one has all the answers. However, author and speaker Os Guinness presents a compelling case that leads to faith and courage. With an engaging style, he introduces three perspectives on evil, examines the difference between suffering and evil, and shares steps to help you think through the problem of evil. Discover how you can cope with life and find reason to trust in God when bad things happen.
Part II
From the archives:
Isaiah 53: Who is Isaiah speaking of in this chapter? by Lo + Aviad Cohen: Hooked On The Truth
Dandelion Salad 
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Suffering is a result of the fall it’s not God’s will. Of course you can learn from it and it can help you grow if you actually ever learn from it. The truth is God’s word is useful for teaching us and changing us not suffering. I’m not saying it won’t happen in your life but it’s not from God and He changes us with His word not sickness and disease or thru suffering Jesus suffered for us. The will of God didn’t change at the fall and Jesus came to make it right again.
Just what I believe.
Pingback: What Jesus Said About Suffering « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: What Jesus Said About God: Is There A Higher Power? « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: The Encounter « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Moyers and Company: Poet Christian Wiman on Love, Faith, and Cancer « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: The Lion and the Ox: The Winter of Our Discontent By Gary Steven Corseri « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Is God great? Christopher Hitchens vs John Lennox Debate (2009) « Dandelion Salad
http://sadhusundarsingh.homestead.com/files/feet.html#Heading20
At the Master’s Feet
by Sadhu Sundar Singh
Rocket
It is organized religion that offends me but that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of the sweet mysteries of life and death. Why life in all its forms is so intricately balanced is something that has to give one pause when considering whether life is just a random occurrence or is there a creator. As far as life after death, here is another quote from a great poet
” When love is a quenched flame, and nothing saves decrepit man, who feebly wails, and lies down lost in the great grave to die
What is Eternal ? What Escapes Decay ?
Jim , there is an interesting development in the new atheism movement with sam harris and chris hitchens debating on life after death and consciousness continuing beyond the grave. Harris seems to think that it is more possible than not that it will continue . Hitchens says categorically NO. Harris states than one can be an atheist and believe in consciousness remaining after the grave.
what i said on my new article on optimism verses real hope is that it all comes down to consciousness never ending . the Sufi mystic poetry of Rumi and Hafiz really describes what i have so far tasted of divine ecstasy i have experienced . so , if the afterlife is anything like that, and more , then wow ..the whole subject is something that i think everyone should at least consider . ”what escapes decay?” your poet wants to know . only one who has been raised from the dead. and that is the claims of Christ .
Pingback: What Jesus Said About Who He Is, Life and Following Him « Dandelion Salad
The one thing I learned looking at this Why do bad things happen website is, there is lots of $$ in religion and lots of people willing to pay to be convinced that they can live forever.
Jim, did you watch the videos? This particular site only asks for donations. It costs a lot to travel the world and do fine productions as they do. They should be supported for their work.
Back on topic, please.
Because there is no god. It is a man-made creation to keep masses under control.
And you know that there is no God? Did you watch these videos or just felt compelled to post a negative comment anyway?
Vera s comment is negative only if you disagree with it. It appears to be just a statement of what she believes, neither positive or negative.
Good point, Jim R. I chose the wrong word. It won’t be the last time I do as I’m not a very good writer. Anyway, Vera dropped her comment without evidence, and without watching the videos. It was antagonistic. My guess is that she will not respond any further to this discussion.
Jim , the first part of Vera’s comment does not fall into the negative/positive duality , but rather a lapse in logic . how can someone posit a negative? she has no proof that there is no God , just as i have no proof that there is . one must employ reason for constructive debate/dialogue.
Rocket
You.re right it can’t be proven either way and that makes it a futile argument.
With all due respect to believers, my opinion is that organized religion is detrimental to mans advancement. to think that’s there is a God that controls things is ridiculous on its face or he/she is a very evil God and would need mans forgiveness him/her self.
To quote Omar Khayyam
” Oh thou who man of baser earth did make, and even with paradise devise the snake
For all the sin wherewith the face of man is blackened, mans forgiveness, give and take
Jim , nice quote. the belief/unbelief tension is a Mexican standoff. i am just as clear to believers as to non believers on the utter futility of seeking to prove the” ex hypothesis” ( aka . the existence of God ) .
both credo qou absurdum of the believer is as absurd as the reductio ad absurdum of the non believer. this is something that Erkd1 and i have been agreeing in dialogue on this blog. I like his sensible Atheism .
one thing i would like to clarify though , and that is that not all believers are into organized religion . many are into unorganized religion . the person of faith takes the position that the Spirit blows where it wills and one cant tell where it is coming from or where it is going , and so is everyone that is reborn of the Spirit .
where i am at on this personally is that i like liturgy , and ritual , and tradition , kind of like the native American indigenous tribes , but also i like the freeflowingness of allowing the divine to surprise me without any tradition or ritual . in the tension and joy of that paradox i live. seems to work . so i figure –if it aint broke , dont fix it .
Vera , can you prove that there is no God ? i would sure love to see your evidence that there is no God .
i will save you the time –there is no evidence that there is no God . i do agree with you that man makes up things to control the masses. that can be empirically proven thru simple historical patterns and analysis . what cannot be proven without a shadow of a doubt is that there is not a God .
therefore the first sentence in your reply does not stand up to the rigors of logic and reason .
And can you prove there IS a god? To each its own but when I look around me and see all that which is going on, when I see what we humans are doing to each other and our planet…then, IF he/she exists…he/she must be sleeping on the job; he/she must be a sadist. But as I said…to each its own…I don’t believe, you do.
Vera, first off the ”prove it to me crowd” really does not want evidence, because authentic faith is not a matter of evidence but rather a willingness to OBEY the Most High who paradoxically came in humility in Christ. The religious hypocrites of Jesus day saw him do miracles and still did not believe in him as the Savior of the world. why? because they CHOSE not to. they knew it would cost them their lives.
Bauldiere said ”if God exists he is the devil”. in essence this is what you are saying when you accuse a loving creator of sadism . but ask your self this: who am i to put God in the dock and judge him/her? what are your qualifications for judgement of God, or for that matter to judge anyone. judging people is what got the human race in trouble in the first place. Jesus did not come to judge but said of those who crucified him ”Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.
it would be better that we would obey his commandments of not judging people, and extend mercy just as Christ did , than to reach for the straw man argument of the Great Sadist. Humanity would benefit much more from that, now wouldn’t it?