The Westminster Shorter Catechism famously answers, "Man's chief end is to glorify God...
The Sovereignty of God: How Suffering and Justice Meet
The True Meaning of Justice in the Workplace
Biblically speaking, to be just means to use your strength on behalf of the weak. Justice most...
Three Critical Truths about the Sovereignty of God and Prayer
There is no theological issue more complicated than the relationship between divine sovereignty...
Interview with Kristen Wetherell and Sarah Walton on Hope When It Hurts
Kristen Wetherell and Sarah Walton are the authors of Hope When It Hurts: Biblical Reflections to Help You Grasp God’s Purpose in Your Suffering (www.TheGoodBook.com). T4L: You each have been diagnosed with Lyme disease and continue to suffer the effects...
The Problem of Evil in the Book of Job
The Lord is sovereign, powerful, and good. Evil exists and creatures bear moral responsibility for it. In making sense of the undeniable presence of sin, along with injustice and suffering it causes, many people deny one or more of these essential truths....
Suffering, Adversity, and Character Development
Whatever difficulties you face, it's safe to say there is something else going on than what meets the eye. In what way is God working all things for good? According to Romans 8:28, God is conforming us to the image of His Son. Jesus Himself was brought to...
Putting to Death the Fear of Man in the Glory of God in Christ
John 12:35-43, “So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that...
God’s Grace and Your Sufferings
Achilles was the Greek hero in Homer’s Iliad during the Trojan War who was killed by Paris with an arrow that struck his only vulnerable spot, his heel. So the Achilles heel is the vulnerable or susceptible spot. Critics of historic Christianity often point to the...
ISIS: Loving Our Neighbors and the Judgment of God
Few issues are as volatile right now as the problem of ISIS. Former President Obama, during his Presidency, stated multiple times that Islam is a “religion of peace”. While some denominations of Islam may seek to have peace, the statement that Islam is...
Hope: The Best of Things
Hope has been defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “desire with anticipation.” Other definitions given by Merriam-Webster include a “deeply held wish” or a “feeling of wanting something to happen.” I’m certain that this is how the broader culture defines hope,...
Four Ways Why Being God-Centered Matters in the Lives of His People
The Bible from beginning to end is the story of God. There is but one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Is. 45:5-7; 1 Cor. 8:4), an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (John 4:24), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three...
Sovereignty, Suffering, and the Work of Missions
If God is sovereign and all powerful, He must not be good. Or if He is good, then He must not be sovereign and all powerful. So reason many who believe that there should simply not be any suffering in the world. But even if they understand some suffering...
Augustine on Evil
Is God the author of evil or its helpless victim? St. Augustine's answer has been the most intellectually credible and emotionally satisfying solution to this vexing problem. One doesn't need a Ph.D. in theology to look around the world and realize something is...
The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God
As we examine the topic of the suffering of Christ and sovereignty of God, we see that it is one that many people face and struggle with mightily. In this article, we will begin the journey through this topic by considering what is said in the Book of Revelation. In...
When Love Lets Us Suffer
We often think that if God loves us, He should spare us, or those we love, from suffering. And when He doesn’t, we wonder how that can be love. In John’s account of Lazarus’s death and resurrection, Jesus shows us how this can be. We start by being...
Five Truths About the Wrath of God
The doctrine of the Wrath of God has fallen on hard times. In today’s world, any concept of God’s wrath upsets our modern sentiments. It’s too disconcerting, too intolerant. We live in a day where we have set ourselves as the judge and God’s character is...
Preaching to Sufferers
All people suffer. All Christians suffer. In fact, Christians suffer in unique ways because of their faith commitment. After being stoned and left for dead, the apostle Paul exhorted the disciples to understand, “It is necessary to go through many...
Interview With Dave Furman on Being There: How to Love Those Who Are Hurting
Dave Furman (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) serves as the senior pastor of Redeemer Church of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which he planted in 2010. Dave and his wife, Gloria, have four children. He is the author of Being There How to Love Those...
The Prosperity Gospel: A Global Epidemic
Prosperity is hot topic in the church. Does God care if a pastor drives a nice car or lives in a nice home? Does God command that all who follow Him take a vow of poverty and starve their families in a protest of earthly comfort? Bible teachers sell...
Theology Matters When Counseling the Suffering
Consider these ministry scenarios: you are teaching a Bible study and during a time of group discussion, a woman reveals that her husband left her for another woman. What do you say? Or someone you serve in ministry learns they have a debilitating disease...
Sovereignty over Suffering and Satan’s Hand in It
The impetus for this article comes from the ultimate reality of God as the supreme value in and above the universe. God is absolute and eternal and infinite. Everything else and everybody else is dependent and finite and contingent. God Himself is the...
Spurgeon, Suffering, and Social Justice
On February 17, 1860, citizens from Montgomery, Alabama, gathered in the jail yard to burn the “dangerous books”[i] of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most popular preacher in the Victorian world. A newspaper recorded the event: Last Saturday, we devoted to...