Fold a paper in half. Then write on the top half the worst things that have happened to you and on the bottom half the best. Invariably, if you’ve lived long enough, if enough time has passed since some of those “worst things” happened to you, then you’ll almost certainly find an overlap.
Because of my daughter Angie’s pending surgery and diagnosis, and because the subjects of trust and trials are all pertinent in my heart right now, I wanted to share some thoughts about how the Lord uses pain and suffering in our lives.
Many thanks to those who have been praying for our daughter Angela Stump and her health, and peace and encouragement for her and her family. (See my original post about Angie, and the update.) Her surgery has been scheduled for Thursday June 14, at 9 a.m.
In If God Is Good, I share the story of Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms or legs. In this great one and a half minute video from his ministry, Life Without Limbs, you’ll be introduced to Nick and get a glimpse of how God is using him to draw people to Christ.
On February 28, I will be interacting for three hours with a Torrey Honors Institute class at BIOLA University. We’ll be discussing my novel Safely Home, which the students will have read.
There are so many things for Nanci and me to be thankful for this year. We’ve talked about how grateful we are for our family—we have two daughters who are married to godly men, as well as four grandchildren already born and the fifth one on his way.
Pat Robertson has said something so stunning, so at odds with the Word of God and the heart of our Savior, that when I heard he had said it I thought he had been misunderstood or misrepresented.
I’ve been attending and speaking at the C.S. Lewis Summer Institute at Oxbridge. Yesterday afternoon at one of the seminars, I talked about the problem of evil and suffering. We discussed how EVERY worldview must address this problem and the problem of GOOD as well. And no worldview does this as well as the biblical one.
The following moved me deeply. We asked permission to post it. It speaks for itself. My thanks to John Knight, John Piper and Desiring God.
Pastors, Help Your People: The Ministry of a Letter in Suffering
by John KnightPastors, Here's a Scenario
You're a pastor and ‘the call’ comes. One of your families have welcomed a child into the world – and that child is significantly disabled. They are crushed.
When it comes to having perspective in this world, there are “look-at-ers” and there are “see-through-ers.” It was Norman Grubb who coined those terms, and he’s expressing the idea that you can look at something and just evaluate it on the surface, or you can look deeper.
I'm the author of over 40 books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. I love Jesus, my wife Nanci, and our daughters, sons and five grandsons!
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