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What kind of God initiates suffering for the innocent?
One spring when kings normally go out to lead their troops, King David of Israel hangs out in the comfort of his palace. There, from his hilltop, he spots Bathsheba washing. And he wants her. So he sends his guards to fetch her. And he takes her as his own. Soon David learns Bathsheba has become pregnant by his actions. So he has her husband killed in battle, and David takes her as his wife. She mourns for her husband (2 Sam. 11:26). And the biblical text reveals, “The thing that David had done displeased the LORD (v. 27). So the prophet Nathan confronts David; through Nathan God says, "Out…
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Embracing Mystery
I once found it everywhere— the tufts of a dandelion, that belt of Orion, eerie shadows and earthy mole holes. I found it without even tryin'. Then, when exploration I’d outgrown, explanation I honed. Mystery was judged, feared, despised. Certainty was justified, loved, adored. Everything categorized and defined in the modern mind. Think on this: human reason resists the detached, distant feel that mystery conveys. But is mystery far away, per se? The shingles of a snowflake falling here on my chin puzzle me more than the staging of Stonehenge in south England. The intimate stillness at the Lord’s Table confounds me more than the tower of Babel.…
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Malaysian Mystery
Around the globe the mystery of the missing Boeing 777, Flight 370 has the world collectively holding their breath. Satellites and ships are searching. Bits of data and information keep surfacing and speculation is rampant. Was this a simple but tragic accident or was the plane hijacked and flown to an undisclosed location? Mystery intrigues us, catches our attention. Someone described humans as “meaning makers.” We seek to make sense of things that happen to in our world. Likely because we live 2000 plus years removed from Jesus incarnation and resurrection, His revelation of the world’s most significant mystery doesn’t garner the same attention as this missing plane. Yet, the…
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Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life. Like It or Not.
Recently I have been engaging in an email conversation with a lady who is deeply burdened by the sinful choices and ungodly thinking of a young man dear to her. As we have talked about what she can do, our conversation turned to prayer. Yesterday she asked, “How does intercessory prayer make/change/mediate the young man’s own will? How does the person we pray for ‘get the message’? How can we pray for God’s will to be done when it is against the will of the person we’re praying for? How does our prayer help the person to want God’s will for themselves? How does my intercessory prayer help the person…
