WHY? Or rather WHO?

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” 1 Peter 4:12
 “In the world you will have tribulation (trouble).” John 16:33

Forgive me if I was tempted to take some pride in what I said last week and even suggest I ‘told you so’! I like most of the Western world watched last Monday evening as the USA once again witnessed hatred spilling onto its streets and blood being spilt in the name of some cause or another..I am asking WHY? AGAIN! Yet it takes an explosion of relatively limited force that cost the lives of a few! (AND please do not misunderstand me I am not by any means diminishing or undermining the real pain and agony of those grieving or forced to come to terms with horrendous injuries again!!No, for that dear father looking upon his shattered family and the body of his little son, this was NO small thing! This was an act of brutal terrorism, an awful tragedy and utterly inexcusable!)
BUT the question I ask is about the question? How come we stop asking that WHY until something like this happens AGAIN? As one young friend Kevin pointed out, on the same day as the Boston Bombs, almost 150 people were killed by terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and by an earthquake in Pakistan, never mind the dreadful statistic that EVERY day 30,000 people die around the world from starvation that is even more inexcusable when the world produces enough food that means this just should not happen..? 
I am not sure either if we even have the right any more to ask the question WHY!
I have this thing in Church where I would often end a prayer with “And all God’s people said “Amen!”’ And everyone does say Amen!  Well I was reading the OT the other day Deuteronomy 27 when you find the people saying it the most!!! It’s for the curses God said He would bring on them if they disobeyed His Word..And all the people of Israel shouted Amen! Well are we not living in a world that is cursed because we’ve said “God we don’t want You in our Country, we don’t want You in our Government, we don’t want You in our Schools, we don’t want You in our hospitals, we don’t want You in our homes and as for the places we work in??? Well You’re not allowed in there either! We don’t want Your Word to inhibit our way of life!! Go on God get out, leave us alone”…And all the people said????

I have been wrestling with these issues preparing my message for tomorrow (Sunday 21st) and have come to the conclusion that much of what those who continue to ask the question why, particularly of God, is nothing more than shrill and hollow and contributes nothing to peoples insecurity, fear and pain..I believe that at times like these I as a Christian Pastor must bring something that helps, something that brings comfort, and something that brings HOPE! And that something is not some trite theoretical answer to a questionable question but the incarnation of a person. The Christian message is the only answer for our fallen, broken world, there is quite simply NOTHING else that even scratches the surface..
The Word of God is honest about the World we live in, Jesus said in John 16:33 “In this world you WILL have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world” that’s why He could say to His disciples before He was to leave them and as they faced their future in the world, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me….. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:1-6+27
(Interestingly the very words read by Mr. Cameron, Britain’s Prime Minister at Margaret Thatcher’s funeral! I hope he listened to what he read)

Because of Jesus, we can face all the suffering the world can throw at us who knowing that 'He (God) became flesh (John 1:14) and dwelt, pitched His tent with us'. Became one of us and entered into our suffering. He knows what it is..and then bearing all the wrong, all the mistakes, all the SIN that was yours and mine, the cause of ALL the suffering. He took it upon Himself, and died for that sin. It was NOT His sin, for He knew NO sin, it was the sin of ALL of us and He paid the price for it. He died, He was buried BUT He rose again, and has defeated the power of sin, of Satan, of death and of the grave, of suffering! Jesus is alive and one day He will make everything right. He will judge everything and everyone BUT more importantly He will bring about a future that is free from ALL the suffering. So it is we can endure with Hope.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10

no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,    
what God has prepared for those who love him”—1 Corinthians 2:9

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Yes, it is an exclusive faith, Jesus said so Himself, He is the only way to God for that is the ONLY WAY of experiencing a future life where there will be no more suffering, or sorrow; no tears, and no more death, but anyone and everyone can come, indeed everyone must come.. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (of God’s standard)” Romans 3:23

It is ONLY in Jesus Christ that it makes sense folks? Makes sense of all my suffering? That in my suffering I enjoy a closeness, a fellowship and intimacy with Jesus Christ that will far outweigh the pain and the hurt I feel in my body..
Think of Stephen in Acts 7. They are about to put him to death. They pick up the stones and are about to stone him to death, what did he say…v56 “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and he Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” I see Jesus! I am looking into heaven right now…. I see Jesus go ahead do you worst.. insane what? In the middle of his suffering Jesus appeared. Amen!

What about Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace, what did Nebuchadnezzar say?  Did we not cast 3 down into the pit but I see a fourth, one like the Son of God!

What about our Commission…Matthew 28 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Is it when we are doing that that we experience… “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

It seems to me that if we are serious about knowing Jesus, wanting fellowship with Jesus then we are going to endure suffering BUT it is in the suffering that we will experience Him as in no other way and in so doing we can find joy in those sufferings.


If you want to know about this Hope, this Jesus I speak about, then please do contact me.
By the way if you do want to find the answer to the WHY? Here are a few useful places you can go to..
Billy Graham’s daughter Anne speaking on the anniversary of 9/11 http://www.ggcg.org/why911.html
Author Lee Strobel in response to the Aurora Shootings of July 2012
http://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2012/07/why-does-god-allow-tragedy-and-suffering/
D.A. Carson ‘How could God allow suffering?’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U21MquBWfag
Have a blessed and peaceful week.