Waiting For Relief

I'm only gonna do one more blog on the problem of evil. I know that there is so much more to say and more questions to ask, but if I'm to be honest, I really don't know if I can say anymore about it. After the last blog, I've been forced into thinking about things in a very frightening light. Questions beginning with "What if..." have filled my mind. I'm not really sure why but I've been putting myself in hypothetical situations where it is my family that has been murdered, my daughter that has been raped, my own child that has committed suicide; I've never been the type to think things like this. If I'm honest it scares me to know what could happen, the reality that could take place, that is taking place, only not in my life but the lives of others. Others I know personally.

The last thing I wanna do is give a very brief answer to the problem of evil, which in the end will not dissolve the problem but will seem more like a pain killer. We are still waiting for relief. Unfortunately there is a lifetime before we feel the effects of the pill, that is unless Christ returns. Just between you and me I hope he does, and soon. I'm tired of my sin, my love for myself. Damn the world and it's sex appeal.

The answer to evil and suffering (the answer to anything) is the Cross of the Christ.

I have recently been working on a lesson that I will be teaching at a youth event at Waynesburg University next month. My lesson is on the story of redemptive history. What is so fun about this is that this story has already been written. It is a story that goes from creation to new creation, beginning to new beginning. At the center of this story, the apex of all things, is the three days in which Jesus died and then rose. The cross, although it is the only way of making sense out of suffering, doesn't do away with it. It will but not yet, Jesus will but not yet. God began a story with creation, and will redeem the mess we have made of this story through the cross and begin a new story. Well then, why doesn't he do this already?

It is his mercy that keeps His return. After the disaster in Haiti, I heard quite a few people say, one of them being me, that Jesus just needs to come back so all of this can end. It's a good thought but what we forget is Revelation 14:14-20. Those who don't love God face God's wrath and you can say all of those suffering in Haiti right now are nice people but God doesn't care if you're nice, he cares if you love him. When Jesus returns He will return as a king, The King, not a peasant, and do away with sin and unregenerate sinners. Lets us preach the Gospel to the world so as few as possible will face His wrath. Please! Please! Please! Let us Live the Gospel for their sakes!

For those who are God-fearing Christians, the cross for us is a picture of our lives. The road to heaven is paved with suffering. We must pick up our cross and carry it like Jesus did. We follow Christ in the sense we all have a cross to carry. The beauty though in Christ's death is "...one died for all, therefore all have died."-2 corinthians 5:14. Not only did he die that we could all die to ourselves, but he rose so that we could all rise again. I would encourage you to read 2 Corinthians 15 and revelation 21-22. It will give you an idea to what the new beginning of God's story, our story, your story. To live this story we must suffer. The answer to suffering is that we are called to suffer (I warned you that this would seem like no answer). There is only one last thing to say...

I rejoice that my story has already been written, not in ink, pencil or anything perishable, but with the blood of Christ that can never be erased.

Amen