In his book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Phillip Keller talks about the day he bought the first sheep for his own flock. He recounts how his neighbor handed him a knife and said, “Well, Philip, they’re yours. Now you’ll have to put your mark on them.”[1]
During her last few years, my mother suffered from some very debilitating health issues. After more than six decades of serving God first as a missionary in Africa, then in home-based missions, the day came when she was pretty much confined to a chair or to her bed.
Throughout my long life as a Christian, God has answered many prayers in amazing ways. I praise Him for that! There have also been times when God—for His own sovereign reasons—said “no” to my prayers. I do not understand why, but He said “no,” and I continued to trust Him anyway.
Going to the dentist can involve short-term pain that leads to long-term benefits. Similarly, God sometimes purposefully allows us to experience short-term pain because of the long-term benefits that eventually…
It may surprise some Christians to learn that some of the pain and suffering we experience during earthly life comes directly from the hand of God. I am referring to…
Satan is pictured in Scripture as being extremely powerful and influential in the world. He is called the “prince of this world” (John 12:31), “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). He is also said to deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9: 20:3). He is portrayed as having power in the governmental realm (Matthew 4:8-9; 2 Corinthians 4:4), the physical realm (Luke 13:11, 16; Acts 10:38), the angelic realm (Jude 9; Ephesians 6:11-12), and the ecclesiastical (church) realm (Revelation 2:9; 3:9).
Atheists and agnostics often claim that if there were indeed a God who is both all-good and all-powerful, He should abolish all evil immediately. If you’ve ever wondered why doesn’t…
Some claim that the existence of evil in the world indicates God must be limited in power and is therefore finite. They suggest that God may want to do away…
Misunderstood Bible Verses Consider this trifold dilemma: 1. God is all-powerful. 2. God is all-good. 3. And yet, evil exists. Many have struggled to make sense of this trifold dilemma.…
Today we face the reality of both moral evil (evil committed by free moral agents, involving such things as war, crime, cruelty, class struggles, discrimination, slavery, ethnic cleansing, suicide bombings, and various injustices) and natural evil (involving such things as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and the like). Atheists typically claim that such moral and natural evil disproves the existence of God.
