Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: gross%xyzzy@dg-rtp.dg.com (Gene Gross) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: why does God allow bad things to happen to Good people? Message-ID: Date: 2 Jul 90 04:54:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC Lines: 53 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article moy@acf4.nyu.edu (Gloria Moy) writes: >I am a Christian but I have a question that I have been asking myself. >One of my friends a fellow believer is very ill with a busted blood vessel >in the brain. She is in the hospital and I have been praying for her. >But my question is Why does God let bad things happen to good people or >better yet: why does God let these things happen to His people? Gloria: This has been something that I have thought about. My father-in-law was a Christian and a man whose life was spent doing good for and to others. Yet, I watched him slowly die with cancer, a brain tumor. Despite his suffering, in spite of it, he maintained a witness for the living God like few well Christians I've ever met. Bob felt privileged that God thought him worthy to bear that burden. But Bob didn't bear it alone--he had the family, the church, and most of all he had Christ helping him bear this. His testimony and witness was such that the doctors and nurses who treated him constantly remarked on his good spirits. Their questions to him grew more intense about this faith of his. Family friends who were not Christians also noticed this, and this lead to further discussions about our faith. Bob died and went to be with the Lord in June of 1984 (June 4th to be precise). At his funeral and at his request, the pastor did not deliver the usual funeral sermon. Rather he talked about salvation in Jesus Christ. Then he gave an altar call. One couple, long time family friends, came forward to declare their decision for Christ. Others have since come to Christ because of this one man's witness and testimony for a living God while he was in the midst of incredible suffering. IMHO, I think that God gives us no more than we can bear. But we must realize that suffering is a part of this world, and we are not promised that it will miss us just because we belive in Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't pray for us to be removed from this world, but rather that we would stand in the midst of it. How we live and die does matter. We have hope because we believe in and follow the God of hope. Acting otherwise makes no sense. I can assure you that your friend is now on my prayer list and I will share this with others on my electronic prayer chain. There is absolutely no reason for one of our sisters or brothers to have to go through such as this without knowing that the saints are lifting them up in prayer constantly to the throne of the living God. God has always taken our adversity and used it for good. Let's see what God does in this case. For the saints and the Lamb, Gene Gross