Why Does A Good God Allow Suffering?

Good Monday Morning To You!
Welcome to the blog. If this is your first visit, my prayer is that these writings will be a blessing to you. If you have come this far, you can also read blogs from the past. For those of you who stop by for a visit occasionally, or regularly, I thank you for your time. I enjoy our visits together!

Yesterday at Friendship Harmony, I began a series of sermons examining the oldest two questions known to man. The first is, Why would a good God allow suffering? The second is similar; Why would a good God allow an innocent person to be hurt by someone else?

On the surface these are not easy questions to answer, but actually they are. The problem is not the answer. The problem is our acceptance of the answer. Here is where faith enters the picture. I am talking about a mature faith that has been and is being nurtured by diligent study of the Scriptures, and much communication with the Holy Spirit. Does that sound like believers have a lot of work to do? Actually, we should be living like that every day. Do you have the time for Bible study and prayer? If you do not, I’m glad you don’t feel the same way about breathing! I am happy that your heart does not send a message to your brain saying, “I’m tired. I beat constantly day and night. I’m going to take a few days off.” Yet that is the same thinking many believers apply toward their Bible study and prayer. If you want to effectively deal with the reason why God allows suffering, you need to tighten up your Christian life. If it sounds like I’m preaching, you’re right. I am preaching to everyone reading this blog, beginning with the man writing it --- me!

Yesterday I began our series of messages titled, “Why Suffering?” I said that the quick and easy answer to the question is sin. In the message we examined what God had to say to Lucifer, also known as Satan; the devil. Rather than me attempting to re-preach the message in this blog, I’m happy to announce that the entire message was video recorded yesterday. You will see it as did the people at Friendship Harmony. It should be ready to view on Tuesday morning. You can find it at www.facebook.com/friendshipharmony. You do not need a Facebook account to see the videos. In the meanwhile, please enjoy the sermon notes used in our study. All message notes will be available to you on this blog.

Why Suffering? ©
Various verses
Suffering Series 1 of ? 8/12-16/14
By Victor Cooper

Intro: The other day I was asked, “Why does God allow suffering? Why does He allow someone to hurt an innocent person?” This is the age old question which was probably asked by Eve when she buried her son, Abel.

. We must start by examining “sin.” Definition> missing the mark

I. The origin of sin.
A. It originated with Lucifer
1. Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
2. Something happened.
3. Ezekiel 28:2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
4. About whom is the Holy Spirit referring; the king of Tyre, Lucifer, or someone else?
5. Three individuals.
6. Point of Theology: In Scriptures there are several kinds of truth.
(a) Immediate truth. It is true at that moment
Example: Genesis 6:7 (KJV)
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
(b) Eternal truth For evermore
Example: Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
{c} Prophetic truth for the future
Example: Rev. 20:10 (KJV)
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
(d) Our Scripture in Ezekiel 28 employs all three .
(1) Immediate --- king of Tyre
(2) Eternal --- Lucifer aka Satan
(3) Prophetic --- the antichrist
B. Now lets go back to our Isaiah and Ezekiel Scriptures, and apply it to Satan

II. God is not the originator of sin --- Lucifer is.
A. God created Lucifer perfect.
B. Then sin was found in him. How did it get there.
C. Simple answer; Lucifer chose it.
D. During every age, whenever man, or in this case angels are given a choice, they will eventually choose wrong.
E. Why didn’t God simply eradicate Lucifer along with sin?
Answer Professor Walter J. Vieth wrote, l “If God had chosen Lucifer at that point, some would have served God from fear rather than from love.” “Sin must run its full course for the enormity to be fully abhorred; but it eventually will be eradicated along with its instigator.”

Once again, thank you for reading the blog. I really appreciate you so much. This coming Sunday I will be delivering part two of our series. We will examine the nature of God. In order to answer our questions about suffering, some groundwork must be set. That is what the first two messages in our series will do. Have a good week wherever you are and I’ll see you tomorrow at www.facebook.com/friendshipharmony, and then again next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!!

Can WE Pray For You??

Good Monday Morning To You!!!

Let me begin by giving you an update on a prayer request I made two weeks ago. I had asked you to pray for Brandy Ward, the daughter of Friendship Harmony members Claude and Ann Ogle. Brandy’s body has been recovered from the Washington mudslide of several weeks ago. Her husband, Tim, is now home from the hospital, and will be in a wheel chair for at least the next 6 months. Please continue to lift Tim up in your prayers. The doctors hope his time in the chair will be temporary, but at this point they do not know. Claude and Ann appreciate your prayers.

Another prayer request has been shared with us. Mark Radcliffe, son of our members, Barb and Wayne Radcliffe, will have heart surgery on April 15. The Radcliffes would appreciate your prayers for Mark, and have asked me to keep you updated concerning his progress. I am very happy to do so.

Do you have a prayer request? Feel free to share it here. This blog reaches all over thy planet, and believers everywhere stand ready to pray for you. Contact me at fhbcsjc@gmail.com. If you’d prefer to keep your request confidential between you and me, I’ll list it as an unspoken request. People cannot pray unless you write, so let me here from you.

Once again we had a wonderful service at Friendship Harmony. The Holy Spirit’s presence was real, and it was good to be in the House of the LORD. I do not have any notes to share with you as I did not use any, but you can see the abbreviated version at www.facebook.com/friendshipharmony. Remember, you do not have to have a Facebook account to see the videos. Let me know what you think of our new, compact showing. I do hope you like it.

The message was about Stephen, so be sure to read his story in Acts chapters 6 and 7.

Next week, the LORD willing, I’m going to review three movies Miss Bessie and I saw in the last two weeks. One of them was, “God Isn’t Dead.” I urge you to see this picture. It is above awesome. I’ll cite my reasons why next week. Until then, stay safe, and remember as you are praying, please remember the Friendship Harmony Baptist Church. We would be honored if you would.

I’ll see you next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic!!!

Pastor Vic Cooper

Good morning to you! Welcome to Monday Morning With Pastor Vic.

Pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of juice and let's chat awhile. How has your week been? I hope yours has been terrific! Mine was OK with the exception of some of life's little glitches along the way. Do you remember me telling you several weeks ago about the part that fell off my car? Well, Wednesday night on our way to church, it fell off again about four blocks from home. Once again I had to crawl under the car and try to repair it. Please keep in mind we live on dirt roads and I was in my church clothes. However, unlike the last time, I was unable to fix it as the entire bracket pulled loose. I was able to baby it back home at about 3 mph. Thursday morning Carl, our mechanic, sent a truck and the car left home on the hook.

Someone told me to visualize in my mind the car of my dreams. I visualized a Jeep. I do not know the model, but it is a 4 door hard top that looks like a mini-Hummer from the side. It has 4-wheel drive and is silver in color. If you knew where we live, you'd understand why. If you could visualize something into existence, what would it be?

As believers we do not need to visualize and hope the desires of our heart will magically appear. We have the right of prayer. The beauty of it is we are not praying to an impersonal god sitting on a throne arbitrarily dispensing goodies. We are praying to the Almighty King of Kings, the Great Jehovah, that just happens to be our Father. We can cry to Him, "Abba, Father," as Jesus did in Mark 14:36. Abba means
"daddy." While Father speaks of who He is, Abba says it's personal - He is my Daddy!

Church attendance was up just a smidge from the week before. I finished my Provoking God series with Provoking God To Withdraw. The three main point were:

I. Sometime people pray and ask God to withdraw from them. Job 21:14 says, "Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us: for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." It is reported that the late actress Joan Crawford said on her deathbed, "Don't you dare ask God to do anything for me."

II. God can even withdraw from a believer. We looked at I Samuel 15 where King Saul had been told by Samuel that because of his sin, God was taking the kingdom from him. His soul was secure, but God's presence and blessing were to be withdrawn.

III. God withdraws as a wake up call. Isaiah 54:8 says, "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer."

He talks about hiding His face. That means removing His favor. Remember, salvation is secure according to Psalm 51:12. It's a sealed deal according to Ephesians 4:30. The only thing worse than provoking God to anger is provoking God to withdraw. Tragic! Very tragic! However, there is a cure. It does not have to be fatal. The cure: repentance. A line in a song says, "I shall return to the God of my fathers." That's repentance.

Well, I'd better run on and let you get on with your day. I've got visits to make, sermons to prepare, and just day to day "pastor stuff." Don't forget the contest; I sure need your help! Please contact those in your e-mail address book and ask them to subscribe to Monday Morning With Pastor Vic. It's totally free. All they need do is go to www.preachercooper.com and click on subscribe on the right hand side of the main page. Be sure to tell them (or you can) go to bottom of my article and click on comments and tell me who recommended them. For more information, scroll down to my article from last week, June 21. I hope to see you again next Monday Morning With Pastor Vic.