So anyway, the lesson was titled, "The Stress of Crisis" It was on suffering, reasons for suffering, and how we do, and should, react to it. Strange, but this topic has seemed to come up alot lately in different situations, conversations, and lessons at church:
In our Sunday School college class we are studying Appologetics - how to defend your faith. It has been an excellent and extremely challenging topic, spanning several months and requiring deep thinking (Bro. Dennis loves to challenge us to use our minds! So much of what's taught in churches now is so watered-down and shallow). Recently Bro. Dennis decided to have each student pick a controversial topic from a list he compiled, study it, do research, and then present what we found to the rest of the class. One of the young men had the topic "Why would a supposedly loving God allow or inflict suffering?" We ended up taking three weeks on this one, instead of just one. Some of the truths/points we discussed:
1) We (humans) deserve NOTHING from God!
2) We shouldn't ask, "Why am I having to go through suffering?" but instead, "Why am I given so many blessings?"
3) God allows and causes everything that happens, for a reason.
4) God will always get glory in everything, and if we choose, we can be privaleged to be the ones to give it to Him.
5) If we are saved and going through difficulties, He may be using those things to show His power in our lives.
I wish I could go into detail right now about all the different paths we took in these discussions and the verses we studied that led us to these deductions. Maybe someday I will.
But anyway, this Sun. School study is just one area where the subject of suffering and why God allows it has come up recently. In our lesson Thursday night, we continued with some of the above points, but also (since there were more of us, therefore more lives and experiences to give input) some new ones. Like:
1) Sometimes we are guilty of, perhaps subconsciously yet intentionally, prolonging our own suffering simply because our selfish nature enjoys the pity.
2) Often our suffering could be significantly alleviated if we would follow the Bible's advice when it says to share our burdens. We could often have our heartaches eased if we sought the help, advice, counsel, or just the understanding of a Christian brother or sister.
We talked about how the Lord gets glory out of everything, even when evil people accomplish great wickedness, and we just can't see how that could bring God glory. But the Bible says that even Pharaoh was allowed to rule over and persecute the children of Israel, so that His power might be revealed.
We went alot farther, but there is no way I can capture for you how deep we got into it, and what a blessing it was to be in the midst of a group of young people who had gathered just for the purpose of encouraging one another in the Word, and to learn more of God and His plan! I think I could almost say though, that this was about the best lesson I think we've had so far!
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